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As we all know, pair-up has become somewhat of a staple in the FE series. However, I was thinking: why not make it more representative of actual war? And so, I came up with the idea of flanking. The idea of flanking is that you get a bonus for every ally that is 'covering' an enemy. After all, in a real war, if one warrior is facing ten enemies, (s)he would have to multitask so much that (s)he won't be able to concentrate. So, here's how it could work: If any unit is able to attack another unit, they are 'flanking' the victim unit. If the flanking unit is alone, they reduce all of the victim's stats by 1. If they are paired up, they reduce all of a the victim's stats by 2 (as they are technically 2 units). The weapons triangle advantage would give two bonus flanks. For example, if these units were placed in a line: Player general (solo) Player bow fighter (solo) Player pegasus knight (paired) Enemy sword fighter (solo) Player axe cavilier (solo) Player mage (paired) and you were to attack with the pegasus knight, the enemy would be flanked 8 times (4 units attacking + 2 are paired + 2 bonus because lances beat swords. The general on the left doesn't count as 'in range', as it would have to move before attacking.), so all of their stats would be reduced by 8. (Note: stats would be able to go below 0) Your lance fighter would only be flanked once, and only take one penalty point in each stat. This leads to a net gain of 7 stat points to the player unit. This means you deal 14 extra damage, take 14 less damage, AND have a huge buff to hit, avoid and crit. Granted, this is an extreme case, and it would normally be significantly less powerful in actual combat, but this could help massively against bosses, which would also allow us to see more powerful bosses take to the enemy side. As far as flanking is concerned, all units are equal. It doesn't matter if you're a helpless green villager or the pre-promote, it's always one flanking bonus per unit. So, you may want to keep your villager rescue party at the front lines where you wouldn't otherwise. Also, if a battle were to contain three or more opposing factions (maybe in a 4-player PvP), the enemies may end up flanking each-other! However, to make pair-up not completely broken, it would have to be nerfed to about +4-8 bonus (depending on supports) split among all stats, rather than the +12-16 we see in awakening and fates. So, what do you think of the idea? Could this be the next great change to the series, or is this just me being stupid.