Chaotix

This is correct. Unfortunately your Ignatz is unrecruitable. It's probably an oversight that this happens if you choose a unit for Mission Assistance in the Chapter 1 mock battle, because in a normal NG it's not possible to do - you can only do it in NG+. In the Battle of the Eagle and Lion you actually can't deploy anyone who was chosen for Mission Assistance.

Keep training Reason the whole game as soon as you get her. Keep her in Mage class once you qualify to boost her Reason skill gains in combat. Give her a Knowledge Gem too and use it when you don't need a staff on her. Once you get to C+ Reason and A Swords, you can start trying to qualify for Mortal Savant (requirements are only B+ Reason). Doing that should get you to Mortal Savant possibly as early as Chapter 16, 18 at the latest. I've ranked up Hilda's Authority all the way to B in that time (she really needs it for good Flying battalions), so it should be doable.

I would guess Stride based on context

You don't need Warp, you could also Stride in a flier and one-shot him on turn 1. Make sure to either have the Aurora Shield or just Canto out of range of the sniper to the north. And then your 4+ other Strided units aggro the monster and kill the other enemies in that room. He was the first enemy I killed so it was very anti-climactic seeing basically every mage on the map disappear right at the start!

If you're doing it right and grinding for fish on the Fistfuls of Fish days to get your Professor Rank up, you will most likely hit 99 Bullheads and even have to start selling them. At that point you're set for the rest of the game.

I like the system and I think it makes different characters feel more unique, but I do think it could use a few tweaks: Add tomes which allow a unit to use a spell not on their normal spell list. These could be either durability-limited, or single-use and they permanently teach the spell to that unit. Add the ability to learn certain spells permanently with class mastery. It's silly that most characters can only use Dark Magic (and only Miasma) if they're in the Dark Mage/Bishop classes. I could see something like: Dark Mage teaches Miasma, Dark Bishop teaches Luna, Bishop teaches Physic, etc.

The Crest Stones were supposedly created by the Agarthians using the hearts of the Children of the Goddess (Nabateans). So each crest stone is the heart of a dragon, in the same way that the Heroes' Relics were created using their bones and scales.

I don't think this game has a Jeigan archetype. If anyone was going to be the Jeigan, it's Jeralt, but he's not playable. He is, however, present in the first chapter to make things easier, and he is a Paladin. If Jeralt was ever planned to be playable, he was the Jeigan. The red and green cavaliers are something I had been trying to figure out for a while but couldn't come to a conclusion on. On the surface, Sylvain seems to fit the Cain archetype well. But that leaves as his potential 'Abel'... Felix or Ingrid? Ingrid could work in terms of personality, but her "canon" class being Pegasus Knight kind of hurts the theory. I think the nature of the game requiring three sets of characters, with each group capable of being a self-contained cast, meant they had to abandon most of the archetypes common in previous games. And I'm okay with that!

Right, like I said, nobody in Golden Deer gets Physic /sarcasm

The only big one I've done is Falcon Knight Marianne, which turned out pretty well. She has all the strengths she needs to get there, despite the game pushing her down the Bishop path typically. Her Strength is the biggest problem, so for much of the early game she has to rely on Frozen Lance or Soul Blade for damage. However, Peg/Falcon Knight really patches up her bad speed, and she actually can do solid damage with just a Training Lance because she's always using magic combat arts. Dipping into Paladin is also easy for her and you can get Aegis from it. By part 2 the build really comes together because her Strength gets to acceptable levels, she gets her Relic weapon, and her Crest gives her extra damage with weapon attacks like Felix's. Big downside: nobody else in Golden Deer gets Physic, so you probably want to recruit Linhardt or Mercedes to be your main healer.

Ah dang, I actually meant to say Brawler, not Grappler. Brawler is the Intermediate class that requires only C rank, Grappler requires A rank. I got the two mixed up, my bad. Also definitely check out Ivan's adjutant grinding exploit above if you need it!

You should have enough time then that you don't really need to worry about it. Take the exam for Grappler rather than Armor Knight, and use that to train up your Gauntlet rank (you get a big bonus to gauntlet exp with it). And just do faculty training to get Armor rank to D+ since you're almost there.

There's one month where all of the Knights of Seiros are off-campus hunting for the murderer of a certain important story character. I assume that's where you are at now. That's another reason why it's a pain to raise armor rank. The requirements for Armored Knight are Axe C and Armor D, so with only E+ axes I don't think you can even attempt it. However the good news is that means you do have Armor D already. It should be possible to get it up to D+ with the remaining time you have left for faculty training and you won't need to worry about Armored Knight. Gauntlets are easier because you can equip them on any non-magic, non-mounted class. I would certify Byleth for the Fighter and Grappler classes once you can, and then only use Gauntlets for the next few missions and paralogues. As long as you are also Faculty training Gauntlets with Rhea, Catherine, and Alois (once you finish Armor training), you should be able to hit C+ in time.

Is that right? Wonder where I read that you couldn't. I'll edit my post, thanks.

Depending on how far along you are, you might just be screwed, unfortunately. The paralogue timers do indeed give you a hint on when the timeskip occurs. Armored Knight is hard for Byleth to qualify for unless you also happened to be training Axe rank. Unfortunately, pre-timeskip only Gilbert and Alois can train you in Armor Rank. It's kind of a pain to get it to D+ and you really have to be planning for it from the beginning. Gauntlet rank is a bit easier because Byleth has a strength in it, and there are more potential trainers - I think Rhea, Alois, and Catherine off the top of my head. If you can pass the Armor Knight exam, by all means grind auxiliary battles with gauntlets. If you're on Normal mode you can do this indefinitely. If you can't pass the Armor Knight exam, the only thing you can do is Explore and do faculty training at every possible opportunity, and hope that it will be enough. Make sure you've bought the Armor rank bonuses from the statue rewards. Each faculty training will give you +20 rank exp (or +30 if you get a "Great") plus bonuses, so you can math out in advance if it's even possible to get your ranks that high.