High-Move teams

[PresidentEden]

So I've started to realize that I really appreciate units with high Movement. I had a hell of a time in Blazing Sword using Hector, Eliwood, Sain, Kent, Priscilla, and the pegasus knight sisters (with Marcus and Pent supplementing the squad where possible), and I'm trying to construct teams centered around high Movement that don't require the use of especially bad units. Though my personal play style is not perfectly efficient, I do tend to try to finish maps with as low a turn count as possible (call it 'casual' efficiency, I suppose), and I don't bother caring about ranked play because I frankly believe it to be suboptimal (requiring allocation of kills to characters one won't use in the name of building up EXP, requiring the player not to sell unused items whose only purpose is to be liquidated for gold). I also have an odd affinity for 8-unit teams; though I'll certainly use a different number, I prefer 8.

With that in mind, here's what I've got...

FE6: Roy, Lance, Alan, Marcus, Zealot, Miledy, Thany, Clarine

FE7E: Eliwood, Hector, Sain, Kent, Florina, Fiora, Marcus, Priscilla

FE7H: Hector, Eliwood, Sain, Kent, Florina, Fiora, Farina, Priscilla

FE8Ei: Eirika, Ephraim, Seth, Franz, Kyle, Forde, Vanessa, Natasha

FE8Ep: Ephraim, Seth, Franz, Kyle/Forde, Duessel, Vanessa, Natasha, Cormag

What recommendations (if any) would you make to improve this team? Bear in mind that for FE6 and FE7 I'm using the Tony Mode patch, which fixes growths, so there's no reason to fear characters who are susceptible to the cruel whims of the random number generator.

[MacLovin]

Lowen is pretty good on EHM/HNM.

I mean in EHM he can take the ring/draco and steel sword to be a damn good unit.

All of the GBA mounts are decent units by virtue of high move, but if they have great bases [Marcus, Zealot, Seth, Percival, Miledy, Duessel], a good combo of growths+bases[Red/Green Cavvies, Noah, Wyverns, Lowen, Franz], utility [Troubs/Valks, Pegs, Nomads (dat aid)]. And the mediocre ones [Ranger!Neimi, GK!Gilliam, Treck, Amelia] are still pretty solid.

THrow in fliers anywhere, and keep in mind that nomads have really high aid so they can drop guys like Hawkeye, Lott or Hector to places.

[Espinosa]

FE6: Marcus and Zealot are temporary units until chapter 14 or so, best dropped afterwards. If you go full efficiency, it's difficult to make both Lance and Alan functional, and even if you pick one, Percival will be better unless you slow down. Thany shouldn't ever fight, I'd argue, but if she reaches C rank lances she can pull off some luck-reliant stuff with Killer Lance, helpful in the desert and wherever you need an extra combat unit on wings. Tate will need to promote to be okay at combat and have C lances while Zeiss is great in Illia, but arrives late and needs work to promote. Rutger is almost a must on HM unless seriously RNG-abusing. I found that focusing on Saul's staff rank for early Warp prevents Clarine from even getting to Restore on time. Niime is the best warper later on.

FE7H: Eliwood has a mediocre start and only matches Cavs in movement upon promotion. He can carry promoted Hector but is difficult to train up. Marcus is a must in HHM. Harken (if not skipped), Hawkeye and Pent are all very helpful later on; Pent is pretty much a must. Isadora is another great prepromote.

FE8: Vanessa (and Tana too) has little space to level up in max efficiency, but Cormag is very useable on Ephraim route and could even take the Boots (not sure if this would negatively affect chapter 16 but it's sure to help in most other endgame maps where Boots boost to movement isn't completely negated by the presence of Warp). Franz/Kyle/Forde are only useful for ferrying in Eirika route, but training one or two of them helps with routing Fluorspar's map and also navigating chapter 14 with less pain.

A Warper takes quite a bit of effort to get in FE8. On Eirika route, Saleh spamming Barrier gets to A rank given a sustained effort, even with lowest turns. On Ephraim route, Saleh joins too late, so one of Lute or Artur will have to replace him, I'd recommend Artur for higher base AS, chance to crit and a chance to gain a level in his starting chapter. I've managed to promote as early as chapter 8 on my recentest LTC run, but I got lucky with the number of light tome crits and quality of level-ups. Also gave Artur many, many resources.

On Eph route, Duessel should be seriously considered as a bosskiller instead of Seth, but then he'll need the bosskills right from the time he joins to beat Seth in strength, as Seth will be the best unit at that point if playing efficiently. In that event Duessel could take the Boots.

[General Horace]

On Eph route, Duessel should be seriously considered as a bosskiller instead of Seth, but then he'll need the bosskills right from the time he joins to beat Seth in strength, as Seth will be the best unit at that point if playing efficiently. In that event Duessel could take the Boots.

Duessel doesn't compare to seth in any way really, even on eph route. He's much more comparable to a unit like Eirika route Gerik. They even share move and their stats are pretty similar if Gerik goes Hero.

Edited March 11, 2013 by General Horace

[Espinosa]

Duessel doesn't compare to seth in any way really, even on eph route. He's much more comparable to a unit like Eirika route Gerik. They even share move and their stats are pretty similar if Gerik goes Hero.

-/9 Seth (likely in LTC context prior to the bosskill in the same chapter, where I have Seth at -/10, having given him every bosskill) has +1 strength, +5 skill, +4 speed, +7 luck, +1/2 res, but -3 HP, -3 def compared to Duessel. Possibly an even bigger gap if you want your level-ups to be better than average. Quite a large difference, yet Duessel has one thing going about him - Garm access for 2 extra Mt, which is 4 extra damage when doubling, and 8 extra damage when doubling Morva (whom Seth should also 2HKO anyway assuming you're not strength-screwed which is almost impossible considering he's probably capped his level by now).

The only place where Duessel wins (besides durability against mooks) is bosses that both he and Seth double but Seth struggles to 2HKO (where you might take your chance with a killer weapon instead). Duessel's more likely to cleanly 2HKO them with Garm if you decide to train him up, but even then, in cases like Riev, he needs +5 strength on top of his base to do so. I'd still argue that Seth is the better endgame character because easier S swords (Duessel can get there too, but then no +5 speed from Garm) for more resistance (useful because most endgame bosses are magical) and things like better hit/avo also matter for reliability.

Another potential endgame bosskiller is apparently Myrrh, something I haven't tried yet. However, she has trouble getting to doubling speed and might not get the necessary number of level-ups before the final battles, unless you're in draft context without an optimal team/slowing yourself down. She'll probably have to proc crits to do the job, too.

[MacLovin]

Pretty sure Marcus/Seth can solo fe7/8 on their hardest difficulties.

So yeah high move units are great and should always be used.