Critique of my no-grind lunatic run?

[Errorik]

I've just unlocked Morgan's Paralogue.

My Team so far:

Chrom:

lvl18 Lord.

Supports: S Avatar, C Sully, C Lucina.

Avatar:

lvl20 Tactician -> lvl20 Dark Mage -> lvl7 Sorcerer.

Supports: S Chrom, C Sumia, C Lucina.

Sully:

lvl20 Cavalier -> lvl1 Paladin.

Supports: A Stahl, B Sumia, C Chrom, C Miriel.

Stahl:

lvl20 Cavalier -> lvl1 Paladin.

Supports: A Sully, B Panne, C Mirel.

Miriel:

lvl10 Mage -> lvl9 Sage.

Supports: C Sully, C Stahl.

Sumia:

lvl6 Peg Knight.

Supports: B Sully, C Avatar.

Panne:

lvl 10 Taguel -> lvl18 Wyvern Rider.

Supports: B Stahl, B Gaius, C Lon'qu.

Cordelia:

lvl11 Peg Knight.

Supports: S Lon'qu.

Lon'qu:

lvl16 Myrm.

Supports: S Cordelia, C Panne.

Nowi:

lvl12 Manakete.

Supports: S Gregor, C Tharja.

Gregor:

lvl11 Merc

Supports: S Nowi.

Anna:

lvl3 Trickster.

Tharja:

lvl12 Dark Mage.

Supports: C Nowi.

I can provide other information if needed. I just wanted to see if I had fed Panne/Avatar too much or need to restart to have better distributed xp.

[Ownagepuffs]

You're going to have to drop Cordy and Sumia. They won't keep up. Team looks a little big. Other than that you'll be fine.

[Czar_Yoshi]

I just wanted to see if I had fed Panne/Avatar too much or need to restart to have better distributed xp.

I don't think you've fed them nearly enough. Enemies are about to start promoting en masse and without a few 20/10+ units to fight with they're going to kick you in the teeth.

You can still make it through, but you'll need to drop some units.

[Errorik]

I feel like I've missed out on Lon'qu, Cordelia, and Sumia to gain ok units like Gregor and Nowi. I'm not against restarting.

[XeKr]

Usually if you want to use a lot of characters you'll want Rally Spectrum and also to plan a way to marry couples efficiently (preserving the spirit of no-grind) to use the Paralogues for exp. This typically also frees up an early Second Seal for someone else, letting their stats be a bit better also.

You don't have to restart, but you'll likely find that later chapters will be a lot easier with a few of your stronger units, rather than a crowd.

[Errorik]

I've always had trouble picking units of similar value, so I end up using all of them. One concern I have is my Miriel skipping 10 lvls to get to sage. I use her as a staff bot for the most part but will the lack of extra stats become a problem later?

[Czar_Yoshi]

I've always had trouble picking units of similar value, so I end up using all of them.

Are you referring to the game's unit rating system? Don't use that, it's misleading and fairly useless. You should always have the bottom screen set to full so you can see enemy stats.

[Errorik]

I'm going off of the Lunatic tier list posted by Legault! http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=39010. An example would be picking between Vaike or Cherche. Vaike is listed higher (only by one) but I'm torn because of Cherche having flight and utility as opposed to Vaike having much better availability. Then again, I can have a whole team while ignoring the B tier section.

edit: I'm an experienced player but I'm not a fan of determining which units are worth using on my own, when I can pull from a large amount of "data" based on other players' experiences.

Edited April 15, 2015 by Centh

[Czar_Yoshi]

First off tier lists for ingame are bogus because everyone has a different definition of what counts as "efficient play". Second, that list doesn't reflect changing utility based on how far you are through the game, conditions required for units to be useful, etc. Third, it's two years old- you can't expect players who have had the game for a month to know anywhere near as much about it as players who have had it for two (or three, if you have a JP copy).

[Errorik]

Any tips for better unit picks in the future?

[Irysa]

Well it kind of depends on what you want to do with your run.

Do you want to use a lot of units? Do you want to just beat the game? Do you want to do particular reclasses?

[Errorik]

I guess that's my problem. I'm used to there being fairly set standards on what is good from the other games. I enjoy always having good combat units, so I guess I should be going for a smaller party, but I can't pick the ones I want.

[Irysa]

Prior game tier lists have mostly been thought around in terms of efficient playthroughs.

If you don't care about going fast, just about anyone can be turned into a pretty good combat unit in this game. However, everyone who isn't Avatar (or a child character I guess) takes substantially more effort to snowball, although admittedly, the gap is not overwhelmingly massive; Avatar is just hilariously far ahead in potential due to Veteran. This game's balance is completely whack as a result. The easiest and most foolproof way to beat the game is to AvatarxChrom duo the entire thing, throwing in their kids of Morgan and Lucina as well if you want, along with your staffbot entourage for rescue staff abuse and rallies. In semi-traditional efficiency terms, assuming a full recruitment run it's still much the same, except a secondary Wyvern becomes pretty invaluable for some of the rout maps. Panne is good at this, but Lon'qu and Sully can do it too.

The more units you use, the slower you have to go and the more you have to milk EXP out of maps. I think that roughly, two first gen combat pairs of 4 units is a decent amount to focus on to start with. You can use some more but they won't be long term unless they're staffbots. Typically this would be Chrom, Avatar and their spouses, or an additional pair of other characters if you're marrying Chrom and Avatar. Later, incorporate their children into your team. If you put work your utility/filler units can marry to produce pair up partners for those children, or they can just go with A supports with parents or siblings or whatever.

I say this because via guesstimating from my own EXP totals from my own NoGrind where I ran 3 first gen pairs and 2 second gen pairs, along with utility units (this resulted in what I'd consider full deployment), and frankly, without reinforcement milking, there is no way for everyone to keep up consistenly. Cutting a single combat pair off there should greatly alleviate the problem.

Edited April 17, 2015 by Irysa

[Ownagepuffs]

Looking back, I ran Chromia, Avatar/Nah, Morgan/Say'ri, Cordy/Severa, Cherche/Fred, and Lucy/Cynthia towards the end. It's really not hard to run a lot of pairs, nor does it take that long. I dodged a lot of reinforcements too. You just have to know who you want to train off the bat and allocate resources accordingly.

[Irysa]

I guess to be fair I pretty much gave up on EXP allocation once I got Tiki, who basically solo'd the entire last stretch of the game with Lucina in her pocket. However, I also had no Galeforce, and "put unkillable unit in middle of map" gets kind of appealing later on when the lategame map design is considered.

Edited April 17, 2015 by Irysa

[Errorik]

Alright, I've decided just to restart. I'm going for the following units in the beginning of the game:

1. Miriel, with a lvl10 promote to replace Lissa. (staffbot).

2. Stahl due to finding from my other run, that he ends up being better long run than Sully.

3. Panne, lvl 10 reclass to wyvern since she has beast growths with it.

4. Avatar (obviously).

5. Chrom.

6. Lon'qu

7. Sumia simply due to flying being an awesome utility, which I may replace with Cordelia, since Sumia never seems to get much action in my play throughs.

Is this already too many for exp allocation in the beginning? Also, I feel like this is physical damage heavy. Maybe throw Tharja in to replace Stahl later.

edit: I guess I should just play a rally style, since I seem to not be able to narrow down a list, haha.

Edited April 18, 2015 by Centh

[Ownagepuffs]

I really dislike the late game maps. They're way too "super unit" happy. They'd be more interesting if their objectives were seize.

[Czar_Yoshi]

Maybe throw Tharja in to replace Stahl later.

Never replace a G1 unit with another G1 unit. It's a waste of exp and you get nothing out of it- Stahl won't help early on, he'll take effort to get going and you'll bench him before the payoff.

Those units are OK but you've got a lot of earlygame ones (consider someone from Cht.7-11 where exp isn't so tight and Avatar will be awesome to help them get going). You should also know in advance who you want to pair with who- barring an Avatar-M you've got a pairing imbalance and with him he's still got none of his good marriage options available (Cordelia, Nowi, spammed Olivia).

[Irysa]

1. Miriel, with a lvl10 promote to replace Lissa. (staffbot).

2. Stahl due to finding from my other run, that he ends up being better long run than Sully.

3. Panne, lvl 10 reclass to wyvern since she has beast growths with it.

4. Avatar (obviously).

5. Chrom.

6. Lon'qu

7. Sumia simply due to flying being an awesome utility, which I may replace with Cordelia, since Sumia never seems to get much action in my play throughs.

1. Just quick promote Lissa into Sage, instead of trying to train Miriel IMO. Lissa has the advantage of being able to eventually reclass into a Falco which is a really good class to be in as a staffbot later on, and E tomes is passable for the time period where she'll be a Sage. Also you can't really have too many staffbots, so Libra and Anna are great choices as well. Lissa can also marry Libra fairly easily because Libra can get in decent combat vs enemy mages for a long time, and they can spam rescue staves on each other to build support. Olivia is also a no brainer as another utility unit.

2. Stahl's alright but he has a really big speed rut to get out of. It's difficult to use him without a second seal into a class like Myrmidon. He will probably hit the bench or become pairup fodder without loads of favouritism.

3. Panne's a solid choice for helping out. If you marry her to Stahl then that's fine I guess.

4. Yeah.

5. Yeah.

6. Marry Avatar to Lon'qu for a good ingame pairing.

7. Marry Sumia to Chrom for another good ingame pairing.

Team looks fine to me, just don't try to train Stahl too much. Gregor is much easier to use though. Cordelia can also replace Panne without sucking up a second seal with a bit of help.

Edited April 18, 2015 by Irysa

[Errorik]

I don't have my 3DS with me currently, but I can summarize the changes I have made (I restarted).

I'm on the chapter titled "Smoldering Resistance".

Married Avatar to Chrom and passed Veteran to Lucina, and she is a lvl 5 Great Lord w/o prepromoting.

Avatar is a lvl 16 sorceress.

Chrom is a lvl 3 Greatlord.

Morgan is a lvl 9 Grandmaster.

Lon'qu is a lvl 5 swordmaster but only has 27 speed.

Sumia is a lvl 4 Falcoknight with great growths.

Anna is a lvl 9 trickster.

Libra is a lvl 8 warmonk.

Tharja is a lvl 18 darkmage.

Panne is a lvl 3 wyvernlord and can be S paired with Gregor (who is only lvl 14).

I use Olivia a bit but only if I need an extra move during the first turn or two.

I'll add better info later.

[Ownagepuffs]

You move fast. Best of luck on your retry!

[Czar_Yoshi]

I'm not seeing a husband for Sumia and only one wife for Lon'qu or Libra... You should try to fit at least one in because it's a shame to train parents up without getting children from them (especially Libra, who takes so much exp and gives such a good skill as a result).

If Panne can get her S support with Gregor definitely do it. Also prioritize getting Sumia one more level because Rally Spd is really good.

[Errorik]

I'll start working on marriages with pairbots on my next chapter, such as Nowi, and Miriel. Would pairing Sumia with Morgan be viable? I'm unsure if Cynthia is good as a caster.

[Czar_Yoshi]

Sumia can only marry Avatar, Chrom, Fred, Gaius and Henry.

...But even then Avatar is the only 1st gen who can marry 2nd gens period, so you wouldn't be able to do that even without Sumia's limited support pool.

[Errorik]

Sumia has A support with Fred on my file, so I can make S easily.