Mekkah vs Colonel M

[Mekkah]

I wonder if this will finish????

2/0 Lowen

Iron Sword: 12.0 atk, 7.0 AS, 101.3 hit, 2.3 crit - - 17.0 avo, 23.0 hp, 7.0 def, 0.0 res

Iron Lance: 14.0 atk, 7.0 AS, 91.3 hit

Javelin: 13.0 atk, 6.0 AS, 76.3 hit

9/0 Oswin

Iron Lance: 20.0 atk, 5.0 AS, 99.3 hit

Javelin: 19.0 atk, 5.0 AS, 84.3 hit, 4.3 crit - - 13.0 avo, 28.0 hp, 13.0 def, 3.0 res

Not gonna lie, Lowen's losing any kind of direct comparison during the early game. Oswin wins damage per hit, and neither is going to double anything but soldiers...Lowen has a small advantage in being able to have 100% hit on brigands vs Oswin's ~82% real, I guess.

Defensively, Oswin survives many more hits from medium-strong enemies. A 16 atk brigand will 3RKO Lowen, but 6RKO Oswin. However, something like a 12 atk Myrmidon which tinks Oswin only does 5/23 dmg to Lowen, a 5RKO, which becomes a 6RKO if Lowen has a lance equipped. So against those, Lowen is surviving so well that he won't need a significant amount of healing. Oh, and Lowen's avo is obviously better against brigands. A 83 hit Iron Axe dude only has ~52% real on him, while they have about ~93% real on Oswin. A 64 hit Hand Axer only ~21% real on Lowen, but 76% real on Oswin. That doesn't mean Lowen's avo is any kind of reliable, but there's a very high chance Lowen completely avoids damage whenever attacked by a brigand.

But what's Lowen got to compensate is the horse, which gives him effectively twice as much movement as Oswin. Basically, if there's like three guys like 10 spaces ahead, Lowen can expose themselves to them on turn 1, while Oswin has to wait for turn 2. So Lowen might have to spend a turn healing, but since he gets to enemies a full turn earlier, this makes him often tie Oswin in net contributions. The only other unit who could compete for this kind of utility is Marcus, but Marcus cannot do everything on his own, and probably should not.

Lowen's horse has other significant advantages. He can move after trading, which can be extremely vital early on, where every point of anything can matter. For example, Hector hits something with his Wolf Beil, then wants to conserve uses for enemy phase, so Lowen can trade his Iron or Hand Axe to the top and get in a convenient position. Oswin can sometimes do this too, but he'll often end up behind the frontlines like that, and sometimes there will be situations he cannot even reach the guy to be traded with.

Lowen can also rescue people, which can be convenient. Lowen's 15 aid can rescue anyone in the party, including heavyweights such as Hector, Dorcas and Oswin himself, allowing you to drop them off somewhere convenient. Or maybe he can rescue Eliwood after he misses something you expected him to kill. etc Oswin can rescue a lot of people too, but he's going to spent an enemy phase with halved skl and spd often that way because he can't retreat after doing so, so there will be much less choices for others to take/drop from him. And his lesser move also prevents him from taking/dropping from others as much.

So Oswin has mostly superior combat, but Lowen has far superior utility. I would call it an Os win for now, still, but note that it is largely compensated for.

I suppose this is where I enter supports briefly. Let's get realistic: none of Oswin's supports except Hector is reasonably convenient, and a support with Hector isn't helping him in the least. What use is more avo and def on two tanks? Now, Lowen at least has a very viable support with Marcus for full hit/avo and some other stuff. His Eliwood and Becca supports are kind of slow in our new age debating world, but even a C gives all involved 1 atk/5 avo. Supports won't play a big part in this debate though.

Lowen obviously improves at a more rapid rate than Oswin. Behold EXP rates:

9/0 Oswin vs 3/0 enemy

Non-kill: 8, Kill: 10

10/0 Oswin vs 3/0 enemy

Non-kill: 8, Kill: 8

2/0 Lowen vs 3/0 enemy

Non-kill: 10, Kill: 33

5/0 Lowen vs 3/0 enemy

Non-kill: 9, Kill: 23

And 3/0 enemies still exist even at Ch16. Generally, you'll find EXP gained decreases by 3 for every level the PC gained on the opponent. Of course, Oswin has superior combat capabilities to mirror superior EXP gain, but Lowen also has the movement edge.

This movement edge is particularly significant in chapters you need to rush in for reaching certain objectives, and becomes even more of an advantage when Lowen's defensive growths have kicked in a little more. Let's look at Ch17 for a second.

14/0 Oswin

Iron Lance: 22.0 atk, 6.5 AS, 103.2 hit, 5.0 crit - - 17.8 avo, 32.5 hp, 15.8 def, 4.5 res

Javelin: 21.0 atk, 6.5 AS, 88.2 hit

9/0 Lowen

Iron Lance: 16.1 atk, 9.1 AS, 97.2 hit, 3.3 crit - - 24.7 avo, 29.3 hp, 9.8 def, 2.1 res

Javelin: 15.1 atk, 8.1 AS, 82.2 hit

I've given them some arbitrary amount of levels...but only Lowen's level matters a lot, because Oswin is simply screwed on this map. Every unit thrives to use their full movement if possible here, to stop the thief from escaping with the northern treasure, as well as to stop the soldiers from assaulting Raven.

And Lowen can easily rush now. Enemy examples:

Mercs and Myrms have 12 atk, so they do around 1 dmg to Lowen with his lance equipped (no reason not to)

Knights and Lance Cavaliers mostly have around 17 atk, so they do 7 dmg to Lowen. He can take four hits from that. There's also those with Javelins with 13-14 atk, which are even more laughable.

Iron Bow Archers and Nomads have 14 atk, so that's like 4 damage to him. There's two with a Steel Bow for Knight-level atk, but also one with Short Bow with only 12 atk.

Sword Cavalier has 16 atk and WTD, so that's about 5 dmg to him.

There's a Hammer Fighter with 19 atk, but he only has 65 hit, so he has like ~13% real on sword Lowen (and the area he's in has almost no lances).

Oswin pulls tings all over the place, but it doesn't help him when he's not at the front to begin with. He would need someone to ferry him along, but lots of people want a horseride on this map, and sometimes horses don't even want someone on their back. So Oswin might just be restricted to Merlinusguard...mostly self improvement, since it's not really significant whether Merlinus lives or dies on us.

Also, this place has a Knight Crest. Oswin could use it, but then he can no longer be ferried to the frontlines anymore, and it murders his EXP gain even more, so I'm gonna assume he's not using it right now. There's also the possibility of Kent or Sain wanting that first Crest, so for now, I will assume they promote at the same time.

Quick overview of the next few maps:

- 17x is dominated by axe using enemies. Strong ones. Oswin can take on Damian though.

- 18 has Shamans which do quite some damage to both. Lowen can borderline survive two Flux Shamans usually, Oswin should be able to survive two for sure. But Oswin sometimes fails to double them, meaning he can only ORKO on player phase with Steel or Silver.

- 19 is quite large, so good use of Lowen's move there. There's a Torch Staff dropped from a fleeing thief.

- 19x has Mages, so I guess Oswin wins against those...but it's easier for Lowen to run ahead to compensate for that, and he can also reach forests earlier to reduce their hit.

- 19xx has a ballista and some chests that are being raided which Lowen's mount is useful for.

- 20 is one of the most movement heavy chapters I've ever seen.

etc...

I'd like to look at promotion time now!

20/3 Oswin

Killer Lance: 30.2 atk, 11.9 AS, 103.3 hit, 37.2 crit - - 31.3 avo, 43.7 hp, 21.9 def, 9.9 res

20/1 Lowen

Killer Lance: 23.4 atk, 13.4 AS, 98.5 hit, 35.5 crit - - 38.8 avo, 41.2 hp, 16.2 def, 6.4 res

Let's compare them on FFO samples.

Mercs have 17-19 atk, so they do anywhere between 2 and 4 dmg to Lowen depending on what they are and what he got equipped. They tink on Oswin, but I'd say both are pretty invincible. They have 29-30 hp and 6-7 def, so both are 2RKOing.

A Wyvern Rider with Steel Lance has 23 atk, which does 7 dmg to Lowen and like 1 to Oswin. They could switch to axes, and then the Wyverns pretty much can't kill them. Those have 6 AS, which means both double. While FFO ones all carry Steel, in some upcoming maps they carry Iron or Javelin, in which case Oswin won't double and Lowen probably will, giving Lowen a large advantage. Oswin admittedly 2HKOs while Lowen 3HKOs, but whenever they crit Lowen OHKOs. So overall, I'd call them even on Wyverns.

Pirates are like Wyverns that both can 2HKO and that never fail to weigh themselves down...Lowen can WTA over them but Oswin probably won't die to them anytime soon.

So if the above samples are anything to go by, their combat is similar. They double most slow enemies, Lowen sometimes a bit more, but Oswin sometimes 2HKOs where Lowen 3HKOs, like on Wyverns. Lowen suffers minor wounds while getting Oswin killed probably requires magic enemies. A tie in offense, and a might-as-well-tie in defense. What's left? Yeah, mobility.

Upcoming is lategame, and Battle Before Dawn is a perfect example of a chapter where Lowen trumps Oswin completely. Oswin cannot have a prayer of participating on this map due to his low movement, whereas Lowen can get partial credit for things like saving the suicidal NPCs on this chapter, stopping thieves from getting the oh so valuable chests, and generally murdering enemies before anyone gets to them. He is also the most durable mounted unit you have, meaning even amongst a crowd of mounted people, he's going to be the one taking hits the best. I'll expand on that if needed.

His higher movement has utility in other maps, sometimes more crucial than others, but the bottom line is what's written in the earlygame section, minus the part where Lowen has to be more careful than Oswin.

So Lowinner > losswin I guess.

Edited December 14, 2009 by Mekkah

[Colonel M]

I wonder if this will finish????

I called Darros. He says he still sucks.

2/0 Lowen

Iron Sword: 12.0 atk, 7.0 AS, 101.3 hit, 2.3 crit - - 17.0 avo, 23.0 hp, 7.0 def, 0.0 res

Iron Lance: 14.0 atk, 7.0 AS, 91.3 hit

Javelin: 13.0 atk, 6.0 AS, 76.3 hit

9/0 Oswin

Iron Lance: 20.0 atk, 5.0 AS, 99.3 hit

Javelin: 19.0 atk, 5.0 AS, 84.3 hit, 4.3 crit - - 13.0 avo, 28.0 hp, 13.0 def, 3.0 res

Not gonna lie, Lowen's losing any kind of direct comparison during the early game. Oswin wins damage per hit, and neither is going to double anything but soldiers...Lowen has a small advantage in being able to have 100% hit on brigands vs Oswin's ~82% real, I guess.

Let's see how relevant that offense is, shall we? Archers first:

2x Archer lv 2 (Iron Bow)
12-13 atk, 93-97 hit, 4-5 AS, 2-3 crit; 21-23 HP, 3-4 def, 0-2 res, 8-10 avo

Oswin can easily 2RKO these buffoons with Javelin (15 damage per round). As for Lowen, watch as he produces lol9-10 damage per round. 3RKO.

3x Brigand lv 1 (Iron Axe)
16 atk, 79 hit, 5-6 AS, 1 crit; 23-25 HP, 3-4 def, 0-1 res, 10-12 avo
1x Brigand lv 2 (Hand Axe)
14-16 atk, 64-68 hit, 6 AS, 1-2 crit; 24-26 HP, 3-5 def, 0-2 res, 12 avo
1x Brigand lv 3 (Iron Axe)
16-17 atk, 79-83 hit, 6-7 AS, 1-2 crit; 25-27 HP, 3-5 def, 0-2 res, 12-14 avo

With WTD and Javelin, Oswin only fails to 2RKO if the Brigand has a cmbination of 27 HP and 5 Def. So it's under a rare blue sky, in other words. Meanwhile Iron Sword Lowen 3-4RKOes thanks to WTA.

1x Mercenary lv 1 (Iron Sword)
11 atk, 108-110 hit, 10 AS, 4-5 crit; 21-22 HP, 4-5 def, 1 res, 20 avo

15 damage at the worst for Oswin here, while Lowen does 9 damage per round. 2RKO vs. 3RKO again.

6x Pegasus Knight lv 3 (Iron Lance)
13-14 atk, 94-96 hit, 4-5 AS, 3-4 crit; 18-19 HP, 3-4 def, 3-5 res, 8-10 avo
1x Pegasus Knight lv 5 (Iron Lance)
13-15 atk, 96-98 hit, 5-6 AS, 4 crit; 20-21 HP, 3-4 def, 4-6 res, 10-12 avo

These things are almost a joke when you consider Oswin is doing 16 damage a round while Lowen can actually miss 2HKOes with Iron Lance.

So granted that Lowen is only a round off from KOing in comparison to Oswin, it's almost pitiful that Oswin has a 5 Atk lead using his worst weapon (Javelin) while Lowen is using his strongest (Iron Lance). Oswin takes an enemy and almos crushes it into two, with the exception being Brigands which aren't easy to kill in the first place (Lowen 3RKOing is not exactly stellar). Let me demonstrate what I can kill with a weakened unit thanks to Oswin:

Archers: 8/23

Brigands: 14/27

Mercenary: 7/22

Pegasus Knight: 5/21

In theory this is taking the worst case scenarios into account (max HP / Def). Now to review Archers have 3-4, Brigands have 3-5, Mercenaries have 4-5, and Pegasi have 3-4 Def. Lowen can kill everything barring the Brigand which would take another round.

Take into account that Lowen doesn't even have the best Atk in the team. To compare:

Eliwood - 10 (12 w/Rapier)

Hector - 16 Atk (18 w/Wolf Beil, 15 w/Hand Axe)

Marcus - 20 (taking Iron Sword into accont)

Dorcas - 15 (14 w/Hand Axe, if trained to about Level 7 it's +1 of Hector's Atk)

Bartre - 17 Atk (16 w/Hand Axe)

Rebecca - 10 Atk

Matthew - 11, 13 w/Power Ring though granted he doubles just about everything on the map

Lowen has the 3rd worst Attack in the entire team while Oswin proceeds to have the second best (Marcus is the only man to beat Oswin), maybe 3rd under rare conditions with Matthew. The only people Lowen actually beats in Atk is Eliwood and Rebecca, the latter which isn't used seriously under most circumstances. I'd almost call this a total blowout.

Defensively, Oswin survives many more hits from medium-strong enemies. A 16 atk brigand will 3RKO Lowen, but 6RKO Oswin. However, something like a 12 atk Myrmidon which tinks Oswin only does 5/23 dmg to Lowen, a 5RKO, which becomes a 6RKO if Lowen has a lance equipped. So against those, Lowen is surviving so well that he won't need a significant amount of healing. Oh, and Lowen's avo is obviously better against brigands. A 83 hit Iron Axe dude only has ~52% real on him, while they have about ~93% real on Oswin. A 64 hit Hand Axer only ~21% real on Lowen, but 76% real on Oswin. That doesn't mean Lowen's avo is any kind of reliable, but there's a very high chance Lowen completely avoids damage whenever attacked by a brigand.

I'll admit that Lowen can possibly have the WTA against these things and that, but there are still times where he has to pull out a Sword to fight a Brigand, then suddenly get matched by a Mercenary at neutral, or using Lance vs. Mercenary and falling for a Brigand. Not to mention these are the weakest Sword enemies (durability-wise), and it's still quite a blowout for Oswin.

A Level 5 Lowen vs. C14 Cavs. Though his Defense seems a little more impressive now if he has WTA, he still is doing 9 damage at best. If it falls any lower (8 damage), he can be susceptible to miss a 3RKO (Lance Cavs). Knights he does about 10 damage per round, 8 if they proc Def. Soldiers... yeah okay they're ORKOed. Oswin is matching that ORKO vs. Soldiers. Meanwhile, a level 11 Oswin has 21 Atk with the Iron Lance, which can ORKO the Armor 50% of the time (22 HP | 10 Def). There's also a threat to Lowen on the map:

1x Erik lv 13 (Horseslayer)
16 atk, 95 hit, 7 AS, 5 crit; 33 HP, 9 def, 10 res, 20 avo

Which is telling Lowen to GTFO of the way. There's also these dudes:

1x Pirate lv 3 (Iron Axe)
15-16 atk, 83-85 hit, 7-8 AS, 2 crit; 25 HP, 3-4 def, 1-2 res, 16 avo

Which spawn almost every turn along with

2x Pegasus Knight lv 6 (Slim Lance)
11-12 atk, 103 hit, 9 AS, 9 crit; 20-21 HP, 3-5 def, 5-6 res, 18 avo

Oswin takes little damage even from the Pirates. 3 damage per round tops is pretty pathetic. Meanwhile Iron Sword Lowen takes 6-7 damage; a decent difference even though Lowen has a decent chance to avoid them.

So Lowen is doing a little better, but actually being a God in durability can do you favors, which I will outline later on.

But what's Lowen got to compensate is the horse, which gives him effectively twice as much movement as Oswin. Basically, if there's like three guys like 10 spaces ahead, Lowen can expose themselves to them on turn 1, while Oswin has to wait for turn 2. So Lowen might have to spend a turn healing, but since he gets to enemies a full turn earlier, this makes him often tie Oswin in net contributions. The only other unit who could compete for this kind of utility is Marcus, but Marcus cannot do everything on his own, and probably should not.

It isn't easy to measure Rescue vs. superior offense and defense parameters and officially call it a tie. Lowen's Mov can't be stretched the entire way in certain chapters because it can leave him susceptible to other enemies in the map. Even though something like Iron Sword Cavs do little damage per round, there's still the Iron Lance Cavs, Erik, Nomads, etc. More about rescue will be explained later.

Lowen's horse has other significant advantages. He can move after trading, which can be extremely vital early on, where every point of anything can matter. For example, Hector hits something with his Wolf Beil, then wants to conserve uses for enemy phase, so Lowen can trade his Iron or Hand Axe to the top and get in a convenient position. Oswin can sometimes do this too, but he'll often end up behind the frontlines like that, and sometimes there will be situations he cannot even reach the guy to be traded with.

Very rarely will such a situation such as not reaching the frontlines easier will happen. Likely if Hector is charging forward, he might not be able to use full Movement in the first place. Oswin can still hit the frontlines and trade with Hector just fine. I will grant that you can position Lowen easier, but you are likely left with ~2 Mov, pending on the situation of course.

Lowen can also rescue people, which can be convenient. Lowen's 15 aid can rescue anyone in the party, including heavyweights such as Hector, Dorcas and Oswin himself, allowing you to drop them off somewhere convenient. Or maybe he can rescue Eliwood after he misses something you expected him to kill. etc Oswin can rescue a lot of people too, but he's going to spent an enemy phase with halved skl and spd often that way because he can't retreat after doing so, so there will be much less choices for others to take/drop from him. And his lesser move also prevents him from taking/dropping from others as much.

You are correct that Marcus cannot use all of his resources permenantly as it can hurt the entire team but Lowen cannot do things on his own as easily as Marcus can. Another way to demonstrate Rescue:

5 Lowen (Rescuing) - 3 Skl / 4 Spd

Base Marcus (Rescuing) - 7 Skl / 5 Spd

While it doesn't look like a whole lot of a difference, it is effectively 8 more Hit that Lowen has to fight against, not to mention that Marcus has complete WTC and can always switch to a Silver Lance and match a good amount of Hit + Atk. Lowen can actually get doubled by:

3x Cavalier lv 3 (Iron Lance)
14-15 atk, 90 hit, 6-8 AS, 2 crit; 24-25 HP, 6-8 def, 0-1 res, 12-16 avo
1x Cavalier lv 3 (Iron Sword)
13 atk, 100 hit
2x Cavalier lv 4 (Iron Sword)
13 atk, 100-102 hit, 7-8 AS, 2 crit; 25-26 HP, 6-8 def, 0-1 res, 14-16 avo

If they proc 8 Spd, which is a pretty good chance.

1x Myrmidon lv 5 (Steel Sword)
14 atk, 99 hit, 10 AS, 6 crit; 22 HP, 2-3 def, 2 res, 20 avo

Granted Marcus gets doubled as well, but he takes 6 damage in comparison to Lowen's 10.

1x Nomad lv 3 (Iron Bow)
12-14 atk, 97-99 hit, 8-9 AS, 3 crit; 20-22 HP, 4-6 def, 0-1 res, 16-18 avo

Which does 4-8 damage per round on Marcus while Lowen takes 8-12 damage per round. Marcus can dodge this bullet 50% of the time.

1x Pirate lv 3 (Iron Axe)
15-16 atk, 83-85 hit, 7-8 AS, 2 crit; 25 HP, 3-4 def, 1-2 res, 16 avo

Proc Spd and Lowen is in big trouble.

And in instances such as C14, Marcus is likely going south instead of west to rescue the village that has Priscilla in it, so he has little business carrying someone anyway. Lowen can at least grab someone and run away with his mov, but look what Oswin still has Rescue. He can Rescue just about everyone in the team and not give a damn. If someone such as Eliwood is in trouble of facing death, Oswin can merely pick his ass up if he's close and just sit and laugh. Now I'll admit that Oswin will be a bit more susceptible to being doubled and his Hit goes down a bit (8 Hit), but while Lowen needs to drop the unit off ASAP before an enemy comes charging in, Oswin can just stand there and shout that he will not move. There are only a few things that can actually DENT Oswin on the map:

- Iron Lance Cavs if they proc Str, but they're still doing like 2 damage per round

- Pirates, which I admit would do about 4-6 damage per round

- Erik who does 4 damage per round

Crazy Train anyone?

So Oswin has mostly superior combat, but Lowen has far superior utility. I would call it an Os win for now, still, but note that it is largely compensated for.

Not exactly. You have to consider that we're dealing with the 3rd worst offensive unit on the team, which is pretty pathetic even if you have a great amount of Mov to compensate for it. Rescue is an iffy thing on Lowen's terms since technically Oswin can rescue someone and nearly accomplish the same thing, only he can't move again while Lowen has to move or else he's in danger of getting heavily damaged by the enemies. Trading is a minor advantage since anyone can realistically do it, the only boon being that Lowen can sometimes re-move and position himself a little better.

I suppose this is where I enter supports briefly. Let's get realistic: none of Oswin's supports except Hector is reasonably convenient, and a support with Hector isn't helping him in the least. What use is more avo and def on two tanks? Now, Lowen at least has a very viable support with Marcus for full hit/avo and some other stuff. His Eliwood and Becca supports are kind of slow in our new age debating world, but even a C gives all involved 1 atk/5 avo. Supports won't play a big part in this debate though.

If anything it should be none anyway since most of them are unrealistic or have little benefit. I will note that Oswin + Hector can gain +5 Crit per support, so it can actually improve Hector's chances to kill when he doubles.

Lowen obviously improves at a more rapid rate than Oswin. Behold EXP rates:

9/0 Oswin vs 3/0 enemy

Non-kill: 8, Kill: 10

10/0 Oswin vs 3/0 enemy

Non-kill: 8, Kill: 8

2/0 Lowen vs 3/0 enemy

Non-kill: 10, Kill: 33

5/0 Lowen vs 3/0 enemy

Non-kill: 9, Kill: 23

And 3/0 enemies still exist even at Ch16. Generally, you'll find EXP gained decreases by 3 for every level the PC gained on the opponent. Of course, Oswin has superior combat capabilities to mirror superior EXP gain, but Lowen also has the movement edge.

Oswin also has the durability edge that allows him to just sit there and attack. He will rarely kill an enemy unless it's a stray critical hit, which means his single hits can be a good way to spread CEXP kills toward your other units such as Lowen anyway. Lowen's rather mediocre-to-poor offense usually requires someone else with a hefty amount of Atk to finish off. So Oswin can actually simply be a weakener and barely care since he's taking such little to no damage that healing is not even necessary. He can absorb 4 Cavs a turn and let his other pals take the kills, whereas Lowen likely has to take a kill in order to start closing his Level gap.

This movement edge is particularly significant in chapters you need to rush in for reaching certain objectives, and becomes even more of an advantage when Lowen's defensive growths have kicked in a little more. Let's look at Ch17 for a second.

14/0 Oswin

Iron Lance: 22.0 atk, 6.5 AS, 103.2 hit, 5.0 crit - - 17.8 avo, 32.5 hp, 15.8 def, 4.5 res

Javelin: 21.0 atk, 6.5 AS, 88.2 hit

9/0 Lowen

Iron Lance: 16.1 atk, 9.1 AS, 97.2 hit, 3.3 crit - - 24.7 avo, 29.3 hp, 9.8 def, 2.1 res

Javelin: 15.1 atk, 8.1 AS, 82.2 hit

I've given them some arbitrary amount of levels...but only Lowen's level matters a lot, because Oswin is simply screwed on this map. Every unit thrives to use their full movement if possible here, to stop the thief from escaping with the northern treasure, as well as to stop the soldiers from assaulting Raven.

And Lowen can easily rush now. Enemy examples:

Mercs and Myrms have 12 atk, so they do around 1 dmg to Lowen with his lance equipped (no reason not to)

Knights and Lance Cavaliers mostly have around 17 atk, so they do 7 dmg to Lowen. He can take four hits from that. There's also those with Javelins with 13-14 atk, which are even more laughable.

Iron Bow Archers and Nomads have 14 atk, so that's like 4 damage to him. There's two with a Steel Bow for Knight-level atk, but also one with Short Bow with only 12 atk.

Sword Cavalier has 16 atk and WTD, so that's about 5 dmg to him.

There's a Hammer Fighter with 19 atk, but he only has 65 hit, so he has like ~13% real on sword Lowen (and the area he's in has almost no lances).

Oswin pulls tings all over the place, but it doesn't help him when he's not at the front to begin with. He would need someone to ferry him along, but lots of people want a horseride on this map, and sometimes horses don't even want someone on their back.

17 is one of the few chapters that Lowen's Movement will actually make a major difference, which I'll still concede to. There are still other maps where Oswin's durability allows him to be a good plug:

Chapter 13X

Oswin's excellent durability allows him to plug any of the north sides, which usually has the bigger amount of enemies here. So now we need to see where we can place Lowen...

Well he could go south. Then again we have Guy and Matthew who not only have better offense, but arguably better defense since they can dodge Iron Axe shots a lot easier than Lowen can (to give you an idea, 8 Matthew has 50 Avoid to 4 Lowen's 35). He could go to the east, but Mage + Myrmidion can actually put him into trouble. 4 Lowen has 25 HP | 8 Def | .6 Res. He's practically taking the 9 damage from the Mage, then with a Javelin / Iron Lance 3. Oh, but I would like to mention that Brigands can also creep onto this side AND the Myrmidions have a chance to double him; especially if Lowen holds a Javelin. While I can plug Oswin just about everywhere with little issues, I have to worry about Lowen taking too much in combat and needing a healer, which may I remind you we're limited to 1. If the Myrmidion can double him, he's taking about 15 damage per round of combat, which means a Vulnerary would leave him with max HP -5. Of course this is assuming the worst case scenario, but Oswin can function perfectly even under the worst case scenario.

Chapter 15

oswin can block the north entrance with little problems. He could also go south and help there if necessary. Lowen taking the west side is iffy with his coin-flippish Avoid, the south can actually get dangerous due to Mercenary + Myrmidion reinforcements + Soldier potshot + Armor Knights roaming all around the place.

Chapter 16

With someone else (probably Hector), he can defend the area where the army begins to help proceed. After the wave is done, Oswin can either continue going north (Movement is restricted for a lot of units due to terrain) or even stay near Merlinus and take on the reinforcements with a Javelin equipped.

Chapter 17

Oswin can hang around south and protect the tent. It's still quite a positive since we want Merlinus to become mobile ASAP.

Chapter 17X

Oswin can plug any of these three holes on the map. Being able to take on Damian easily is an added bonus (lolOswindoubles).

Chapter 18

Oswin can plug any of these holes as well. He can go west and lols assume since he's probably taking nil from just about everything. South does have Mercenaries + Shamans, so Oswin going there isn't bad. Hell he can even go west since his only major fear is Mages to begin with, and he can at least swallow some of it thanks to his HP | Res figures. 15/-- Oswin has 33 HP | 5 Res while the Shamans shouldn't be much higher than... maybe 15 Atk I'd say. Pure Water gives him 12 Res to juggle around with, so no worries here.

Chapter 19

Due to this being Fog of War, it isn't easy to stretch your entire move without getting asspacked by everything. Oswin can hold on the east side to help with the team mobilize toward the south. Oswin can at least land behind the fort on turn 1 or attempt to break any of the two branches, which isn't much of an issue thanks to his hefty Atk.

Chapter 20

Oswin can enter the north and attempt to take on the Cavalier + Maxime (or w/e his name is) or go through the other side with a key.

Chapter 21

Fog of War, flying units. Need I say more here?

For the most part Oswin's low Mov at this point may be a slight thorn, but his concrete durability can place him into many different situations and still function positively. So let's see where Lowen's Mov is probably such a major positive in these chapters:

- C14, though he has to be careful not to approach a whole lot here

- C17

- C19

- C21, and I wouldn't even call it a major advantage here

So Oswin might just be restricted to Merlinusguard...mostly self improvement, since it's not really significant whether Merlinus lives or dies on us.

Merlinus guarding is not necessarily a bad thing to contribute either. Take C16 and C17 for instance. They don't have the highest deployment slots and Oswin is arguably the best person to sit and defend Merlinus. While in 16 Oswin can contribute a few things positively before Merlinusguarding, him being able to keep Merlinus on the field means two things:

- Making Merlinus mobile ASAP

- PC can carry more items

Lowen, Marcus, Sain, and Kent's item slots are usually full. They're carrying Iron / Steel Lances and Swords, then we have Javelins. Marcus is likely packing his Axes and any of those items listed can be replaced with VUlneraries. Matthew carries Iron Sword + Lockpick, though if he's getting the chests in the west that's 4 items as is, not to mention some of these enemies carry Vulneraries which can help save money for our caravan insurance. Eliwood is carrying Iron / Steel / Rapier / Vulnerary, Hector has Iron Axe / Steel Axe / Hand Axe / Wolf Beil / Vulnerary, Lyndis is probably just carrying Iron / Mani Katti / Vulnerary, though Steel is an option.

To put it in shorter terms: Merlinus being on the field is a positive since there's still droppable items. Also, being able to use Chest Keys freely without worrying about dropping an item should also be considered.

Even if Merlinusguarding is a scrub job and Oswin's likely doing it in a couple of chapters, it's still a major net positive.

Also, this place has a Knight Crest. Oswin could use it, but then he can no longer be ferried to the frontlines anymore, and it murders his EXP gain even more, so I'm gonna assume he's not using it right now. There's also the possibility of Kent or Sain wanting that first Crest, so for now, I will assume they promote at the same time.

Only by Lowen and Marcus. He can still be ferried by unpromoted Sain, Kent, Priscilla, Florina, Fiora, and Heath. After promotion it's only Florina and Fiora. So here's what I'm going to hash out. We could do one of the following:

-Option 1: Early Cresting-

Granted his CEXP gain goes down the toilet, but when Oswin's goal is to lure and basically sit there and tank, it barely matters if his CEXP goes up much more. Let me put 15/1 Oswin into simpler terms:

37.4 HP | 17.4 Str | 12.8 Skl | 9.8 Spd | 5.1 Luck | 18.3 Def | 7.8 Res

Yeah, this is pretty good for a unit that has just early promoted. Now all of a sudden he matches most of your foot soldier's Mov for a good amount of time. Unfortunately he can't be ferried anymore unless the ferrier is unpromoted, but since he has taken the Knight Crest this is a high possibility. This leaves Marcus and... lol, Lowen unable to carry him. Did you see what I did there?

Oswin can wield everything barring a Devil Axe w/AS loss, which means that he can double anything that has 6 AS or lower. Now the # of these enemies is low; however, even with single hits he is doing massive damage. Steel Axe is already pummeling 28 Atk, which is pretty hard for any enemy unit to swallow. Looking at C21 stats:

He can miss on some of the Steel Lance Wyverns and can slip on the Archers, but everything else listed here gets doubled. Then ORKOed? Every Pegasus Knight, then Monks. So offensively he still is barely budging, and this is assuming between 17X and 21 that he never got a single level promoted. Now the next argument is "okay, but he still has 5 Mov unpromoted". Well let's see how much of a penalty it really is:

C17X - mostly attempting to defend from the onslaught of Pirates.

C18 - defend chapter, or defeating the boss. Oswin can also block any of the 5 open gaps here.

C19 - FoW. No one is using full Mov without knowing what's ahead of us. Oswin can plug the northeast portion of this and hold off the enemies.

C19X - VERY dangerous chapter here due to the Owl being able to fire Bolting for 2 turns, then we have en masse Mages roaming around the area. Oswin has his Res lead going on.

C20 - Granted there's Legault, but the first turn or two involves blocking the Cav / Paladin assualt, which Oswin can do perfectly. He can even wield the Horseslayer here and pack 31 Atk, which isn't quite ORKOing, but it's damn close.

C21 - More FoW. Aren't we all happy? Another advantage is he can help guard the weaker PC from the flying onslaught safely.

C22 - Not a bad idea to have Mov, but this is a defend chapter with a LOT of reinforcements.

C23 - Okay, this be the desert. BAAAAHHHHH!

C23X - Having Res is actually a good advantage here, though having Mov is probably a good thing to have too. I'd value the durability here just because how chaotic this chapter can get.

C24 (Linus) - He can probably move North alright. All the Wyverns will be pretty much *tink* for him. Mercenaires and Heroes are probably just as bad.

C24 (Lloyd) - FoW, and Lloyd can be a nasty opponent to face. Oswin being able to at least handle some of the Light Brand shots is great.

C25 - Oswin can travel north to seize Pascal's spot with little Mov penalties. Not to mention most of the stuff charging at him will barely hurt, then Ballistae are almost a joke vs. him.

C26 - Another defend chapter

C27 - There's the snow... but I'm probably going to concede this one.

C28 - NASTY enemies here. Hero, the Mages, a lot of terrible things in the great indoors. Fog of War does not help compensate for this either. Lowen's Mov isn't going to be stretching him a whole lot, though at least by this point his durability is pretty good.

C28X - Move wins. No contest

C29 - Oswin can go north... or west. North is pretty far away from him.

C30 - Neither are being fielded. Pass.

C31 - Lowen wins because Oswin doesn't exist.

C32 - Eugh, I'd give Mov the win. Oswin can trigger 1, 2, or 4 reinforcemens IIRC.

C32X - Nasty map. Durability is a big win here.

Endgame - Oswin can go toward most of the rooms in a few amount of turns. Don't think he's the greatest in the room that has the Mages though. Ironically C29 has Warp, so he's not completely dead yet!

So granted that Oswin does lose to Lowen when Lowen's promoted, he can at least beat him until Lowen promotes, then at least contribute positively for a while. Oswin doesn't really "burn out" Mov-wise until about C28X.

-Option 2: Stay Unpromoted-

20/-- Oswin is still pretty beefy:

37.9 HP | 17.4 str | 12.3 Skl | 8.3 Spd | 6.85 Luck | 19.05 Def | 6.3 Res

Pretty similair to 15/1 Oswin. Now notice that he still has wtf on concrete durability, but he's easier to ferry with 14 Con. To give you an idea now that almost every unit promoted can ferry him around...

...EXCEPT LOWEN!

So Lowen can't actually obtain the advantage of ferrying Oswin if Lowen is promoted. Now he can at least gain some of the benefit beforehand, but Oswin can also gain the secondary benefit of promoting and killing Lowen's chance even unpromoted.

Now there's actually situations where I can plop Oswin into different places with Rescuing. For example, Florina + Fiora / Heath can plop Oswin in the middle of the desert provided that Oswin is holding a Pure Water and perhaps Vulnerary and contribute by nerfing down the # of turns needed to rout the map. Even so, we can also drop this Oswin altogether and free up a unit slot later on, so he can contribute by freeing up a slot as well.

So we have the option of him matching Mov easier for a while or being easier to ferry. The latter can actually free up a Knight Crest, which means an extra Paladin in our hands.

Quick overview of the next few maps:

- 17x is dominated by axe using enemies. Strong ones. Oswin can take on Damian though.

- 18 has Shamans which do quite some damage to both. Lowen can borderline survive two Flux Shamans usually, Oswin should be able to survive two for sure. But Oswin sometimes fails to double them, meaning he can only ORKO on player phase with Steel or Silver.

- 19 is quite large, so good use of Lowen's move there. There's a Torch Staff dropped from a fleeing thief.

- 19x has Mages, so I guess Oswin wins against those...but it's easier for Lowen to run ahead to compensate for that, and he can also reach forests earlier to reduce their hit.

- 19xx has a ballista and some chests that are being raided which Lowen's mount is useful for.

- 20 is one of the most movement heavy chapters I've ever seen.

Allow me to rehash this for you:

- 17X is a threat to everyone. Oswin can plug any of the 3 holes decently. The only major threat is the Hammer one. Anyway:

Iron + Hand Axe Pirates have about 15-17 Atk

Killer, Halberd, Swordslayer, and Hammer has about 25 Atk. Granted Hammer one jumps up a bit.

Nosferatu Shaman has 21 Atk. Oof.

Elfire Mage also has 21 Atk.

Killer Bow Archer has 21 Atk.

Devil Axe has 31 Atk, but 3 AS. Lol.

Many of these enemies are dangerous. For 15/-- Oswin:

33.4 HP | 6.8 AS | 16.3 Def | 4.8 Res

Iron Axe + Steel Axe do 0-2 damage per round

Killer does 9 damage, 27 if it's a Crit. Know anyone else that can take a Killer Axe Crit that well?

Halberd does 10 damage.

Swordslayer does 8 IIRC.

Hammer does do 20 damage.

Elfire Mage does 16 Atk. Same with Nosferatu Shaman.

Killer Bow does 5 damage, 15 if it's a Crit.

Devil Axe does 16 damage, but he does have a 31% chance to backfire.

Now I know you may think Oswin is actually losing, but everyone has a disadvantage here. Hector can't swallow many of these hits any easier, Eliwood and Lyndis have to pray the WTA works in favor of them, and they have to hope that the Shaman / Mage / Bowman doesn't attack them. Marcus might be able to do okay. Raven has to fear the random critkills much more than the lords, then factor that there's still the Swordslayer... you get my point? If we're charging against these things head-on, they aren't easy to combat with just one unit.

The good news is you can at least rig it so the Hammer Axe Pirate doesn't attack Oswin. So it's likely the... Killer Axe one I believe.

- C18 has it summed up with me.

- C19 can also have Oswin run ahead and lure in the enemies, which isn't a bad idea to consider.

- 19X I wouldn't quite call the Mov lead an advantage. Even though he can run around, he still has to fear the Mages and Armor Knights on the field.

- C20 is not as Mov-heavy as you think. The later turns are, but the earlier ones have to revolve around surviving the nasty assault from the Cavs + Maxime or whatever the hell his name is.

I'm not even going to assume C19XX because it involves a lot a luck vs. Kishuna in order to get there.

I'd like to look at promotion time now!

20/3 Oswin

Killer Lance: 30.2 atk, 11.9 AS, 103.3 hit, 37.2 crit - - 31.3 avo, 43.7 hp, 21.9 def, 9.9 res

20/1 Lowen

Killer Lance: 23.4 atk, 13.4 AS, 98.5 hit, 35.5 crit - - 38.8 avo, 41.2 hp, 16.2 def, 6.4 res

Let's compare them on FFO samples.

Mercs have 17-19 atk, so they do anywhere between 2 and 4 dmg to Lowen depending on what they are and what he got equipped. They tink on Oswin, but I'd say both are pretty invincible. They have 29-30 hp and 6-7 def, so both are 2RKOing.

A Wyvern Rider with Steel Lance has 23 atk, which does 7 dmg to Lowen and like 1 to Oswin. They could switch to axes, and then the Wyverns pretty much can't kill them. Those have 6 AS, which means both double. While FFO ones all carry Steel, in some upcoming maps they carry Iron or Javelin, in which case Oswin won't double and Lowen probably will, giving Lowen a large advantage. Oswin admittedly 2HKOs while Lowen 3HKOs, but whenever they crit Lowen OHKOs. So overall, I'd call them even on Wyverns.

Pirates are like Wyverns that both can 2HKO and that never fail to weigh themselves down...Lowen can WTA over them but Oswin probably won't die to them anytime soon.

There are also Mages / Sages / Druids later on, but I won't bother with that.

So if the above samples are anything to go by, their combat is similar. They double most slow enemies, Lowen sometimes a bit more, but Oswin sometimes 2HKOs where Lowen 3HKOs, like on Wyverns. Lowen suffers minor wounds while getting Oswin killed probably requires magic enemies. A tie in offense, and a might-as-well-tie in defense. What's left? Yeah, mobility.

Upcoming is lategame, and Battle Before Dawn is a perfect example of a chapter where Lowen trumps Oswin completely. Oswin cannot have a prayer of participating on this map due to his low movement, whereas Lowen can get partial credit for things like saving the suicidal NPCs on this chapter, stopping thieves from getting the oh so valuable chests, and generally murdering enemies before anyone gets to them. He is also the most durable mounted unit you have, meaning even amongst a crowd of mounted people, he's going to be the one taking hits the best. I'll expand on that if needed.

Actually I can point out that Oswin isn't being a terrible nuasance in this chapter either. Notice that the FoW prevents us from knowing most of the general enemies in the map, barring of course looking at it. The Movement is probably the win here though, but this is pretty far into the game as well.

His higher movement has utility in other maps, sometimes more crucial than others, but the bottom line is what's written in the earlygame section, minus the part where Lowen has to be more careful than Oswin.

So Lowinner > losswin I guess.

Nah, Oswin has a pretty crushing earlygame lead that can extend for quite a while. Oswin can still contribute positively since not every chapter is "seize" or "git to da choppah on turn 6" kind of ordeal. While in the very later stages of the game Oswin does not have as great of durability in comparison to earlygame, his major earlygame contributions stretch far and wide, while he can still contribute well into midgame. It's only lategame where he starts slipping around, and by the time we have Warp he could even be sent in the middle of a battlefield and not give a damn. Lowen definitely has the Mov advantage on Oswin, but Mov is not everything in this game.

So Oswin's major earlygame contributions and good midgames > Lowen's decent midgame returns and good lategame returns.