Katie

Hugh's growths suck though, only his speed and HP growths are decent, and his bases aren't that great. The only reason to recruit him is for his nice items, particularly the Member Card. And his availability sucks.

Lugh is the most reliable, and probably the best overall, but Lilina isn't bad either. She does join underleveled and is as slow as her father without being as tanky, but she hits harder than her dad thanks to her whopping 75% magic growth and the low Res most enemies have, and she and Roy have by far the fastest support in the game (seriously, they reach C in literally one turn) and it's a mutually beneficial one at that, making Lilina an offensive beast and Roy less of a load thanks to the damage, hit, and crit boosts it provides(the defense boost from Lilina's light affinity and the avoid boost from Roy's fire affinity don't hurt either), so she'll be one-shotting many things if you train her, and she's one of your best speedwings candidates. In fact, the Gaiden you unlock from her surviving her recruitment chapter makes for a good training ground, due to the low levels of the enemies towards the start of the map. I think Lugh and Lilina are both worth using. Hugh though, is not at all worth the price(his items are nice though). He could charge you nothing for his recruitment and he'd still be the worst anima mage in the game. Which is a shame, because I like him as a character(I like Lugh and Lilina better though).

I think he means the only one where he brings all 3, which makes sense, as bringing all 3 certainly helps you get all the loot within the turn limit. Yes, because Oswin and Hector can totally rush maps with their whopping 5 movement. /sarcasm

My biggest issue with the new imgur is that they no longer provide a url with the [/img] bbcode tags for you, so now you have to insert the tags manually.

Will you be covering Gaiden at all?

FE6 chapter 14, definitely. I hate Fog of War and desert maps(especially ones with items hidden in the sand) enough as is, so when you combine them...

Wow, they couldn't even give Sparky a unique sprite. They just took the Rocker sprite from FRLG and removed the wire it was holding and changed it to a wrench and a Pokeball. Granted, there's only like two trainers in the entire game that use the Rocker class, but still, not cool.

You can do this in chapter 2, which will really help for chapter 3 because getting the earth sword is much easier with Raquie already promoted.

One thing that's nice about this game is that after chapter 8 you have the ability to grind thanks to the Tower of Valni and skirmishes, so if you want to unbench someone or get an underleveled unit up to par or whatever, you can do so with little trouble. The boss of the first floor of the tower in particular is pretty much a guaranteed level up for whoever kills it. I myself like to have everyone promoted and maxed out on supports by the time I finish the main story.

I can explain it for you: Once a character reaches level 10, they are able to promote using special promotion items, though it's generally better to wait until level 20 before promoting someone. Most characters get to choose between two promotion options, so you'll have to pick one. I can tell you which one's are generally better if you need help. Franz: Great Knight is slightly better statistically for Franz than Paladin, but Paladin has better move, so it's really up to you. Gilliam: General has better stats, but Great Knight has slightly better movement. I prefer General, but this is another one without out a clear-cut better option. Vanessa: Wyvern Knight has better stats than Falcon Knight, but know that only one of Vanessa and Tana is allowed to promote to Wyvern Knight if you want to be able to have them Triangle Attack with Syrene. I generally make Vanessa the Wyvern Knight. Moulder: Bishop has Slayer, which triples light magic's damage against monsters, and much of the late game enemies are monsters, so I consider it superior to Sage. Ross: All of his options are decent, tbh. I like Pirate -> Berserker best myself though. Garcia: I forget what the advantages and disadvantages of Warrior vs. Hero are, but I prefer Warrior. Neimi: Ranger is better than Sniper for Neimi in nearly every way. Colm: He's slightly better statistically as a Rogue, and the lack need for lockpicks and retained ability to steal is more important than Lethality IMO, especially since Colm is primarily a utility unit, so I'd go with Rogue over Assassin. Artur: See Moulder for why Bishop is better. Lute: This one really depends on what's more important to you. Mage Knight is better for the main story due to the movement and increased con, while Sage is better for Creature Campaign and Link Arena due to the better caps and Light Magic access. Natasha: See Moulder again, only difference is her other option is Valkyrie instead of Sage. Joshua: It's mainly a matter of if you prefer Swordmaster's better strength cap and +15 to crit or Assassin's Lethality/Silencer ability and better skill cap. I generally go Swordmaster. Forde: Forde is better in nearly every way as a Paladin. Kyle: Kyle was pretty much tailor made for Great Knight. Tana: See Vanessa. Amelia: Knight -> General is the best statistically, but Cavalier -> Paladin is also worth considering for the movement. Gerik: He was pretty much made for Hero with his high con allowing him to wield nearly all axes. Ranger's not bad though, due to its speed cap and high movement. Marisa: Same as Joshua, except the choice is much harder because Marisa generally comes just shy of 20 strength so the major consideration here is the crit boost vs Lethality. This one's always tough for me. L'Arachel: Valkyrie and Mage Knight are incredibly similar, so it really depends on if you'd rather she wield Light or Anima magic. I generally go Valkyrie so she can wield Ivaldi. Ewan: I generally go Dark Mage -> Druid, because your only other potential Druid doesn't make a very good Druid. Cormag: Wyvern Knight vs Wyvern Lord is another tough choice, but I generally go with Lord because he's the only potential WL you get in the main story. Knoll: Summoner is better than Druid because Summoner gives him a niche in providing free meatshields for your army.

Well, just because Joshua is inferior to Eirika doesn't mean you need to bench him entirely. He does get some extra plot in chapters 14 and 15 of Eirika's route, you seem to be using Franz despite him being utterly outclassed by Seth. I usually do bench him in no-grind runs though because there's another Myrm you get later who is my favorite character in the game. But it's up to you who you want to use. The torch staff increases your field of vision in Fog of War chapters, which the next chapter happens to be. EDIT: Ninja'd. As far as the new units you gained go, Ephraim is very good, he's got good bases, good growths, and his only downside is that his caps are rather poor, but since he probably won't be hitting level 20 promoted without grinding, it hardly matters. Forde is also pretty good, he generally ends up better than Franz and even Seth if trained and promoted to Paladin. Kyle is probably your best Great Knight if trained, but I don't really use him all that much, or Forde for that matter, because I prefer using mah boi Seth.

Next chapter (after the next one, because you control Ephraim's crew in the next one), he will be given the option to promote into a Pirate or a Fighter. I generally go Pirate -> Berserker with him myself. As far as the units you gained in chapter 5, Natasha is a very good healer, but I like Moulder better, even though Natasha's probably the better one as a unit. (Moulder at least has better con and a higher starting weapon rank thought). Joshua's a good unit, but inferior to Eirika for the most part.

What even is the point of urinals when toilets exist?

It's the same in FE2 regarding Alm and Celica. Basically, NESFE AI target priority is Lords>Healers>everyone else.

Lex!Arthur at least has Vantage+Wrath. It'd be better to do something like Alec!Arthur, or Beowolf!Arthur, if you truly wished to gimp him.

Oh, that would be Joshua. I don't think he does.

Yes. I don't think Joshua does, though.

I find it's best to save state at the start of each turn in general.

If you're on an emulator (including virtual console), be sure to save state before doing any arena match, in case things get ugly.

Said arena is also your only decent method of gaining money until you get near endgame. I like to grind on the chapter 5 arena a bit to build up a decent money stash.

Lute and Artur should both be used, as both are amazing. They don't even use the same magic types (Lute uses Anima, Artur uses Light), so I don't see why you'd need to only pick one.

It was HOTY 2012. I've heard Light Platinum is very easy to break, but I suppose that's better than a lot of Pokemon hacks where they make them overly difficult with ridiculously steep level curves requiring you to grind your Pokemon.

Characters can have up to 5 total support levels. So you could have an A and a B, 2 Bs and a C, 5 Cs, an A and 2 Cs, etc.

Neimi has bad bases but good growths. Unfortunately, she can't attack from melee range unless she promotes to Ranger(which is definitely the better promotion for her). I prefer Innes. Colm is a thief, and therefore pretty much needed for his utility on a good number of maps. Vanessa's your only flier right now, so I'd use her at least until you get Tana, after which you can feel free to replace her.

It only got a thread on PokeCommunity this year. Hopefully they'll vote it for HOTY 2016.