The Worst Mistake You Made When You First Started Playing FE

[shadowofchaos]

How many hand axes did Lalum take in the face, if I may ask?

I don't remember. This was like, back when the PSP first got hacked (I was playing it on GPSP)

[VeryAngryBisharp]

Chucking all my units at the bosses and getting them killed. Gilliam and Franz in Ch1, immediately thought they sucked since they couldn't kill bosses like Seth could. That got pretty much everyone killed, ended the game with Eirika, Ephraim, Seth, Gerik, Lute and Dozla. (Probably a couple others just the only ones I remember for sure)

Letting Joshua kill a couple people to "weaken" him then sending in Seth with the Silver Lance.

Wasting the Legendary weapons on shit like healers.

Letting Orson solo ch5x. (JUST A RECOLORED SETH)

Silver Lancing Marisa and Cormag.

Giving all my stat boosters to Seth.

Giving all the good weapons to Seth.

Wondering why Seth couldn't promote.

Gods I loved Seth. I still do.

[Topaz Light]

I trained and Promoted Dorcas

you may give the look of shame

I trained and promoted Dorcas at level 10... which went about as well as one would expect. In general, I originally promoted characters at level 10 all over the place.

I also let characters drop like flies left and right for the first while. It didn't take me too long to adopt my "recruit everyone, let no one die" philosophy, but even after that, I still wasn't a particularly competent player in many respects.

I admit to thinking that Jagens were bad initially, and while I still don't use them nowadays, it's less because I think they're bad units and more because I tend to see them as crutches that I should avoid falling back on if possible. It rarely takes too long for the other units to grow strong enough to hold their own pretty competently with no Jagen on the map, anyway, if they're not able to do so from the get-go.

Edited September 21, 2016 by Topaz Light

[Weeping Dalek (MK)]

Percival and Niime are good though.

Percival and Niime are decent, not good

[Carmine Sword]

Your wording before gave the impression that they were bad units, even if that wasn't your intention.

What's the difference between decent and good? It just sounds like meaningless semantics.

[Refa]

Percival and Niime are fantastic, some of the best units in the game.

[Lantairu]

Only training up 3 units or so, then getting all the rest out of Bonus Box. Granted, Awakening allows you to do that, with how ridiculously easy it is, especially on Normal/Casual, but still really stupid, even for a newbie.

[Carmine Sword]

Adding on to what Refa said, if Percival and Niime are only decent, then who qualifies as good? Since Percival and Niime are pretty fantastic.

[DragonFlames]

Assuming you know where I live, I give you the permission to kill me (not really, though...)

My worst mistakes I made when I first started FE are some I still commit today. These are:

- Only using characters I like, be it either personality, design or both (hence why I tend to use more female units than male ones). If I don't like a specific character, I'm not using them, no matter how good they may be.

- I didn't use Cavaliers and I still don't like using them.

Now for the ones specific to when I started (My first FE was Path of Radiance):

- I used nothing but Laguz, Ike, Mia and Illyana.

- I gave Illyana knives instead of staves come promotion, because I was too stupid to select a secondary weapon.

- I killed Shinon, because I didn't know you could re-recruit him with Rolf.

- I picked Naesala to help me in the final chapter, only because crows/ravens are among my favourite animals and I had hawks with Janaff and Ulki and cat-like people with Muarim, Lethe, Mordecai and Ranulf and I wanted at least one playable crow/raven.

Edited September 23, 2016 by DragonFlames

[Weeping Dalek (MK)]

Your wording before gave the impression that they were bad units, even if that wasn't your intention.

What's the difference between decent and good? It just sounds like meaningless semantics.

Percival and Niime are fantastic, some of the best units in the game.

Adding on to what Refa said, if Percival and Niime are only decent, then who qualifies as good? Since Percival and Niime are pretty fantastic.

Decent means useable, but definitely not the best units in the game

Units like Lance, Alan, Rutger, Miledy, Ray are good

[henrymidfields]

Using Marcus left, right, and centre in my very first play of Binding Blade.

Leaving Zeiss dead and missing out on Chapter 21x.

[Topaz Light]

Decent means useable, but definitely not the best units in the game

Units like Lance, Alan, Rutger, Miledy, Ray are good

Those first four are definitely good, and while I don't really know how good Raigh is considered to be, it's important to remember that stats alone aren't the only measure of a good unit. Fliers, for example, have an inherent boon in their ability to move over (and, in many games, carry other units over) normally-impassible terrain. This has nothing to do with their stats, but nonetheless gives them a unique advantage for being able to do things that other units just can't do. And no, Brigands and Berserkers being able to move over Peaks does not count, because one tile at a time is nowhere near fast enough to be anything resembling useful in most instances. The +40 Avoid sure is nice, though, when you can take advantage of it.

Then there are characters like Pent, who come with competent stats and a great set of weapon ranks, making them very useful and versatile right off the bat. Obviously, other units can be made able to perform the same functions, but it requires a lot of time, effort, and in-game resources to get that set up, most of the time.

I'm not trying to say, necessarily, that bases and such are everything and growth rates are meaningless, since I find that viewpoint to be very biased in favor of a particular subset of playstyles, but I do think there's a lot of merit to the stance that units with excellent utility, versatility, etc. are every bit as viable and worthy of being considered "good" as units who have higher chances of dominating the stat scene are.

Edited September 27, 2016 by Topaz Light

[Yui]

Something that happened when i first recruited Marisa, i immediately thought of her as a good unit and sent her as a bait for enemy units to try to attack her,

... Oops! I had forgotten to heal her. You can already guess what happened next.

[Weeping Dalek (MK)]

Those first four are definitely good, and while I don't really know how good Raigh is considered to be, it's important to remember that stats alone aren't the only measure of a good unit. Fliers, for example, have an inherent boon in their ability to move over (and, in many games, carry other units over) normally-impassible terrain. This has nothing to do with their stats, but nonetheless gives them a unique advantage for being able to do things that other units just can't do. And no, Brigands and Berserkers being able to move over Peaks does not count, because one tile at a time is nowhere near fast enough to be anything resembling useful in most instances. The +40 Avoid sure is nice, though, when you can take advantage of it.

Then there are characters like Pent, who come with competent stats and a great set of weapon ranks, making them very useful and versatile right off the bat. Obviously, other units can be made able to perform the same functions, but it requires a lot of time, effort, and in-game resources to get that set up, most of the time.

I'm not trying to say, necessarily, that bases and such are everything and growth rates are meaningless, since I find that viewpoint to be very biased in favor of a particular subset of playstyles, but I do think there's a lot of merit to the stance that units with excellent utility, versatility, etc. are every bit as viable and worthy of being considered "good" as units who have higher chances of dominating the stat scene are.

Ray is really good for me, ya sure, flyers can cart others around, but I'd rather them attack and stay far away from Archers and Aircalibur that I don't want to deal with them rescuing people if possible

[Magical Glace]

I overly relied on Sothe.

[Weeping Dalek (MK)]

I overly relied on Sothe.

I overly relied on Marcus (FE7 Marcus)

[EricaofRenais]

I played RD before PoR because I didn't know PoR existed and I refused to use the Greil Mercs when I first played it because I thought they stole the spot light from the DB. Now I use a mix of my Favorites from all parts.

[Maritisa]

the Greil Mercs [...] stole the spot light from the DB.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this. >.>

RD's battalion shuffling is dumb.

[The Glass Beast]

Feeding boss kills to Marcus so he could gain more EXP and not caring about passing down skills for kids in Awakening. Also not getting Cormag because I beat that chapter you get him on in Eirika's route (15?) before he even appeared.

[Rapier]

Thinking Jeigans were bad and underusing them.

I still think they can be exp sponges if used incorrectly and I prefer keeping a balanced team than rushing through the game with a Jeigan and LTC serious business tactics, though.

[TrumpetZorua]

My first Fire Emblem was Shadow Dragon. I was a braindead 9-year-old.

-I thought the death quotes were CUTSCENES. Many units died.

-I thought tutorials were for people who watch LPs and goldfish, and didn't notice that I could control every blue unit.

-I thought the battle forecast was pointless.

-I never restocked weapons, and kept those guys without weapons around anyway.

-I didn't know you could only visit villages with Marth, so I thought every village I didn't try visiting with Marth was scenery.

-I got the requirements for the first Gaiden chapter, but failed to recruit the unit I would have gained from it.

-The only reason I survived for so long was luck.

-I thought everyone was a good unit.

My second FE, Sacred Stones, was much better, but that's not saying much.

-I turned off the game at the sight of FORESTS. I turned it back on two years later.

-I promoted Artur to Sage. (this one's comparatively less severe.)

-I thought flying units were useless and killed them off out of spite. Oh, how that changed when I met Cormag.

-I killed Amelia.

-What doesn't help was my awful luck, usually getting only two stat-ups per level.

...I don't feel like talking about my past anymore.

[Moblin Major General]

-I killed Amelia.

One could be forgiven for this, especially if the poor sod chose Ephraim's Route first time.

[Hezul]

Blazing Sword:

- I used nobody but Marcus the entire game. Somehow, I made it to the final chapter but was slaughtered.

- My first time, I didn't recruit almost half the cast because I killed of the recruitable ones :/

- My best units were Hawke, Harken, Isadora and Marcus the second time I tried the game. Didn't go very far.

Shadow Dragon:

- I thought Jeigan was some evil spy in the army and tried to kill him.

- I tried to forge a Rapier with one use left. I thought that forge was used to repair weapons.

- I killed Caeda

- I killed Lena

- I used Wrys

- I killed Merric

Yes, I was 8 or 9 at the time.

Edited October 9, 2016 by Hezul

[Darrman]

I started with FE8. I was pretty bad. Even without the Wallace situation, I remember early-promoting Franz at around level 12-13. He ended up pretty sucky at the end of the day. I also fell for the old Jagen trap... except it's Seth, so it's not like I was really in much trouble. The shoulder buttons on my 3DS were broken, so I couldn't reliably check stats due to an inconsistent R, so I couldn't check stats too well. I vaguely remember buying a short bow thinking it was 1-2 range... I was disappointed.

After that I moved on to Awakening and I just Fredrick Emblemed my way through the game. On Normal/Casual... and when he fell off, I had to do *loads* of grinding since no-one was promoted. I also used Donnel. *sighs* Bar Chrom's forced marriage, no-one fell in love during the main game. Pairings were determined by 12-13 year old me's sense of "shipping", before I just paired units arbitrarily to just have the kids. i'll make that mess work with apo one day... By the time I got to FE7, I had wised up to the ways of Fire Emblem, but I was still pretty poor, as people just died often. I got wise of not Jagen spamming by then, at least!

My Shadow Dragon run was pretty bad. For some crazy reason, I decided to ironman it, on normal mode... and people dropped like flies. Many recruitments were missed. I remember thinking Astram was a sub-boss instead of a recruitable. My units were slow in getting to promotion, and when I was nearing endgame, my units just kept dying. I remember getting both Cain and Abel killed in the final chapter, and that Aum staff actually came in useful! I used it to get myself the good ending since Sheeda had died a chapter or two before I got it. How did I even make it to endgame? I also missed the Starsphere, so I missed Starlight, so I missed the Falchion... Somehow, I didn't run into a single gaiden, since Tiki was still alive.

Take note: this is how not to play Fire Emblem, because I was a bit of an idiot back then.

[Bleu Unicorn]

- My first time, I didn't recruit almost half the cast because I killed of the recruitable ones :/

That was my big first-time mistake, too.

I would blame it on being colorblind, but mostly I just never bothered to check stats.