msterforks

You're free to play the game how you want, and do what you think is fun. However, every Fire Emblem player's experience is different, and as such, we need some sort of standard if we're making comparisons. In general, grinding is not allowed in these standards because once units are all trained up to their max potential, they start looking very similar and are difficult to compare. Even with 1 aux battle a month, any unit can hit their S+/A+/other benchmarks very easily. Where does that leave Ignatz then?

I think you're underestimating the amount of grinding you're doing. I do all paralogues and auxiliary quest battles, and none of my units hit S+ in any skill by the end of the game (all routes). One or two might have made it if I didn't go for master classes, but it would have been too late to be significant. Snipers and Bow Knights are good units by default. Hunter's Volley + Leicester Mercs/Goneril Valks + crit ring + Killer Bow+ give Snipers 70+ crit rate on most enemies in the game. Bow Knights have great move and are good for any chapters where the power of Hunter's Volley is not necessary. It doesn't take a whole lot for anyone to be a good Sniper/Bow Knight. That being said, it's not surprising that Ignatz does well as a Sniper. His early game is pretty solid. Hit+20 is nice when everyone else can't hit the broad side of a barn.

A recent maddening LTC taught me that blessing + guard adjutant lets any unit survive a round of combat from any enemy. There's a lot of tools and solutions, so pick something that works for you.

Claude gets many goodies to help out in that chapter. It's not really that bad as long as Byleth doesn't make questionable career path choices. That being said, I had a Sniper Leonie and Dancer Hilda who safely chipped away at the enemy count one at a time, which saved some turns. It was supposed to be a fun build but it turned into something nice.

Since this strat doesn't involve early Fortress Knight, Byleth could probably put off most tutoring until ch8 when he gets A+ prof rank. Not sure what kind of benchmark you're trying to hit by faculty training Authority, but I've never needed it. Universal strategies aren't really a thing this late into the game because there's so many unforeseen factors. Some of the more common strategies are feeding Byleth enough str boosters to OHKO with SCS + Swordfaire class, and using a flying Byleth (plus Claude if VW) to 1v3 the Thief, Sniper, and Brawler to the south, then baiting individual enemy groups. Even still, these strats require at least some preparation.

I'm still not a believer in the vantage strat because Dimitri needs to be knocked into Vantage range, then dodge all of the enemy archers (and survive counters from anything he doesn't crit). Physic probably doesn't help since it would heal Dimitri over 50%. Concoction spam, maybe? In CF, ch 15 is a winding maze down the middle, and full of forests down the right. Non fliers have a tough time moving around. Ch16 is ch 5 all over. It doesn't help that trap tiles have 2 move cost for foot, 3 move cost for mounted. Ch 17 is choc full of random wasteland, which iirc is 3 move cost to mounted. I learned the hard way that Hubert can't make it far enough north to avoid the FK reinforcements. Ch 18, as you mentioned, has a lot of burning tiles. All foot units struggle because they're still 2 move cost. Basically, Hubert spends his entire Dark Knight career as a Dark Bishop with longer legs.

Rng manip is a debatable subject, and people draw the line in different places. In any case, I plan on using Marianne as a physic Mage -> PK -> Paladin -> FK, and so far she hits really hard with a Steel Lance Frozen Lance (ch4). This is gunna be a wild ride. Not sure how well the Battalion Vantage + Wrath strat works because I didn't get the Authority in time, but I found myself consistently dying to mass 20% hit rates from sword users and 30+ from archers. It sounds a bit sketchy considering it only takes one archer to knock Dimitri from vantage range to zero. Obviously we're not training Annette for ch 13 then perm benching her. I assume she's able to one shot consistently through the end of the game, and ch 13 is only an example of what she does during one of the hardest chapters. She looks alright if her pre level 20 wasn't so bad. CF ch15-18 are all not great or downright awful for horse units. By the time Hubert reaches DK, he's probably a stride bot or kills one or two enemies per map. Had I not been playing semi blind, I would have benched him from the start.

Marianne doesn't really have anywhere to go for levels 20-30, and this level range includes the hardest part of the game, just after the time skip. Hubert isn't that great as a paladin/DK because CF endgame is pretty unkind to horses, and sometimes to non fliers as a whole. On the other hand, it looks like Annette is one shotting enemies on ch 13 (at least in the imgur album that was linked). Being able to pick off enemies while darting in and out of danger zones sounds pretty handy.

I was comparing Byleth to Hilda. You undermined yourself when you mentioned stats can't be used to compare different characters. This entire thread is about judging a character's strengths relative to everyone else in the game.

Again, the game is balanced around gameplay and not around lore. If we take strength and might into consideration, the mighty protagonist with the power of a goddess and the SotC is weaker than Hilda with a Silver Axe+.

Gameplay performance should be taken with a grain of salt. Maps are supposed to be balanced for difficulty, so an overpowered Jeralt has to be watered down. Jeralt naturally can't beat Solon either, because green units can't kill bosses. They'll always be left on 1hp. EDIT: Now that I think about it, aside from gameplay performance, I don't recall a moment in which Jeralt's strength has been shown to be any weaker than he was prior. I wouldn't make that leap. It's hard to say how many years of service either man did, and what exactly they accomplished. Also, Jeralt was 120+ years old. Assuming the typical human has a shorter lifespan than today's humans, only a select few would know the full extent of Jeralt's accomplishments.

I always thought Ingrid's paralogue starts on ch8. I'll have to do that during ch7, because early Luin would be nice for Grondor. Unsure if he gets LoR as an enemy. I always recruit him because LoR is too good to pass up. Pre ts Sylvain is pretty lazy, but post ts and post game Sylvain looks like he has his priorities straightened out.

I'd like to think that Sylvain's particularly strong due to his crest + relic. I don't think all relics were created equal since Ingrid's Luin plays little factor into her story, while Sylvain's Lance of Ruin is the linch pin of the north's defense. He's probably as strong as Dimitri. Never mind the fact that he's the only unit who can tear someone a new hole with a relic combat art during the Grondor Field "mock" battle.

My four Thunder five Heal Dorothea cried trying to make it to level 5. Doesn't help that I didn't do any auxiliary battles. Back to the original topic, I'm playing through CF atm and it seems a lot easier than AM. AM is only really "easier" if you warp skip, as it has access to fairly early Blue Lion Dancers and easier bosses on defeat commander maps. On the other hand, ch13 Claude is a pretty big bully if you try to fight him head on, but is pretty easy if you play it slow and abuse his lack of counterattack.

Dimitri dies off-screen after serving an insignificant role in VW. Ironic how Dimitri and Claude are pretty irrelevant if you're not playing their respective routes. I really like paralogues so I tend to recruit a lot of people I don't plan to use. I'll have to go back and do an in-house CF playthrough to get the full murder experience. There's something sad and frightening watching your former students wield Hero's Relics against you.