ZSSenpai

The other plus side to Lineage is that it's basically free. 150 SP is a pittance. This game poops bond fragments at you so getting everyone to bond 5 with Edelgard in the arena and then immediately putting Lineage on them the very first chapter you get Edelgard / recruit a new unit is just bonus XP for them at a very low cost. And yeah, with the XP nerf on maddening, every little bit helps.

Curious: Do we think Griffin Knight or Wyvern Knight is better? I have Chloe on Wyvern in my first maddening playthru and it seems good, but I'm wondering if Griffin is a better pick for future runs.

Is the only use for Roy's engraving a brave weapon on a slow character? It seems terrible otherwise, unless I'm missing something.

Lineage (Edelgard) and Canter (Sigurd) are the first two that come to mind for me.

The reinforcements are actually not infinite (see my post above). They do eventually stop. The final wave is 3 dragons. That being said, doing the map the way I did it was slooooooooowwwww. I think I finished on turn 96? LMAO.

I did eventually finish this map on maddening! But I had to reload to an earlier chapter (right after 7 when you get Alcryst) to redistribute my master seal in order to do so. I went in with Alear (promoted), Chloe, Celine, Citrinne, Vander, Louis, Framme, and Alcryst (promoted). I also had to buy a strength tonic for Alcryst, which pushed up his STR enough to oneshot all the dragons with a Steel Bow +2. The key to this map for me was getting an archer to that oneshot threshold. Once Alcryst could oneshot the dragons it was much more doable. The way I did the map was to not even go up the middle alleyway at all after the reinforcements waves stop spawning. I used Alear as a dodge tank and Louis (rotating him out for Chloe when mages spawned) to protect the other units. You can stack them all at the bottom of the map behind Alear and Louis so only ranged units can hit anyone else. Alcryst shoots a dragon every spawn wave. Alear + Chloe or Louis kill the other dragon that spawns every wave. The rest of the units kill whatever else spawns. The waves DO eventually stop! At around turn 35 or so? The final wave is 3 dragons, that's when you'll know it's done. The rest of the map after the reinforcements are cleared is much easier. Just proceed through it safely making sure to pull only a few mobs at a time. What I was not prepared for was Tiki and her friends charging for me as soon as I stepped on the second seal. As I was out of position, I was forced to blow Marth's Lodestone rush sub-optimally, which meant I didn't have it for Tiki. This led to Citrinne getting oneshot by her (I was off by 2 damage!!!! grrr), but honestly I was fine with that. RIP Citrinne, I got you last chapter and you already died. Next time, now that I know Tiki will charge me, I'm pretty sure I can get through it with no one dying. But yeah this map was definitely a doozy for me. Also, you can get the silver card on the map without warp by sending a unit around the right side. I did this with Vander after the waves of reinforcements stopped. But he had to stay there for the rest of the map because a dragon would kill him through the wall if I brought him back to fight Tiki. This map scales to above your level, so you cannot outlevel it. I haven't tried doing it late in a run yet, but I honestly think maybe doing it early (like, directly after it appears and you have Alcryst), might be the best move, as that's what let me succeed this time. At some point with higher levels, Tiki gets more revive stones and that's...not something I want to deal with lol.

I hear maddening gets a single skirmish at ch 11 but idk yet. I'm on ch 10 and have not seen any skirmishes...kind of want that gold I donated back lmao but whatever.

The Tiki paralogue is head and shoulders above all of the other maps I've played personally (maddening/classic). That thing is nuts. Nothing in the mainline story has even come close to it.