FE10 - Laguz playthrough beaten! Ultimately the hardest maps were probably 3-4 (which was mostly getting used to using 5 laguz + 1 beorc, also Kyza/Lyre sucking) and 3-11 (okay this was legitimately tough). Using six PCs who want Laguz Stones/Gems in endgame involves a bit of juggling but ultimately nothing too bad; it's not optimum but I was still able to Gem the PCs who needed it most, and three of the fights are shortish anyway.
PC notes:
Volug: Easily kill leader (116). Leaning on him heavilly makes the Dawn Brigade chapters notably easier because he's so good. Hell, I halfshifted him for the swarms of 3-12 and he was still outstanding. Got S strike around the end of 1-7 and SS at the very end of 3-6. Eventually lowish str catches up a bit but he's always very good. Nice affinity too, a great candidate for Resolve into invincibility always.
Micaiah and Ike: 89 and 87 kills respectively. They do what they always did. I ended up giving both quite a few stat boosters since I wanted to experience the laguz "raw" which helped, but Ike was speed-screwed so that just cancelled out. Ike had three SS-caliber weapons which was funny! Anyway I mainly used them for some 1-2 range stuff and in Micaiah's case, healing.
Ranulf: 82 kills. Not much to say about Ranulf, he's forced for a while but always good. All his stats are very solid, and cat gauge is really his only weakness. Then endgame rolls around and he doesn't even have that, although of course he does lose his first turn to use a gem (except in E-3). Hit S strike in 3-10 and SS late in 4-5.
Lethe: Also 82 kills. Benefits from being the easiest laguz to build strike level for in the game outside Volug (S in 3-7, SS near the start of 4-4). Cat gauge of course sucks, but she's fast and durable and does get power once she gets rolling.
Janaff and Ulki: Both around 75 kills. We already know how good these guys are. They have Canto, they fly. They don't even really fear bows outside silver. And crossbows of course. Nullify helps there. And Ulki's durability is insane. Janaff isn't quite so amazing in that regard; he just has the best offence of any laguz outside the royals and that says a lot. The best PC in the Greil Mercenary section of part 3 which was also the hardest, so this is worth a lot! They hit S strike around 3-10/3-11 and SS around the start of endgame.
Mordecai: Great strength and defence, doesn't double ever. For a while he's decent but then he starts falling behind Lethe/Ranulf/Janaff/Ulki badly. You can get something out of him with Resolve, at least, but I'm not inclined to respect that too much until part 4 which is a bit too late since tigers in endgame are lol. Hit S strike around 3-11.
Kyza: Also around 40 kills. Not even that much better than Lyre. Somehow this is the second playthrough I used him, too! Complete garbage until he gets some speed, at which point he becomes a cat with a better gauge but with less durability because he doesn't have great evade or great def. Bit more offence except against swordmasters/etc. where he has way less. Garbage for endgame of course. Bad at gaining strike level (hit S in part 4 around the same time as Nealuchi).
Lyre: Around 30 kills. Well, she's more durable than Kyza (better speed) but even worse offence because lolol 22 base attack. She grows out of that thanks to strike level but her offence is never good unless you give her an Energy Drop or two. S strike in 3-10, would have hit SS easily enough in endgame but uh yeah that wasn't happening. Worst cat in every meaningful way.
Nealuchi: ~25 kills. Useful in part 2 since he's so darn durable and has canto, even if he doesn't one-round things. Kinda... stays this way in part 4 honestly, flight and so on is good there.
Muarim and Vika: ~15 kills. Good in part 1, trash in part 4, nothing else new there.
Skrimir: Has a nice slow gauge which is great for part 4. Terrific in his first map, second... is really reliant on getting speed, kinda tempramental as a PC there though good in all other non-speed ways. Endgame neuters his big advantage and I don't see much reason to use him there though if he does gain a lot of speed he's solid.
Giffca, Caineghis: ~13 kills. I dunno, Giffca's very solid (one-rounds almost everything that isn't a red dragon or boss) but kinda forgettable. Nice at one-rounding things like Cover Spirits, at least. Cain is Cain. Giffca with Formshift = scary good. Needs Nasir help for the final battle (both do) but that's about the only complaint.
Nailah, Naesala, Tibarn: ~65 kills, Tibarn had less than the other two. I gave Naesala Nullify for part 4 so he could ruin some shit in the desert, a place he can struggle with at times normally. This let him hit SS strike reasonably in E-1 or E-2 (I forget which) and actually keep up with the other two for attack. Tibarn and Nailah of course dominate their respective part 4 maps (as well as 1-8 and 1-E for Nailah). Nailah lacks Canto but is just completely unkillable, Tibarn's amazing with the 10 move and power and durability, Naesala's the most frail and needs the most growth but still amazing. Hard to rank the royals in the endgame proper, they are top four of course because they have the godmode stats AND the formshift and yeah holy shit in general. This was certainly the easiest endgame ever because they're very likely the four best PCs in it. There are solid arguments for Elincia and maaaybe Jill/Shinon/Rolf (though only one of the latter obviously) drawing in ahead of Naesala but yeah.
Other beorc: Sothe is Sothe. Notably tied the hawks for #6 in kills with 75. Marcia was the next highest beorc at ~40, most important PC in the Crimean chapters due to flight, I master crowned her to own 3-9 hard and it works better than crowning one of the paladins if you're willing to sacrifice her long-term. Jill was also around ~40, canto makes her pretty great in DB part 3 and she was the most important non-Volug PC there certainly.
Casualties of the playthrough were Nolan, Ilyana, and Meg (died in part 1), Haar (died in 2-E trying to solo half the map), Zihark (died in 3-6. Repeatedly. After the third time I didn't reset <.<), Sigrun (with ~30 kills, too, she was really important until her death late in the desert!), Kurth (one-rounded in endgame untransformed), Gareth (ate 94 damage from the final boss, Gareth LITERALLY the best).
It's worth noting there are roughly just enough Olivi Grass storebought to field an entirely laguz army (then of course they're infinitely available late).
Fun fun. I do like the laguz, they legitimately have their own ups and downs compared to beorc and play rather differently while ultimately feeling balanced against them (obviously there's good and bad of both, but you can reasonably compare Janaff/Ulki to high tier humans, Lethe to mid, and Kyza/Lyre to low, for instance... the spectrum's the same). I think using a mix is obviously best, but it was interesting to see what the laguz alone would do.
EDIT: One last random observation I need to record: Blossom on high-level laguz is awesome. They lose nothing from it since they're gaining 1 exp anyway, and their growths skyrocket upwards especially due to how "low" they are to start with. Just BExp them to 99, pop on Blossom for a map, and boom.
