Mekkah

This "ton" of lance users is all of three Soldiers. There's a Priest, an Archer and two Myrms near, that's it. The Pegasi only appear later, and by that time Marisa can easily hide in the fortress where you found Innes, Gerik and Tethys. Also, Gerik survives a crit from Marisa quite comfortably, and since they're in a chokepoint, no other enemies will be able to take a shot at Gerik. Being hard to recruit isn't any kind of point against a unit anyway. Don't tell me you're not going to recruit everyone you can, if only for the weapons (Wo Dao, wooh). Plus, Joshua isn't much easier. Anyway, I voted Joshua. Similar bases, perhaps Joshua even on the better side, but Joshua is 328923 chapters earlier. Marisa takes a year and a half to catch up...she may be a bit better in the end, avo/crt/support leads and all, but Joshua won all of it before that.

...statistically superior units ARE fighting more effectively than statistically inferior units. I honestly cannot see your point.

Depends on the size of your team at varying points in the game. If you only use four earlygame people, like Franz/Lute/Arthur/Vanessa, then Seth is only better than Franz until ~Ch9. Or make it even five or six, then it becomes Ch11 or Ch12. If you have a huge squad, however, using people like Eirika, Gilliam, Ross, Neimi, etc, then it takes longer for Franz to surpass Seth, if he even does, while the gap between Seth and the team remains very large. Also, one shouldn't forget to take into account that Franz has the option of either being a Paladin like Seth, or trading 2 mov for better statistics + axes by becoming Great Knight. An advantage no matter how you rate them. Overall, I'm going to go with Seth, but it's quite close imo. EDIT: For Orson, he's the only unit in the game that's the best for all the time you have him, which is cool to think about, but it's only one chapter...in CC he is craptastic, since he has bad "joining time" (you already have to clear a bit to get him...I consider the CC ends when you have Lyon). And his stats suck and he has no supports, so he needs more stat boosts to still be inferior. Forde and Kyle don't quite match up, I think, though if you are going Eirika route (meaning there's no need to level up Ephraim, while there is for Eirika) and you are using many other earlygame people, they'll have a level lead when they join up with you.

Regardless of how good a unit is, they should be getting a promo item, lol. The real negative that Bartre gets is that he promotes later, or with Earth Seal, or causes one of the others to not be in play (or not promote, or promote later, etc)... I prefer Geitz out of them. I'll take a unit that doubles over ones that get doubled, tyvm.

You could just change all class growths to 100%, and from there it'll be pretty easy to tell.

Guy and Raven both do combat. Whichever one is better at combat is the better unit to bring. If they're both really good, bring both along. Should I use a worse unit like Lucius instead, who uses Light magic and not swords? If a debater ignores a valid point, then your second paragraph proves true. Otherwise, debates don't ignore factors that matter - not in the opinion of the majority of debaters, anyway. Hmm....topic title is familiar!

Believe it or not, I did part of that. I didn't promote anyone, didn't use prepromotes (other than Seth for the first map or something), obviously didn't abuse anything...I did use high rank weapons and the Hoplon Guard/Fili Shield. I've also beaten the game before without using Sacred Twins at all, and I've done an Ephraim/Eirika solo before.

When Nino joins, everyone I have, including my other magic users, are already killing everything. Especially if it's not HHM. So I see no reason to use a unit that needs severe handholding until she can kill everything too. The only reason to ever use her is the EXP rank.

At least you'd be forced to use Physic or something, because this hypothetical boss would go for the things he'd OHKO (i.e. magic units). Anything is tougher than this.

GameFAQs has a rather complete translation of FE5 up, just search it yourself though because they don't allow direct linking and I'm too lazy to dig it up anyway.

If you're worried about your funds rank why are you considering the arena at all, since that costs you tactics? (which is even harder than funds) Anyway, if possible, avoid buying things without Silver Card, though usually I spend the 5000G from 13x entirely on new iron weapons in False Friends and Noble Lady.

Pent is the bomb. Saying "Snipers shouldn't be near the front" to excuse their inability to counter doesn't work. If one character can be put on the frontlines and kill enemies and the other cannot, that's a huge advantage for the other. Having to protect a character from melee sucks, especially at this point of the gane, since your healer has promoted by now and gained the ability to attack with 1-2 range.

I'm here

I see no reason at all to use Amelia. She doesn't turn out better than Gilliam, Kyle, Forde and Franz at all on average, and she has to beat them by a lot to compensate for completely sucking when you get her, while the others are really good at that point.

Top Sigurd Levin Eh, I can agree with this if by top you mean really super awesome with no real flaws at all. High Lex Aira Brigid Jamka Sylvia Snipers to Mid, please. Jamka's own combat is amazing, but it only exists on player phase, which is only half of the game. Same for Brigid, except she's also helping your army for only 3 chapters as opposed to everyone else here. Upper Mid Fin Ethlin Holyn Beowulf Fury Aideen Fin can go to high in my opinion, he is just so crucial for the tactics rank with his Hero Lance. His offense comes close to and sometimes even surpasses that of your top tiers. Plus, he helps EXP by having access to a big load of arena's, so other people can grow better. If you're doing orders within tiers, Beowulf definitely at the lower edge. His skills are good, but his stats are only meh and he has a hard time catching up and really wrecking arena's. Aideen always has staves and Fury has them after promotion, plus she's essential for some villages and other jobs. Lower Mid Alec Cuan Lachesis Azel Dew Midir Noish Claude Lachesis can move up imo. She's very easy to staffwhore even with a tactics rank because she can use the Return Staff (Ethlin's gonna leave soon anyway) and she can even borrow the Elite Ring if needed since she has the money for it thanks to the Knight Ring. Alec can move up a few notches, perhaps even to Upper Mid or Lower High, he is actually good during Prologue and Ch1. Then he is kind of okay during the next few chapters. Mount + Pursuit + swords automatically means you're worth more than this imo. Don't really care where the rest ends up.. Low Tiltyu Ardan Deirdre Dew can go here too for all I care but meh.

Zephiel isn't a problem simply because he doesn't move around, so you can take forever to kill him, like a lot of FE bosses supposed to be troublesome. Idoun isn't a problem because she is weak defensively, has no range and has low movement. What they could (and should) have done was merge them into a moving boss with Idoun's stats and a ranged attack that gets throne bonuses.

You won't be underleveled or something, but the problem is that some of your people will have to wait until the Secret Shop of Ch16 due to general lack of promotion items (only one Knight Crest, two Hero Crests, two Guiding Rings, etc before that).