FE Awakening Lunatic Casual - Completed.
Pretty tough as advertised. The earlygoing, especially chapter 2 (probably the hardest map in the game?) is of course some of the nastiest. I also had a lot of trouble with chapters 11, 14, 17, and 21. Final chapter also surprisingly nasty but I eventually hit on a good way to deal with it, engaging with the final on turn 2 and hunting down anyone who could use Physic with prejudice. Die, combat medics, die! Pretty sure I was playing as the good guys anyway.
Pointless unit commentary!
A * indicates a reclassing at between level 15 and 18 typically. For obvious reasons the precise level isn't too important past 15, so it's a matter of whenever it is convenient mostly.
Chrom - 20/*/4 Paladin, 130 kills - Solid. Benefitted a lot from having to survive every map, gave him a nice level push early before others could catch up. Had great strength and speed so could usually be counted on to kill things, and durable enough to not be a high priority for enemy targetting.
Robin - (F, Spd+, Skl-) 20/*/9 Dark Flier, 109 kills - I probably should have made her a Sorcerer but I didn't want to lean on that more than necessary. Anyway the speed was pretty great, and Veteran gave her a great early push. Spent a while as MVP in the early midgame. Later her level/kills fell off a bit as she ended up providing support for Tharja (who loved the speed/magic and had a shortage of other options) and did a lot of Rally Spectrum spam from Chapter 21 onwards.
Lissa - 20/15 Sage, 6 skills - Healbot (also Rescuebot). Lissa dies a lot but on Casual that mean Miracle is actually a decent skill. Anyway she was often able to take one hit (after the earlygame anyway) which is why she made the cut over Maribelle.
Frederick - 15 Great Knight, 49 kills - Most important PC in the game because he's the only person who can deal with horrifying chapter 2 enemies. Obvious MVP of that part of the game. Later on fits very nicely as a supporter for Sumia, who is kind of short on options and appreciates str/def/move. And hey he can use Hammer and Beastkiller and has A in all weapon ranks so he is kinda relevant as a support attacker forever.
Sumia - 20/*/9 Dark Flier->Falconknight, 164 kills - Flying speed demon, great for dealing with lots of enemies and extremely important in the earlymidgame. Got Galeforce around chapter 20 or so and this was a huge help to her offensive specialist game even as her stat niche gets filled by people less likely to be 2HKOed. Never really felt like an MVP but as the kill count shows, always good and an important player throughout.
Lon'qu - 20/14 Assassin, 65 kills - Speed is always the god stat, although his build is just inferior to Sumia's overall. Bows were a helpful pickup for slaying fliers (he got to C without an Arms Scroll. Spent more time than not as Panne's supporter but did plenty of frontlining too, the two complement each other well.
Panne - 10/16/17 Griffon Knight, 96 kills - The four-level push before reclass hurt more than normal on this mode. Past that, as always the Wyvern reclass gives her high strength/speed (which Lon'qu pushed even more). Could 2HKO anything and doubled almost everything, so had great offence. Durability could be better but the HP kept it from feeling awful. A better Sumia outside the lack of Galeforce once she got going, but that early going really matters.
Tharja - 20/20/10 Sorcerer, 201 kills - Nosferatu is kinda badass. How well Tharja's game works by enemy class, but things she doubles and don't have great res just get devoured endlessly. In some cases this applies to whole maps, she all but soloed chapter 19 for instance. Low accuracy is a minor flaw ultimately. Midgame MVP and has a case to be the best unit in the playthrough overall.
Anna - 20 Trickster, 23 kills - Healer who could kill things with a Levin Sword for a while midgame and took the most punishment before dropping (only rarely OHKOed!). Even had a pairup that granted move and speed! Anna's great, this isn't news.
Lucina - 20/*/15 Hero, 121 kills - Inherited Veteran and some pretty great stats seeing as her parents were overlevelled midgame. As time got on her stats just went ridiculous. Capped strength and had 42 or above in Str/Skl/Spd/Lck and great stats otherwise. Ran Sol+Aether+Rightful King and had a ~70% chance to regenerate HP with every strike, while doubling most everything, being reasonably durable and doing massive damage. Needless to say, one of the best. The main person to tangle with the final boss.
Say'ri - 11 Swordmaster, 21 kills - Did some midgame troubleshooting with her strong overall stats, although the lack of supports was notable. Once Tiki joined she became permanent pairup bait through not fault of her own.
Morgan - 10/10/4 Sorcerer, 11 kills - I got him right after Say'ri's map. I had a plan to turn him into a competent Sorcerer but it proved too difficult to get him many levels, so he ended up as Lucina's support partner instead, bolstering two of her non-stupidly-high stats, so there's that. If I did things again I'd have waited a bit longer before getting him and made him a Rally Spectrum monkey, which would have freed up Robin.
Tiki - 30/21 Manakete, 46 kills - Absolutely ridiculous. Capped HP/Skl/Spd/Lck. Lowest stat was Res at like 42. Her speed is kinda shaky at first but Say'ri fixes that. Tanky as all hell from the getgo, and as time goes on just starts doubling everything, 2HKOing most things, and giving no shits about anything (final boss' Ignis? Oh no a 3HKO). Lategame MVP.
Basilio & Flavia - Lv 14, 9/10 kills - Useful lategame filler. Can take a hit or two, can hit lots of weaknesses.
Libra - 11 War Monk, 3 kills - Third staff user when I had the space for him. Died instantly to everything later.
Cherche - 20/7 Griffon Rider, 30 kills - High Str/Def and Hammer use gave her a clear niche for a while, and then she complemented Say'ri well midgame. Kinda lacked a niche late + bad speed caught up with her, so got dropped.
Sully (24 kills), Stahl (23 kills), Cordelia (14 kills) all saw some definite use early before becoming overall outclassed and dropped before promotion.
