Ivan Tridelan

It also provokes the question of just how many nukes they could possibly have left? Furthermore, they aren't really nukes if you consider how many of them are needed to level an area. The area covered by each one is displayed in the opening cutscene (where Seiros kills Nemesis). Which is another reason for them to be stingy with them. That being said, there were a number of opportunities to use them, and in CF using them on Arianrhod was stupid, considering they still need BE Strike Force to kill Rhea. Using some of your precious few missiles as a mere warning? Stupid. Just level Fhirdiad while Rhea's and Edelgard's forces are fighting there. It's not shielded like Garreg Mach, after all.

AM: Rodrigue could merely be severely injured and join up properly after he recovers (maybe in time for Enbarr?). Gwendal is possible, he only fights to the death because he wants a place to die after his lord betrays the kingdom. Maybe have him join up if Dmitri beats him? Though at the time you fight him, Dmitri isn't in a mindset befitting a king. VW: Judith has no excuse not to be playable post-Merceus. Nader shows up only to leave? Might as well have him stay. Holst would be interesting, especially since his primary role (keeping Almyra in check) is not necessary in this route. Having him be injured off-screen when final boss shows up is random and could just be cut out. Rhea joining after Enbarr would make sense in both VW and SS (and since she's weakened from imprisonment, she doesn't have access to dragon form and has good reason not to be her canonically overpowered self), though SS would be weird, having her for one map that isn't the final map. Then again, the final map in SS is random as hell anyways. New final map, get Rhea for 2 maps. SS: Indech be recruited during paralogue by Seteth or Flayn. CF: Fleche has no excuse not to be playable, Ladislava and Randolph could be with minor re-writing. The other one, Jeritza/Emile/Death Knight, is now playable and therefore not a concern.

Honestly? Yes. I like your setup a lot better. I was merely trying to adjust MS and HK, the worst master classes, within the context of the current system.

Assassin has Stealth and Lockpick so there IS a trade there, not that it's a big one or anything. I also outright stated that my proposed version of MS would be a direct upgrade of SM. As for Assassin, well, not sure honestly. I'm largely against Master class being mere side-grades considering level requirement alone means you get little playtime with them. WL and FK are direct upgrades, and I'd say BK is one as well (unless your Speed is crap but your Strength is high enough for Hunter's Volley to ORKO). DK is technically a sidegrade but in actual practice is an upgrade in pretty much every meaningful way, same for GK. HK should have had the Heal + skill since Terrain Resistance is meh and White Tomefaire is even crappier, making it a Bishop with more mobility. WM is a superior Grappler that gave up terrain movement ignoring. TLDR, the Master classes are ludicrously lopsided with WL and BK being OP, FK being good if you can't make it to WL, Gremory or Dark Knight for the mages and everything else is garbage (OK WM is decent and its Mastery skill is great, but its strengths are all 1-range in a game where bows and magic are everywhere)

Black/Dark Tomefaire should have been Reasonfaire from the start, honestly. Warlock should be the natural path for both Lysithea and Hubert but it doesn't help them at all (and Lysithea can't access Dark Bishop). On topic, MS needs better speed (should be comparable to SM/Assassin) and Crit +20 would actually let it be a continuation of SM (improved crit bonus, plus magic and a tomefaire to help with the damage would make it a straight upgrade, or a side-grade of Assassin, trading bows for magic and crit)

Mercenary class gives Vantage as a skill. Yes it's more dangerous than Battalion Vantage but it should still be taken into account, especially with Mastermind present to allow for accelerated mastery.

Holy Tomb fight just before time skip. IIRC you can't let anyone escape, or VERY few people who steal the crest stones.

I'd pick Anette or Ashe given they come in early in the dreaded Chapter 13 (the other two are Mercedes, your main healer, and Gilbert, who you can't adjust pre-skip) and their combat tends to be shaky (Anette can be good with the right setup though). Ingrid is an option too, if her Strength is lagging.

For those who say Bow Knights > Sniper is an easy call, I question that. Hunter's Volley is guaranteed double with extra hit, crit, might AND range. Very few people in either class are doubling naturally in Maddening. Brave Bow? You get maybe 2 naturally, need 4 Wootz Steel to make a new one from a Silver, and 2 more Wootz Steel per repair. Without the ability to farm those mats. Overall, BK is probably better, but Sniper is a reliable performer that can double without relying on a very rare and expensive weapon, which is not to be dismissed so easily. the stats are irrelevant outside of movement (especially speed given the guaranteed double) and the extra range square costs you 20 accuracy to use, and is thus highly situational. To me, it comes down to accessibility (Silver Weapons are very easy to accrue in large numbers, does not require Riding or Lance ranks and is open at level 20) vs mobility

While this isn't a bad idea, the problem I have with your point is that Rhea didn't notice that GARREG MACH, her home base, had been infiltrated by said mole people. She might know they're out there, but she has no clue how to find them, considering they wind up camping right under her nose. What chance do a bunch of knights who aren't in the know have of finding them? That being said, I agree she is complicit through inaction in regards to the nobles and their Crest obsession. While TWS would still be working in the shadows, if the system in place was much better, war would be harder to wage (you can't wage war without an army and if the people are happy with the status quo you're not going to have one). The Crest system divides people into the haves and have nots, and combine that with nobility, which does the same thing, and you have a mess with a lot of unhappy people. Confessing that she failed to stop this abuse to the 3 house leaders and asking their cooperation would probably have not avoided war altogether (TWS' plans have come too far), but it may have avoided the complete split that actually occurs (all 3 house leaders detest the Crest system to various extents, and Edelgard wages war partly because she sees Rhea as the centerpiece of the system, which she is in many ways)

Dmitri is not rational until after Rodrigue's death. He might only snap after the scene you mention, but his dark side is there from the start of the game. Trying to explain that you're working with the people responsible for his father's death, even if unwillingly, will not go over well. This is in CF where she has Byleth by her side, and is winning the war. She does have a choice here, and Hubert is convincing her to hold off until the Church and Kingdom are dealt with. Pre-time skip? Yeah, she doesn't have much choice here. It's also why she's reliant on them in other paths, as evidenced by the prominent use of Demonic Beasts and Slither mages. Searching for TWS requires her agents knowing at least part of what they're looking for, and Rhea has serious trust issues, even with SETETH of all people. Which, ironically, makes her such a perfect opposite number to Edelgard, who also restricts her own options due to lack of trust in others. Again, unless you're in CF she really doesn't have much choice. Telling others is a risk, with Monica and Tomas around, not to mention possible other spies, and again, Edelgard has serious trust issues to begin with. Furthermore, Rhea and Dmitri are both likely to have severe emotional reactions. Claude is a better option, except for the fact that he does nothing to help his own case for trustworthiness (even calling himself "the embodiment of distrust" in Prologue) Who knows? Catherine and Cyril are unreliable narrators when it comes to Rhea but other than Lonato/Christophe not much detail is given and those incidents are colored by the fact that both intended on killing Rhea.

Felix's Personal (and Catherine's) are good for early NG (when you have a severely limited number of low level E-rank battalions) but mid and late game, their only use is if the Battalion retreats (0 durability) mid-battle. Considering even some E-rank battalions give 5 Attack at level 5, once you hit the point where your battalions can match their Personal bonus, there's no reason not to have such battalions on them.

Friendly reminder: Shamir says after you kill Solon "People who live an inordinately long time, people whose hair changes color, and these odd Heroes' Relics. Is Fodlan some kind of mystical land filled with inhuman creatures?" So clearly, it's noticed that SOMEBODY is living a much longer than normal lifespan.

This is probably accurate. In CF she has Byleth and the war has tipped in her favor, leaving her considerably less reliant on TWS. Pre-time skip, sure, she is definitely the weaker party but in CF? She's winning the war by that point, the Empire is behind her and as such, she is in a position where she could probably win against TWS even if through sheer numbers. Arundel's influence is much lower when the Emperor is winning the war and leading from the front lines. By the way, if Hubert figures out the location of Shambala from the use of the nukes, like he does in SS/VW, TWS might as well have sealed their doom by destroying Arianrhod. And as for lying to her classmates, to be fair they're winning the war and they're gearing up for Tailtean Plains battle which is going to make or break the campaign. Telling them "our own allies are actually enemies-to-be and have city-destroying missiles and destroyed the city just to spite us" is going to destroy morale and make people doubt the cause right before a critical battle. People like to use that as a point against Edelgard, but it's entirely logical under the circumstances. Especially since the BE Strike Force is the centerpiece of the campaign, having them stricken with doubt is going to seriously impede the war effort.

Arundel is outright stated by Hubert to be "The one who commanded the likes of Kronya and Solon. Cornelia, whom we killed at Arianrhod, was also one of his." Seeing as Solon and Kronya both are clearly subservient to Thales and Solon states when you kill him that Thales will see their mission completed, the likelihood that Arundel is NOT Thales is extremely low. Granted, Hubert and Edelgard don't know everything (not even close) about TWSITD but still... For those who want to know source, that's from Hubert's monastery conversation before going to Tailtean Plains in CF.

Which is why I specifically mentioned grinding or NG+. I can tell you that Marianne, Lysithea, Dorothea and Bernadetta all very much appreciated the free points on my Maddening NG run (CF). If you don't want to go that far, you can settle for Armor Knight's 9 Strength and 13 Defense for the investment of what is likely D Axes and C Armor (for Weight -3) at level 10, which is still a big boost for such characters. On Maddening in particular, the 13 Defense in particular (given most such characters have like 5 Defense at level 10 at most) is huge. Incidentally: Neutral in both: Dorothea Neutral in One: Hubert (Armor), Lindhart (Armor), Marianne (Axes), Manuela (Axes), Hanneman (Axes), Flayn (Axes) Strong in one: Annette (Axes) Weak in Both: Mercedes, Lysithea Out of the canon mages, only Lysithea and Mercedes are weak in both. You also only need D in Armor which if you want Weight -3 you have already.

For this reason, despite Fortress Knight being a garbage class, it's actually very useful for mages to certify in it if you're not opposed to grinding/are on NG+. 17 Strength and Defense is huge for characters like Dorothea, Lysithea, etc. since most of them will not even reach 10 in either by level 20.

Do they bring it up on SS? Please provide quotes if they do, because all I remember are the generic "Edelgard is wrong" type quotes that you see on AM/VW as well. The Holy Tomb reveal in general gets dropped on both versions of BE, probably due to the onset of the war being a much bigger, more immediate concern. So headcanon is really all we have on reconciling in CF/severing ties in SS. Edelgard's little speech and everyone's comments about why they're joining her is the closest thing we get in actual game-text and that's hardly satisfying to anyone. The closest thing I can think of in regards to the crest stone issue is Hanneman's comment in CF where he comments that the separate group working with the Empire (TWS) clearly use Crest Stones to create demonic beasts but the process and how it works are unclear to him, and we should be prepared for if we have to fight them someday. By and large, hardly ANYONE brings up the pre-time skip events post-skip, with Leonie talking about avenging Jeralt being the most prominent.

Combine this with less Professor level grinding. Training with the experts and eating/gifting is fine, but the monastery is way too huge. Also, do away with the calendar (which likely also means student training is automated/eliminated). Seriously, the calendar should be revamped heavily or eliminated.

The main issue is that CF is Edelgard/Hubert/Byleth-centric and the others only add the occasional comment. As such, we don't get to explore their characters. However, not exploring their characters is VERY different from saying they "randomly jump on board and go 'water under the bridge' without question". Maybe it's just my headcanon but the idea that especially Dorothea and Petra would go to Edelgard and ask for clarification on how much of what happened was Edelgard, whether their bonds are genuine, etc. just makes sense to me. Again, they don't get that opportunity in SS.

Blow your gambits early on, and reset/DP until the RNG works. Immobilizing and stat-downing the enemies will do wonders for you. Knowing the classes, battalions and stats of your units (if someone got blessed or screwed, that can really help/hurt your odds of getting through the hellish early turns) will help us work up a strategy to help you.

Have to say, I agree with you here. Going by student: Ferdinand: Has the most reason to oppose her, though his supports reveal deep respect for her, and in CF he comments he always intended to overthrow his father and found it jarring just how easily Edelgard sweeps him aside. He's the easiest to see opposing her, but his deep sense of duty to the Empire and respect for her make it feasible for him to join her on CF. Caspar: Justice is a big thing for him, but he's also very scared of fighting his dad. He's a fence situation where even if he feels Edelgard is wrong in some ways, he has enough reasons to stay in the Empire that he needs that bond with Byleth to push him over to the other side. Lindhart: Quite frankly, SS doesn't make sense. He'd rather stay at home. At the beginning of SS your group is a bunch of rebels with a base and pretty much nothing else. CF makes more sense though honestly he should still stay home unless his friends guilt-trip him into fighting. Petra: Depends on what is best for Brigid. Remember that post-time skip, regardless of path, the Empire holds the upper hand, even if it has overreached a bit. She needs a genuine reason to believe the Empire will fall to side against them, because Brigid is a vassal state and would be punished harshly if they oppose the Empire. Dorothea: She does dislike the class system tremendously, but honestly she'd rather stay out of the fighting in most cases. She IS interested in securing her own future though, and the war is where the future will be determined so... maybe? Bernadetta: She's a Byleth girl. Honestly, she flat out says pre-time skip (I think either during post-Gronder celebration or before the ball?) that Byleth is the reason she can even leave her room for a bit every day (which in both BE paths she does post-skip where in other paths she remains a shut-in). She'll go where he/she goes, or she'll stay home. @Seazas: I think you're overestimating the idea of betrayal the BEs feel in CF. In the Holy Tomb they get the bomb dropped on them and are severely confused, but they've had the opportunity to bond with Edelgard by then, so they swing based on Byleth's decision because given the confusion they run on instinct and follow the Professor that has led them to victory again and again. In CF this means they go with Edelgard and find she genuinely does value their friendship and didn't want to fight them. In SS this means she runs off without explanation so they're left doubting as per your argument of "were our bonds even genuine?" This is why the Holy Tomb decision is so critical for the students: because in one path Edelgard gets the chance to explain that yes, she is their friend but she had to make hard choices as Empress and in the other they never get that explanation

I double-Meteor'd in Felix's prologue to one-turn it lol. Warlock Dorothea (last month of Part 1) + Dancer + Stride (to get in range)

There's also the fact that if you have the DLC auxiliary battles you can get 3 stat boosters in a week compared to Explore's 1. Even 2 at Professor Level C+ is better, if we assume you don't need the motivation/cooking boosts. While I can definitely see Explore being better in Part 1 (training Reason/Faith/Riding/Flying/Heavy Armor for recruitment/class changing purposes is a thing), by Part 2 you should be well along your intended class path and recruitment is done at this point so outside Motivation and Cooking, as Cor Leonis said, Battle is probably BETTER if you have the DLC auxiliaries, especially Conand Tower (Speed Carrots)

Personally, I think they ran out of time in development, which is both why CF is shorter AND VW and SS share so much content. Reasoning is: 1) VW was always meant to exist. It's called "Three Houses" after all. However, it shares so much content with SS they're practically rip-offs of each other. If not for the addition of Nader, Claude's Almyran background would likely have gone unmentioned entirely. We could have seen more Almyra + Fodlan after this, but instead we get SS content reworked. 2) Edelgard's death and Rhea taking the missiles to protect you both make more sense in SS (though admittedly the latter is already precedented by the pre-time skip scene in any non-CF route), which suggests late VW in particular ripped off of SS material. 3) CF is the route where it makes the most sense to deal with TWS considering that route makes it clear they're only loosely allied with the Empire and Edelgard wants them dead and gone. Right after Tailtean Plains would have made perfect sense. Arianrhod just got nuked (which in VW/SS is how Hubert locates Shambala only with Fort Merceus being what gets leveled), the Kingdom army is all but gone (in the final battle the only Kingdom character left is Gilbert), and the Church is reeling from the losses sustained in their failed flank attack, so taking the time to go wrap up TWS before finishing in the epic confrontation with Rhea makes sense. That getting cut out and stuffed into an Epilogue makes sense if they ran out of time.