Offense vs. defense

[Chiki]

How do you prefer to play the game when you play casually? Nosfertanking, using Manaketes and Generals, or using strong and relatively fast units?

I personally think offense is the best defense in this game, so I pack my team with as many Galeforcers as possible with high move. The goal is to prevent the opponent having any enemy units alive at all during the enemy phase.

[Thor Odinson]

Great Knights.

Every time I do a run half my team inevitably becomes GKs. I think I need to start using units that can't become GKs or make awful GKs...

It's kinda both 'cuz I try to use pairup and other things to boost their speed and mov so I'm just rushing with a bunch of tanks, not as fast as Galeforcing everything but 7-9 move with both good rates of killing things fast due to high strength and good rates of facetanking is my thing also WTC

I guess I like a mix between reliability and blitzing?

Edited June 16, 2013 by Thor Odinson

[HeoandReo]

If I'm playing to win or just playing the harder stuff, I use and abuse Galeforce, either to split my units up in groups or as a hit-and-run strategy by retreating backward when I've scored a kill to lure in the enemies. I do usually try to have at least 2 units capable of tanking if I need them to, though. (Usually a Sorcerer, Nah or a Pavise/Aegis/Sol unit, sometimes all three)

Casually, I just do whatever and do a lot of really silly things, like Bolt Axe War Monks, teams of Swordmasters/Tricksters, Lucky 7/Quick Burn evade abuse, Longbow Lethalities, Locktouch/Deliverer/Movement+1, make physical units do magic,(I'll maintain that Sorcerer Kjelle's pretty viable) make magic units do physical stuff, and making plot-important female characters like Lucina and Say'ri Brides to make cutscenes even more ridiculous.

Edited June 16, 2013 by HeoandReo

[NinjaMonkey]

I pack my team with a tonne of Spotpass units, and then proceed to rape the enemy units with their brokenness.

[Randa]

Defense when I'm out leveled or I'm just screwing around. Offense is only when I'm doing a draft or doing a couple of the DLC for skills.

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

Cavalier

Paladin

MORE AND MORE AND MORE AND MORE PALADIN

[Airship Canon]

To sum up my strategy: Keep Calm And Storm Strike Vanguard

I set up my units offensively (mostly). Prioritize damage dealing and Vantage for defense, unless I can get some serious beef on a unit.

And then I piledrive. Don't really care for high movement for the same reasons I never have: Breaks up my formations.

As a whole though, I'm more slow/defensive. Don't really care about being "fast". Time is not a resource in my eyes.

Always have been, always will be. It's a basis that has yet to fail me in any SRPG(*Stares Valkyrie Profile Covenant of the Plume* What's that? Realmstalker? Want more of me kicking your ass? (Also, Hey, Lenneth, your "toy" sucks. I never use it!)

Edited June 16, 2013 by Airship Canon

[General Horace]

offence has and will probably always be more effective in fire emblem games

[PuffPuff]

I pack my team with a tonne of Spotpass units, and then proceed to rape the enemy units with their brokenness.

I never liked doing that. I've always like to raise them from scratch.

-----

I've always loved using Dark Knights for their great mobility and great Offense/Defense. I always abuse the hell out of Veteran to get MU, Morgan, Lucina, Spotpass/DLC characters their skills faster.

Skill combinations I adore...

Sol+Renewal+Miracle+Nosferatu/Aversa's Night

I've always loved doing this on Noire.

Pairing her with either Avatar/Donnel for this combination.

Armsthrift+Divine Weapons

Logical.

Vantage+Astra+Wrath+Vengeance/Lethality

Doing this makes em hard to stop.

Aggressor+ Faire skills+ Str+2/Mag+2 or All Stats+2+Luna/Ignis

Doing this tears apart Dragonskin.

Zeal+Wrath+Gamble+Killer Weapon

Tears apart Dragonskin off Validar.

Duel Support+ + Duel Guard+ Pavise/Aegis (or both)

Make them hard to hit you.

Lucky Seven+Quick Burn+Hit+20+Increased skill on weapon forges.+Underdog if possible

Makes it like Hawkeye for the first 7 turns.

Edited June 16, 2013 by ポーラ

[Shadow Mir]

Defense all day erry day, unless I have to go kill a thief or need to get some distance between me and reinforcements that try to flank from the starting position.

[Henry]

I'm one of those people who thinks killing things using counter is entertaining, I s'pose that counts as defensive.

[Ema Skye]

Offense if it helps me beat the map faster. Like if I 1-turn a map, I have no need for defense.

Otherwise, I go defense.

[PKL]

I always do offense even if playing casual. Defense is for chumps like Jedi or Lucina.

[Folt]

I mix it a bit, though I tend to have most of my battles on enemy phase, so I guess I lean a bit towards being defensive.

[Parrhesia]

The most important attributes are Strength, HP and Defence, in that order.

[Tamanoir]

Well... Y'know, healers aren't gonna train themselves...

Besides, I doubt my party will be strong enough anyway, if I want the children ASAP...

[Djing]

Since the word casually popped up, hyper offence all the way.

All sorcerers use Ruin and Mire (Nosferatu is for wusses).

Distribute Luna and Galeforce to as many units as possible.

[arvilino]

Tough question. Offense can be pretty good but in Fire Emblem defense(specifically the stats) also influence offense since they dictate how many rounds of combat a unit can have/survive per turn.

[Shahrivar]

Offensive, I love assassins (Anna, Say'ri, MU).

And I dislike horse units, so no Great Knights, Paladins etc for me. No spotpass either, they feel so impersonal.

[Da Bear]

Defense when I'm out leveled or I'm just screwing around. Offense is only when I'm doing a draft or doing a couple of the DLC for skills.

This. I prefer defense almost always but offense is preferred when I'm drafting or something like that.

[Dandragon]

I play Casual the same way I play Classic, defensively. I don't put galeforce on every unit I can. I simply look at what the unit will be good at and give out skills accordingly in order to help.

[Donnel]

pure offensive will make the game boring because every enemy just die.

pure defensive is boring because u don't need to do anything else.

Make the game hard enough to have fun but not luck based enough to cause frustration will be the best/difficult to make.

So going for support log gives a more fun experience than focusing on offense or defense.

[The Fush]

My strategy usually goes four ways, and this also applies to games outside of Awakening:

Strategy 1: Grab a wall like Kellam, bolster his defense with pair-up, put him in some blocking/distracting position on the map and let the enemies tink him for nothing. Then, let Kellam and his partner kill stuff, along with other people killing from a range.

Strategy 2: When a map can be completely blocked using only one point, I tend to put beefier units out front to take a line of damage from the enemies, then burst through all of them on the following turn when they're weakened. Blocking the whole legion with one guy and letting him hog the experience is bad for the scrubbier units.

Strategy 3: Let the enemies come towards me/attract their attention with one or two guys, then pull in everyone else to massacre. Rinse and repeat.

Strategy 4 (Late Game Only): Rush through everything like a maniac since most of my units are overpowered at this point. Not done often, as I sometimes like to challenge myself. This is more of a backup strategy if I'm lazy.

[euklyd]

Offense is probably "better", but most of the time I'm too lazy to plan things out super well.

So I try to deal as much damage as possible, so that I can heal as much as possible with Sol. Is that offense or defense?

If I'm actually playing seriously, on something like Apotheosis or Priam's Paralogue, I'll generally play cautiously, so I'll pack my team with Galeforcers and Rescue bots so that only one or two enemies can touch my units during EP.

If there's a map that really lends itself to defense, like R&R with its chokepoints, then I'll consider defending a location.