I think I've got some insane ranks

Not sure who is my favourite character soo many to choose from.

Yes the hammer thing can fix things but is very rare in this game.

Skill is for triggering special moves and some of the specials in items.

Lon'Qu gets a bit buggered later on when you come up on more Knights.

My big killers are Vaike - now my super axe tank, Donny - who would have thought it, and Gerome - death from above

Might play it your way on next run through, especially now I know more of how the game actually works. For example, it was only in the last few battles that I bothered moving people around on the map so that pairs start closer together.

Vaike is a beast, agreed! Does so much damage.

Just married Sumia.  Also turned her into a Falcon Knight... slightly disappointed her mount didn't change, tbh, but oh well.

... kinda tempted to restart on Hard already. 10 hours in, loving every moment.

Ha ha, been playing this again recently, I thought I'd nearly finished so took a break to play other stuff, now realise there may actually be quite a bit more to go.

I'm having a hard time with this at the moement. It appears that I've lost pretty much all of my turn-based strategy skills over the years, and chapter 6 is proving to be a headache (so many bad guys). I've not go too much of a problem with the damage my party dishes out, but their total ineptitude when it comes to defending themselves is slightly worrying. How much should I be using the team-up moves and place swap switcheroos? Sumia, for example, doesn't seem able to survive a single hit from axes or arrows. Can I buy stuff to boost my stats? Are weapons ever worth buying, because they never seem to be any better than what I already have?

I've already lost my primary a healer, and I've getting smashed with such ease that I've been reloading saves when anyone dies. Obviously that's cheating, but I am what I am. With regards to weapons, does 'HP' denote the damage dealt by the sword/lance/whatever? I equipped a 'HP 100' sword for Frederick, rather than the 'HP 90' lance he had, and it seems to deal less damage.

Can I have some Fire Emblem tips for a complete novice please - I gave up around 10hrs into the first one on GBA, because it had become a war of attrition against a brick wall, and I'm desperate not to allow that to happen again because I think it's superb. I pretty much sailed through Shining Force II last time I played it. Even the main guy with amnesia, who's only been benched for around three battles, is fecking useless - as are the mounted paladins imo (except Fred). Can I grind in this, or do I have to wait for the extra battles to pop up?

I've not been doing a whole lot of pairing - in fact, I've been approaching it in full Shining Force mode, but it seems to be an unexpectedly deep experience. I've tried to be mindful of who stands next to whom, but I've only really used the combine feature to ferry big hitters across the map by pairing them with more mobile characters.

Sword lance etc does different damage as some classes have specific weaknesses to various weapons.

Same goes for your guys too. Flying things hate arrows for example. If I recall correctly.

Hopefully I've not been over-reliant on Frederick thus far. I have at least attempted to strike the killer blow with one of the plebs, so I've not been a complete numpty. I only used Kellam twice, I'll throw him back in the mix and power him up if I can.

I refuse to let this beat me - if this had been released in 1995, I think it would be a genuine contender for favourite game status (at that point I believe Landstalker and Shining Force II were tied at the top, so I was definitely into this sort of thing).

Cheers.  Just had a really good 2.5hrs on this, unlike me to play anything in one session for so long.  I fought two non-story battles on the map, then I found Chapter 6 far easier - it's amazing what a couple of level-ups can do for your team as a whole.  Also, defence tonics for mages work quite nicely, and I've decided that Maribelle is a better healer than the girl I lost, chiefly due to her range (dead girl was one of the initial characters, I forget her name).  Kellam is officially one of my go-to guys now.

However - AI Marth got merked by a counter attack in Chapter 6, and I'm not sure if this affects me or not.  Chrom said something about her retreating, but does that ruin my chances of recruiting her later on?  I'm sure she's essential to the plot, which is why she didn't keel over, but I'm worried she'll be crippled in cut-scenes from now on or something.

Oh dear, I think maybe they snuffed it?  So far I think Kellam and Guire are the only characters I've recruited along the way that I the player can miss.  I spent ages carefully rescuing a handy-looking female character, and she turned out to be a shopkeeper/random merchant.

Edit: Was it the enthusiastic village kid with the lance?  If so, F to the power of ML.

Ha, I just assumed he was fodder.

Got no save files that far back either; it's keep on keepin' on or restart the whole thing.  I'll carry on, sod it, although I will have to attempt to forget today's information, otherwise it'll play on my mind every time I get whupped.

Unless I consider the mage fodder and allow him to die so Stahl can continue to be useless. Can't wait to play this again. Will have to take another look at my GOTY votes, I can't remember if I took a punt on this in the top 5 (it's pretty much gonna be no.2).

Vela wrote:

There's a powerful black mage character who is about on par with him, who I wont name unless you do just in case its a spoiler. Which will probably make up for not having Donny.

Sumia is pretty good for me. Nothing like as solid as Vaike, but she gets more than her fair share of kills.

I need to come back to this.