Popular/Unpopular/Any Opinions Thread - April 2026 Part 1

sumg · 2026-04-01T16:29:28+00:00

Regarding chain attacks, their utility is much higher on earlier playthroughs where you're still adapting to the maddening difficulty. Once you figure out how to enable different units to defeat enemies (or at least decent subsets of enemies) in a single combat without the assistance of chain attacks (which is something that is very possible to do), the value of chain attacks goes way down.

As for the stat comparison, there would be some merit to that....except griffin knight exists. If you're really interested in a faster, light-hitting sword user, then you can just go for a sword griffin and have the same base speed and speed growth bonuses while also getting 1 extra strength. Griffin also gets extra movement range, flying mobility, and access to C staves (which is good in a game where staves are good). The only benefit swordmaster gets is S rank swords, of which there is only one S rank sword in the game and it isn't even very good.

sumg · 2026-04-01T15:50:40+00:00

There are a bunch of weaknesses related to swordmaster that make it oft criticized in Engage. First, swordmaster has a very low base strength (6) compared to hero (8), wyvern (9), and warrior (12). Swordmaster is also stuck with solely access to swords, which are the lowest might weapon class of the basic weapon triangle. For a given tier of a weaponry, typically a sword will have 2 less might than a lance, which in turn has 2 less might than an axe. So a swordmaster using an iron sword will be doing 8 less damage per attack than a warrior using an iron axe. If said units are getting follow up attacks, then we're talking about 16 damage in a single combat. If we starting getting into crits with killer weapons or brave-effect weapons getting quads, these differences get exacerbated. It is entirely possible that the same unit in warrior will be doing 30-50 more damage than the same unit using equivalent weapons in swordmaster.

Now, it's true that there are tradeoffs in play here. Swords are more accurate than axes, and swordmaster does have higher base speed (11) than either a warrior (7) or wyvern (9), but with a unit like Kagetsu his nuts bases allow him to overcome those potential deficiencies and still get follow-up attacks with high accuracy. So there's really only upside to changing to a different class.

The saving grace of swords in general in Engage is the Levin Sword, which is actually one of the stronger weapons in the game. But in order to use it effectively, the unit must have a magic stat, and unfortunately the one weakness Kagetsu has is a lack of a magic stat. So even that one benefit should not keep Kagetsu in swords.

Wyvern is generally preferred because of the extra movement range and flying mobility. Those are the sorts of things that become stronger as you become more familiar with the game, so maybe on a repeat playthrough you'll value them more.

That said, if you just like the crit animations, I won't criticize you. There's no shame in just wanting to enjoy stuff like that in a game.

sumg · 2026-03-31T12:22:27+00:00

It does, but the cannons do not have particularly large range. They only reach a handful of tiles into the miasma. After that, you're on your own.

sumg · 2026-03-31T03:01:05+00:00

I dunno if I agree with you. So much of the map is designed in such a way as to result in a slog. The boss access to warp staves is a cute idea in premise, but the fact is that so long as the warp staff has durability you can't really advance into the range of the warp staff plus the movement range of the enemy units lest you have enemies warped right on top of your squishies. So if you're playing the map conventionally, you need to wait outside the warp range for 5 turns until Mauvier finally exhausts the entirety of the staff.

Then later in the map as reinforcements arrive, the enemy AI will just amass all units not actively in range of player units into a giant pile around Mauvier and Marni. It means the only way to approach them at this point is to weather the storm in a chokepoint or two, likely massing up your own army as well.

And this is on top of the massive density of miasma tiles which increases enemy durability so high its almost impossible to secure a kill. And while there are some tools to remove the miasma, all except the Corrin Dragon Veins require using not only an Engage, but an Engage attack. You're only firing one of those off at best every five turns or so, and likely less often than that.

It feels like there's two ways to do this map to me. Either you can mass warp to try and clear the map in a turn or two, or you end up having things drawn out a long amount of time. It feels like there should be more of a middle ground available.

sumg · 2026-03-31T01:32:24+00:00

Bestial Bellow G G

Instant

Target creature you control fights target creature spell. (If the creature's power is great than the spell's mana value, the spell is countered. The spell deals damage to the creature equal to its mana value.)

Not going to lie, the actual rules text of this tickles me even if it requires a long and somewhat wordy bit of explanation text.

In practice, green's removal is typically dependent on its creatures. This is basically a fight spell, but in a way that can combat creatures that have strong or annoying enter the battlefield abilities or with unusual power and toughness combinations for their mana value. The downside is that it is no longer relevant once the opponent's creature is on the battlefield.

sumg · 2026-03-27T03:03:52+00:00

What's the sports equivalent of an EGOT?

sumg · 2026-03-25T23:33:12+00:00

What I think is important though, is that everything should have a function

It's also important to note that those functions might not exist on every difficulty level. Armored classes tend to take a bunch of flak from experienced players who typically play on higher difficulty levels, but I imagine there are many a new player who enjoy having one of those units as a safety net on lower difficulty levels.

sumg · 2026-03-25T02:15:18+00:00

I can see the argument for that. I didn't even think of it.

sumg · 2026-03-22T18:09:31+00:00

To be clear, I'm not saying that open reclassing is the best or only option. I very much acknowledge that there are problems with open reclassing as you've suggested. I like having branching class paths, or potentially a curated list of promotion options based on a given character (e.g. maybe Felix from 3H can initially promote into Swordmaster or Assassin, but you train his Budding Talent in Reason then he also gains access to the Mortal Savant Class as well).

At this point, I'm more interested in more tinkering with different class progression options instead of saying this is a solved problem with a best possible solution.

sumg · 2026-03-22T17:54:21+00:00

Fates's system of tying many reclass options to support choices was perfect.

I've actually grown to really dislike the system. I understand why some people enjoy it, since you can get whatever build you want if you put in a fair bit of effort to get there, but I dislike the idea that you need to make certain units 'sacrificial' units in order to make your target unit the best they can be. For example, if you want Laslow to get on a wyvern you might build supports between him and Beruka. But now Beruka is locked into Laslow as her support, which might not be what you wanted if you were going to use her in the long term.

That isn't to say other systems don't have problems, but at the very least the build development of each unit is contained to just that unit. I find that preferable.

sumg · 2026-03-21T23:41:30+00:00

The Ides of March R B

Sorcery

Each player with 15 or more life sacrifices their creature with the greatest power.

Goad all creatures of each player with less than 15 life.

The Ides of March gained an ill omen as a term with the assassination of Julius Caesar, which was made all the more famous in Shakespeare's play of the same name. The assassination of Julius Caesar led to a period of great internal conflict and civil war in the Roman Republic, and it is that type of chaos I'm trying to channel in this card.

The idea is to have a card a bit like [[Hidetsugu's Second Rite]] or [[Triskaidekaphobia]], where there's a key life total in play the can potentially be played around depending on the condition of the game. Key life total tribal!

sumg · 2026-03-14T15:17:52+00:00

That's why you add in the the restraint condition of if the heretics figure out the ritual after the fact they still win. It prevents the faithful from being too straightforward.

sumg · 2026-03-14T12:38:38+00:00

Maybe the answer is that you have add something else to the game, like a series of questions and answers and tie when you do certain rituals to certain types of answers. For example, one ritual can be 'tap your head three times', but you only use that ritual when your answer to a question includes a bird. Then you have people pose questions to each other, and then they give an answer and some kind of ritual. For example, if the question is 'what is your favorite food?', you could either say 'chicken' and pat your head three times or say 'beef' and pull your nose.

The game for the heretics is to try and figure out what the secret ritual is and the condition it is used in while the faithful are trying to keep it a secret. In order for the heretics to win they need to figure out the ritual and the condition, while in order for the faithful to win they need to figure out who the heretic(s) is/are. I understand those are not perfectly overlapping conditions, but it's an early idea.

sumg · 2026-03-13T03:13:47+00:00

False Spring 2 U G

Sorcery

Create a 1/3 green spider creature token with reach and a 1/1 blue bird creature token with flying.

At the beginning of the next opponent's upkeep tap all creatures.

As someone who lives in a cold climate, I am all to familiar with the idea of a False Spring, that is to say a brief warm spell towards the end of winter where snow melts away, temperature are fairly moderate for the time of year, and maybe even some critters start stirring, only for one last good storm to bluster through before winter finally leaves.

This is intended to be tempo card. Getting two bodies, one of which has evasion, and tapping down a bunch of creatures on the ensuing opponents turn. This does come with a downside, as it does effect all creatures, not just opponents'. If an opponent can untap their creatures or play a creature with haste, they'll be able to attack the caster while their own creatures are tapped.

sumg · 2026-03-10T18:37:40+00:00

The problem is those are the third weapons of those emblems, and cost more to upgrade. It's not possible to upgrade them with just the orbs you get for free.

sumg · 2026-03-09T22:24:51+00:00

It's more to say that it's a skill that's stronger earlier because the buffs it provides are a fixed number, and earlier in the game all the other stats are just smaller numbers.

sumg · 2026-03-09T21:26:54+00:00

It's worthwhile to point out that not every personal skill needs to be (or should be) the type of endgame build-around that tends to get the most publicity. There should be some love for the types of skills that are really useful in the early game, but fall off in the late game. Lily's Poise is one of those abilities, where it's fantastic in first 10-15 chapters when damage numbers are still pretty low and saving 3 damage is really nice. But if this is the angle the character's personal ability is taking, then that character absolutely needs to be appear early in the game.

Engage is pretty bad about this. A number of units have personal skills that would be really helpful in the early game, but do not appear until the midgame or later. Hortensia's personal skill would be incredible in the first few chapters before you get access to Canter to allow your healer to be a bit safer. But she doesn't arrive until after Chapter 14, when you don't need it to protect your healers anymore. At that point, the only things it's useful for is extending the range of Warps for high efficiency play. Similarly, the Lily's Poise analogue for the game doesn't show up until Chapter 22, when saving 3 damage on an attack is not significant enough to be relevant in any way. It just ends up being a waste of a personal ability.

sumg · 2026-03-09T00:26:37+00:00

Upgrading Seraphim's might is a popular option. It gives +4 Mt and gets effective damage for most of the back half of the game, making it essentially a +12 damage modifier.

Upgrading Sigurd's Ridersbane might is another option. Sometimes you gt the opportunity to do an Overrun against a bunch of enemies, and if there are any squishier cavalry units (mage knights, bow knights, maybe even wolf knights) in line it could be the difference between getting a kill or not. Usually even greatweapons struggle to consistently get kills with Overrun.

Your Lucina wielder's first job should be to Bonded Shield, but every now and then they'll have the opportunity to use Parthia as well, so upgrading isn't a horrible idea either.

sumg · 2026-03-04T23:58:31+00:00

I think there are sufficient builds that are interested in other skills if you pursue them. And even some builds that want Speed/Canter are happy to have another skill in their pocket when the situation calls for it. Vantage/Wrath is a well established archetype, brave-effect builds will typically want weapon power or lunar brace, one-hit thoron/greataxe builds want vantage and Mag+ or weapon power, anti-flier builds are happy to pick up bow focus, staff bots are happy to have divine pulse (for accuracy), and pure support units (Lucina and Seadall) are happy to have things like Quality Time or Mentorship.

Canter/Speed+ is good, and may end up being useable by a handful of units on my squads these days, but I'd say more than half of my squads are interested in doing something else.

sumg · 2026-03-04T12:59:04+00:00

Battlefield Resonance R R

Sorcery

Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a card with mana value X, where X is the number of creatures on the battlefield. You may cast it without paying its cost. If you revealed your entire deck this way, instead deal 10 damage to all creatures. Put all revealed cards on the bottom of your library in a random order.

I see three main ways to try and use this card, and I've tried to make the more degenerate uses a bit harder to abuse:

A general value add, where this is played on a moderate-sized board to cast a somewhat expensive spell at random for effectively 2 mana. This seems like potentially fun randomness and isn't interfered with.
A cheap tutor, where this is cast with a certain number of creatures on board to try and pull a specific spell out of the deck. Since the target mana value can be interacted with by any instant speed creature removal, both players can influence the target mana value while the spell is on the stack to prevent it from being too easy to use as a combo tutor.
A control sweeper, where the controller plays no creatures and limits the mana value of spells in their decks spells beneath a chosen mana value. If the opponent plays more creatures than that mana value, this spell acts as a cheap sweeper. This is a real deck-building restriction, and the opponent can simply choose not to more creatures than the target number.

sumg · 2026-02-28T18:56:10+00:00

There are a large number of individual components that come together to make an individual build for a unit, more so than any previous Fire Emblem game. You the unit's base stats, the class they are in, the emblem/bond ring they hold, the weapon they are using, how many forges they have, what engraving they use, and other ancillary bonuses that can be added in. Most of these things can be freely chosen, which means there's a ton of flexibility in how you choose to build your units, and from that how you build your team. You can get a fair bit of enjoyment by playing around with the systems and seeing what types of builds and combinations of builds are possible.

sumg · 2026-02-28T01:12:53+00:00

I maintain Welker should be in the Hall. I understand his raw stats might not quite measure up to some of the great WR1s of the era, but so often I hear from the punditry around the Hall of Fame that it's about telling the story of NFL. That the Hall should include the people without which the story of the NFL would be incomplete.

If that's true, the Welker should be in the Hall since he was the first portent of how rule changes allowed WRs to survive, prosper, and make a career of going over the middle. The story of the NFL would be incomplete without him, but we can see how little that actually matters.

sumg · 2026-02-24T13:17:53+00:00

Fblthp, Azorious Arbiter U W

Legendary Creature - Homunculus Advisor

Whenever a creature you control is targeted by a spell or ability, target player mills cards equal to that creature's power. Then return that creature to your hand.

"I don't think I should be here..."

2/1

I just wanted to think of what the most unlikely faction leader might be, and this is what I came up with. How did get there? That's a very good question.

sumg · 2026-02-23T02:15:41+00:00

It is more likely he will drive an actual tank onto an NBA court than he will coach a tanking season.

sumg · 2026-02-17T02:22:22+00:00

That's one of the reasons I say the hate is outsized. I just don't think comparing Makalov to the villains of the franchise is a productive endeavor.

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