What's, in your opinion, the best designed main story map in this game?

[Nobody]

Awakening is very infamous for the bad map design. Open fields with nothing but enemies and reliance on high stats rather than strategical positioning in order to bring difficulty are plentiful. Of course, between the maps there are some that shine and get away from that stereotype. I'm wondering which of the maps in the main story (no DLC or paralogues) people think are actually good, requiring strategical thinking and good positioning.

My pick would be chapter 5, the exalt and the king. It's a map full of choke points and special tiles and you will have a hard time dealing with it if you don't worry about positioning. A smart strategy is also needed in order to save Ricken and Maribelle and handle the many enemies waves. I feel this map wouldn't be out of place in another fire emblem game with better maps overall. It actually reminds me a bit of the early game map with a bunch of wyverns in FE12.

Edited January 11, 2016 by Nobody

[Gradivus.]

Chapters 5 and 12 for pretty similar reasons.

[Dwlr]

Chapter 14 Flames on the Blue. 3 choke points so you can divide your units to hold all of them or retreat to a weaker ship using flying units to aid the assault on a single ship and then effectively hold just one. That said I like the map in theory, if you had some frail units that were required deploys and the enemy was higher it'd be better IMO so you might have to worry about somebody dying otherwise it's pretty much like the rest of the game where you can steam roll the map with just a few good units paired together really.

[CaitlynMellark]

I like Chapter 24 (23?) where it is a field but it has rainbows & some destroyed buildings.

[Czar_Yoshi]

Depends a little on difficulty. On Lunatic+, which I primarily play, Cht.8 is by far my favorite since it marks the point in the game where you can start doing more or less whatever you want, is the first time the terrain is fully on your side (very nice compared to the stupidity of Cht.5/7 and their unblockable Wyverns) and is filled with Pegasus Lunch (I like Pegs). Cht.18 is also nice because it's a fun break from reinforcements, contains a source of infinite damage, and has a clock, though there's one Griffon in the center of the map that always gets in my way so I can't say it for sure. Tiki's paralogue is also pretty cool, though there's a fine line on possible vs impossible without getting a 1-turn clear. And Cht.15 is fun again because Pegs.

On regular difficulties, I still like Cht.8, but Cht.5 becomes much more interesting. Par.1 is nice too (training for everyone) and Cht.9 benefits from the difficulty downgrade as well because Libra never blows himself up (aside from him, it's quite a fun chapter).

And finally, I like Cht.22 everywhere. If that's too many, just take Cht.8.

[CrimeanRoyalKnight]

Chapter 5. I stopped playing Lunatic at chapter 5, because it was too fucking hard and I wanted to use the save file to fool around on Hard/Classic. But I still like it.

I should probably try to finish Lunatic one day, but it's demoralizing; not because it's hard, but because like all of the game it somehow feels unrewarding :(

Edited January 11, 2016 by CrimeanRoyalKnight

[ChickenWings]

Chapter 5. I want to make an honorable mention to chapter 2.

[TheSilentChloey]

I suppose somwhere like chapter 12, chapter 3 and chapter 9 all done on normal difficulty

[Nym]

Chapter 10 is not that bad either. An open field but split into 4 way to go with a few forts and some thiefs that you need to kill asap. The reinforcements on this map are not that bad compare to others maps and the boss is not too difficult but not too easy either. This map is also good because of the story but that's not the main point of this thread.

Edited January 11, 2016 by Nym

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I like most of the Paralogue maps. I also like 5, 9, 10, and Endgame.

[Loki Laufeyson]

I really like chapter 6 for some reason. Choke points and defending green units probably. Chapter 5 is pretty good, so i am gonna echo it. Chapter 10 is interesting for fliers.

[Lithia]

Chapter 6 - for the introduction of two units, monitoring Emmeryn, and Validar's mage range( I was not expecting him to move from his spot after you beat the bad guys!)

Chapter 13 - The gap in the middle made you very vulnerable to ranged weapons if you didn't have a flier or a unit with high movement.

Chapter 14 - Pick a boat

The Future Past maps were enjoyable and challenging enough

[Cyas]

That may sound a bit weird but I enjoy playing Chapter 2.You aren't going to keep everybody alive on L+ on that map without well thought out positioning.

Chapter 5 on all non-L+ modes (on L+, this chapter is a bit too much this early on in the game) for the reasons that most people here stated.

Chapter 6 because it's the closest Awakening gets to having a Defend objective (You can 2-turn Tiki's map in no-grind, you can't do that with chapter 6).

Chapter 12 since its enemies are relatively strong and the map also has terrain that can be utilized in many different ways.

Chapter 18 because there's a semi-turn limit and because it has no reinforcements, what you see is what you get.

[Irysa]

Paralogue 4 for having the only real instance of worrying about Thieves taking shit you care about (if you want that Arms Scroll you better move it) along with loads of ways to approach the map and fighting enemies through walls.

Chapter 5 has an interesting opening but I feel it's a bit boring past a good first turn. Paralogue 1 is good if you're recruiting Donnel. Chapters 8 and 9 can be interesting but suffer from "Robin has taken control of the game" syndrome. The game goes for Chapter 17 which could be decent but usually isn't.

Edited January 14, 2016 by Irysa

[Westwood]

Why hasn't anyone mentioned Ch17? Whichever one is the map you get the boots on. That map has most things that make for a decent map. Only things missing are forts and walls that can be flown over.

[Skynstein]

Chapter 6 (many choke points and strategic positioning), Chapter 14 (choice between boss rush or getting all the loot), and most Chapters with forts or fort-like spots that spawn enemy reinforcements, like Chapter 5 and Chapter 21, because careful unit positioning can help you a lot. Though, to make Chapter 21 better, I'd probably make Mire more accurate but less powerful, the idea being that the mages in the corners slowly chip away at your units while the men in the shrine do the heavy fighting.

Chapter 3 is actually pretty interesting on Lunatic as well, because on that mode the idle soldiers in the side opposite to where you went will start rushing towards you after a couple turns, so you can't turtle like on Hard and below.

Edited January 17, 2016 by Cerberus87

[Czar_Yoshi]

the idea being that the mages in the corners slowly chip away at your units while the men in the shrine do the heavy fighting.

They wouldn't try to do that, though. They'd all go for the same weakest target, so instead of getting spread-out ship damage you'd just get a lot of HP off one unit (who would usually be your Thief- their HP doesn't even matter unless they're dead).

Edited January 17, 2016 by Czar_Yoshi

[Skynstein]

They wouldn't try to do that, though. They'd all go for the same weakest target, so instead of getting spread-out ship damage you'd just get a lot of HP off one unit (who would usually be your Thief- their HP doesn't even matter unless they're dead).

Yeah I forgot Awakening's AI is basically "suicidal rush towards weakest player unit to kill and force restart". :/

This makes the AI dumb but also makes things more tense because, while all of the AI's units are expendable (except for boss in certain maps), none of the player's units are, if you play on Classic mode.

Edited January 17, 2016 by Cerberus87

[Roflolxp54]

Paralogue 22 because of the premise of having to face clones of your own units, though there are ways to easily beat the paralogue and keep Aversa alive for recruitment (Pair-up and pair-up skills, promoting lv. 10 base units at the start, bringing in throwaway Spotpass units for teh lulz, Brave weapons abuse, Rescue staff).

[DragonFlames]

I love the Valm chapters (chapter 14 onward until chapter 20), because there is something charming about 10-12 people taking on an army that ranges from anywhere between 25-45 units plus reinforcements and, if you cared to grind your units to maximum stats/best skills before taking them on, you can just roflstomp the enemy - that vastly outnumbers you! - into oblivion. I remember this part to be the hardest part of the game for me when I first played it, because my admittedly still weak units were swarmed by the many, similarly powerful enemies and back then, I didn't know the first thing about pair ups.

I also like chapter 6, like everyone else, apparently and the Future Past maps are cool, too.

[Solkia]

Chapter 6 because it's the only map that deviates from the "mash start until Robin has tanked the whole map" thing even slightly

[DeadLuckChris]

Chapter 18 was pretty cool when doing a hard/classic no pair up run

[Epic10is321]

Chapter 9 because of the desert terrain, forts, and reinforcements. Plus it's important to the story and one of the more memorable chapters. AND 2 recruitable characters.

[Czar_Yoshi]

AND 2 recruitable characters.

That's hardly unique to Cht.9... Excluding Paralogues, only chapters 4 and 7 before that give less than two.

[Thor Odinson]

Chapter 3 Vanilla Lunatic part 1 is really nice, part 2 is just kiting so it's not quite as interesting, but 1 is like, you gotta figure out a way to blitz the first group before the second group shows up at your ass to wreck you, but gives a more reasonable distance so it's not ridiculous like chapter 2. You still have to act fast and it does take strategy, which I liked.