Crimson Flower is too easy.

[drattakbowser]

I think Crimson Flower is easy because :

- Edelgard is the strongest Lord.

- Many enemy is weak in magic.

- No reunion at dawn

- Jeritza is a powerful unit

Edited March 20, 2021 by drattakbowser

[GodSejeong97]

I wouldn't be surprised, it's Three Houses; one of the, if not the, easiest title.

[Interdimensional Observer]

None too experienced with 3H myself, but 'Dawn aside, I'd think that'd be GD. I disagree on Edel as the best lord, and Jerry by himself won't grind every map to bits. CF if my memory serves me right spikes on the enemy levels due to fewer total chapters. GD might have RaD, but I'd think it has the easiest final battle, little big stat-stick aside, and none of the siege spam of lategame AM.

[Etrurian emperor]

I actually think its the hardest route. It has fewer chapters which means less time to sufficiently train your units and the last two Crimson Flower chapters seem significantly more difficult than those of the other routes. 

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

It was not hard (also thanks to getting rid of chapter 13), but definitely not as easy as Golden Deers.

Golden Deers has by far the easiest final map.

Barbarossa Claude is the best house leader gameplaywise by MILES.

Timeskip Edelgard is actually the worst because of her class (only usable as a wyvern lord).

 

[Dark Holy Elf]

3 hours ago, Zan Partizanne said:

Timeskip Edelgard is actually the worst because of her class (only usable as a wyvern lord).

 

Her class being bad doesn't matter when you don't use it. Wyvern Edelgard is completely bonkers thanks to Raging Storm.

Anyway CF does have some ways it's a bit easier than other routes, notably no Reunion at Dawn and the fact that siege weaponry is only rarely deployed. But enemy stats do scale up faster than other routes, and most of the maps are pretty competently challenging in their own right (chapter 14, 15, 17, and 18 in particular) so I don't think it's a slam-dunk for easiest. I agree with those saying that Golden Deer is easier overall (due to an easier final map and Immortal Corps being busted. Claude is also great but so are all the lords). Silver Snow should be a pretty indisputable pick for hardest: no lord, no lord battalion, lower deployment, hardest Reunion at Dawn (you get one less unit and Seteth's not great there), and a final map which at very minimum has a strong case to be the hardest.

3 hours ago, GodSejeong97 said:

I wouldn't be surprised, it's Three Houses; one of the, if not the, easiest title.

This is really more a discussion for another thread but I definitely don't agree with this. I think Maddening makes you be way better at using the tools at your disposal than many other Fire Emblems which can be broken just by creating a big ball of stats and throwing it at enemies. At minimum, FE1 and FE7-9 are all significantly easier IMO. Probably others but it gets into subjective things about how much player knowledge are we assuming (which is a big deal for something like FE4).

[vikingsfan92]

People put Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to much stock into chapter 13 on non cf imo.  Also people don't give enough credit for the fact that the timeskip on cf is has big jumps in enemy levels and abilties because of the shortness of the route requires the enemies to get harder faster.  Chapter 13  also has less things in the middle of it and chapter 12 on cf compared to other routes. A whole one week of optional stuff to do on cf where as golden deer get a more normal month. Also that one week is after the time skip so the enemies are scaled for the timeskip so even if you do want to use that one week to train its worse if you are just plain not ready for the time skip as you are expected to train with time skip enemies.  Compared to the training sessions that come before the timeskip in other routes which lets you go in better equipped.

The lords are good but are by no means auto wins. No one lord auto wins the game.  As for Edelgard I do think she is the best lord but I also think people don't give non-mounted classes enough credit so I am not exactly agreeing with the only wyvern lord class being good for her. She still has the crest of flames for more tankiness and hits hard.  She is the most verstile as well as she can go the magic route better than the other lords. Which is more relevant with dlc and dark flier allowing you to go flying mage edelgard with the option to use traditional weapons if you are deadset on using a flying being the best thing to do.

As for Jeritza he is good but you are giving up Seteth, Flayn,  Catherine, Hilda, Dedue, Gilbert and Cyrill for him. And as I said above no one lord wins the game neither does Jeritza.

Edited March 20, 2021 by vikingsfan92

[Shadow Mir]

30 minutes ago, vikingsfan92 said:

People put Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to much stock into chapter 13 on non cf imo.

In the context of Maddening, there's a good chance it can lock you. That's a big deal.

4 hours ago, GodSejeong97 said:

I wouldn't be surprised, it's Three Houses; one of the, if not the, easiest title.

I disagree with this, but this ain't the topic for this.

33 minutes ago, vikingsfan92 said:

As for Jeritza he is good but you are giving up Seteth, Flayn,  Catherine, Hilda, Dedue, Gilbert and Cyrill for him. And as I said above no one lord wins the game neither does Jeritza.

Not being able to use some of those might be concerning, but Cyril is NOT one of those.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

53 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Not being able to use some of those might be concerning, but Cyril is NOT one of those.

"Nooo you can't be a good unit, you join as a Commoner, your bases are bad, and you functionally have no personal skill nooo!"

Cyril: "Haha Point-Blank Volley go brrr."

Anyway, disagreed about Crimson Flower being easiest. It's the shortest, of course, but the difficulty seriously ramps up. You don't have to deal with Reunion at Dawn, but you also get fewer paralogues, and the rewards that those can bring. Edelgard is strong, if you know how to build her, and Aymr is busted, but its uses are limited by Agarthium.

[Shadow Mir]

16 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

"Nooo you can't be a good unit, you join as a Commoner, your bases are bad, and you functionally have no personal skill nooo!"

Cyril: "Haha Point-Blank Volley go brrr."

Because Point-Blank Volley single-handedly makes up for all of Cyril's other shortcomings, right? Oh wait, no it doesn't. Sorry!!

Edited March 20, 2021 by Shadow Mir

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

32 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Because Point-Blank Volley single-handedly makes up for all of Cyril's other shortcomings, right? Oh wait, no it doesn't. Sorry!!

Obviously not - but on a VW/AM playthrough, it's likely the first brave combat art you'll get access too. He also gets Vengeance, one of the best Lance arts. Cyril also has some of the best proficiencies for a physical unit. Growing automatically in Axes and Bows gives him basically instant access to Brigand and Archer, which offer the two best mastery skills. Add in Lances, Riding, and Flight, and he has an easy road to some of the strongest physical classes in the game: Wyvern Rider/Lord, Sniper, Paladin, and Bow Knight. Even off-builds, like Fortress Knight or War Master, are by no means out of the question. Cyril is versatile, he has great growths (with Aptitude considered), and he gets two excellent combat arts - which work together to overcome his rough start, making for a worthy investment. 

[vikingsfan92]

3 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

In the context of Maddening, there's a good chance it can lock you. That's a big deal.

I would argue that cf has just as much potential to lock you if not more. Time skip maps are a jump up in difficulty no matter what route you go and the one week you get to train on  after chapter 13 is after the timeskip which is a problem if the issue is you can't beat timeskip enemies.  Also chapter 11 has it own unique problem for CF and black eagles in general. If you put most of your efforts into Edelgard or Hubert than your team might not be able to handle her as a boss for that one chapter even if they don't count towards her boss stats for that chapter. All other routes you can use your lord for that chapter so you don't have to worry about having all your efforts pooled towards your best character as much.

 

3 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Not being able to use some of those might be concerning, but Cyril is NOT one of those.

The point is more so about the combination more than anything because you lose out on all of these to get Jeritza. And even if you only care about one or two of these they can be worth more than Jeritza is or at the very least comparable to him.  Obviously we can go back and forth on what units are better than others in 1 vs 1 situations but each one of the units not in cf has their uses and Jeritza can't make up for all of that alone he is still a single unit. Flayn for instance is one of a few rescue users for non-dlc runs with the only other user of it being Bernedetta who is more traditionally used as an archer or other more non-magical weaponry and you have to go more out of you way for getting rescue compared to the magically focused Flayn.

Edited March 20, 2021 by vikingsfan92

[Dark Holy Elf]

6 minutes ago, vikingsfan92 said:

I would argue that cf has just as much potential to lock you if not more. Time skip maps are a jump up in difficulty no matter what route you go and the one week you get to train on  after chapter 13 is after the timeskip which is a problem if the issue is you can't beat timeskip enemies.  Also chapter 11 has it own unique problem for CF and black eagles in general. If you put most of your efforts into Edelgard or Hubert than your team might not be able to handle her as a boss for that one chapter even if they don't count towards her boss stats for that chapter. All other routes you can use your lord for that chapter so you don't have to worry about having all your efforts pooled towards your best character as much.

For the first part, I'd say that reality does not bear that out. People absolutely get softlocked by Reunion at Dawn. We had a thread about it here even, just a few weeks ago, if I recall correctly. It's not an ultra-rare occurrence. I have not personally heard about someone being softlocked on any given CF map, so I suspect it's a much rarer situation. Not saying that I can't see it, but yeah.

Chapter 11 really shouldn't be a problem, though. Actually, relevant story: my wife did an Edelgard-and-Hubert only run of CF (Maddening, NG). Since Chapter 11's obviously a stall point for the run she just used all the previously-unused PCs at her disposal, including a variety of random recruits (Ashen Wolves + some random others, though notably no staff members since those all have a level requirement). Level 1 Enlightened One Byleth holds up better on that map than you might expect, since the enemies are weak and Sublime Heaven still hits hard even at class minimums. Edelgard herself is indeed a tough opponent, able to one-shot pretty much everyone, but this can be solved by throwing units at her and accepting their deaths (or playing on Casual Mode).

Chapter 6 is actually more of an issue as far as "no lord" maps goes because it's a tougher map to start with (at least in my opinion) and it has a time limit, so in theory someone who really leaned very hard on the lord might run into some trouble there. It affects all routes comparably, though, and I still haven't heard many complaints about it.

[Sooks]

28 minutes ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

Chapter 6 is actually more of an issue as far as "no lord" maps goes because it's a tougher map to start with (at least in my opinion) and it has a time limit, so in theory someone who really leaned very hard on the lord might run into some trouble there. It affects all routes comparably, though, and I still haven't heard many complaints about it.

I can confirm, I was that guy.

I made it in the end, with two turns to go and everyone always contributing, but I absolutely needed mission assistance Leonie and her movement. I mean I could progress just fine, I just had to be a bit more strategic and really watch the turn limit.

And yet I want to play Silver Snow (this is my first maddening run)... we’ll see how that goes.

[vikingsfan92]

3 minutes ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

Chapter 11 really shouldn't be a problem, though. Actually, relevant story: my wife did an Edelgard-and-Hubert only run of CF (Maddening, NG). Since Chapter 11's obviously a stall point for the run she just used all the previously-unused PCs at her disposal, including a variety of random recruits (Ashen Wolves + some random others, though notably no staff members since those all have a level requirement). Level 1 Enlightened One Byleth holds up better on that map than you might expect, since the enemies are weak and Sublime Heaven still hits hard even at class minimums. Edelgard herself is indeed a tough opponent, able to one-shot pretty much everyone, but this can be solved by throwing units at her and accepting their deaths (or playing on Casual Mode).

If you are prepared for it sure. But the preparation argument also makes reunion at dawn way way easier. So I think a lot of this comes down to how much knowledge people have going in.  The bigger problem for Black eagles players that is discussed about that route is accidentally not getting cf in the first place or people wondering if they did the right things to go cf on more truer first time playthroughs.  Also a lot of guides even if they don't outright spoil it probably subtly hint to not use Edelgard or Hubert too much a lot more than they go out of their way to recommend not to use Dimtri or Claude.

Speaking of Claude and Dimtri a broken one of them makes chapter 13 a ton easier especially Claude since he can fly. Most strats I see are ways to make the lord and Byleth win the map anyways. I get that its a hard map but by no means do I think its the only painful one. Chapter 1 the mock battle actually has my pick for most painful maddening battle if we are being honest especially if you want to not lose someone.

3 minutes ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

For the first part, I'd say that reality does not bear that out. People absolutely get softlocked by Reunion at Dawn. We had a thread about it here even, just a few weeks ago, if I recall correctly. It's not an ultra-rare occurrence. I have not personally heard about someone being softlocked on any given CF map, so I suspect it's a much rarer situation. Not saying that I can't see it, but yeah.

Well the far bigger complaint about black eagles is not getting cf in the first place. And going into the chapter you probably going to question if you did things right. By its vary nature people are going to look up guides on this event more than others. So a lot of black eagles players might not be as true blind as other route players to ensure they get route that they desire for black eagles.  Which to fix means going back way more prepared than you were previously. And if your going back to fix the route choice you are also more likely to optimize other little things as well.

 

[Shadow Mir]

1 hour ago, vikingsfan92 said:

The point is more so about the combination more than anything because you lose out on all of these to get Jeritza. And even if you only care about one or two of these they can be worth more than Jeritza is or at the very least comparable to him.  Obviously we can go back and forth on what units are better than others in 1 vs 1 situations but each one of the units not in cf has their uses and Jeritza can't make up for all of that alone he is still a single unit. Flayn for instance is one of a few rescue users for non-dlc runs with the only other user of it being Bernedetta who is more traditionally used as an archer or other more non-magical weaponry and you have to go more out of you way for getting rescue compared to the magically focused Flayn.

I shoulda mentioned earlier, Dedue and Gilbert are unusable outside of Blue Lions anyway, and Catherine, Cyril and Hilda are at their worst on Silver Snow. Also, Rescue got gutted in this game; I have a hard time finding a use for it when its range is Mag/4, which generally ain't enough to get the rescuee to safety.

37 minutes ago, vikingsfan92 said:

Speaking of Claude and Dimtri a broken one of them makes chapter 13 a ton easier especially Claude since he can fly. Most strats I see are ways to make the lord and Byleth win the map anyways. I get that its a hard map but by no means do I think its the only painful one. Chapter 1 the mock battle actually has my pick for most painful maddening battle if we are being honest especially if you want to not lose someone.

The main thing about Dimitri that is considered broken is Battalion Vantage/Battalion Wrath. Which is gonna do jack shit in chapter 13 because he gets a new battalion with 120 endurance.

[vikingsfan92]

52 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

shoulda mentioned earlier, Dedue and Gilbert are unusable outside of Blue Lions anyway, and Catherine, Cyril and Hilda are at their worst on Silver Snow. Also, Rescue got gutted in this game; I have a hard time finding a use for it when its range is Mag/4, which generally ain't enough to get the rescuee to safety.

I am aware but still in comparison to golden deer you are giving up a lot of other utility that you don't get back for Jeritza. Just because its two less than the blue lions doesn't mean that you still aren't giving up a lot for Jeritza. Hilda, Flayn, Catherine, Seteth and even Cyrill bring utility that Jeritza doesn't.

As for Rescue its got its uses when combined with other things especially on maddening. Things like comboing it with Enclouser to lock down a unit and than rescuing them out of danger.  Or killing the single most threatening unit and backing off. Or against beast bosses using a weaker unit to break shields with a gambit and then rescuing them out of harms way of other threats.

52 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

The main thing about Dimitri that is considered broken is Battalion Vantage/Battalion Wrath. Which is gonna do jack shit in chapter 13 because he gets a new battalion with 120 endurance.

He still has some of the best base stats of units especially physical strength. That is the real reason the lords are held in high regard they have better stats than others. The other stuff is fancy and cool and all but having better numbers goes along way towards what makes Edelgad, Dimtri, Byleth and Claude the top units in the game. Don't get me wrong I do think Dimtri is the worst preforming lord but a bad preforming lord still is most certainly top 5 units in the game at worst.

Edited March 21, 2021 by vikingsfan92

[vanguard333]

I haven't played all the routes yet, and of the two that I have played, I played Crimson Flower on normal difficulty and I played Verdant Wind on hard difficulty, so I can't really agree or disagree. I can say, however, that even though I dislike that Crimson Flower has fewer chapters, I've enjoyed its chapters more than Verdant Wind's, and I like chapters that provide a fun challenge, so make of that what you will.

For a good comparison, look at chapter 12: in non-Crimson Flower routes, it's rather bog-standard, to be honest, and it really doesn't offer much in challenge. It's rather boring, especially for what essentially is a defend chapter in all but name. In Crimson Flower, however, it's amazing. The enemy units are always throwing new tricks at you as you progress further forward; giving the siege on Garreg Mach an almost rhythmic back-and-forth. You send your units down the middle? Boom: enemies in the bushes. You send your units along the sides? Boom: Seteth goes on the offensive if you defeat Flayn. Get past Seteth: not only are there ballistae and magic towers, but giant golems appear, and you still have to bring down Catherine and Rhea. And I'm sure I've forgotten some of the cool things they do with this map. It's actually tense and challenging because it's able to throw you off and make you have to adapt, but not in any way that feels unfair, and this in particular is a pattern for most of the unique Crimson Flower chapters.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

4 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

The main thing about Dimitri that is considered broken is Battalion Vantage/Battalion Wrath. Which is gonna do jack shit in chapter 13 because he gets a new battalion with 120 endurance.

Plus, he's forced into High Lord. Oh, you trained his Riding rank and made him a Paladin? Too bad, 5-move infantry. You overcame his Axe boon to go Wyvern? Have fun not flying to safety. You made him suffer by forcing him to Dance? Well, enjoy not having a Dancer this map.

3 hours ago, vikingsfan92 said:

am aware but still in comparison to golden deer you are giving up a lot of other utility that you don't get back for Jeritza. Just because its two less than the blue lions doesn't mean that you still aren't giving up a lot for Jeritza. Hilda, Flayn, Catherine, Seteth and even Cyrill bring utility that Jeritza doesn't.

Why focus just on Jeritza, though? Hubert and Edelgard are also there, as route-exclusive units. Hubert offers some of the best offensive magic in the game, while Edelgard gets a busted combat art from her crispy shrimp axe.

[vikingsfan92]

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Plus, he's forced into High Lord. Oh, you trained his Riding rank and made him a Paladin? Too bad, 5-move infantry. You overcame his Axe boon to go Wyvern? Have fun not flying to safety. You made him suffer by forcing him to Dance? Well, enjoy not having a Dancer this map.

Why focus just on Jeritza, though? Hubert and Edelgard are also there, as route-exclusive units. Hubert offers some of the best offensive magic in the game, while Edelgard gets a busted combat art from her crispy shrimp axe.

Mainly because the op made a point to mention him as a bonus. I don't mind that as much as I do as presenting as without downsides when its more of a trade off. I do think Hubert is a bit underrated myself but I don't know where I would put him on a more general scale though.

As for Edelgard while I do think she is the best unit in the game I also think the lords in general are pretty close so the gap isn't big enough for me to make a huge deal out of it. You are still getting a top 5 unit in the game regardless of the route you pick.

[Dark Holy Elf]

On 3/20/2021 at 3:32 PM, vikingsfan92 said:

Well the far bigger complaint about black eagles is not getting cf in the first place. And going into the chapter you probably going to question if you did things right. By its vary nature people are going to look up guides on this event more than others. So a lot of black eagles players might not be as true blind as other route players to ensure they get route that they desire for black eagles.  Which to fix means going back way more prepared than you were previously. And if your going back to fix the route choice you are also more likely to optimize other little things as well.

I think people who want to play mostly blind still do. If they learn about the routesplit (and/or others volunteer the information, certainly something I've seen!), it's pretty easy to just contain that information to "get Edelgard's C+ support, talk to her in Chapter 11" or something similar. I don't think it means CF players are significantly more skilled or knowledgeable at the game, certainly not enough to explain the gap in complaints you see about Reunion at Dawn vs. any other map. The point about restarting the playthrough is fair (I have seen that), but probably not that common.

23 hours ago, vikingsfan92 said:

He still has some of the best base stats of units especially physical strength. That is the real reason the lords are held in high regard they have better stats than others. The other stuff is fancy and cool and all but having better numbers goes along way towards what makes Edelgad, Dimtri, Byleth and Claude the top units in the game. Don't get me wrong I do think Dimtri is the worst preforming lord but a bad preforming lord still is most certainly top 5 units in the game at worst.

Yep I agree with all of this. It would be interesting if Raging Storm were tied to Caspar, or Battalion Vantage+Wrath were tied to Ashe. We'd really learn how powerful people think these things are. As is they're tied to units who would be amazing even without them because the stats are so silly (Edelgard and Dimitri in particular have such stupid strength that they reach many KO thresholds easily which most other units struggle to).

19 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Plus, he's forced into High Lord. Oh, you trained his Riding rank and made him a Paladin? Too bad, 5-move infantry. You overcame his Axe boon to go Wyvern? Have fun not flying to safety. You made him suffer by forcing him to Dance? Well, enjoy not having a Dancer this map.

Amusingly enough Dancer Dimitri (even forced into High Lord) is very effective on that map anyway, because presumably if you made Dimitri the dancer it's to take advantage of his personal stacking with Sword Avoid, and even with King of Lions dragging him down a bit he still reaches well over 100 avoid if he makes it to a thicket. Just need someone else to actually kill things.

[vikingsfan92]

3 hours ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

think people who want to play mostly blind still do. If they learn about the routesplit (and/or others volunteer the information, certainly something I've seen!), it's pretty easy to just contain that information to "get Edelgard's C+ support, talk to her in Chapter 11" or something similar.

The thing is I actually think the way it does kind of incentivizes looking up a guide.  A lot of people figure out who the flame emperor is before the reveal but also see Edelgard has an S support option for both genders.  Which may seem a bit of contradiction or an oddity that is worth looking up. 

 

3 hours ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

don't think it means CF players are significantly more skilled or knowledgeable at the game, certainly not enough to explain the gap in complaints you see about Reunion at Dawn vs. any other map. The point about restarting the playthrough is fair (I have seen that), but probably not that common.

Its more of a more playtime thing that having to go back causes. Sometimes you make random discoveries in middle of battles that makes you better and more time played makes it more likely for people to have these epiphanies.  There have been random no consequence battles that you randomly learn a game mechanic.

[Shadow Mir]

On 3/20/2021 at 3:18 PM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Obviously not - but on a VW/AM playthrough, it's likely the first brave combat art you'll get access too. He also gets Vengeance, one of the best Lance arts. Cyril also has some of the best proficiencies for a physical unit. Growing automatically in Axes and Bows gives him basically instant access to Brigand and Archer, which offer the two best mastery skills. Add in Lances, Riding, and Flight, and he has an easy road to some of the strongest physical classes in the game: Wyvern Rider/Lord, Sniper, Paladin, and Bow Knight. Even off-builds, like Fortress Knight or War Master, are by no means out of the question. Cyril is versatile, he has great growths (with Aptitude considered), and he gets two excellent combat arts - which work together to overcome his rough start, making for a worthy investment. 

The issue is, he still is cut from the same cloth as Mozu and Donnel before him were - and thus, even with fancy combat arts and his proficiencies, it's hard for me to justify his use over someone else unless they were really screwed or falling behind. Also, I'm not sure his bases at the earliest I can get him would compare well against the other students' averages then... long story short, if you come well behind everyone else, you better have a lot going for you to make up for that - and I doubt Cyril has enough going for him to make up for that.

On 3/20/2021 at 6:55 PM, vikingsfan92 said:

I am aware but still in comparison to golden deer you are giving up a lot of other utility that you don't get back for Jeritza. Just because its two less than the blue lions doesn't mean that you still aren't giving up a lot for Jeritza. Hilda, Flayn, Catherine, Seteth and even Cyrill bring utility that Jeritza doesn't.

As for Rescue its got its uses when combined with other things especially on maddening. Things like comboing it with Enclouser to lock down a unit and than rescuing them out of danger.  Or killing the single most threatening unit and backing off. Or against beast bosses using a weaker unit to break shields with a gambit and then rescuing them out of harms way of other threats.

He still has some of the best base stats of units especially physical strength. That is the real reason the lords are held in high regard they have better stats than others. The other stuff is fancy and cool and all but having better numbers goes along way towards what makes Edelgad, Dimtri, Byleth and Claude the top units in the game. Don't get me wrong I do think Dimtri is the worst preforming lord but a bad preforming lord still is most certainly top 5 units in the game at worst.

If I'm leading the Eagles, three of those are gonna be worse than they'd be otherwise.

Look at it this way - Rescue in Fates had a range on 10. To match that in 3H, you'd need 40 magic - which I wouldn't expect to see until the end of the game, if at all.

You said a broken Dimitri makes chapter 13 easier. In the context of Maddening, even with a "broken" Dimitri, you'd pretty much have to rely a lot on luck to survive because the 9001 thieves double him, and if he gets hit (or gets HP on a level up), he loses his evade boost.

[Marienburg]

22 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

The issue is, he still is cut from the same cloth as Mozu and Donnel before him were - and thus, even with fancy combat arts and his proficiencies, it's hard for me to justify his use over someone else unless they were really screwed or falling behind. Also, I'm not sure his bases at the earliest I can get him would compare well against the other students' averages then... long story short, if you come well behind everyone else, you better have a lot going for you to make up for that - and I doubt Cyril has enough going for him to make up for that.

If I'm leading the Eagles, three of those are gonna be worse than they'd be otherwise.

Look at it this way - Rescue in Fates had a range on 10. To match that in 3H, you'd need 40 magic - which I wouldn't expect to see until the end of the game, if at all.

You said a broken Dimitri makes chapter 13 easier. In the context of Maddening, even with a "broken" Dimitri, you'd pretty much have to rely a lot on luck to survive because the 9001 thieves double him, and if he gets hit (or gets HP on a level up), he loses his evade boost.

I didn't do anything fancy with Dimitri on my Blue Lions run and just kept him in his lord class line, so he needed his stats to do a lot of the lifting for him and he ended up being just kinda meh? In chapter 13 it was my dark flier annette who did most of the heavy lifting.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

It's easier than other routes. But I wouldn't say "too easy". CF part 2 is probably the only one in the game with a steady difficulty curve. There aren't any surprise difficult spikes, but also no nagging sense that the game is getting easier and easier like in the other routes. It may just be owed to the more intense level scaling of enemies and lack of one particular map. Although I suppose for an LTCer is might appear too easy. I think chapter 16 is the only one that seems geared to waste your turns by planting its stationary bosses on every corner of the map.