Rate the unit, Day 3: Oswin

[Elieson]

Very useful in early game. Low mov. Axes & lances post promotion. Levels easily ost of reinforcement that show near the beginning of a chapter. Super Hector support.

My rating, 6.5/10.

Disclaimer: all ratings should be based on the assumption that the game is being played on HHM. Also, unit rating is based on availability starting at their first available playable chapter.

Current ranks:

Hector-

Matthew-6.3

[Junkhead]

6. Barely redeemable, thanks to 2HKO'ing action and amazing durability. His low Mov and lack of Spd really put him dowm.

[nabvfgsyeahuwdefgfue7huiwr]

999999999999999999999999/10

Reason: Oswin is a tank!!!!!

In all seriousness, I'll give him a 9.5/10. He's a nearly perfect unit (sometimes requiring a speedwing) once you can get past his movement. He joins early, at a high level (but not a prepromote) and has great availability. Despite all the times I've played this game through (at least 5 times), I have never been able to play through it once without finding myself drawn towards using Oswin, even though he is really just a pile of armor without much personality (compared to Gatrie and Brom who are both just a pile of armor but at least have some sort of personality, albeit somewhat dysfunctional ones).

[Thor Odinson]

Only usable armour in the GBA series IMO thanks to being pretty good in early and some of mid due to movement not being as important in those chapters and his durability is very nice to have. Dwindles after a certain point, however, as he is stuck at ≤5 move forever after unless Boots and Hector is better for boots since dude's gotta seize. Overall, 6.5/10.

Edited December 20, 2011 by Luminescent Blade

[Smiley Jim]

In the earlygame, Oswin is pretty amazing. 28HP/13def allows him to absorb as many as 6 hits from most of the brigands in the first 3 maps of his existence, something only Marcus can match. And he has 90HP/55def growths and a 30 cap, just to overkill it. Basically, Oswin is virtually unkillable by physical attackers, unless they carry silver or an effective weapon, and even then he's still talking the hits better than anyone else on your team. Offensively, he's a beast, as well. 20 atk with an iron lance allows him to 2HKO virtually anything earlygame except for bosses, which allows him to set up kills for scrubs like Eliwood. And he has an above average 40% strength growth, so he can continue to chip at things, which is definitely helpful. And being at Lv9 means that he doesn't need EXP as badly as, say, Eliwood or Lowen, though Oswin still puts EXP to good use. And he's not half bad with training; at 20/1, he's rocking with 42HP/19Str/21Def. Ridiculous. And he's probably your first candidate for a crest as your cavs aren't built up yet.

There is, however, the issue with his movement. If we are talking earlygame, then he's doing alright. However, 4 movement(5 after promotion)is plain bad, and promoted Oswin is so fat he can only be carried by Eliwood and Rath(and unpromoted Florina, I guess). The boots can alleviate this somewhat, but they don't show up until BBD, and rescue-dropping is out of the question as, again, almost nobody can carry him. His speed is a minor issue, as he only has 5 to start and has a 30% growth, giving him 11 speed at 20/1, which is still enough to double midgame, but discourages long-term potential as he's usually getting doubled by things that actually threaten him(i.e. Valkyries.)

Earlygame and midgame utility is nice, but you can only do so much with a knight.

7.5

[zahlman]

Oswin has no real advantages over Hector except even more def (but that doesn't get you through Final when you're slow, and is redundant for most of the rest of the game), a bit more res (but not enough to matter really), and an early level lead. The level lead is nice for Ch 15 and 13x since it means you have a high-def unit on early-game defense maps, but there are others who can do the same job on 13x (and ways to reduce the number of choke points to deal with; 15 OTOH can be very annoying). But that's about it in early game, and Hector catches up in levels very quickly in HHM, even in efficient play, because there's just so much to smite and so many times that Hector's the best man for the job (well, besides Marcus anyway).

That weighs against the lack of a pwnsome prf weapon, the movement issue and trailing in speed (although not as badly as you might expect). Those are all pretty major. The majority of the time in FE, armors just make way more sense as an enemy class than a player class.

I'll say 5.5/10 6/10 because he's nice to have in Ch 14. That's higher than I'd give Bors or Barth in FE6, by a lot, so...

Edited December 20, 2011 by zahlman

[riariadne]

Oswin is easily the best GBA armorknight. He has plenty of earlygame contributions that make him a good deal more useful at frankly anything than others of his class. Bad movement rains on his parade, which hurts him a lot, but otherwise he takes hits well and deals damage back.

6.5/10

Actually, lowering this to 5/10. Looking over some of the maps, I think I underestimated how quickly Oswin's bad movement bites him back. His parameters are solid and his earlygame rocks, but the fun stops there. It doesn't matter how awesome you are if you can't utilize it. Oswin gets his few shining moments of awesome then drops like a rock.

Edited December 20, 2011 by Dave Strider

[eclipse]

Oswin has awesome bases. Oswin has awesome affinity. Oswin. . .is also rather heavy once promoted, so ferrying him around is troublesome. Otherwise, he's relegated to caravan guard. The changed Cog of Destiny screws him over the hardest, as he's godly in the physical versions.

5.5/10

[MacLovin]

7/10

Good earlygame.

Indestructability to physical attacks

Can use axes after promotion

Decent Mid-Game

Decent supports

Could get the Knight crest right away, because

Lowen/Kent would probobly not be good candidates for early promotion.

(And who doesn't promoted Sain in LHM.)

Cons

Low Move

Lowish Res

Enough speed to not get doubled, but will get doubled by problematic things, Like Valks.

Can only be rescue-dropped by Rath, Eliwood, and an unpromoted Florina.

His Endgame isn't very good.

Due to getting doubled by a ton of things.

But, he's useable, which is more than what Wil, Becky, or Nino can say.

[Bluedoom]

I'll give him 8/10. He's basically Hector without wolf beil and more defensive.

Great up till Chapter 18 where you have the ship. He's still awesome in the ship and OHKO;s the peggys and shamen.

Then unless you promote him he's a little redundant. He's great for survival maps since movt not that much required. He has a better WTA than Hector since he can use Axes and lances, both better than swords imo.

Also he's a pretty fast general compared to the other GBA versions. He has potential to double, and I've never really had issues with his speed.

[Florete]

7/10.

Very good for a while early on when Defense is actually really useful and almost no one is ORKOing so his powerful hits actually mean a lot, but steeply declines due to the worst movement in the game and generally poor Spd.

[Seven Deadly Sins]

9/10

This nonsense about him getting doubled is irrelevant because he promotes at 15 in Pirate Ship and hits 10 Speed, which lets him double everything. Speed doesn't exist in this game, and once you get to Dread Isle and beyond enemies rarely break 6-7 Speed. He never gets doubled outside of maaaaaaaybe Swordmasters (who tink him) and Heroes, who don't do especially good damage anyway- sword heroes tink him and axe heroes might not double due to weight. He has basically sole ownership of all effective weaponry due to its unnecessarily high weight, and is basically indestructible. His movement issues are nonexistent earlygame, in midgame he has unpromoted Florina and Priscilla to ferry him around, and later on he has promoted Eliwood to do the same, not to mention there are few maps where an indestructible low-move character isn't helpful. He basically makes earlygame tolerable by himself and there's essentially not any point in time where he's actually a bad unit.

[Mousefire]

7/10

He's a tank early on, and decent later on. If only he had 6 movement on promotion...

[dondon151]

low move 2/10

[chococoke]

dondon's ultratroll attempt aside, I'm rather shocked at the mediocre scores Oswin is getting given his invincibility for a good part of Hector/Eliwood mode

[eclipse]

This is HHM. If this were any other mode, he would've scored way better.

[Bluedoom]

Actualy, shouldn't it be the other way around? In HHM he's more valuable because he's real durable and can take out a lot of enemies in the first five-6 chapters.

He's still pretty good at Caravan duty and can take out reinforcements with ease. He wouldn't rank so high in other modes because you've got other units who can do as well as he does and higher movement.

[chococoke]

What Marth said. Enemies are stronger in HHM, so his awesome durability is even more desired. Oswin can tank better than anyone not named Marcus up until about Chapter 17-18

[Thor Odinson]

IDK, if he even had 6 move I'd give him an 8, but -1 move from normal foot units hurts a lot imo.

[dondon151]

not a troll attempt

oswin is soooo overrated

[Peppy]

He can be useful in early game but after that, not much going for him. I am not really a fan of Armor Knights and i barely use them. Oswin has low movement and the boots are used for Hector anyways.

I give him a 5/10!

not a troll attempt

oswin is soooo overrated

This, i agree with...

Edited December 20, 2011 by Aelphaeis Mangarae

[chococoke]

not a troll attempt

oswin is soooo overrated

That may be true, but his earlygame easily warrants more than a 2/10

[whase]

his only problem is his move. his other stats are epic to start off with, and are still good later in the game.

he and Marcus are the perfect guard together for Merlinus until he starts to be mobile. you get enough knight crests to promote Oswin early.

Generals are for protecting certain spots, not for charging the front lines. Oswin is another unit that does exactly what he's for.

8/10

[Vorena]

In your 0% most recently you deployed him effectively for most chapters until after Ch.20 where you stopped using him. Getting him to promote at lv.12 on ch.18. In that run, I'd say Oswin made significant contributions to warrant higher than a 2/10. Certain strategies were made which relied on him keeping a choke point or doing enough damage for others to kill. This is his role throughout the entire game if one continues to use him. And its not a pitiful role by any means as there are plenty of segments for him to hold choke points in HHM after ch.20 too.

Ignoring an effective run, Oswin would be seeing more combat and thus raise to a high level. Probably enough to put him at lv 14-15 by chapter 18. After that, Exp gain is very slow and promotion is in order. And by which time his stats are generally high enough to warrant further usage in later chapters.

However, he isn't necessary later for any strategies, but its not like he isn't still useful.

I'd give it a 6/10. Fairly necessary early game, but complete choice to use him later on and not be worse off for any reason.

[dondon151]

OK serious face here.

On any normal playthough, Oswin's durability can be effectively duplicated by some combination of units, or is made altogether unnecessary. I promoted Oswin because he was my only fallback in the absence of growths and there were no better units to use the Knight Crest on. In any serious efficient playthough, Oswin should not be promoted at all and should be ditched after chapter 18. In fact, you can probably stop using him after as early as chapter 15 and not experience any significant repercussions.

Obviously 2/10 is not a very serious score but there has been a surprising lack of weight given to Oswin's terribad movement and con.