I love that assassin archetype with the bows etc, Gaius is another fave and there's a few fun kids tucked away, too. I always find them an effort to bring on board but they're fun, they're worth it. Noire and Kjelle are my top picks, I love Noire's erratic personality and Kjelle's as the strong independent woman. Owain and Severa also get points from their link to Fates, which fleshed out their personalities.

Tactics will develop over time! Haha. As said, the key thing is to take it slow because that's where 99% of my mistakes happen. The other 1% is dickish ambushes that thwart my plans lmao. The beginning is the hardest part imo and I always lose a couple of units (usually one of my healers or mages) along the way; the difficulty peters out for the mid-section, before ramping up towards the end. It's a little rollercoaster ride. Pair-ups are totally OP in Awakening, they get toned down in Fates for the better as you aren't obliged to hold them together at all times; there's occasions where you need the additional firepower of another unit and it feels more tactical.

And yess the special edition is SO GOOD. It was like, what, £60 and came with all three games bundled into one plus steelbook (eh) and awesome art book. I typically avoid collector's editions cos they always seem like a rip off but the bundle was everything I wanted and more. ;o;

Yeah, I especially love Gaius's battle stance and attacking as an assassin. Very stealth, very awesome. c: I just got to the part where all the side stories show up with the kids (I was like ... dude what am I doing wrong bc I didn't have any side quests unlocked for a couple of chapters and then like an obscene number cropped up egads so much for pacing BUT I can see why they did that to coincide with the plot developments D: )

Ooh, Owain is in Fates? That's cool. I just got him. He's silly in a good sort of way. :3

ugh those healers are soooo annoying by the time I cared enough to level up Mirabelle, the war cleric Libra showed up and I'm like why bother now really?? and all my other level 20s are getting class upgrades that can include staves so I must be dumb choosing to ignore upgrading my healers buuuut it's just so easy not to? D:

Wow, 60 pounds is a steal for 3 games with an artbook. Amazon uk is stocking them for 200 pounds right now, rip me. x___x at least the next game isn't bundled like that so I can enjoy buying it at the regular price xD

In FE9/FE10, you can shove enemies and allies out of the way, which is super nice. There is one chapter dedicated to shoving clerics around and it's kind of fun. You can also unequip without emptying that characters inventory of all weapons (the bane of my existence in FE7 & 8), so then just becomes a matter of trapping and manipulating the AI into attacking certain people only. Like, there are the laguz (think taguel without a beaststone), and they will not attack you if you have a laguz killing weapon equipped. AI will go for typically go for somebody who can't attack back and that is true of all games. As for speed, that's just practice and knowing the map on subsequent playthroughs, mostly since they like to pull reinforcements or just be a jerk half through a map. You can also rescue "other" units if they are being a pain.

Yea, some of the child characters from Awakening appear in Fates. Inigo, Severa, Owain, and another one i cant remember right now. Their names are different in Fates though but there's a reason to the madness.

welp that sounds intense xD I still fail at saving people, need more practice ;__; clerics must be like we're meant to heal not run around aimlessly yo also laguz sound fun, I love love love Panne and the concept of taguel but it's sad to think the beaststone is hella expensive so I'm cautious as to when to use her now (it took me a while before that concept registered with me lol) intriguing :O I'm currently at the point of all the children side quest stories but the thing is the mothers are nowhere near level 15 so I'm trying to level grind at least some to level 15 esp the dark fliers to get galeforce but then I'm getting worried about running out of weaponry you know? D8 I think I'll just try to get the kids period, who cares about their skills right /clearly failing at strategy rpgs lmao

The clerics in that chapter are enemies against their own will and when you kill the boss, he's lamenting on the fact that he should have brought some more priests or some babies. o.o

Laguz have a charge bar and they gain some points on for every turn and (maybe when they're attacked? I don't remember) then when they transform, they lose some every turn or attack. It's a lot of waiting around sometimes before you can real use them but there are items that help keep a laguz transformed or charge them up. They also count as promoted units. e.e

yeah, getting him to marry olivia was kind of a pain but i think the third time i tried, i bought a seed of trust with my renown...?? that and a couple of dances was enough to get them to marry -- blue hair inigo was totally worth it lmao (i def picked some marriages for the children's hair over anything else, i am. not the best tactician, whoops) olivia was also a lot easier for me to level than my clerics since dancing gave exp and she came with a weapon, but i feel you -- i'm ok with level grinding, but not when it takes so long and my equipment is breakable and i gotta scrounge for change to replace things e_e;

Skills n stuff are fun extras for the kids; it's fun to cook up killer combinations but if you're just playing through casually, it's not make or break imo. On my first playthrough I had NO IDEA what I was doing hahaha. I didn't even pair up any of the units and their supports... like, barely grew across the board and I ended up with just a couple of kids. 8) I was a fool. So whatever happens, you're doing better than me haha.

And if you do get Fates, I'd go Birthright > Conquest > Revelations; but see how you get on with the first two, because Revelations is a tad... undercooked, in my humble opinion. I don't wanna put you off but it's definitely less thought out than the other two and a comedown from Conquest.

I just got through awakening YAAAAAY. It took forever just because I kept trying to level people up into master classes and marrying them off. xD

I wish I had focused more on Olivia. She had decent stats when leveled up. t__t

lol hair is very important, okay xD like for Cynthia, I loved her hair style but I wish it wasn't navy blue. :x for Severa, hers was Gaius's red and I felt like that was a great match for her

also when pairing up Morgan and Lucina, I chuckled at their dialogue convo; don't wanna spoil it but it made me feel like what if my av + Chrom would marry xD

my bad, this reply is like a month overdue t__t I finally completed awakening! xD was hoping I'd be able to upgrade Donnel to a master class and make him less farm boy apparel ish T__T which didn't happen, nooo

good to know I'm making progress haha xD I wanna play on death mode now but I have a feeling I'd kill off everyone by mid-game lol :"D

also thanks for the tips, I definitely wanna go for fates next - birthright then conquest sounds like the logical thing to do :3

i thought i responded to this but i guess i did in my head and not in writing lmao good job me red hair severa is the cutest! (and technically the "right" one with regards to her fates/heroes art, i guess.) i remember running into some weird hair my first play through (blonde laurent was... not my fav), which is why i went with style > substance for later ones p: same with master seals at the very end; i wanted everyone to look as cute as possible, haha

also you reminded me i'd only seen the sibling supports between m!morgan and lucina! i looked it up, those two are so cute as siblings and as budding love interests (lmao that end tho - "why didn't you just say so?!" just as ridiculous as the start of avatar + chrom). i'm so bummed that f!morgan and lucina didn't get friend supports, that'd be so much fun ;w;

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