Help me with Birthright pairings

[PhoenixX]

Just a little bit of background, I want to use these units for my first playthough of Birthright but I don't know how I should pair them. I want to use around 16 units, I don't care who I use besides these units. Also I'm planning on playing on hard or lunatic.

Pairings (I want to use these pairings no matter what)

Luck (+Str -Luck MaMU Holy Lancer ((Class and Asset/Flaw is changeable if necesarry)) ) x Hana

Takumi x Oboro

Units (these are units I want to use but don't have pairings for)

Rinkah

Ryouma

Kagerou

Nishiki

Hinata

Orochi

[Thor Odinson]

Ryouma is good with both Rinka and Kagerou, and Hinata's good with Kagerou. Nishiki is probably good with Kagerou as well but I haven't done a ton of analysis on that (though Kagerou doesn't benefit from Nishiki classwise, but if you're not doing the postgame that shouldn't matter much). Orochi is kinda bad with all of them

For units outside the ones you picked already, probably having some fliers would be good, so probably consider at least one of Tsubaki or Hinoka. Aqua's useful as well.

Edited January 16, 2016 by Thor Odinson

[kickthecommie]

My Rec:

RinkahxSubaki

RyoumaxKagerou

NishikixSetsuna

HinataxHinoka

OrochixSaizou

For the last two slots I recommend TsukuyomixFelicia or TsukuyomixSakura.

Also consider that Corrin gets a very powerful sword only usable by him near the middle of the game.

Edited January 16, 2016 by kickthecommie

[PhoenixX]

OK how is this

Pairings

Hana x Luck(MaMu)

Oboro x Takumi

Rinkah x Ryouma

Hinata x Kagerou

Orochi x Saizou

Nishiki x Azura

Sakura x yomi

Hinoka x Silas

[GoXDS]

OK how is this

Pairings

Hana x Luck(MaMu)

Oboro x Takumi

Rinkah x Ryouma

Hinata x Kagerou

Orochi x Saizou

Nishiki x Azura

Sakura x yomi

Hinoka x Silas

acceptable/pretty decent. though Kinu's gonna have questionable Def. also note that Gurei's gonna be slooow as well (but Orochi is a common mother for him)

if looking from parents' only, Takumi also doesn't benefit from the marriage since his secondary tree is already Lance Fighter which is a minus but not really a large problem.

[Dollysama]

OK how is this

Pairings

Hana x Luck(MaMu)

Oboro x Takumi

Rinkah x Ryouma

Hinata x Kagerou

Orochi x Saizou

Nishiki x Azura

Sakura x yomi

Hinoka x Silas

Hana x Mamui - This pairing is fine

Oboro x Takumi - This pairing makes a good Kisaragi, however Takumi doesn't really benefit from it.

Rinkah x Ryouma - Although I've never used it myself, I've heard it's a good pairing for Shinonome

Kagerou x Hinata - This pairing is fine

Orochi x Saizou - Makes Grey into a good healer, although he does turn out quite slow

Azura x Nishiki - This is a good pairing for a fast Kinu + Shigure

Sakura x Tsukuyomi - Makes a good Syalla

Hinoka x Silas - I always do this pairing and Sophie always turns out pretty decent

[PhoenixX]

acceptable/pretty decent. though Kinu's gonna have questionable Def. also note that Gurei's gonna be slooow as well (but Orochi is a common mother for him)

if looking from parents' only, Takumi also doesn't benefit from the marriage since his secondary tree is already Lance Fighter which is a minus but not really a large problem.

For this playthrough I really don't care about kids too much, I just want a team that can make it past Lunatic with my favorite characters. As for TakumixOboro I largely did that just for story purposes.

[Thor Odinson]

In the case of no kids, then Rinka x Ryouma goes from good to excellent. Rinka does put a hamper on Shino's mods (though shino's personal strength means he can handle her strength growth reduction with grace, and he appreciates more speed), but if Shino's out of the question, Ryouma loves her support. +Str +Def? If you really want to dip Ryouma in Shura for 3 levels (probably not practical in L, but probably still also doable) he'll get back more crit too, so that's something.

Edited January 16, 2016 by Thor Odinson

[astrophys]

Let's see… I've posted in other topics, but I'm still trying to figure this out….

Like the topic creator, I want to do Birthright on Hard/Lunatic (maybe Hard first time, Lunatic subsequently) and I want to end with a full team of 16 for the final missions. Given how deployment slots and recruitments progress, this probably means children or late game pre-promotes will fill in some of the later slots.

I'm assuming no-grind, no skill buying or DLC grinding.

Now, in this post, I'm going to try to reason out my team, step by step, so this is going to be somewhat of a "stream of consciousness" approach to writing in which I write down my thoughts as I try reasoning it out… if you wouldn't mind, if you could evaluate my thought processes and see if you think my conclusions are sound, that would be helpful.

I'll put the rest in spoiler tags to avoid taking up too much space on the page:

I want to try as many of the royals (Male Kamui/Corrin, Azura, Ryoma, Hinoka, Takumi, Sakura) as reasonably possible… I hear that supposedly most of them are good units, with perhaps Sakura as an exception (low starting staff rank compared to other options). So that accounts for 6/16 of my units right there (5/16 if I don't use Sakura).

I want to run Kaze to ensure I get an A-rank with him early on. I suppose at that point I might as well keep him around, as he'll presumably have received training.

I don't particularly like Felicia, but the "first servant" that you get is suppose to be a really good unit, and it does make sense that she'd stick around with Kamui, so I'll probably run her.

Silas seems to be a good unit and he has his friendship with the Avatar…. he seems like a good choice for the team.

I want to get Matoi as the top priority among the children (purely personal S-rank preference), so this necessitates running Tsubaki (at least early on, but maybe I might want to keep him around thereafter). So Matoi and Tsubaki are two more slots.

At this point I have 11 slots accounted for and 5 slots left. How do you suppose I should fill them in?

1. Male Corrin

2. Azura

3. Ryoma

4. Hinoka

5. Takumi

6. Sakura

7. Felicia

8. Silas

9. Kaze

10. Tsubaki

11. Matoi

So, for males we have:

1. Male Corrin

2. Ryoma

3. Takumi

4. Silas

5. Kaze

6. Tsubaki

For females, we have:

1. Azura

2. Hinoka

3. Sakura

4. Felicia

5. Matoi (2nd Gen)

I'm guessing I should probably fill in another one or two 1st gen females for pairing considerations… do you agree? Then that would be something like 4 more slots for pre-promotes and children (one child already accounted for here).

Let's see…. I think that these ones can be pretty clear…. in order to avoid incest of any form, legal or blood, I'll assume that Matoi (marrying Kamui) is not the daughter of Azura, Sakura, or Hinoka. This probably works out anyways because Azura probably isn't staying close enough to Tsubaki with her dancing (great movement differences, Tsubaki doesn't get much STR from her), Sakura probably is in staff support, and Hinoka probably pairs better (gameplay wise) with Sials anyways.

1./2. +MAG/-LCK Dark Knight male Corrin x _____!Matoi (unlocks ______!Matoi!Kanna)

3./4. Silas x Hinoka (unlocks Hinoka!Sophie)

5./6. Tsbauki x ______ (unlocks ______!Matoi)

Now, I'm not entirely sure what to do about the Ryoma, Tsubaki, and Kaze pairings…..

Ryoma x _____

Tsubaki x _____

Kaze x _____

Ryoma would prefer a physical fighter who gives STR or DEF, I'd imagine, and they are likely to end up as a hard support next to him, I'd guess… so that could dictate someone like Oboro or Rinkah….. Tsubaki and Kaze would also like characters like these….. maybe something like Tsubaki x Oboro and Kaze x Rinkah, for example…

Of course, there is another option if I go with Crimson, who joins at around the same time as Ryoma and conveniently starts less leveled than him (--/4 Ryoma vs. --/1 Crimson). She's also "free" in the standpoint that I don't need to get her trained previously in order to use her… she cannot get support ranks, but +3 Str/+3 Def/+1 Move is pretty good… of course, might not actually be using her as a pair-up bot (she seems too good just for that), but if they need a Guard Stance they'd go well together… Crimson at least at first should triggering Ryoma's way of the Samurai, so in Guard Stance she'd cause him to have +10 critical, +3 Str & +2 damage (functionally +5 damage in most cases), +3 DEF & 2 damage (functionally similar to +5 DEF and +2 Res) and +1 Move when we combine the Wyvern Lord bonuses and the Personal Skill. And then Ryoma would give her lots of speed, although looking at it Crimson seems to have really high SPD growth already.. checking the numbers, +5 SPD from Samurai would give base Crimson 24 SPD (19+5), which the same as base unpaired Ryoma….

Alternatively, Ryoma and Takumi actually have a synergy if you can keep Ryoma higher leveled… they would activate each other's personal skills… and they do give some of the stats that each other wants…. they could just go together in an A-support. Although Takumi has other options….

Kaze and Rinkah have similar join times….. (both in the prologue)… If Tsubaki went with Oboro, he'd have to wait two chapters (7, 8) to get his future pair-up partner. Although given the importance of getting Avatar + Kaze A-rank early in the game, I imagine that at some points early on the Avatar will be pairing up with Kaze instead of Rinkah to build that support, so I suppose Rinkah could be temporarily shifted over to Tsubaki while the Avatar finishes A-ranking Kaze and while Tsubaki waits for Oboro… assuming I go with these, that is…. the Avatar's STR+2 from Nohr Prince combined with Mysterious Appeal after C-rank would give a +4 damage boost, similar to what Rinkah does for Kaze…

So maybe I could go with this configuration… assuming I took Crimson, Oboro, and Rinkah, I have 3 more characters on the list now, so 14/16 slots filled…

1./2. Corrin x Oboro!Matoi

3./4. Silas x Hinoka

5./6. Tsubaki x Oboro

7./8. Kaze x Rinkah

9./10. Ryoma + Crimson (not married)

11. Takumi

12. Azura

13. Sakura

14. Felicia

15. ______

16. ______

15./16 should probably be reseverd for children or pre-promotes… or staffers, I guess…

So that leaves me with one more male to consider a pairing for: Takumi….

Takumi x Azura or Takumi x Felicia (as he cannot marry Sakura)…

Now, Azura might have trouble with establishing pairings, as she's dancing, and she'd probably need to build pairing through attack stance, or otherwise intentionally sacrificed dancing potential…. Maybe she might have a better chance of attack stancing with Takumi, as his range allows him to engage at two range and have Azura at 1/3 range from the enemy take part as his Attack stancer, or Azura at 1 (less likely,given her fragility) triggering Takumi's dual at 2. Also, if they married, their seals would allow for GKW promotions on Takumi/Kisaragi/Shigure to learn both Swallow Strike and Prescient Victory in a common promotion. So that makes sense….

So in that case, I'd have:

1./2. Corrin x Oboro!Matoi ---> Unlocks Oboro!Matoi!Kanna

3./4. Silas x Hinoka ---> Unlocks Hinoka!Sophie

5./6. Tsubaki x Oboro ---> Unlocks Oboro!Matoi (see above @ #2)

7./8. Kaze x Rinkah ---> Unlocks Rinkah!Midoriko

9./10. Ryoma + Crimson (not married)

11./12. Takumi x Azura ---> Unlocks Takumi!Shigure and Azura!Kisaragi

13. Sakura (left unmarried; pure support)

14. Felicia (left unmarried; pure support)

15. ______

16. ______

So, two remaining slots, in some combination of a staffer (like Jakob), a pre-promote, or one of the other kids not currently used (Kanna, Sophie, Midoriko, Shigure, Kisaragi).

I could go with something with Kanna (pure favoritism in including the Avatar's family), or perhaps another staffer w/Jakob?

Of these kids, I'd imagine that Sophie would turn out pretty well, and having another Cavalier might be nice…. Takumi has bows covered pretty well, and Hinoka/Tsubaki/Matoi/Crimson being on the team would already give us lot of flier coverage, so Shigure might be redundant… this would also work out just in case I don't actually end up succeeding in getting Takumi paired up (or if he ends up with someone like Felicia instead purely because of her +SPD pair-up)… Midoriko doesn't seem that impressive to me…

Now that I think of it, although not as well as a Bulter, Kanna could function as a staff unit: she DOES have staves as a White Blood and if I child seal her she should start with some free weapon ranks…

So maybe the final list is:

1./2. Corrin x Oboro!Matoi ---> Unlocks Oboro!Matoi!Kanna

3./4. Silas x Hinoka ---> Unlocks Hinoka!Sophie

5./6. Tsubaki x Oboro ---> Unlocks Oboro!Matoi (see above @ #2)

7./8. Kaze x Rinkah ---> Unlocks Rinkah!Midoriko

9./10. Ryoma + Crimson (not married)

11./12. Takumi x Azura ---> Unlocks Takumi!Shigure and Azura!Kisaragi [if not feasible, not too big of a problem, as their kids aren't in my team plan]

13. Sakura (left unmarried; pure support)

14. Felicia (probably left unmarried; pure support; but she could be a fallback marriage option for Takumi)

15. Oboro!Matoi!Kanna

16. Hinoka!Sophie

What do you think of this list? Does it make sense? Any changes you'd make?