Awakening players -- How do you view Chapter 5?

[Heritor]

Chapter 5. The Ricken chapter. Or if you're on Lunatic/+, the "turtle up and hide behind the big mountain" chapter. 

Here is the layout. The crux of the chapter on Hard revolves around a few different available strategies.

- You can split into two skeleton groups, one heading to shut down the reinforcements to the west, while the other links up with Ricken and Maribelle

- You can push towards Ricken and Maribelle with the brunt of your army and lure the wyvern riders down into favorable positions

- Hold your initial position, have Sumia rescue Ricken and Maribelle and continue onwards west

- you can facetank the entire thing with Robin because they should be broken by now 

 

It's a map that introduces several new concepts to the player. The first is reinforcements. It shows you that you need to take hold of the forts or you're going to have enemies spilling out of them and pinching you from behind. The second is flying enemies. Up until now, nearly all enemies before have been subject to the same terrain as you. Sumia's been able to fly about with indominable ease, minus a few knights with javelins here and there. But now the game throws Wyvern Riders at you, and they're able to blitz down the mountain and crash into your army in a handful of turns. They can also attack while on the mountains, giving you only one attack point for close range, or two if you're lucky. Or zero, if it's the boss and he likes to hide with his short axe. 

The third, in my opinion, is unfavorable positions. If you're doing a no-deaths Hard/Classic run, then you're forced to go protect Ricken and Maribelle until they can link up with your main group. It seems like there are only two wyvern riders and the boss at first, but two more spawn from the top forts on turn 4, and then another two on turn 5, leaving you with seven dragons total to kill. They come from the very top forts, nigh impossible to cover on Normal, much less Hard or Lunatic. On the latter two, they are also STRs, so you'll need to act with the knowledge of their ability to move at a moment's notice. Depending on your approach, especially if you take turns to facetank with your bulkier units so that the squishies can clean up, you'll be extremely pressed for time to link up with Ricken and Maribelle. Of course, Sumia solves this for the most part, but for the purposes of this thread I'm going to ignore it. 

So I want to ask, how do you guys view this chapter's design? Is it good? Bad? Do you share a different idea as to the chapter's purpose than mine? What would you improve about it, if anything, or is it one of the better chapters in Awakening? I personally find it more on the interesting side compared to some of Awakening's other chapters and paralogues. 

[Use the Falchion]

I personally have no problems with it. I like the chapter in theory, but in actuality it can be a tad annoying. Not bad or frustrating, just annoying depending on the playthrough. I play on Hard/Classic.

This is one of my main Chrom grinding chapters, so I usually send a Frederick-Supported Chrom (they're usually around B-Support at this time for me) up to take out either the Myrmidon or the Barbarian (depending on my mood and playthroughs), and try to have Robin take out the second enemy with Chrom's support. (Or Miriel paired up with Sumia if I'm playing F!Robin and still want the Chrom/Olivia combo.) I then pair-up Ricken and Maribelle, and either have Maribelle move to safety if possible, or let Ricken pick off the straggler. 

The rest of my team lures out the enemies to the west, and then I have two units (usually Vaike and Lon'qu) sprint over to the western fort in order to take it before the reinforcements arrive. 

From there, it's just bunkering down and letting Chrom sponge most of the exp while Robin, Ricken, and Lon'qu take out stragglers. Lissa and Maribelle get some healing Exp also, but this isn't their main time to shine.

[CatManThree]

It's annoying and uninteresting outside of like, some forest placement at the start I guess?

 

There really isn't much to say about it tbh. You could go deeper into it but it's really just annoying and uninteresting.

[Ertrick36]

In dealing with Ricken and Maribelle, I always pair them up and have Lissa use a Rescue Staff.  When a mage is paired up with her she should typically have enough of a magic stat to reach the cliff they're on.  Then boom, they're no longer under threat.

After that, I send either weaker or substantially over-leveled units east to plug up the forts, and the rest of my forces deal with the central battlefield forces and wyverns.  Use Chrom and wind magic to devastate the wyverns.

It's a bit of a tedious map, but I've scarcely ever had any real trouble with it.

[Armchair General]

8 hours ago, Heritor said:

So I want to ask, how do you guys view this chapter's design? Is it good? Bad?

Honestly, this is one of the easier chapters in the game, compared to Chapter 21 with those Mire mages and that one where you escort Severa.

 

The hardest one in the early game would probably be the one where you save three villagers from the undead.

[Johnnie]

The chapter is fine really. Between Virion, Ricken and Chrom the wyverns are solved and the free Rescue staff means Virion and Maribelle are in no danger. The reinforcements can be annoying but someone can just camp on the lower fort since the mage is the most dangerous.

Plus it's a hundred times better than Chapter 7.

[Armchair General]

1 hour ago, Johnnie said:

Plus it's a hundred times better than Chapter 7.

What's wrong with Chapter 7?

Most of the enemies slowly come to you and there's only a wave or two of wyvern riders. Plus, your army is in a single group, again.

[Johnnie]

Chapter 7 has no real variety of enemies. The entire map can be soloed by an untrained Frederick with Chrom paired up, and that's probably the best way to handle it. I just think it's a bit of a crap chapter and I don't find it fun.

[Shadow Mir]

Honestly, I don't consider this chapter that hard. As stated earlier, to save Ricken and Maribelle, I like to have Frederick smack one of the LOSERS between me and them with his Silver Lance, and attack the straggler with Robin or someone else who can reach him, with Ricken finishing them off if they're still alive. The wyvern riders are easy prey for Chrom or Ricken.