Tactician-less Campaign (Hard CLA)

[Tamarsamar]

Casual lurker deciding to make an account to post for some advice. I hope you'll forgive me for the time being for skipping out on introductions for the time being and cutting straight to the chase. I will make an introduction thread later in the day if it proves necessary.

For my third playthrough of Awakening total--first with a male avatar, second with a female avatar--I will be playing with no avatar! Or any units with the Tactician class option in general. Turns out x1.5 exp gain and minimal reclass restrictions is kind of broken, never mind the customizable stats and supports with everybody that the avatar benefits from. So for this run, the basic premise is to remove Tacticians from the action as much as possible.

My avatar will be a default male named *, +HP/-Str, but his weapons will be removed, he will not initiate a single battle nor even provide support, and just in general avoid action and abstain from exp in the few chapters he's required in.

Other specifications for the run I can think of:

*No skirmish grinding

*No Bonus Team shops

*No paid DLC (Bonus Box Items and Maps okay at will)

*Anna shops, Streetpass shops okay (I only own one copy of the game--and one 3DS--and will not abuse any friends' copies I may be made aware of)

*Barracks, Event tiles okay

*Basically the game is to be played at an easygoing pace to avoid burning out on what can still be a frustrating game at times (looking at you, Valm arc). I don't exactly need my hand held, but I don't consider myself Lunatic material, either.

With the best possible units in the game gone, choosing the core units for the run is more important than ever, and for this run my strategy will be to forge an army of 10. This allows me to conveniently set up five married pairs: Chrom and his family, and two only-child families whose children can each marry one of Chrom's children. (Side note: this means that Lissa is exempt from becoming a core unit for reasons.) This also lets me eliminate the problem that plagued both of my previous runs of trying to distribute exp among too many units (16 was the target number in my second run, being the maximum number allowed in the final battle), preventing some of them from progressing as well as I would have liked (I never got around to doing the Paralogues for half the children I wanted by the time I decided to beat Grima's face in, simply on account of the slow progression of their parents).

This is the first point where this thread comes in. True, this is an argument that has been done to death and back for a multitude of reasons, but I am stuck trying to determine who Chrom is going to marry. Here's what I've determined so far:

[spoiler=Bachelorette #1]*Growth rates are basically king in a plain ol' run like this, and among Chrom's potential suitors I like Maribelle's the best (HP aside). Furthermore, she has a son, Brady, who comes with the elusive Rightful King skill, and is very desirable if I happen to find that I want a strong daughter-bearing family. The problem is . . . that it's Maribelle. She never even got a level 15 skill for herself by the time I finished my second run, and if I wanted to pass one down to Lucina, how could I possibly do that with her? Woe be onto me especially if I decide to go for Galeforce specifically, as Peg Knight Maribelle was a particularly painful experience I went through on my last run . . . and as much as I like Rightful King, Brady can only possibly get two skills that even work with it: Luna . . . and Miracle.

[spoiler=Bachelorette #2]*Runner-up for favored growth rates in this category is Sumia. Tried and true, it takes basically no effort to pair up these two and watch Lucina double ALL the things. Though the fast track option to Galeforce is tempting, I worry how much Sumia's own personal growth would be stunted by having her first reclass at effectively 35 instead of, say, 10. I might just elect to attempt passing down Pavise or DG+ instead. Aether Cynthia is certainly no slouch, and Lucina certainly doesn't suffer from inheriting Aether, but I hope you can understand what I mean when I say I'd personally prefer seeing as many level 15 skills on my children as I can get. Furthermore, opting for Cynthia mandates that the other two families I train up end up bearing sons, which might be unfavorably inflexible if there is the possibility of a good daughter-bearing family . . . maybe that should be the next thing I look up.

[spoiler=Bachelorette #3]*Basically neck-and-neck with Bachelorette #2 in growth rates is Olivia. Plus-sides: loads and loads of amazing skills--combinations like Rightful King+Lethality are possible here on BOTH children (thus making her a go-to spouse for a Streetpass team)! Down-sides: obvious and plentiful. I've read stories of people getting her to level 15 in a promoted class without grinding and by the end of Chapter 13, but quite frankly I don't think I'm one of those people. If anything, we're just looking at some of Bachelorette #1's downsides exacerbated to the extreme!

[spoiler=Bachelorette #4]*As much as I love her character, I find Sully's growth rates to be the least favorable here. Lucina with Lancebreaker is pretty good I guess? But then, Chrom actually doesn't have much for Kjelle--literally just Aether and Archer. Apologies if you ship these two, but I think they are a bit of a mismatch.

Side note, since this section is otherwise so short: thank you for reading this far, first of all. Secondly, one notable downside of this run is that Lucina loses any possible access to the Hero class. A waste of potential, if you were to ask me! I made her a Hero as her final class in my second run, and the animations suited her quite well, for being the murder machine she had become by that point.

Of course, as I made this post it has dawned on me that maybe I am fixating on Chrom's family a bit too much and should work to see which other two families I want first. If nothing else, it would help eliminate half of Chrom's options depending on whether I want both of them to have sons or one of them to have a daughter. I think I'll work on that later . . .

Edited June 26, 2015 by Tamarsamar

[Czar_Yoshi]

Growth rates aren't really that important. With a small team, you'll have plenty of time to cap all your stats anyway, so classes and availability matter much more.

Chrom!Brady really stinks as a unit ingame due to coming with no combat weapon ranks, effectively no skills (all of his are borderline useless), so Maribelle should be at the bottom of the barrel. Sumia really is your best choice bar almost none due to availability and classes, and if you want a son Olivia will work much better than Maribelle (though you may want to dance-grind her a bit to help out the childrens' bases and make Inigo's paralogue easier).

Good drop-in male supports are Yarne (especially when fathered by Stahl) and Owain (anyone, but Fred and Libra may be your best bets). If you decide you want a female, Severa (likely Vaike) or maybe Nah (Vaike or Gregor) can perform well.

[Red Lilies]

Growth wise, I've never had much of a problem with Maribelle if I reclass her to a mage asap, then take her the sage route (this can, in the right game lead into a class change aiming for galeforce, but sometimes her growth isn't quite right and it's harder to be dependent on her in the field). Brady gets magic based skills, but still has states problems (though storywise, he and Chrom have such a cute recruitment....but I digress). And same with Lucina, which isn't very useful if you want her to be in any class no magic (as tomefairy does no good then). Classwise, Maribelle allows for Lucina to have a decent choice, but Brady is eh with Chrom's options (I've never found cavalier or archer helpful when he's so much more a mage due to Maribelle).

Olivia is good only if you get her up through assassin fast enough and honestly I rarely get around to doing this because it's grinding work with dancing on the maps and I'm lazy. But if/when you do, I really like both Lucina's and Ingio's options and stats.

Gonna agree with poster above about Sumia having a full range for classes for both the girls, so I favor her (you can get a good tank Lucina too out of the knight route).

For supports I'll second Yarne and Owain, and add Kjelle for the girls (With Gregor or Donnel if you want more grinding...., or gaius so she is fast and gets galeforce)

[Tamarsamar]

I don't know if reducing my core team by 6 units will make that dramatic a difference in stat capping. Last run my only unit who ever capped multiple stats was Tiki, and that was only before she got promoted to Griffon Rider. I don't think anyone who had a capped stat ever managed to cap a stat again after promotion. But maybe I am indeed putting too much emphasis on growth rates, and should focus more on Skill availability like in my previous runs (while keeping in mind that, in practice, units are not normally going to level into more than one promoted level 15 skill).

This being said, Chrom marrying Olivia is a clear choice here--but I don't know how you guys do it! First of all, you'd need to spend around 60 turns dancing, between three maps that all relentlessly assault you. Then, if you somehow managed that, you'd need to class change her--presumably into a Myrmidon?--then somehow get enough experience with whatever enemies remain to both promote and get her promoted class's skills! As cool as Lucina with Swordfaire sounds, how?

As for the other two families . . . well, if growth rates really don't matter that much I just wasted an afternoon to figure out that Nowi's are kind of nuts. With so many diverse options to choose from, though, I need to use some kind of metric to figure out who I want to use and why. (And, as mentioned earlier, Lissa is precluded from being a core unit, which implicitly precludes Owain as well. I'm not entirely thrilled about the idea of recruiting a guy just to have him S-Rank one of his cousins.) So, I guess what I should use is who can make the most tightly-knit support net outside of the married pairs. Chrom can support Fred, Vaike, and Gaius, though there's some leeway since none of those three support each other. Maribelle can support Olivia, and Sully can support Sumia. Lucina can support an unrelated Kjelle or Cynthia, and Inigo supports Brady. So . . .

Chrom-Olivia

(Maribelle, Sully/Sumia)-(???, ???)

Brady-Lucina

Cynthia/Kjelle-Inigo

is one possible solution. Alternatively,

Chrom-Sumia

(Gaius, ???)-(Maribelle, Olivia)

(Brady, Inigo)-(Cynthia, Lucina)

is another route. And actually, part of me wants to be cute and hook Gaius up with Maribelle (I actually did this last run and they have a legitimately interesting support, though I never got around to actually getting Brady from it) so I can give Brady the Counter-Miracle combo.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Olivia can Dance grind herself to level 30 in C11. Special classes that hit level 30 can Second Seal to promoted classes. Her EXP gain is gonna be a bit bad, since the game will see her as level 36 overall, but at least you can skip straight to Assassin/Swordmaster/whatever.

[Czar_Yoshi]

This being said, Chrom marrying Olivia is a clear choice here--but I don't know how you guys do it! First of all, you'd need to spend around 60 turns dancing, between three maps that all relentlessly assault you. Then, if you somehow managed that, you'd need to class change her--presumably into a Myrmidon?--then somehow get enough experience with whatever enemies remain to both promote and get her promoted class's skills! As cool as Lucina with Swordfaire sounds, how?

First off, if you're going to do all that, get Galeforce. Swordfaire is really underwhelming next to it.

Gangrel's squad in Cht.11 never charges until you get in their range, so you can kill everything else, spend your 200 turns dancing, promote, and then feed him and his goons to Olivia. I strongly recommend giving her an Arms Scroll and forged Beastkiller for Cht.12- use that, along with Chrom's pairup bonuses and the Noble Rapier from Renown to have her clean house in Cht.12, optionally hiding on the water for safety. By Cht.13 she should only have ~5 levels to go, which is easy due to her extreme terrain advantage.

[Tamarsamar]

Ah, so that's how. If anything, though, I'd be doubly concerned for Olivia's own personal development as I would be for Sumia's. After Olivia'd get Galeforce, my move after that would typically be to reclass to Falcon Knight, but by that point Olivia would have a cumulative level of like 31 (capped at 30 on Hard Mode) and her personal Skill set would consist of Luck +4, Special Dance, Rally Movement, and Galeforce. Compared to gunning straight for Galeforce on Sumia, her cumulative level would just be 17 upon reclassing (likely to Falcon Knight), so she'd at least have five usable skills by endgame, even if two of them were Rallies (because at least one of them is Galeforce).

Thank you all for your advice! I think I know which pairings I want for this run now:

Chrom-Sumia

Gaius-Maribelle

Henry-Olivia

Brady/Inigo-Cynthia/Lucina

This is going to be interesting!