Favorite Incarnation of Bow Knight

[Great Dane]

I've noticed that the Bow Knight is a very inconsistent class with a lot of highs and lows which incarnation is your favorite? You can even list your least favorite if you like.

My favorite is by far the Nomads of FE6, you get a plentiful amount of them, they're mounted from start to finish, they add to the world, and they tend to be outright better than their archer counterpart.

[DragonFlames]

I like the Bow Knights in Echoes the most, if only because of their busted range and little to no terrain that could hamper their mobility.

Everywhere else, they're just bow users on a horse. So all the same problems that Cavaliers have (middling stats and growths, hampered by terrain) apply to them on top of being unable to counter in melee. Some can use swords, which puts them at a weapon disadvantage against any horse's nemesis, the Ridersbane / Beastkiller.

[X-Naut]

2 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

I like the Bow Knights in Echoes the most, if only because of their busted range and little to no terrain that could hamper their mobility.

Everywhere else, they're just bow users on a horse. So all the same problems that Cavaliers have (middling stats and growths, hampered by terrain) apply to them on top of being unable to counter in melee. Some can use swords, which puts them at a weapon disadvantage against any horse's nemesis, the Ridersbane / Beastkiller.

FE6 Nomads consistently have higher stats than the Archers, outside of Dayan who is supposed to be well beyond his prime. And in this iteration they don't take cavalry effective damage.

You were saying?

[L9999]

14 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

I like the Bow Knights in Echoes the most, if only because of their busted range and little to no terrain that could hamper their mobility.

Everywhere else, they're just bow users on a horse. So all the same problems that Cavaliers have (middling stats and growths, hampered by terrain) apply to them on top of being unable to counter in melee. Some can use swords, which puts them at a weapon disadvantage against any horse's nemesis, the Ridersbane / Beastkiller.

Since when cavaliers have middling stats and are hampered by terrain? Or the Ridersbane ever being a threat?

[Armagon]

Yeah, the Echoes Bow Knights are probably my favorite (because it's the only game where Archers in general are actually good).

17 minutes ago, L9999 said:

Since when cavaliers have middling stats and are hampered by terrain?

I don't know about middling stats but the terrain movement penalty is definitely an issue for horse units. I tend to not bring Cavaliers and the like in heavily forested maps because they just don't preform that well in those types of maps. And the less said about desert maps, the better.

[L9999]

3 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Yeah, the Echoes Bow Knights are probably my favorite (because it's the only game where Archers in general are actually good).

I don't know about middling stats but the terrain movement penalty is definitely an issue for horse units. I tend to not bring Cavaliers and the like in heavily forested maps because they just don't preform that well in those types of maps. And the less said about desert maps, the better.

There aren't many forest spam chapters in FE to really hinder cavaliers. I can only think of a handful. The ones from Thracia 776 are easily warpskipped, the ones from Gaiden really don't present a problem, te ones from GBA really don't stop cavaliers either. FE4 has CH1's chokepoint but that is just plain bad game design and no one goes through that forest well anyways.

Edited September 16, 2017 by L9999

[DragonFlames]

1 hour ago, X-Naut said:

FE6 Nomads consistently have higher stats than the Archers, outside of Dayan who is supposed to be well beyond his prime. And in this iteration they don't take cavalry effective damage.

You were saying?

I only played FE6 like, once and i didn't use the nomads in that game, so I wouldn't know about that. If that's true, then that's good. The more viable units, the better, I say.

[Thinks Their Own Way]

I guess Echoes because they felt different from other bow knights; from the games I've played, Bow Knights/Ranger/Nomadic Trooper all play the same to me so I never felt one version was better than another.

[EricaofRenais]

FE 6 nomads hands down I really like Shin.

[Nobody]

fates because shurikenbreaker

I always have to have at least one person as a bow knight in Conquest.

Runner up is Binding Blade.

[Reality]

FE6 Because of the jumping horse crit.

[DarkDestr0yer61]

FE 4, 5, 9, and 10. My ideal is shoot and run.... 6 is also great since they are literally just better archers

[ping]

I'm jumping on the Nomad bandwagon, for both the "better archer" and "rad sword animation" reasons.

€: Heh, "jump".

Edited September 17, 2017 by ping

[Sunwoo]

Nomads, just because. I don't really have a reason, I just like Rath and the nomad class in particular.

[deskita]

Echoes Bow knight is definitely the most powerful being capable of moving a long distance and attacking from a long distance, combine that with hunters volley and there's nowhere to hide.

Fe7's Rath seems to take hits well for me meaning that the sword doesn't go unused and that it actually ends up being very helpful for dealing with axe enemys or for negating counter attacks from enemy archers.

Fates Bow knight benefits a bit from the bow buffs but I find bow knights to have too low a defence stat to satisfy me especially when their strength isn't quite what I'd like but with a dual yumi or illusory yumi they usually tank mages well.

But Bow knights seem pretty bad in Awakening as neither defence stat seems to go well (Again could just be my bad luck) they only really get a mediocre strength and speed stat to show for it making them mostly inferior to other choices

[Shin]

20 hours ago, EricaofRenais said:

I really like Shin.

I'm flattered but unfortunately I'm taken!

I'd have to say probably FE6, you get a few of them and they're pretty usable. Even Dayan makes good filler with a silver bow in the later chapters. FE11/12 also treated them pretty well.

[DolphinDingus]

FE Heroes, because Brave Lyn is a monster.

If I'm going to be serious though, I think I will have to agree that FE6 had the best horse archers, because Sue and Shin are both quite good. Also, Sacae route is better than Ilia route, in my opinion. Also, ridiculous sword animations add some points in their, Dayan's, and Rath's favors.

PoR wasn't too bad, because of canto and the fact that the only cavalier that has to use a bow is Astrid, who has paragon, meaning she can get to use another weapon very fast. However, the fact that fast exp gain from a skill is just about everything that goes in her favor means that she has to take 2nd place.

EDIT: Oh, does FE7x count? Because Hassar. Bow with brave effect in starting inventory, and then when he promotes he gets the best skill for a nomadic trooper ever. I think its called anticipation? Basically it makes him switch to whatever weapon allows him to counter, when he gets attacked.

Edited September 17, 2017 by DolphinDingus

[Tolvir]

Gameplay wise, I would have to go with Echoes. The long range mixed with large amount of movement made them amazing units.

As far as aesthetics go, I prefered Fates look over all. I thought they did a good job with it, and it was one of the few male to female designs on cavalier that didnt go all fan service.