How bad were you when you just started fire emblem?

[Kiseki]

First game for me was FE8, and allow me to tell you all how it ended terribly.

The only characters I had promoted at Lv. 20 were Eirika, Ephraim, and Tana. Both lords grew to Lv. 20 naturally, but Tana was promoted as late as Ch. 19. I used up all of the Elysian Whips and didn't know where secret shops were, with the one in Ch. 19 being the only one I accessed. All of my other units were promoted as early as Lv. 10 and Lute went from becoming one of the potentially best characters to my absolute worst. I remember resetting an uncountable number of times in Ch. 19 because either she or Saleh would die (and yes, I used prepromotes). It was also this chapter where I found that Myrrh counted as a pegasus in terms of bow effectiveness.

Then I decided to rush the chapter, ignoring all chests and enemy loot steals/drops. Ch. 20 then proved to be unbeatable for me, even with all the grinding I did. Brave Swords and Shamshirs grinded from Lagdou Ruins did chip damage to the mooks and Riev was still an absolute jerk to beat. I couldn't warp my strongest units (Joshua and Gerik) there because I had a Phantom summoned from Knoll pick up the Warp Staff while chipping off Valter's and Caellach's weapon uses so that I wouldn't have to worry about criticals.

Then I decided to reset the run out of rage. My next run is still ongoing because I am too skeptical with knowing how prepared I am for endgame chapters.

EDIT: Oh and did I mention that I made Ross a Hero and not a Berserker? Good times...

Edited January 18, 2015 by Kiseki

[Book of Ereshkigal]

I honestly don't remember, but I do remember losing Gilliam in FE8 in the first FoW map. And taking forever to finish chapter 20.

[Azura]

I used this guide religiously. It gave Wendy and Nino 9/10, and that's all you need to know about it.

[Radiant head]

First time I played PoR, I overused Titania, and I thought Chapter 8 (defend for 8 turns) was too hard lol. Like, in hindsight, it's extremely easy when you just plant tanks at the chokepoints, but for some reason that hadn't even occurred to me. Thankfully the game is really easy and forgiving, so I did OK, but Radiant Dawn was a rude awakening from there.

[The Geek]

My first game was FE7, and I'm never going to let this go because it's so burned into my memory, I thought if you treated battles like a quicktime event and pressed A at the right moment, your character would double attack.

When I first played Shadow Dragon I thought that Hit was what determined whether a unit would double attack. So I would forge all of my weapons to have ridiculously high hit.

[Dual Dragons]

First game was FE9 and what I consider the first time I ever played a turn-based strategy game. I was 11 or 12, I think. Rented it from a store that didn't provide the instruction manuels or the game screenshots that is on the back of the box.

Used Titania immensely but not to the point of having others underleveled. Boyd died on chapter 3 but I was somehow smart enough to realize that there was perma-death just from the dialogue completing the chapter.

So here's probably the dumbest thing on my end: I used guides but I don't think it was until after finding Serenesforest how doubling (from AS difference), movement variation based on class, or terrain (in regards to movement reduction) worked. Also didn't figure out that fighting calculations are pretty simplistic. This meant that unless I got in range to attack someone, I couldn't figure out how the outcome would be, meaning generally immensely long chapters with lots of turns because, despite not being a Fog of War map where you can't see enemy stats, I didn't have the guts to go fight or the brains to do fighting calculations.

There was such glee that day when I realized that my 20+ turns could be reduced to like five.

[delambra]

I started with FE7 and i was really bad. Keep in mind that I was a 12 year old kid when i first played it, and did it absolutely blind.

It took me 2 playthrough to understand how a unit can double (speed/weight/cons), and i was proud when i "discovered" it. It took me 2 other playthrough to understand how each point in stat can give another stat (like 1 point in speed give 2 points in evasion), and i remember that luck was annoying to understand. The support system was a mystery for quite some time.

I abused pre-promotes. Pent obviously, but also louise, and i found hawkeye to be super strong !

I didn't level up the 3 lords (i think eliwood was lvl 12 or something when he promoted, and hector and lyn were lvl 8 in Final), because i thought the goal of the game was to protect them (if they die, you get a game over after all). I don't remember how many regular units died, though.

Athos was my MVP in Final, he solo'ed the dragon, for example.

I had to restart Cog of Destiny 4 or 5 times to finish it. That was hell. Same goes for Light.

And all of this was in FE7 ENM, where you can simply throw any unit with a javelin/hand axe wherever you want and destroy everything. Yeah, i wasn't playing a T-RPG, i was playing a RPG.

[fengaridotdll]

I used this guide religiously. It gave Wendy and Nino 9/10, and that's all you need to know about it.

They also gave promoted Hector a 10/10 :D

[Carmine Sword]

After 8 facepalms I had to stop reading that guide at risk of causing serious injury to my face.

[Emeraldfox]

My first FE was Path of Radiance. I was old enough and smart enough to not let anyone die sooooo. Also, I read the ingame guids because I'm observant. The only prepromotes Iused were Titania(Fun Fact, my sister gave her every stat booster, she used favoritism before I knew it was a thing) and Devdan(that Luna animation hnnng). I also didn't know they had growth rates until I came here, hehe.

I didn't love Knights/Generals until I played Sacred Stones, and I didn't appreciate Archers/Sniper(Marksmen) until Radiant Dawn(thanks Leonardo!). Although I didn't bother with them until Shadow Dragon.

[fengaridotdll]

After 8 facepalms I had to stop reading that guide at risk of causing serious injury to my face.

The biggest facepalm was Wil's high rating

[Prince Blueblood]

I still remember that I'm started by playing FE7, and literally giving Sain and Kent every statboosts as well as virtually clearing everything in the map... this was in fact not a bad tactic, I admit...

*) first awful thing happened when I tried to recruit guy by moving my entire group toward him... Naturally Guy picked Rebbeca as his target and killed her,but still, Matthew recruit him the next turn and I didn't even reset this... so it could be read as "Oh hey Guy, that archer girl you just killed are ... oh whatever, Lord Eliwood and Hector said it's ok because she's just some Random Village girl, so, how about joining our team since you owed me a favour?" Oh lol...

*) the second awful thing is recruiting Erk again but forgot to recruit Priscilia (not knowing that yet and pirate already destroying the village she was in), so when Chapter 16 come, I killed Raven (with Lyn), and trying to recruit Lucius with Lyn, they talk but Lyn notices that Lucius cannot fight or something so... here goes the best light magic user...

*) third awful thing, killing Legault in chapter 19

*) final awful thing, let Pent literally destroying every enemy in the desert chapter.

and my first ever final team is... oh well, it's pretty much centered around uber levelled Sain, Kent, Erk, Dorcas, Will, Serra, and Rath led by mighty Lyn (promoted at level 20!)... while Eliwuss and Haxtor hide behind her skirt... and yeah, as you may guess, Sain and Kent are level 20/20, along with Dorcas... But at least I got Eliwood A support with Lyn in my first ever run (Ninian is crippled since, long time ago and Nills is shot down by Uhai's morph so...)

Guess I just love (and still love) all Lyn mode characters, especially SAIN!

My first Shadow Dragon run (on NDS) is much better, but yeah, apparently I reclass Wrys to Myrimidon and still moonlighting as curate, and this time (and only this, I can't repeat the result even in my subsequent playthroughs) he turned out to be my best swordsmaster... with real magic stat and respectable resistance... so he basically slaughtering enemies left and right with levin sword... Looking back, I can only think about "HOLY SHIT, HOW I COULD DO THAT?"

Edited January 27, 2015 by Prince Blueblood

[Sniper Knight]

My first Fire Emblem game was Blazing Sword, and the first time I played, I was awful.

I grinded all the lords to 20, plus most of the characters from Lyn Mode. Everyone else was ignored, except for Pent, Louise, and Jaffar. I also abused the hell out of savestates because I was a weak shit. I pretty much only used iron weapons until the last the couple chapters. I didn't bother with supports. The most stupid thing I did was probably to give all my angelic robes to Florina so she capped HP at around 20/10.

Probably the only good thing I did was to get 5-star rankings in Survival, Funds, and EXP. I still don't know how I pulled the last one off.

I'd love to punch 12-year-old me in the face.

[weso12]

I don't recall being that horrible but I spefically remember being unable to get passed 1-3 in radiant dawn on normal mode (I think it was normal mode might have been easy mode)

EDIT: I'm actually amazed I forget but my first experience with playing fire emblem was playing first game was FE7 on a ROM rather than FE10 which was the first one I physically own, I didn't play to far not much passed Lyn's mode, though I believe I let a few people die. Also I did beleive the prepomotes were bad

Fun Note about a friend of mine in his first Path of Radiance playthrough apparently he abused titiana so much he got her to level 20 before anyone else (as he got her to level 20/20 before anyone of his other units got to level 20 as a tier 1 unit.

Edited January 29, 2015 by weso12

[Batter the Beast]

When I started FE7, my first game, I spammed Marcus and Harken. Things haven't changed much since

All jokes aside I wasn't part of the "prepromotes are bad" starting crowd but I still had no tactical ability whatsoever and actually let two people stay dead in FE7's second to last chapter so I was kinda bad. Also I never used the lords at first because I thought they were frail and had to be protected because they couldn't fight.

Edited January 29, 2015 by The Batter

[Wayward Alchemist]

FE7 Playthrough last year was... Eh... It could have gone worse. I got ABSOLUTELY stuck on one of the tail-end chapters (I can't remember which) because of Marcus. He had low stats at level 20, pretty much the same as in the beginning. I lost Dorcas, Matthew, and Bartre during Merlinus' Paralouge to whatever the boss of that Level was, and I got paranoid and Marcus soloed the entire game from then on, leaving all of my units in the dust (Hey, I'm 13...). I finally said "To hell with it" and did my homework before attempting another go. I am working on that right now. I did really well in Lyn's prologue tutorial thing, though. I only lost Florina by fast-forwarding through the dialouge and thinking she was some kind of anti-archer unit, because she could move so far...... Other than that, I did really well. I SMOKED Ludgren with Sain the BEAST. [Tank Laguz confirmed]

Edited January 29, 2015 by JothTheConqueror

[momogeek2141]

The biggest facepalm was Wil's high rating

Nonono. The BIGGEST facepalm was

"Wendy: Fan Rating: 8.45/10"

Take one look at FE6 RTU and you will find yourself wrong.

[Carmine Sword]

That's what happens when you rate a unit only on their growth rates and nothing else at all.

[Ownagepuffs]

"Dancers suck they all die on one hit."

"Rescue sucks it reduces my stats!"

We've all been there.... right?

[Batter the Beast]

Nonono. The BIGGEST facepalm was

"Wendy: Fan Rating: 8.45/10"

Take one look at FE6 RTU and you will find yourself wrong.

My god when I played FE6 for the first time I thought Wendy was the best armor knight in the game. I still think that but now its because I hardly use any of them and I have bias for pink armor

[Locust]

Awakening was my first Fire Emblem game... I just killed everything with Frederick through the first half of the game.

When I lost a unit I just restarted the battle. If I didn't I would have lost everyone, lol.

I had no clue about classes, building relationships with the characters or any of that stuff.

[fengaridotdll]

They also gave Ross ONLY an 8/10... The person who wrote it CLEARLY made him Fighter-Warrior instead of Pirate-Berserker

He absolutely destroys everything as a Berserker due to the innate crit bonus

[Carmine Sword]

Ross is just a worse Garcia. He's only really good in drafts where his ability to cross water and mountains helps save a few turns if you don't have a flying unit.

[fengaridotdll]

Ross is just a worse Garcia.

[BlueLore]

My first game was PoR and I lost Boyd in the second mission.

I didn't know he'd actually die and was kinda shocked to hear that once the mission was over.

After that I never ever let someone else die in my group.....but I was pretty horrible at recruiting too,I didn't recruit Marcia(and thus no chance of getting Makarov),Jill(and thus couldn't recruit darahan),Shinon(ok that one was a guide-dang-it anyway and I was actually pretty close at getting him,but I decided to kill him with gatrie and not ike >.>),Nasir(but well you get ena instead) and Stefan(ok he is almost impossible to get without a guide anyway)

Also I didn't teach Ike aithir and refused volkers offer to join me(he joins later anyway) and didn't let him promote to assassin.