u/Kibichu

I played Engage on Maddening. The difficulty was challenging and rewarding and usually not insurmountable. I had a pretty haphazard approach to DLC. I did use the well and the SP books. I did not use DLC rings or play the DLC stages. I did use some of the items and resources. I did not use the stat boosters. I had an experience that was fun and rewarding for me so I'm satisfied. Interested in using DLC on future playthroughs. The gameplay is some of the best this series has to offer tho. Now on to the units.

1. Diamant
My goat who had 20 MVPs throughout the game. Second place had 5. Pretty useful from the moment he joined, but I gave him special favoritism because I like the design and he more or less held up throughout the whole game. He had some hit issues but the Erika engrave on the Tomahawk made him very consistent (there were some unfortunate crits). I had him on Ike most of the game and they synergized perfectly. Ike is incredible in this game btw. My favorite lord in the series and my favorite character in this game was really really fun and the unit was incredibly reliable. Could solve basically any situation I put him in and sometimes when he couldn't he pulled through anyway with crits or Sol. His stats were definitely outclassed by Kagetsu in pretty much every way that mattered but we’ll ignore that cause he worked out for me. He was definitely a more reliable unit than Kagetsu but if I’d been giving Kagetsu the love he got, Kagetsu would’ve done pretty well too. Might've been slightly worse as a tank at least... Thank you goat for being so reliable and soloing portions of maps alone. He also dealt the final blow to the final boss.

2. Amber
Hooray for Amber! This was probably my favorite build to use. Smiting enemies from across the map with a brave lance. Pincering enemies to double them despite his trash speed. This unit was crazy fun. As I said this was my first time playing this game but I knew going in that Maddening had a big exp squeeze so I absolutely did research on builds and whatnot. And while most of the builds I went with were because they seemed to optimally fit my needs, this build was one I chose cause it seemed so fun and unique. Sigurd is also just an incredibly fun and useful ring (Cantor is on almost all my guys). I did dump 5000 SP into him in 25 to help one round Lumera better (that was the only mainline chapter I warp skipped but I did skip a couple paralouges I thought looked tedious). In retrospect that probably wasn't necessary based on my strategy and it ended up making Amber more powerful in the final chapter, when he would've been great without it. I clearly used books on other characters but no one got half as much SP as Amber did. All in all, if I needed a unit dead, my first choice was to send Amber and Sigurd at them.

3. Pandreo
Probably my second most reliable unit behind Diamant, capable of solving any issue. There is a serious feast or famine quality to unit stats in this game. Some are amazing and some are not and Pandreo is definitely the former. He cruised through the game with high speed, the Levin Sword, and a really good synergy with Eirika for those enemies he couldn't quite one round. For my money he has the single most impactful personal skill in the game. It basically made him a dodge tank despite being the totally wrong class for it and me not putting any investment into that. Pandreo was the only unit besides Diamant (who had to be engaged) who I could put out into the range of more than one enemy and trust he'd win out. He wasn't the best at any one role but he was always basically the second best option.

4.Ivy
A very useful flying tome user who sometimes used staves. I had her on Lyn for most of the game to fix her speed and she was very good. Between her class skill, crits (typically 25%) from Lyn engrave, and brave assists, she was usually statistically likely to one round and enemy even if she couldn't quite get there on damage alone. And speed taker made her excellent at snowballing. I didn't get much use out of astra storm which was a shame but Lyn's skills are so good it didn't really matter.

5. Kagetsu
Another crazy statblessed character. Was not quite as consistent as Pandreo but if I had shown him the love I showed Diamant... either way he was just solid in every aspect. Mostly a crit merchant with Killing Edge which was pretty fun. My go to option after Diamant for killing the big ole Wyrms. I mean he's a good stats character as a wyvern lord. What more is there to say. Oh and Roy was fine I guess.

6. Jean
My toolbox unit. I have a soft spot for trainee units like most people and this one worked out pretty well. He was incredibly versatile and had a use case in every situation. Thoron poke with Draconic Hex to weaken bosses safely, all the best staves, and Dragon Vein flames which were the key to many bad situations I put myself in (hello Alear Paralouge). He also did substantial chip damage which is good enough when you're wearing as many hats as this kid was. Unmatched versatility.

7. Chloe
The second place in question for my MVP rankings. Early fliers are good. My main staff user and the vehicle for the warp skips I indulged in. However even though I didn't warp skip a whole bunch I definitely used Micaiah to her full effect, using aoe mends and obstructs. I also used rescue and warp pretty liberally even if I wasn't cheesing maps with them. I love rescue staves. I almost ran out. Chloe also had pretty consistently good damage. She could kill armors and res-deficient wyverns and had fairly good damage otherwise for being a support unit. A solid and important part of the team. Also shout out to the one Entrap I did against chapter 24's boss. That was a 31% chance and I was definitely about to be overrun. Thank you Divine Pulse.

8. Alear
A solid unit. Bonded Shield got me through many tight turns and the 90% chance almost never bit me in the butt. And even though his damage fell off hard he could always contribute with the beautiful Dual Assist+. I never married anyone and never clicked Engage+ once. I don't even know what it does. Maybe I should have experimented but I was too set in my ways by the end.

9. Seadall
Seadall is a dancer. I like his design.

10. Goldmary
The goat of my 10th slot. I got her, gave her a spear and Dual Assist+ and crossed my fingers a whole bunch. Usually she pulled through. The unit with the best contribution to lack of investment ratio.

11. Zelkov
I like this guy's design and personality so I wanted to use him. When I saw he gave speed on Byleth Dance, I put him on Byleth and let him rock. Mostly he was just taking up space if he wasn't dancing which was only once or twice a map and I kind of had a hard time maneuvering him into a good dance on occasion. The last time he contributed as a unit was Lyn Paralouge which I did pretty early. He was absolutely integral to winning maps but solely on the back of the Dance. The character did nothing. The speed also rarely came up funnily enough. Next time I'll probably put Byleth on a flier or dragon and do something else with Zelkov.

12. Fogado
This chud was the only guy in my army I couldn't fit Canto on. I was told he would be a good low effort flier killer in his canon class with a Radiant bow, and I liked the look of the guy so I tried him. He had big hit rate AND speed issues and it took all his skill slots to kind of fix those. I also had to feed him kills which I didn't have to do for any of my other dedicated "low investments". Eventually he became adequate at his job. Marth Emblem helped a lot but obviously that comes a lot later than he does.

13. Vayle
Another nice low investment unit. Had hit rate issues but Draconic Hex Thoron spam doesn't need to hit to work. Celica for long range safe Dragonic Hex.

14. Mauvier
Another fine low investment unit. Brave assist was nice with the long bow and the radiant bow could close out some kills. I kinda wish I had gotten him to level 5 for the class skill but there wasn't really enough EXP left. I had to keep letting Diamant eat half the map after all. Leif was basically a stat stick.

All in all, I really liked this game, really liked team and unit building, and really liked the challenge. I think the only thing my crew was really lacking was one more solid damage unit to put in more work than the final 4, but that's just the way it goes. I also had less fliers than in most of my FE playthroughs, which was interesting. I'm definitely a fan of smaller maps and how it changes the mounted/infantry dynamic but I did somewhat miss having more fliers. The ones I did have were pretty integral to my strategy. Thanks again to Diamant for carrying my game.

Oh shoot I forgot to give a unit my second Boots.