charmander6000

Mist/Boyd is the other one, after that it's minor things seen in the epilouge (Elincia/Geoffrey, Naesala/Leanne, Ike/Ranulf, Micaiah/Sothe, Jill/Haar, Bastian/Lucia, Astrid/Makalov)

The main issue with the CRKs in general is their availability, they essentially have very little time to train before they join up with Ike's group. In my world I would make 2-3 give decent experience (likely mean increasing the opponents levels) and create an additional map where the CRK minus Marcia who ran up ahead get stopped by Ludvek's ambush and must arrive before a certain turn so that they can reach Elincia during 2-E. Since that is a bit much to ask, raising the CRK's base level by 3 and adding stats rounding up (so 1.3 would go up to 2) would be fine. Astrid IMO still needs a boost since her bases are rather terrible. I'd honestly would give her the bases of the bow paladin (but only in stats in which the enemy is beating her in) and raise her starting level to level 5. So essentially Astrid would be a level 5 bow paladin with +2 HP, +4 Atk, 0 Mag, 0 Skl, +2 Spd, 0 Lck, +7 Def, 0 Res from her bases (wouldn't object to +1 or 2 in magic, skill, luck or resistance because she did go up 3 levels)

1st tier archers can't use crossbows though

I assume this is more about balancing than trying to make a unit as best as possible or else discussion will devolve into 100% growth rate, massive caps etc. With my experience Aran starting with C lances and a Steel Lance is helpful for his start (and that you don't need to forge an iron one at 1-4 thus he can compete offensively). After that he's only a problem during 3-6 and only if he's speed screwed where he is doubled tigers. A +1-2 in speed or a 10% increase to his speed growth should make the problem less likely to occur.

Wrath Micaiah is pretty fun to watch, though she usually becomes a healbot after part 1. You could always just raise Leo to level 10 and then seal him (the DB has access to 4 seals and truly no one wants an early seal) and then give him beastfoe + crossbows. Of course beastfoe makes everyone good, but the DB doesn't exactly want to see multiple laguz in a row.

A wing at 3-11 gives her 26 speed allowing her to double non-SM for both 3-11 and 3-E then once she promotes she can double almost everything in 4-P as well. She runs into some problems by 4-3 again like you said. Come to think of it, not sure why Sigrun is so high either, I don't think being a flying unit that does not need to transform makes her that much better when it seems she has the same performance over fewer chapters.

It's more looking at the future. Boyd gets close to doubling by the end of part 3/beginning of part 4, same with Sigrun and Skrimir, the CRK and Tanith among others would also not say no to a speedwing, plus like you said with Haar and Titania both very likely to be in play on an average playthrough would still like a speedwing even if waiting for a while longer.

Would a speedwing be completely out of line vs. the blossom trick (is repeat restarting a chapter in order to get speed an agreed method in tiering?) Speedwings are quite a valuable resource and while it's not guaranteed that a certain character is played there are enough of them that want it and do more with it that someone is going to stop ORKOing for at best a few chapters or at worst for the rest of the game. With 26 speed base Kyza more or less 2RKOs every non-SM/General/Dragonmasters, though he may able take out 3-11 (and 3-E) dragonmasters if he gets his strike up near the end of the level (it's possible). He's relatively durable with his 55 HP and 20 DEF. Now looking at someone like Lethe, Kyza is either tied or beating her the entire time they overlap. Like Kyza she needs to boost her speed, though it is only by 1 and it can be done using part 2's bexp, however with doubling she still only 3RKOs the average enemy unless given an energy drop. She'll get to S strike faster than Kyza, but the boost in strength doesn't make her better besides being able to 2RKO dragonmasters (that's with the energy drop too) and ORKO mages (assuming Kyza doesn't gain enough strength by level-ups) before Kyza. Kyza being a tiger has the advantage of a better gauge, but Lethe has the advantage of getting her mastery skill before and having a better one. It comes down to whether Lethe does enough in her two part 2 chapters and requiring less resources overall to offset Kyza's performance.

For thieves the ones in 1-E go straight for the chests avoiding everything else and untransformed laguz seem to either freeze on spot or continue along the path the computer set for them, which is towards the boss.

You can sort of play it, just go with priority. 1. Heal when below certain percent of health (below 25% iirc) 2. Attack unit that can't attack back 3. Attack unit that will die in first hit 4. Attack unit that will take the most damage 5. Attack unit that will attack back the least damage (basically a tiebreaker of 4) 6. Move towards next group of enemies Ignore hit percent/avoid. Also move units in the least amount of steps required. I think that's it.

There's the problem of not being enough enemies on the map. Though I'm not 100% sure.

Isn't Mist a couple of years younger than Jill?

4-4 was just epic.

Well the DB in 3-E is pretty hard. First Micaiah and Sothe run away before most can reach them, then you have Nailiah to worry about and there's the kill counter. To do this I suggest seige tomes, Haar and Reyson.

You could defeat the GM even if you have trained some of them, I've done it before on normal mode. On a regular playthrough I usually use 7/11 of the GM and maybe one of the healers. Almost all of them are third tier (besides Ike, healer and some that may be at 19/20). The cool thing about the DB is that characters like Aran, Nolan and Jill can all get bexp if you train them to 20/11-12, sometimes Edward too if you are lucky. Also make sure Volug has SS strike by 3-13. First thing I like to do is kill off most of the laguz, Soren and Ranulf before everyone else shows up and use the sleep staff on Ike, also make sure Volug has enough transformation gauge. Make sure you have some people waiting on the left side for Gatrie, Shinon and Rhys. I usually have Jill near Titania/Oscar so that she can canto to the left side to help. The best advice is to target the ones that you've trained first so that you don't have to deal with them in enemy phase. Also if you need help taking down Gatrie you could always use a hammer on him.