General Horace

off the top of my head the prologue, chapter 5 and chapter 13 can be bettered with a few 1-3% crits probably some later chapters too but I'm far too lazy for that.

I forgot Cyas is immortal in chapter 22, he just leaves if you get close to him. regardless, Dagda can't kill Cohen from 2 range, no physical unit other than Othin can (more that likely). Master weapons have awful hit (they honestly aren't very good) so using them to kill Cohen is pretty out of the question. Please actually know what you're talking about before spouting random nonesense. I still think Shiva is mediocre. He's pretty good indoors, but at the end of the day he's just another foot unit that kills things. Some dude like Trewd or Ralph can do that just as well. Shiva's better at overkilling them, yes, but the only redeeming factor he has over anyone in the cast really is Sol, and someone like Pahn has that already and can steal, and has 5 move stars, 5 PCC to make up for his mediocre bases, and Ambush. The only thing I see Fergus being better than Asvel at lategame is killing Leidrick, only because Asvel is physically incapable (well not entirely, but pretty close) of doing so. Being better at killing one enemy = better lategame I guess.

Asvel is warped and kills Cyas -10 leadership stars Shiva can't kill Cyas, you need 2 range. Othin isn't a bad candidate though. Asvel can use some cheap thunder tome or even lightning if you have any lying around to kill lategame dudes, he doesn't need a whole lot. Shiva's very mediocre anyway. Alternatively Asvel is warped and kills the baron dude and Leaf is warped to seize.

who are you warping to kill the bosses in 22? Asvel's the best candidate. Pure Water or Magic up staff Asvel has 40 attack, which is one attack away from oneshotting Cyas. I think that's more than enough damage considering he's going to double. He has roughly 80 hit depending on how much luck Asvel has and how many leadership stars you have deployed, it's a death sentance for Cyas. I think i've established that having magic doesn't protect you from getting flat out killed by Asvel regardless, so your points on the other bosses having Magic is moot. Fergus is probably better in Leidricks' chapter, I agree. Asvel can kill mooks just as good if not better than Fergus. The deadlords really aren't that threatening. You have Sety now anyway, but Asvel is pretty much Sety without Holsety, which is still a a pretty good deal. I agree though, Asvel's not getting past C Rank staves. It's not a huge deal though, considering he's gonna be the dude getting warped places anyway.

in what way is Fergus better in endgame he's worse indoors in almost every way, Grafcalibur is better than the Beo Sword, 1-2 range trumps ambush and wrath is totally pointless on Fergus This requires him to have Karin near him and sorry Asvel is still a better bosskiller. He's going to double, and has a 40 crit weapon that hits resistance and he also has continue. You have "durability, can tank hits and not relying on dodge tanking" as three separate ways of saying the same thing. Dodgetanking is very reliable when the enemies have extremely poor hit (seriously Thracia's enemies are a joke) and Asvel caps speed ridiculously fast.

I imagine Cyclops's are pretty chump as well, they just have a high class defence base. Dracozombies are still probably threatening since they have no unpromoted class and just ignore defence even if their stats suck.

karin's probably the most useful unit in chapter 6 for ease of access at the villages, but that's a pretty moot point. She might not even have a weapon. Asvel's better than Fergus once you get out of manster, his speed growth takes off and he's your best bosskiller forever. There's really nothing special about overkilling mooks, although he's still definately useful with the brave sword in chapter 5. Wind magic would probably be better than swords if it like, existed. There's just so rare.

CHAPTER 25 - 4/80 TURNS Bartre had to do a lot of work here, so I think i'm going to Jerme, the turn or 2 it costs isn't really a big deal I don't think. Bartre and Canas went north, Canas dropped Eliwood over the river for the south fortress, and Florina got the last one. Chapter 26 - 11/91 TURNS Bartre and Eliwood promoted. Routed stuff CHAPTER 27 - 6/97 TURNS Eh, Jerme only costed a turn, would have costed less than that if I had a unit that could ORKO Jerme from range (Eliwood could have if he had the weapon rank to use the spear, but alas.

^ he has 5 actually. Leaf is your best non Asvel unit in manster anyway given proper resources Fergus really isn't that spectacular in or out of manster. 5 PCC looks flashy and all, but when you're facing thracia's enemies, you don't need it. He's just another unit that can kill generics really well, and that isn't anything special in Thracia.

CHAPTER 11 - 6/6 TURNS Normal stuff. CHAPTER 12 - 4/10 TURNS Man, my Hector is starting to suck. CHAPTER 13 - 5/15 TURNS Hector got a few better levels here. Marcus carried Hector to victory and Silverlance'd the boss. Eliwood and Bartre fetched the village. CHAPTER 13X - 7/22 TURNS Eliwood got a few really good levels. Hector started to suck less and got his first point(s) of speed. CHAPTER 14 - 4/26 TURNS Marcus charged up the middle. Things were easier than normal since he actually proc'd speed twice. Eliwood killed the pirates down south, Hector oneshotted the cavalier, and Bartre killed the soldiers near the start. CHAPTER 15 - 7/33 TURNS Defence map. Deployed Matthew so Marcus could cart him around and weaken stuff for the others. UNIT LEVEL HP ST SK SP LC DF RS WEP LEVEL SUPPORT HECTOR 10.47 24 14 07 08 05 11 03 B AXE C ELIWOOD ELIWOOD 09.96 23 09 11 12 11 08 02 B SWORD C HECTOR MARCUS ??/04.90 33 15 18 13 10 10 08 A SWORD A LACNE B AXE BARTRE 06.42 33 10 08 04 05 05 00 D AXE SERRA 03.32 18 03 05 09 08 02 05 C STAFF CHAPTER 16 - 3/36 TURNS Bartre and Florina dropped Marcus over the cliff on turn 1, then Florina rescued Hector ahead, and Marcus dropped him in range of seizing on turn 2. He silver lanced the boss (he needs 1 strength proc on base to ORKO), and Hector seized. Wil distracted an archer, Eliwood got the red gem, and Sain got the Heavy spear. Lyn and Kent shopped. CHAPTER 17 - 10/46 TURNS Florina couldn't really boost Hector ahead without death, so she boosted Eliwood ahead later in the chapter, and on turn 10, Eliwood's two rapier hits weakened the boss enough for Florina to kill him with the Heavy spear, allowing Hector to seize. Wil got the unlock staff and hero crest, thankfully I don't need the knight crest this run. CHAPTER 17x - 3/49 TURNS Florina flew to Fargus. Got Canas. CHAPTER 18 - 3/52 TURNS I'm actually pretty proud of myself for this one. Florina rescued Serra ahead after she healed Wil (he took damage from the shaman near the start), and Hector rescued Wil. Canas moved ahead. Hector gave Wil to Canas (why does Canas have more con than Wil anyway...) and he dropped him. Florina dropped Serra in a chokepoint near two shaman, who attacked Serra on the EP (she can't die). Canas killed the shaman blocking Serra's path to the boss (and obtained the guiding ring) and Florina hit the boss for 7x2 damage, and Serra healed her since she'd die on the EP otherwise. Wil Rescued Serra, so the boss would attack Florina again, and she killed him on the enemy phase. 7 strength bosskiller too good CHAPTER 19 - 5/57 TURNS Florina dropped Eliwood ahead on turn 2, (since he actually doubles Uhai, he was my best bosskiller) and they ran to Uhai, with Eliwood engaging on turn 5, and Florina finishing him with the horseslayer. Everyone else got exp where they could, Florina got the torch thief. NPC Fiora stole a couple kills from Canas -_- CHAPTER 19X - 4/61 TURNS Florina dropped Hector on a mountain on turn 2, and between Florina and Hector they killed all the mages surrounding the boss area. Hector killed Aion himself on turn 3, and seized on turn 4. CHAPTER 20 - 5/66 TURNS Serra unlocked the door near the start, and Wil ran through, killing the longbow archer after a few turns. Canas stayed behind to get the silver bow and brave bow (Wil was too chump to kill the sniper) and Florina + Hector chained Serra ahead. Eliwood killed a few cavs and the boss on the enemy phase, and ran ahead, Serra unlocked the second door leading to the chests. Wil's chumpy stats attacked the nomads instead of Eliwood, so he wouldn't get blocked off. Eliwood killed the Cavalier blocking the door on turn 4, allowing Florina to drop Hector there, Bartre made his way to the chests. Serra unlocked the door, and Florina killed the Myrmidon blocking Hector's path to the throne, and Hector weakened Darin enough for Florina to finish him with the heavy spear and get a fantastic res only levelup. Bartre fetched Luna from a chest. I could have 4 turned if I had someone that could ORKO Darin. Unfoutunately Bartre is way too slow. since its about the halfway mark, stat update Hector sometimes just owns. Sometimes he turns out like this He's fantastic. His speed is really nice, helped out a lot against Uhai. Bartre/10. Been holding him back a bit because I want Serra to outlevel him, which shouldn't be an issue I don't think. healer/10 even a chumpy Florina is amazing She's been fed a lot of bosskills to keep her level high. Hopefully she starts getting strength sometime though. idk that's probably pretty good for Wil he helped that one time in chapter 18 Canas/10 CHAPTER 21 - 3/69 TURNS Got the Elysian Whip. Killed stuff. Not a lot happened. CHAPTER 22 - 3/72 TURNS Promoted Florina. Ferried Hector to the boss for the kill. CHAPTER 23 - 3/75 TURNS Pent helped Canas kill one bossguy, Florina killed the other. Got the body ring for Canas. No gaiden though. CHAPTER 24 - 1/76 TURNS Filla's Might Canas ended up critting with Luna.

honestly for ranked I give Celice a the leg, elite and magic rings, nothing more, every other ring he gets is superfluous

the issue with FE7/8 warp staves was there were so few chapters it was actually good in for it to matter (especially FE7). FE6's is around for so long and has bigger maps (and bigger warp range) so it makes sense that it'd be better. If you're just playing slowly, you have plenty of time to have warp users in FE8 though. Saleh can hit warp pretty quickly, C to A really doesn't take too long, and you have Moulder/Artur/insert not knoll or Ewan here to reach it too.

I'm not a huge fan of Azel/Lachesis, it's definately not bad, but he's totally screwed if you get on the wrong side of his magic (or strength) growth. The defence or skill isn't a huge issue, he gets +9 skill on promotion, and his defence is only 10% worse than most standard parirings. I like giving the shield ring to Leaf personally, but Patty could also take them for some cash to distribute.

Wil and Vaida.

Just Corple, Claude!Sety, and Claude!Lana. Claude!Tinny can use it once she promotes too, but can't inherit it.

I'm a pretty big advocate for FE8 being harder than what people give it credit for, but FE13 Hard mode definately is more difficult than FE8 Easy/Normal (they're the exact same except easy has tutorials). FE8 promoted units in Normal are oftentimes weaker than unpromoted units, it's just really really sad.

serra and bartre

it's all of Lyn Mode and Hector mode with every gaiden (except 19xx) There's a link to the thread in my sig if you're interested further.

I finished FE7 in uhh, i wanna say 170something turns? I think the only chapters that could be theoretically improved on are the prologue with a 1% crit and Erk and Serra's join chapter with a 2% crit. The reason its so high though is because a whopping 62 of those turns are defence chapters where you mostly just sit around and twiddle your thumbs, and no other game really has that, and I didn't even recruit all units (I skipped Geitz/Wallace, Farina, Harken/Karel, Karla, and Renault and technically Lucius (although he doesn't actually cost turns), but if you recruit everyone it would add about another 10 turns to that). I don't know how much lower FE4 could get though. Altenna might cost a buttload of turns, but nobody else really does. You can recruit everyone in gen 1 without losing turns and Faval, Corple/Hannibal and maybe Sety actually costs a turn or 2 each, and Corple/Hannibal don't really count since they overlap with Altenna's recruitment. So yeah, maybe ~153 or so? I meant to theorycraft an entire run sometime but I don't think I really have the time to sink into it for a while. EDIT: I forgot my sig existed, apparently it was 179 turns! I think FE7's the longest turnwise by far. FE2 might be longer, I forget how many turns I finished the draft in. EDIT2: apparently I finished the FE2 draft in 312 turns (LOL) which was the lowest, but i'm sure that could be vastly improved on considering it was my first time playing and I missed several important items and didn't have a falconknight on celica's route.

out of curiosity what are your other dependable units? I will admit it is pretty easy to get RNG screwed in the first gen with most units since growths usually hover in the 20-40% mark though. Lex has one of the best strength growths and is tied for the best defence growth of the first gen though. Even without the Hero Axe he 2hko's everything the moment he gets the steel axe anyway. It takes him a few levels for his durability to kick in for sure. It sounds like you got unlucky with his defence though. The save system is pretty unfourtunate though. I usually just keep a start of chapter save at the top with three midchapter saves below it. The autosave feature kind of punishes this if you forget to change slots though.

to be fair only ross and colm can actually use it and promoting colm is uh, kind of hard sometimes. Espcially by chapter 9.

Yeah it's cool. It's usually pretty hard though.

pretty sure the way to go for Medeus is exploding Katarina/Etzel on him then reviving them and doing it again I think you'll have greater issues with making your way through the generic enemies though.

depends on what it's based on on the easiest difficulty, awakening by far, Chrom doesn't even take damage early on, although FE8 normal mode promoted units are pretty hilarious too, never forget the 7 strength sniper in chapter 9. FE12 normal mode is actually pretty easy too. I remember in a SOYO draft Dracoknight Linde pretty much curbstomped it with like 12 strength FE9 otherwise. there's like one challenging chapter in the game.

honestly i just leave Lana in the castle and have her spam warp or something, i'm pretty lazy. Except chapter 7, but foot units have lots of time to keep up in chapter 7. and yeah the axebro largely doesn't matter. Johan is like a gen2 Lex, but Asaello is a gen 2 Jamka, and look how good he is.