Well, I guess I'm done for now...

[Usana]

Units do dual guard when paired up. Just watch the shields bar. When you got ten shields the guarding unit will autoblock every attack on that combat. You gain two shields every time you deal damage or take damage. As such Astra fills that bar up crazy fast. In addition pair up neutralizes the otherside's attack stance.

http://serenesforest.net/fire-emblem-fates/miscellaneous/attack-guard-stance/

That said I find myself not pairing up unless I am setting up for solo or the ilk an enemy wing. The best defense, normally, is knocking down the enemies before they get to use their turn to target your vulnerable folks. As such Attack stance is better in general. Honestly if separating only burned one units turn rather than both I would use pair up more often. But as it is I feel like I get stuck paired up if I pair up.

[secondworld]

Units do dual guard when paired up. Just watch the shields bar. When you got ten shields the guarding unit will autoblock every attack on that combat. You gain two shields every time you deal damage or take damage. As such Astra fills that bar up crazy fast. In addition pair up neutralizes the otherside's attack stance.

Something to add is that damage doesn't actually have to be taken, units can dodge attacks and the bar still fills.

[Roflolxp54]

Or, another braindead solution is to simply, I dunno, grind? This IS Birthright after all. It's easier to get character statues all the way to level 3 to extend stat caps and getting gold isn't really a big issue, even in the face of Eternal Seals costing 12K a pop, not to mention that the gold farming DLC map (I think this map also has difficulty scaling not unlike the Awakening and Boo Camp DLC) as well as the weapons farming DLC map is coming very soon (3/3/16).

EDIT: in regards to Guard stance, I think I've seen the bar also filling up when the lead unit performs an attack so the bar fills up pretty quickly than you can think.

Edited February 28, 2016 by Roflolxp54

[Natsu_T]

It's been mentioned another way, but for tonics, you can just buy them for your convoy. Then in the unit select screen for a battle, go to inventory and have your units eat them directly from the convoy. It's very helpful to load up on these in combination with a daikon fried rice meal. That said, if you are not pairing up your lead units and they are getting hit with 4+ dual strikes in a row, I don't think any amount of grinding could ever get you past what you're stuck on. Proper use of pair-up is a staple mechanic for your front lines not getting jumped. I'm not sure how you managed to beat 23 without pairing because you have to have your entire team take cover in tight alleyways to avoid the fireballs. And there simply isn't enough space in those alleys for an entire unpaired army.

[Thor Odinson]

What level is your Ryoma? I fed him on bosskills and the super high level enemies in paralogues--he's probably around Lv 17 for me in Lunatic by that point-- and he basically shrugged and wrecked a path in 24 for me with not much effort at all and everyone else hid behind him. Also solo'd the center room in 25. Buy him a Dual Katana if you don't trust yourself with Generals and just check enemy ranges and don't place him haphazardly. 24/25 is definitely best done as a beeline---though ngl I tanked out 25 because I can anyway, I have 3 Spear Masters with Guard Naginatas and Spd/Def Seal suck my dick game

I have him guard stance with Scarlet mostly. No support (unfortunately) but they work well with each other.

One thing about Birthright lategame is the sheer volume of enemies, which means enemies are gonna attack stance you if you don't respond with guard stance. This is a strategy game and you need to use the tools the game gives you to respond to situations to deal with them, and guard stance is a perfect answer to enemy attack stance.

Edited February 28, 2016 by Thor Odinson

[solrocknroll]

Have fun hitting brick walls and annoying difficulty spikes for not utilizing the tool to relieve them then.

You know what's annoying? When you try a chapter over and over and keep failing. You know how I usually get past that? I change my strategy, try something different. There's no reason to not try anything that's been suggested in this thread, if you were going to ignore everyone then why bother making it? You are artificially making things harder for yourself by not using a major game mechanic that would, if every other person who's posted here has attested to, be the thing that helps the most in this situation.

Sure, that's true, but I don't see a single reason for you to be so condescending about it.

Yes, Pair Up is insanely useful, and the stat boosts alone would be worth it. It also negates Tag Teams. However, if you really don't like it, then just try some more.

I also dislike it when people suggest grinding just because it's Birthright and not Conquest. It's not exactly like people utterly abuse extra opportunities just because they aren't playing Conquest.

[Fallaner]

Personally I didn't find Chapter 24 to be all that hard... I just paired up some unit (I forgot who) with my MU and Ryoma, then had them make a beeline for the boss while a few went south and a few followed them. Ryoma promptly get ganged up on, then my MU killed Hans.

But I was rather powerful at that point. I didn't really grind, but I'd started just finishing missions with just Ryoma and the MU (and a paired unit each) where possible, so they were pretty powerful and allowed me to charge ahead on most things. The enemy will frequently dual attack, so being paired is very helpful. You negate the second attack.

But of course, if you don't want to do that, don't, and make your own strategy.

For the record, I play on Casual so "losses" don't concern me too much, and my strategies tend to reflect this. I will sacrifice a unit to lure away an enemy or weaken them. It's why I didn't bat an eye when Ryoma died dragging a bunch of enemies away from the Boss so the MU could get through and kill him.

For the record, again, I'd played Conquest before Birthright, so I was used to harder things, even with Birthright being incredibly easy.

Edited February 28, 2016 by Fallaner

[Djing]

Honestly the later chapters of Birthright was just let Ryoma kill all the bosses while fielding units that are durable enough to not be liabilities.

[Natsu_T]

What level is your Ryoma? I fed him on bosskills and the super high level enemies in paralogues--he's probably around Lv 17 for me in Lunatic by that point

May I ask how you are getting paralogues? I have only seen a single paralogue show up by this point in the game, so I must be missing something.

Also, I reached Ch. 24 and I'm finding it pretty easy so far. This mission pretty much requires pair-ups though. There are three spaces on the bridge to the south that you should plug up with extremely high resistance and defense units, and then pair them up with units that provide even more defense and resistance. The enemy is going to throw over a dozen units at your front lines and even a level 20 advanced class will get slaughtered if they are open to dual strikes. It is also seeming to help to hit the first two wind currents on your opening turn as you prepare to clear that bridge.

[Thor Odinson]

May I ask how you are getting paralogues? I have only seen a single paralogue show up by this point in the game, so I must be missing something.

Also, I reached Ch. 24 and I'm finding it pretty easy so far. This mission pretty much requires pair-ups though. There are three spaces on the bridge to the south that you should plug up with extremely high resistance and defense units, and then pair them up with units that provide even more defense and resistance. The enemy is going to throw over a dozen units at your front lines and even a level 20 advanced class will get slaughtered if they are open to dual strikes. It is also seeming to help to hit the first two wind currents on your opening turn as you prepare to clear that bridge.

Get your team laid

I knew I was going Corn/Rinkah because it's the only way to get her Fighter on Birthright, so that's already Kana accounted for. Then I picked out a couple units I know I wanted to use and distributed them as spouses for the royals. My team is very phys-skewed, so I grabbed Saizo and reclassed him to Dark Flier and plopped Orochi on him too.

All in all that's 7 paralogues. I felt bad after some point because they give so much exp. Kana's is especially ridiculous, since I got her at 20/8 but there's some 20/14 enemies in there as well. I fed those to Ryoma.

Edited February 28, 2016 by Thor Odinson

[Thane]

Get your team laid

"No really, it's a strategy game! What do you mean what am I doing to her face? I'm trying to score!"

[LuxSpes]

Honestly the later chapters of Birthright was just let Ryoma kill all the bosses while fielding units that are durable enough to not be liabilities.

From chapter 23 onward, it was basically Ryoma Emblem for me. I paired him with Hinoka and let him defend 1 wave by his own every time I was attacked on 2 fronts. I was barely able to use any other units. Even Oboro, who had been pretty tanky for me had trouble taking hits.When I saw the Endgame map, I was convinced none of my units except him could survive without grinding. I still decided to try it with only him and my avatar both paired up with other units. He was able to dodge everything and soften the boss enough that my avatar was able to kill it in one battle thanks to 2 lucky Dragon Fang procs.

Admittedly, I completely neglected the children characters, which would have probably helped by granting me more EXP and more powerful units.

[Thor Odinson]

The kids aren't that strong this time around so I only really used their maps for exp, you're better off just going with Ryoma

Shiro tho (mine had Oboro as a mom bc Rinkah is taken so I went full on skills-pairing)

He's a wall--I think I got him to hit 41 defense when all appropriate boosts are applied

So good, truly unkillable

I also like Spearmaster Hinoka for more mixed mag/phys groups.

[Anacybele]

Have fun hitting brick walls and annoying difficulty spikes for not utilizing the tool to relieve them then.

You know what's annoying? When you try a chapter over and over and keep failing. You know how I usually get past that? I change my strategy, try something different.

Firstly, can you not be rude? I just don't like your tone here.

Second, well yeah, I change up my strategy too if something isn't working. It helped me on some previous chapters. I just didn't expect anyone to tell me to use pair-ups, that's all...

Thor, I said on the first page that my Ryoma is level 10ish.

Edited February 28, 2016 by Anacybele

[Natsu_T]

My Ryoma is at 10 also, but I barely use him at all. I am starting to see why people like him, I'm noticing many enemies are starting to have a 0% accuracy against him. To be honest, this mission really just tests your FE fundamentals. It's very cut and dry, you just move units down to kill the three armored units at the bottom, then heal them over their shoulders and make sure they are paired up. Let them defend against the 3 others that rush from the bottom. Then once the southern bridge is clean, just hunker all your units there with 3 of your strongest pair-ups to stop the swarm. While doing all this, keep a mage on the cannon, and make sure you hit the wind currents on turn one with some spare units. I've done all this on hard and I'm just now moving into the middle of the map and cleaning up the remainder. The units I am tanking with are Oboro paired with anyone, Silas with some resistance upgrades paired with a captured general for defense, and Hinoka with a guard nagi or Subaki with someone who gives defense .

[Shadow Knight]

Honestly the later chapters of Birthright was just let Ryoma kill all the bosses while fielding units that are durable enough to not be liabilities.

That kind of kills the fun for me though. I'm playing hard classic conquest and am on chapter 20 and its pretty much the Joe(my avatar)/Xander show. Luckily my other units aren't totally useless but early rng level up struggles have made them liabilities. It's a lot more fun to me anyways when everyone can pitch in then simply pair up two god units and let them do all the work.

[Anacybele]

My Ryoma is at 10 also, but I barely use him at all. I am starting to see why people like him, I'm noticing many enemies are starting to have a 0% accuracy against him. To be honest, this mission really just tests your FE fundamentals. It's very cut and dry, you just move units down to kill the three armored units at the bottom, then heal them over their shoulders and make sure they are paired up. Let them defend against the 3 others that rush from the bottom. Then once the southern bridge is clean, just hunker all your units there with 3 of your strongest pair-ups to stop the swarm. While doing all this, keep a mage on the cannon, and make sure you hit the wind currents on turn one with some spare units. I've done all this on hard and I'm just now moving into the middle of the map and cleaning up the remainder. The units I am tanking with are Oboro paired with anyone, Silas with some resistance upgrades paired with a captured general for defense, and Hinoka with a guard nagi or Subaki with someone who gives defense .

I thought most people didn't like Ryoma... But I love him, I just didn't want to use him too much and end up with an underleveled party. But it looks like I ended up underleveled anyway.

I don't like using pair-up though, like I said. I haven't used Oboro in forever since I've trained up a different party, so she's not leveled up at all. Silas and Subaki though, I have been using on my team. I'll just have to grind, I'm pretty sure. I'll even post my team's levels to prove it.

Corrinetta - Hoshido Noble lv. 7

Ike - Vanguard lv. 32

Ryoma - Swordmaster lv. 10 (he actually is lv. 10, heh)

Silas - Great Knight lv. 8

Takumi - Kinshi Knight lv. 8

Hinoka - Falcon Knight lv. 6

Subaki - Falcon Knight lv. 6

Hana - Swordmaster lv. 3

Sakura - Onmiyoji lv. 6

Orochi - Onmiyoji lv. 4

Jakob - Butler lv. 24

Azura - Songstress lv. 19

Saizo - Master Ninja lv. 3

Kaden - Kitsune lv. 16 (he definitely needs levels)

All the enemy units are lv. 9 or higher promoted. Only Ryoma and Ike are a level not lower than that on my team (Ike counts because his stats are off the charts compared to these guys. lol He just can barely take a hit from the mages).

Edited February 28, 2016 by Anacybele

[Skarthe]

I thought most people didn't like Ryoma... But I love him, I just didn't want to use him too much and end up with an underleveled party. But it looks like I ended up underleveled anyway.

I don't like using pair-up though, like I said. I haven't used Oboro in forever since I've trained up a different party, so she's not leveled up at all. Silas and Subaki though, I have been using on my team. I'll just have to grind, I'm pretty sure. I'll even post my team's levels to prove it.

Corrinetta - Hoshido Noble lv. 7

Ike - Vanguard lv. 32

Ryoma - Swordmaster lv. 10 (he actually is lv. 10, heh)

Silas - Great Knight lv. 8

Takumi - Kinshi Knight lv. 8

Hinoka - Falcon Knight lv. 6

Subaki - Falcon Knight lv. 6

Hana - Swordmaster lv. 3

Sakura - Onmiyoji lv. 6

Orochi - Onmiyoji lv. 4

Jakob - Butler lv. 24

Azura - Songstress lv. 19

Saizo - Master Ninja lv. 3

Kaden - Kitsune lv. 16 (he definitely needs levels)

All the enemy units are lv. 9 or higher promoted. Only Ryoma and Ike are a level not lower than that on my team (Ike counts because his stats are off the charts compared to these guys. lol He just can barely take a hit from the mages).

With the exception of Ike, your levels are roughly where mine are, but I'm on Ch20. You might be a bit underlevelled overall.

[Thor Odinson]

If you don't want to use pairup, what you can try to do is just overwhelm the enemy with offense and go all out attack stance. Get rid of enough of them before they can attack stance you.

I don't know how well it'd work since Birthright endgame is high enemy density-- but I did a speedrun through HoshiNormal last night to test some endgame logbook shenanigans and it seems like at least on normal it might be doable. On Lunatic no guard stance no life.

Edited February 28, 2016 by Thor Odinson

[StrikeZero]

i actually didn't lose anyone that chapter on my first time, the key is Pairing up the units and utilizing support stat boosts, and this helps a lot in conquest too though i have yet to beat it i'm just practicing on birthright right now, but when paired up they offer very good defensive boosts, when i went through chapter 24 i moved very slowly, ensuring my units were always next to someone if they weren't paired up, and being a Hero class with Sol made it much easier too. you wanna play defensively and slower than usual, especially when the flying reinforcements come in from the corners.

Edited February 28, 2016 by StrikeZero

[Anacybele]

With the exception of Ike, your levels are roughly where mine are, but I'm on Ch20. You might be a bit underlevelled overall.

Yep, like I said...

Well, I do have a challenge on my map at the moment, I suppose I'll do that for now.

[StrikeZero]

I thought most people didn't like Ryoma... But I love him, I just didn't want to use him too much and end up with an underleveled party. But it looks like I ended up underleveled anyway.

I don't like using pair-up though, like I said. I haven't used Oboro in forever since I've trained up a different party, so she's not leveled up at all. Silas and Subaki though, I have been using on my team. I'll just have to grind, I'm pretty sure. I'll even post my team's levels to prove it.

Corrinetta - Hoshido Noble lv. 7

Ike - Vanguard lv. 32

Ryoma - Swordmaster lv. 10 (he actually is lv. 10, heh)

Silas - Great Knight lv. 8

Takumi - Kinshi Knight lv. 8

Hinoka - Falcon Knight lv. 6

Subaki - Falcon Knight lv. 6

Hana - Swordmaster lv. 3

Sakura - Onmiyoji lv. 6

Orochi - Onmiyoji lv. 4

Jakob - Butler lv. 24

Azura - Songstress lv. 19

Saizo - Master Ninja lv. 3

Kaden - Kitsune lv. 16 (he definitely needs levels)

All the enemy units are lv. 9 or higher promoted. Only Ryoma and Ike are a level not lower than that on my team (Ike counts because his stats are off the charts compared to these guys. lol He just can barely take a hit from the mages).

you're problem here is that Ike is essentially you're whole team and as good as it may seem Jakob and Azura being levels 24 and 19 is pointless, guys like Silas, Hana, Hinoka, Subaki and corrinetta should be higher leveled than your support units, like here was my team

Josh(Corrin)-Hero level 15

Ryoma-Swordmaster level 11

Silas-Paladin level 10

Rinkah-Oni Chief level 7

Sophie-Great Knight level 8

Mozu- Arms Master level 5

Kana- Hoshido Noble level 10

Shiro-Spear Master level 5

Takumi-Sniper level 6

Hana-Swordmaster level 13

Sakura-Priestess level 4

Hinoka-Falcon Knight level 5

Hayato-Onmyoji level 4

Felicia-Maid level 10

you're team is not only under-leveled but the guys who have levels don't need to be that high, especially Jackob, him being level 24 is pretty overkill,plus the child units are really strong and good to have. and i know Takumi being Kinshi knight seems to be the favorite but i feel he does better as a Sniper.

Edited February 28, 2016 by StrikeZero

[Anacybele]

Um, they ARE higher leveled than Azura and Jakob. You seem to be forgetting that I have those units promoted...

I refuse to use any child units. I don't like them being in the game at all.

Edited February 28, 2016 by Anacybele

[Aestury]

Um, they ARE higher leveled than Azura and Jakob. You seem to be forgetting that I have those units promoted...

I refuse to use any child units. I don't like them being in the game at all.

I think he understands that, what hes trying to say is that units like Jakob, especially as a support unit, usually shouldn't be as high level'd when the rest of your team is lagging behind greatly. Also while Jakob has up to 40 levles he is still a prepromote, so you can't really compare a level 24 Jakob to a level 4 promoted unit. If you are having issues with the chapter I recommend grinding a little for those very low leveled units, buying tonics, and making use of the mess hall. Also forging weapons isn't a bad idea. If you're having survivability issues I really recommend guard stance, but you seem to be very against the idea, but at least try it before resetting.

[Anacybele]

Duh, I've been saying I'm grinding.

Well, Jakob and Azura ended up that high leveled because their healing and singing abilities were very useful. I don't see what's wrong with that.

My units aren't THAT low leveled, come on... You act like I have nobody promoted. They're only somewhat underleveled. I had two challenges on my map, and I completed one of them. The other I keep failing at though, but mainly because I wasn't paying enough attention. Like, how come I didn't know until now that hammers are effective against Great Knights as well as Generals? That's just pathetic... (that I didn't know this, I mean)

I have no idea what the mess hall is supposed to do, so no thanks. I said I'd consider tonics. Forging weapons is a no since I don't have many resources. Just about every castle I go to has pretty much the same things, so I get a LOT of just a few resources and none of a whole bunch.

Edited February 29, 2016 by Anacybele