Welcome to Gaia! ::

Wha-bu... it's only making them a footed unit in a straight line. In any other square of their entire movement, you haven't slowed them down at all. And if you're not blocking them in a straight line, than you haven't accomplished anything. You haven't removed any of their movement besides the one you're standing on.

If you have 2 or more people this is great. But that's what I said in the first place. If I have the numbers to make a wall, that's exactly what I'll do. But if I don't, the only way I can see to go about it, is placing someone to bait them to move closer.

Of course, (I'm gonna go on my "assumptions" rant again because I still had more to say on the subject by the time I was done with my last post.) this is amusing you can finish all of them off the next turn. And assuming they don't have reinforcements right behind them, like they often do, which you must continually block. And we're talking about possibly mounted archers, and possibly Javelin wielding bastards whom we may have no axe wielders to deal with. If you attempt to kill them all by moving in your frail characters, and fail, you've basically left all your units much more open to attack. If you don't have a bottle neck in this situation, you're screwed.

This is allllll situational. But that's all they need really. 1 or 2 bad situations in a game where luck plays a high factor. A couple cheap shots may be all they need and we could possibly lose one of our people. And we're not just talking about any unit, we're talking about one of our fellow Fire Emblem Forever allies. I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate us letting them die. You can bet I'll be restarting the chapter if that happens.

...And this entire conversation is hypothetical. It seems no less legal to throw out some hypothetical situations which, frankly, aren't really that implausible. These things can indeed happen to you in a playthrough if you're not careful.

Edited: Actually, even 2 people wouldn't do anything if they're attacking diagonally. You'd need at least 3, and even that hardly slows them down.

Even more Edited: On the subject of hypothetical vs what goes down in previous games. In those games they have a different characters. We're talking about our so-far-army. And so far, we have very few hard hitters besides mages, and NO axe wielders before a promotion, making it harder to finish them off depending on our numbers vs theirs in whatever current situation we're hypothetically in.

We don't need to care about the majority of their possible movements. They're coming towards us. Which is generally at most two possible directions (and only two if they're away from us diagonally), the majority of which is going to be a straight line, or they aren't getting as far anyway. Let's assume we move first because we're the player phase. We can align ourselves to whatever trajectory they're going to take. A good 70-80% of the time, one direction IS all you need to block. At most, it's two, and tacking on just a second or third unit takes care of it. Making a wall like you suggest is definitely a more defensive option we can take, but it takes more units (walls have their place in a tactics arsenal as well, of course, but unless you're a defensive turtle-happy player, it's not the go-to). I personally prefer standalone bait in most situations because it lets my other units do other things hypothetically.

Against a Javelin, if I'm not approaching them (which IS an option with the Bards), I'd actually bait with a magic user with constant 1-2 range. Preferably a dodgy one or one with Nosferatu.

This is ALL hypothetical, I agree. As you said, "if you're not careful". Let's just assume we're going to be careful, like a good Fire Emblem player should be and leave it at that. xD

@ Sasuke no Katon: No need to apologize.

If you're measuring every enemy's movement, that shouldn't be happening.

Frontlining with magic users is a game-by-game thing, as can anyone with Holsety. Yuria can do it in FE4. The dark magic users can Nosferatu tank in FE6 (although I'd rather pull teeth than get Sophia to that point). Clarine can VERY reliably do it in FE6 with supports. Lugh is pretty reliable too, especially with supports. Everyone but Failina and the light magic users, can handle it, basically. Heck, Hugh, as a level 1 Sage has MORE Defense than Lance as a level 1 Paladin (and they have the same growth rate, meaning the Sage has more defense than the Paladin - and a very highly regarded Paladin, too). FE7, has a lot of magic users that can frequently handle the front lines. FE8 slightly less so, but it's still doable in some cases (the ever underrated Moulder stands out - has more HP than Amelia, and roughly 3 points less defense at 20/20; sounds like frontline material to me). FE8 onward, it became less feasible. By FE10, it seemed quite discouraged. On the bright side, it's totally doable in FE13. Long live easily purchased Nosferatu.

I'm not going to take an unnecessary risk either. But if I calculated before hand that the mage will be fine, they're going on the front lines with everyone else. Magic users happen to be some of my favorite units consistently because of their sheer versatility.

Pleasure as always, indeed.

My FE philosophy doesn't believe in luck or the lack of. Just raw calculation. If someone dies, I blame myself as a tactician. ;3

Of course. If I lose a unit to, say... a 2% crit that would've lived otherwise, I understand it was me taking a risk I agreed to that backfired. But if I lose a unit to an enemy I failed to consider or didn't check their weapon or something that has a 56% chance of hitting and being that one hit that'll push it to a kill, that's completely my fault.

I would probably be ethier a mercenary or a thief. Although leaning more towards mercenary. Swords are my weapon of choice. I can take a few hits so I gusse I'd have pretty good defense. My health would be a kinda above average. Making me a bit of a tank. My strength would be good. My speed would be average. Magic ressitiance. Bad. Using magic power. Awful. Skill would be below average. Luck would be lower then skill by a bit. Constitution would be above average. I may not dodge every attack or critical often but I could be put in the front lines to cut down a couple of enemies before being in desperate need of health... unless were fighting a bunch of mages or be used to protect allies who have low defense like mages or archers.

As a thief though... mybe be a jack of all trades. I'll add more to this later but I've got to go.

Okay. But I still wish I could contribute. :3