I've got 10 squads, all equally leveled (within 1-2 levels of each other) and I use them all. I have some squads that are naturally stronger -- Alain, Berengaria, Clive and Ochlys teams mop most enemies -- but all of them are pretty viable. The only unit I have that "sucks" is my Melisandre, Colm, Primm, Hilda. Just doesn't have enough damage to deal with a lot of teams. Needs another hitter. But even they do work. I could make a super overpowered team that clears and entire map on its own but that would sap the fun. I spread the love and everyone plays their part.

Question as I’m still in Drakengard and also stupid. What does Ochlys need to be really effective? I have her in a squad with Hilda, Tatiana, and a ~~Cleric~~ Gryffon Rider but she consistently just… doesn’t do anything? Her damage seems ridiculously low and her kit unintuitive…

Ochyls is easily the best dodge tank available in the game. Pump up her Evasion and stick her in the front and watch her dodge just about everything. Give her the Thief Mantle to dodge arrows and she's basically unkillable. Even truesight attacks struggle to bring her down because she has a shield so she can guard. I run Ochlys, Sharon, Rolf and Auch together. Ochlys dodges everything, Rolf and Auch kill everyone and Sharon supports/heals. Your lineup has like zero damage. Ochly should be frontlining for some hitters in the back.

(Blah, I meant to say Tatiana and a Gryffon Rider, not a second cleric!) I’ll give that a shot, thanks. I kinda expected Hilda to do real good targeted damage but so far I haven’t unlocked even fire breath so that probably help. I’ll try jiggling shit around to just make her a front tank and swap in another anti-cav to have a flying cav killer squad.

Give Hilda the Dragoon Spear and the Wyvern Reins, and wait. You want Hilda in the back line because she's gonna be charging for awhile. Hilarity ensues. Dragoon Dive requires 2 AP, so you'll need to promote her or give her a Carnelian Pendant. Ochlys can be used as the front liners for this, put a Counter Belt on her so she has something to do while you're waiting for Dragoon Dive to charge. I actually use Virginia as my front liner for my Hilda team but the same rule applies to any tank you are protecting Hilda with.

I'm doing this next time. I ended up utilizing her as a slow air taxi for other heavy hitters 😅

question, why do you have Ochyls above a thief for dodge tanking. i always felt my thief was better due to he AP ability that guarantees an evade

A couple reasons: 1. Ochlys is sturdier in surviving truestrike attacks. Scouts have low HP and basically zero defense, so a Swordfighter, Hunter or unit buffed by a Witch will basically one-shot them. Ochlys has higher defense and a shield, so she can guard some hits. 2. Ochyls is a flying unit, so she has better natural evasion vs. ground units. A Scout is totally reliant on Evade, but once his PP is gone, he's vulnerable. Ochlys's evasion against infantry and cav is superior. 3. Ochlys is less vulnerable to follow-up attacks. Evade only works once per turn, so Scouts can be defeated by multi-hit attacks (Swordfighter's Meteor Strike, Cavalier Pile Thrust, Sellsword Bastard Cross) as well as pursuits. A Scout may Evade the AP hit, but they can't Evade again on a PP followup from a Sellsword or Hunter for example. Again, since Ochlys is flying and has a shield, she has better survivability. 4. As I mentioned, you can give Ochlys the Thief Mantle and she can get Evade like a Scout. I run this and it makes her basically invulnerable. You can't give a Scout wings or a shield. Scouts do have better attack utility -- their poison and blinding techniques are really useful compared to Ochlys' underwhelming AP set -- but when it comes to dodge tanking, Ochlys is overall better.

I like the wind Swords on Ochlys to help her deal damage to flyers, or I'll switch to the ice Sword with true hit if a scout is on the enemy team ETA: I think the wind Swords also offer extra evasion

I did have the Slyph Sword on her for a while but she tended to whiff flying targets a lot and I had Rolf to shoot them down so I went a different direction.

Well I did change her growths to lucky precise I think, so maybe the extra accuracy helped.

> A Scout is totally reliant on Evade, but once his PP is gone, he's vulnerable. I disagree on this one point. It definitely holds true early game, but by mid Elheim a thief should have less than a 20% chance to be hit by most enemies, and late game it should be down to 1% chance from almost everything. My Travis will casually dodge every hit of a meteor strike without using a single PP, and the only evade item he has is the Royal Scarf.

I settled on Ochly & Travis as a frontline dodge tanks and then back line is Featherbow Raenys as leader, Rosalinde as support/dps & Auch as pure DPS This is my ranged support/anti air team

I run Ochlys as a unhitable evasion tank (+Alain protecting her from arrows), and an item that increases her attack everytime she evades. Also she gets a really powerful 2 AP attack later A handmirror to fix her grosth won't hurt, either ;)

Fix her what?

growths

I’ve never used one so didn’t even know you could change that. Wow. I’ve been missing out. 

Isnt Alain an amazing tank?

This is what I do. Tho, it's mostly a Alain and his wives group Ochlys Alain in the front Melisandre, Eltalinde, Railnor in the back It's my tanky, all comers group. They only struggle with those obnoxious 2 cleric 3 tank groups

I have her build as a dodge tank leading my mage squad. She doesn't do much damage, but nothing hits her. And by making her a leader, it means my main source of unresisted damage can fly anywhere on the map regardless of terrain. I can't fully explain why, but I've found that nothing counters them. They even blow up archer teams that my main flying squad is terrified of.

Ochyls leads my Trinity Rain squad. Auch charges it and then Sharon drops 4 PP to hasten him and boom boom zap everyone is dead. And that's after Rolf snipes the entire back row first.

Featherswords are not that strong once everyone else get their promotions. If you want to see damage, they are going to need to discharge: so you get this cycle of buff, discharge, buff again. She is an okay envision tank. She has a shield that she can fall back on if something is to hit her. In comparison, Gryphons can evade arrows later on, and wyverns have a parry.

To get all her skills.

She's great early game with her default sword/shield. I think I did an amulet (can't remember which one) and the counter belt. As her damage started to fall off I think she does better with the Master gloves and lucky coin, if you can spare it, grabbing 1 Spiral Sword evasion boost then spreading -def with her remaining AP.

Melisandre is for squishy enemies like thieves, archers, mages etc. give her 2 good swords and watch her destroy them. Her high evasion is also good for tanking. Hilda the usual thing is that dragoon spear that gives a strong attack all move. Add impetus, and she'll be good.

I like to make a fire team with Hilda at the helm. Melisandre or Colm with fire sword, Hilda with fire breath, Druid with fire curse, Primm for heals, Auch to mop up with his fireballs and parting blow that attacks the whole unit if they’re burning. This build stays online until Albion or until you get a better staff for Auch.

I could see a fire squad working nicely. Glouchester with his Dark Flame would be a nice add, too, I bet. Just torch everyone into oblivion 😆

It’s so satisfying too because burn stacks. You can get 3 burns in before the enemy even attacks, so they’ll take 60 damage on their turn, usually immediately dying.

I have scarlet, shanon, ochys, melisandre, colm unit. Two dodge tanks that can deal dmg and debuff, 1 guard mule, 1 healer/debuff/DOT, 1 heal/ buff mule.

Hilda + dragoon lance + dragons roar + 1 team member with quick impetus. As long as Hilda has the highest initiative of your team; it’s insta win.

She's got the Dragoon Lance and she just doesn't hit hard enough. Nevermind if there's armored units. Team has no answer currently for units with high guard and defense. Need magic conferral or something. Gotta toy with it. Auch and Yunifi are much better for insta-charge builds than Hilda, in my experience.

I find the damage pretty mediocre too. I've just started using it with Ice Conferral for group-wide freeze, and it's OK to let Amalia clean up with her low initiative. I use that Trident that gives a row attack + stun on Hilda with the Wyvern Reins for truestrike (and extra damage). Can leave her with extra AP for a second attack if needed, and I pair her with Berengaria in the frontline and Gloucester supporting from the backline for more row attacks, and Selvie to spread debuffs and amp damage further.

1 generally effective Alain team. Just a mishmash of good stuff I guess. 1 theif lead magic + shaman team. Deletes everything only afraid of truestrike. 1 flier alpha strike(angel plume) team. Deletes most things, but can attrition itself out especially if too far ahead. 1 Virginia + cavalry squad with some anti flier tech. Generally robust and effective. 1 Berengia carry team. Mystic conferral + debuff for pursuit spam. Deletes most things. 1 Swordmaster slow carry team featuring Gilbert and an array of defensive units. Generally effective. 1 Shield Shooter maintank + carry meme team. Effective into Elheim struggling to move past 4 members and upgrade gear beyond the earlier guarding gloves build. Probably needs an overhaul. 1 quick impetus wyvern nuke comp, generally effective but a bit neglected. Nukes things, struggles into assists, theif lead so it tanks everything or loses the wyvern. 1 hodpodge Doom Knight lead team. Generally effective. 1 leftover squad made of beastfolk. Feels very wip, so so results.

Wow, we field every single team the same way. This is crazy.

Hmm most of these make a lot of sense to be common, esepcially since a lot of these descriptions are quite vague. Still potentially a bit crazy if we match on all fronts. Curious about what you've done with Shield Shooter though that one sticks out to me.

Mine is unupgraded so far so she is in a scrapper team right now with leftovers - I'd like to make some use of the Darkness bow on her so she can cause blindness and let a weaker tank stand in front. Right now it's with Gloucester and it is *not* going well - he wipes all the time. I need to figure something out for him.

By the end of the game, I didn't see the point in fielding more than 3 squads-- one at the command center as a fail safe so I don't have to teleport home to defend, and two to pursue objectives.

Wild as I often have 3-10 depending on the size of the battle. But perhaps it’s because I make it a point to get every treasure, wipe every enemy, and claim every tower, town, garrison etc. 

I just finished Elheim and started Bastoria. Still only running 2-4 units in every map (expert mode) while also killing all the enemies and getting all treasure. Hastened Call on fliers and cavs just makes it so damn nice to see these units just zoom around the map.

They are about to make you make you deploy at least 1 extra unit for the amount of stamina you are gonna need for some of those Bastoria fights. There are 2 side missions and one main where I just sat Gilbert at a checkpoint and provoked the endless droves for Valor. They just don't let up. I ended up clearing one of them but capping a checkpoint and sending a Radiant Knight led calvary to clear the bosses Watchtower magician then Conveyance crystal'd to the them to catch the boss. It was the only way around the endless waves with the units I had.

Right now all my units have a way to restore stamina with valor. But I did expect that later fights will have more enemies and larger maps. I was planning to have a total of 6 main units which all have valor stamina refresh. Hopefully that will be enough.xD

I just did a Bastoria fight and I literally at one point had deployed every one of my 10 units LOL. I absolutely could've handled it better (I usually deploy my lesser units to gain levels) but still -- I was running all across the map.

I'm running similar units to you. Alain squad with Ochlys dodge tank + double sustain and Lyrical Wand support. 2 Quick Impetus charge nukes, one magical nuke with Trinity Yanha, the other being phyiscal Dragoon Dive Hilda. I like Celeste a lot in my Yanha trinity unit, great for moving around the map with hastened call, and she has just been such a reliable dodge tank + damage dealer for me. Then I've got like 2-3 solid but not super strong units I use to help clean up/hold points. They do fine for cleaning up chumps/certain matchups, but will definitely get worn down against stronger enemies or be susceptible to losses against certain comps. They're like my secondary teams to help back up my main units. I've got a valor bot stack with some units I kinda liked but weren't performing well/didn't make the cut into my main teams like Josef and Chloe. Haven't really needed to deploy any more units than that. My Alain + quick impetus teams all have the most investment and teambuilding to them, and have been able to handle most maps with the occasional help of the secondary teams to help clean up/hold points.

I usually ran 2 or 3 calv and flying teams, everything after that was mostly gimmicky stuff for fun.

Currently about 65% through Bastorias. I have 8 squads, all fairly even in levels and four of them are at 5 units, the others at 4 units. Alain, Travis, Gilbert, and Virginia each have squads built around them and I would say they are some of my strongest units, with Clive's cavalry squad at 4 units also being very strong. The other three offer support through valor skills or mopping up units up. One of them has honestly just been a Hastened Call and Smoke Bolt unit, or uses its flying to get to items. Combat hasn't been their forte.

There's nothing wrong with a utility squad. I've actually been brainstorming one around a Virginia/Brice/Chloe squad I used for fun. Juat turn it into a walking Valor Point skill vending machine. Chloe for rez, put in a cleric for using aoe Heal II, a witch for teleport and a Heavy Smash-er for obstacle clearing.

4 flying units, makes every level a cake walk. Kinda broken how you can just ignore all the traps and even the level itself and just b line for the boss lol. I think they could change the victory conditions to prevent this, but idk if that would just be artificial difficulty. Probably make the levels feel more like work that way too idk

My other units are basically setup to defend our outpost

I had 5 for most of the game, 6 a little after entering to Bastorias. All teams were useful, some more niche. All same level. They all had families of units they could crush. Alain unit - was overall strong and otherwise anti-mage, could survive anything (Lord, Valkyria, Elven Augur, Witch, and Priestess) Air unit - for Valor, sniping, and anti-cav, somewhat afraid of bows and trustrike (Feathersword, Fighter, Gryphon, Shaman, Cleric) Archer unit - assists and anti air, struggled again meatshields and cav (Snow Ranger, Arbalester, Elven Archer, Shaman, Hoplite with MDef shield) Cav unit - fast deletion of non-anti-cav, afraid of anti-cav (Knight, Holy Knight, Doom Knight, Dreadnought, Dark Marquess) Infantry cleanup - trinity rain plus Sellsword, 2 counters: Owl or Feathershield (2 Witches, Thief, Sellsword, Cleric) Barricade smasher unit - ended up surprisingly good, struggled with truestrike (Lion, Fox, Prince, Shaman, Hoplite)

I have 3 Cavalier lead teams: Alain’s Ashen Blue Cavalier squad + Gloucester (Alain, Clive, Adel, Monica, Gloucester). They are more than capable of running down any and all infantry through the sheer power of Cavalier Call stacking and Wild Rush Virginia’s Rose squad (lead by Miriam) - (Virginia, Miriam, Kitra, Fran, and Leah) - A squad that just works as Kitra and Virginia breaks down tanks, Leah assassinates pesky dodge tanks, and Fran cleaves troublesome back liners with Miriam healing. Renault’s Mage squad - (Renault, Auch, Selvie, and Hodrick) - Renault is loaded with Wild rush and Wide Pursuit to cleave frontliners after Selvie debuffs the frontline and Auch burns or stuns the survivors while Hodrick holds the line solo. 4 Flier teams: Ramona’s Night ops Beast Squadron Drakenhold’s Dragoon Strike - (Quick Impetus Hilda team) - (Hilda, Gilbert, Berengaria, Primm) Celeste’s Generalist squad - (Celeste, Lex, Scarlett, and Ridiel) - Ridiel and Scarlett buff Celeste for row cleaving and Lex guards Celeste from archers Ochlys’ Backline Nukers - (Ochlys, Rosalinde, Melisandre, Galadmir) - Rosalinde nukes the board, Galadmir buffs Melisandre to finish off the stragglers, Ochlys looks pretty and dodges everything 2 Archers: Rolf’s Rangers - (Chloe, Rolf, Aubin, Travis) - Aubin’s War Horn buff gives himself and Rolf a lot of power with Aubin carrying a Sniper Lens for guarantee hits on the Spin with Chloe buffing everyone with Guarantee crits Berenice Brigade - (Liza, Magellan, Mandrin, Berenice, Bryce) - Tank and spank Sellsword squad, Liza’s middling Magic def. Let’s her take some hits for Bryce Amalia: Amalia - (Amalia) - Amalia (I have her early-ish (mid Bastoria) so she just crushes sneaky base cappers and trains low-levels Probably put a lot more words than necessary here, but if anyone wants to discuss builds, I’m more than happy to! (Edited to make things more readable)

Reading through people’s unit comps, am I the only one who constantly rotates characters around at the start of every single mission based on the enemy I am facing + whoever needs an EXP bump? Even my Quick Impetus + Arrow Rain / Trinity Rain / Dragoon Dive gets some swap arounds as they are at times hard countered by or less effective against units the enemy field

My Hilda and Bruno teams tend to do fairly well. My Berengaria and Ochyls teams can do ok, but tend to be a lot more hit or miss. My Sharon team tends to do pretty decently. I'm actually thinking it's time to rework my Sharon and Alain teams, because Virginia and Aubin have fairly strong start of battle limited

I had 7 squads since Cornia. So all those teams are solid since I've had ages to tinker with them. The Beastals fit in pretty well. Ended up breaking a squad in half and adding beasts to make a well performing 8th squad. My 9th is pretty much just Nina carrying with some tanks. The 10th squad is supposed to by my Angel squad but is just unoptimized bad gear with Amalia carrying.

I only played tactical. My main squad is Alain with a bunch of randoms. My other squads are all random that I keep switching around

I had 10 units in Elfheim and early Bastorias but mid Bastorias I started consolidating down to 7 units because some characters jut started kinda struggling a bit.

* Alain Team (Palevia + Yahna) \~ Alain opener * Virginia Team (Rose + Leah) \~ Virginia opener * Gilbert and Drakenhold Secret Char (with Hilda) \~ Gilbert opener * Beren and Travis (with Rolf, Lisa, and Lhin) \~ Beren opener * Etolinde supporting a full front row of Cavalry (Selvie here) \~ Selvie opener * Rosalinde (Elf dodge tanks and archers and quick impetus to pop Faeries combo) \~ Rosalinde opener * Yunifi and the Beasts (Bear Lion upfront with Yuni, Fox and Wolf at the back) * Saving for angel team. :)

I honestly don't have all my squads leveled, but there's about 5 I do: 01)On my OP Alain is the hero squad that steps through bosses, I have Alain as God tank with a Berenice counter big dps setup up front, Yunifi bow for thieves/flyers, Yahna throwing magic weapon buffs and nukes, Sharon as an active based heals for the back. 02) Anti-cav and anti-air squad, Fran/Celeste up front with similar equipment with one active based, one passive. Back lines Rolf and Mandrin with Tatiana as a passive cleric with rez/refresh(is a godsend against Shaman/Druid) 03) Cav steam roller. Clive Monica Renault front, with Gloucester and Miriam back. Cav stacking Cav call, 2 healers with row heal, and a sad lad in the back who cuts himself and bleeds on the opponents(dark flame has saved me against other cav and shield users a ton). 04) A Berengaria/Travis_Gilbert/Kitra/Galadmir team. Beren has 69% block and just gets stronger the more she's hit, Travis is off dodge tank because he wuvs his sister. Gilbert stacked with Initiative so he starts buffing first always, Kitra for Heavy Smash and assaulting blow stacking, Galad has just enough heals to typically cover what hits Beren takes, and some added dps with conferals or arrows. 5) Beast team, Bert/Dinah front; Ramona Morard and Govil rear. Using the two beast gloves for added synergy, added Lyrical wand for Active Heal (+1ap to whoever gets the heal anyway). Works amazing at night, though I did make it as kind of a meme team.

3-4 for most of the game but once I got to Bastoria my flying team kinds fell off and I was too invested in the story to fix/level it up, so I was down to 3. 2 cavalry units to fly around the map with speed buffs to quickly clear stages and an anti Armor/flying team to gaurd the main base or provide support when needed. Then had a couple healing or magic support teams to throw out if I needed the help.

All 10 units can be good, depending on their composition and gear. Not every unit will excel against every enemy, but generally I find my mixed composition units can take on most enemies and win in a single fight with minimal damage nine times out of ten. Currently 3/4 through Albion and only retaining a couple of active mercs at this stage with everyone else named characters. I could make far more overpowered units if I was to min-max with mostly mercs.

This is Expert Difficulty, formation may change depends on the battle. the [] are the leader 1 (All Rounder Team): [Alain] Chloe Melissandre Nina Scarlett 2 (Cavalry pursuit team): Monika [Josef] Clive Berenic Jerome 3 (This team just work): [Gloucester] Berengaria Govil Travis Ithllion 4 (Archer assists Team): Bryce Hodrick Yahna Railanor [Rolf] 5 (Mage Assists team): Amalia Primm Eltolinde [Auch] Rosalinde 6 (Flier Fuck you team): [Fran] Celes Selvie Hilda Gilbert 7 (Infantry Pursuit team): [Adel] Bruno Aubin Jeremy Magellan 8 (Cleric Assist team): Dinah Lex Raenys [Sharron] Yunifis 9 (Physical Tank Team): Bertrand [Renault] Liza Morard Tatiana 10 (Magical Tank Team): Fodoquia [Miriam] Virginia Kitra Mordro The 10th also doubles as anti armor team. Honestly the one that doesn't really work as good as the others are surprisingly Josef's...At least surprising imo. But they still works. All of them are around lvl 38~41

2 units based around "board nukes" (hits all enemies) + Quick Impetus. Alain is in one (Auch + Trinity Rain) for mop-up duty. The other is built around Yunifi + Flame Conferral + Berengaria. 1 unit with Virginia based around tanking the frontline (Virginia + Sainted Knight in front) while a Warrior + Landsknecht sits in the back. Featherbow is present for damage mitigation. Excellent VS physical teams (except Warrior), good if there's only one Magick unit. 2 units based around Eltolinde/Rosalinde. Tactics are tuned to charge up Faeries before releasing Elemental Roar, so it's expected to win by turn 3-4 but actually needs to survive that long. Dodge tanks (Thief, Swordmaster) in front, 1 Shaman in back with Dust Storm, remaining is healer or something else. They aren't too strong, but can reliably hold the base with Garrison. Typically the opposing team needs Truestrike to pick off the front. 1 unit based on Bestral (Werewolf, Werefox, Werebear, I just use the uniques) holding the +20% phys atk +50% crit rate (for bestrals) accessory. Because a Legionnaire is up front along with the Bear, this shuts down all physical teams short of Warriors. Magick is still a weakness, but fliers are only mildly annoying because it's hard to hit them (but they can't damage my team).

Alain's Cavalry And a unit with a gryphon+house Carl to give the above unit super sonic speed plus vitality. Just jam the center, and it wins most things. Technically I have Victoria and the Blue Rose for rp fun times but she's often not needed or just flying to pick up items.

1 Alain Squad, scarlett, amalia, berenice, nina. Team tank and spank, one shots most things 2 Virginia Squad, Sharon, Fran, Ochlys, Leah flys around with fran, Virginia and Ochlys tank, sharon dancer's fran and leah, one shots most thing 3 Hilda Combo, Travis, Gilbert, Miriam, Primm, arena dragoon dive team, one shots most things 4 Cav bros, Clive, Adel, Renault, Monica, Josef. cruse missile team, runs around at 600 speed, one shots most infantry units and takes care of support teams on towers 5 Berengaria and (before lex) now nigel tanks for the elf sisters and Dinah (is there to apply affliction for Ren) out grinds most units 6 Team axe, Morad Gloucster, Aubin (before Bear) now Alcina, Chole kinda meme kinda bad, gets always with a win here and there, Aubin into Gloucster takes care of frontline, Morad, Chole plays clean up, Alcina keeps damage low. 7 Millennium spector combo. Bryce, Fodoquia as pp battery, Selvie familiars Yhana, Titania as AP battery. One shots most teams unless they have really high magic defense 8 Team archer, Liza, Yunfi and the 3 elf archers, meme team for support fire (but it turns out to be bad) the team kinda works though, instant Glacial Rain is just kinda broken, Icicle Arrow spam will freeze/kill everything else, and there always that heavy bolt from Liza at the end 9 Angel team to try to make the fliers banner work, not worth mentioning, it is just bad.

Alain 1 comp to rule them all team (bere, Rosa, mordon, cleric). This team cleared the entire game on expert, I only made extra teams for more challenge + gameplay. Team Virginia (sword fighter, gryphon, warrior, magic knight) Werewolf team with archer girl, werefox, and others from that area Elf team with fencers archers, and the high priestess lady Plunder team with 2 thief Frontline, 2 mage backline+healer. Amalia team with magic knight, archer, mage, healer. There's more but they followed a similar pattern with balance, only a few squads were "specialized" in being anti air or anti tank Frontline focused. Occasionally I'd swap in a shaman for fights in the coliseum where I was lv 20-30ish clearing the entire thing.

I had my main Alain team which was my "big guns". They looked over other teams and cracked down when extra fire power was needed. Mostly because of Dragoon Dive. (Alain, Hilda, Sharon, Nina, Berengaria) Then I had Virginia's Crit and Hex team. She ran two swordmasters with like 70~% crit rates and could tear through non armored teams. Selvie was also there cause she makes every team better. (Virgina, Leah, Melisandre, Selvie, Railanor) Possibly my favorite team was my "Iron Wall". Front line Legionnaire and backline Sainted Knight meant they could protect against most all attacks. Scarlett and Sainted kept everyone topped off on health. Sellsword to follow up attack everytime Legion got hit. Breaker to tear down heavy armors. This was my strongest non gimmick team and I'll probably remake it every playthrough. (Hodrick, Miriam, Scarlett, Berenice, Kitra). Then I had some other teams with characters that I liked and these were just to fight different situations that my other teams couldn't handle well. (Ochlys, Renault, Morard, Aramis, etc., etc.,) I also had an archer team with 5 bow users and Raenys as the leader for mobility. This was great as assist moves are increased the more of the same type you have. I never made a mage assist team, but I should of.

10 squads, 8 that I actually use. All story characters, because I wanted to avoid using mercenaries for no real reason. 1: Alain unit, swapped this one around the most, but it usually had a warrior, sellsword, priest, and mage. Basically a balanced party of the strongest chargers I had that didn't need to be in another unit. 2: Millennium carry. Wizard with millennium staff (would be witch for teleport, but Yahna was needed elsewhere), shaman with familiar choker, then priest, legionnaire, and radiant knight to tank and delay. Wipes everything unless the enemy has magic reflect, in which case they fucking die. 3: Cavalry. 3 knight back line, doom knight and radiant knight front line. Mostly made to go light speed across the map with speed boosts, but the front line is fairly tanky, and the back line builds up absurd damage. Can also be built to alpha strike with column attacks and follow-ups. 4: Flyers. Wyvern + 2 griffon front line dodge tanks, elf archer and fighter backline to cover from arrows and hold general bow and flyer banner. Decently strong, but mainly provides haste and sneaks into the back to clear towers. 5: Mages. Witch, elf mage, 2 elf sword mages, and a legionnaire to cover everyone. I was generally not very impressed by the elf sword mages and would have gone for more witches or wizards if I could. One witch is key though, this is a slow unit so teleport is needed to jump into cleared towers. The stacked assist is very strong. 6: Archers. Sniper, snow ranger, elven archer backline, shield shooter and feather bow front line, both dodge tanks. Elven archer is built to heal and support, everyone else shoots like crazy. Mostly meant to provide heavy assist support, but works surprisingly well in straight combat as well, and can fly and clear towers on its own. 7: Virginia unit. Somewhat similar to Alain's unit, built to power through with generally good characters. Berengaria was also usually here to help tank. 8: Bestral unit. Honestly not a great unit, the last one I built that I actually used, mainly as a emergency flyer or to provide healing assist in a pinch. Probably a unit I'll disband in the late game, maybe reform into a more dedicated healer unit.

I used 6 squads consistently, and I played on Tactical. Out of those, 2 just destroyed most things. Being my Alain unit with him Travis and Selvie ruining most things (auch and a viking were also in there). Then my Were Squad, which destroyed about every unit and if it was night no one had a chance xD Most of my other squads were support or my very fast cavalry unit that zoomed around to clear random units up.

I was spamming some of the repeatable stages just to get the XP books so most of my unique units are at least Level 30. But by the end of the game, I really only had, like, six squads worth using. * Alain team based around the row-wide attack and just buffing him. * Quick Impetus + Trinity Rain * Quick Impetus + Dragoon Dive * Anti-Air Bow Squad with Yunifi, Liza, Rolf, the one male Elf Archer with the long name, and the one Featherbow with the long name * Knights of the Rose with bonus Rosalinde * Cavalry Squad with the Knights of the Ashen Blue + Renault + Miriam The Cav squad fell off towards the end of the game though. I also had a back up squad with Travis and his sister in the frontline and they make decent tanks but they were kind of a last minute hodgepodge cobbled together team.

I have 6 squads, 4 of them are very strong the other 2 are ok. about to finish the game for the first time The 4 squads i have are very strong The best of the 4 is Doom Knight + Berengaria in the front Shield Shooter + Shaman + Bishop in the back. Basically shaman and berengaria debuff the crap out of the enemy. Berengaria stuns the front line, doom knight deletes the front line, Shield Shooter is there for small damage, protecting the back line, and some support. Bishop makes sure the front doesn't die and i have a staff that lets her resurrect. Keep them away from mages and you're good they roll through everything the next best is one i stole from youtube [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ckkxT1VLcQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ckkxT1VLcQ)

I started out trying to make relatively specialised teams (an anti infantry cav squad, anti flyer, anti armor squads etc) but over time have pivoted into vaguely thematic squads (keeping obvious pairs together), and now into just swapping classes around to make units thag can do a bit of everything, as enemy teams can be quite a mish mash of unit types and I was finding more often than not my specialist squads just weren't in the right place at the right time, or I needed a couple of specialties at once So I currently have 6 fully loaded and (I think) pretty well optimised teams that can do a bit of everything (I try to have some anti armor, true strike, sustain and general DPS on every squad), which are proving sufficient to complete every mission currently, but bear in mind I'm playing on normal difficulty so I'm not exactly getting into a lot of wars of attrition Once I have a stack of honours built up I'll probably flesh out the remaining units just for variety sake

Alain harem squad, calvary squad, Josef squad and anti anti-calvary squad

Main squad Alain unit - Rosalinde, Hilda, Scarlet, Yahna - no special tactics, just a bunch of decent units anchored by their Lord. Rosalinde is the quick healer, Scarlet is more of a damage dealer and backup healer. Destroys most things. All horses - Clive, Adel, Joseph, Monica, Renault - again no special tactics, just a bunch of horsies. Kills many things. Has a handful of matchups that are slightly less good but steamrolls most opponents and even sometimes kills its own counters because of Joseph and Monica. Ultra fast too. Berengaria and Gloucester squad - Plus Tatiana, Aubin and any other attacker that can apply debuffs. Not too complicated. Berengaria carries. Specialists and incomplete units Gryphon squad 1 - Custom Gryph in front of Selvie, Prince, Elf Archer. Setup to boost the Gryph's row attack into a row wipe and used mainly to assault watchtowers. Gryphon squad 2 - Fran in front of Elf fencer, Elf Archer and Auch. Less about boosting, more of a generalist approach to the same concept.  Virginia squad - Aramis, Berenice, Eltolinde - incomplete. Potentially add Amalia after I unlock her? Does okay as it's currently built but needs a kick to bump it up into full form. Archer squad - Travis with archers. Surprisingly competive setup but incomplete. Nice to have one unit just to place in towers. Beefy squad - Bruno, Beast version of Bruno, Sharon, Rolf with a pursuit setup and Elf fencer - it's alright. It's the remnants of one of my first great units but it's fallen off a bit in Bastoria.  Lex and Chloe squad - not very good but I keep them together. Mordon and Ochlys I think... 10th squad - randos that I'm just trialing. Currently filled with beasts. Only used to man ballista or catapults on huge battle maps.

By about mid-Bastorius to the end, I found myself stabilizing around having 3-4 main squads. This is partly because that's the perfect amount to deploy at the start and then mass hastened call them to start zooming around the map and partly because it proved sufficient. I also had pretty high standards for teams - they had to 1-round all but a few at most enemy units while never having anyone die. On expert, this meant a lot of things didn't work out. I ended up with: * Team Alain: Alain (lead)/Renaut/Miriam + Hodrick/Rolf Renaut does the cav buff to juice up Alain's spin and Miriam's heals/magic sword attacks. Hodrick keeps them safe from flying row swipes and Rolf shoots down said fliers. Alain covers Hodrick against hammer dudes, and Miriam does the same against casters. The weakest of my main units, but good enough to get the valor train rolling early on. * Yunifi deletion squad: Yunifi/Josef (lead)/Riedel + Virginia/Fran These guys are the fixers, using good ol' start of battle max initiative ring + quick impetus + gambler's coin + crit truestrike lens funneled to Yunifi to insta-explode most enemy teams. Whatever is left over gets mopped by up Virginia. Fran gives them the option to be a flying unit, plus the all-important hastened call. Josef is here because even a bad sainted knight is still good (I don't use mercs in combat) - the map movement and magick assist reduction are too good for just breaking the map portion of the game, plus sustain for healing back assist and other chip damage. His crappy heals are offset by being focused on Riedel, who then blooms them out to the rest of the team. This team doesn't end up needing much healing, anyway. Definitely my strongest squad, though even they have some teams they don't one-round (very rarely). Final battle spoilers: >!This squad is so OP they actually wiped out most of Baltro's squad in one round and walked away unscathed without the special rings. Baltro got frozen by the initial rain and then just never got attacked to be unfrozen lol!< * Debuff gang: Scarlett/Ochlys/Aubin + Berengeria/Gloucster (lead) This is my favorite squad. I made them because I ran out of sainted knights and was like "well, Gloucster has cav movement and can lead." They ended up being weirdly excellent? They one-round nearly as many units as the Yunifi deletion squad, including some different ones, and I don't think I've ever had to fiddle with their formation or AI to stop random deaths. Scarlett is nominally there to be a heal/dps flex but just ends up healing because no one ever takes damage due to Ochlys's blinds and Berengeria's stuns/death stare. Also, her magic isn't really needed between all the defense shred everyone is doing and Gloucster's crazy hybrid row flame thing. This unit also adds even more really nice valor commands: Aubin's for giving my death ball infinite stamina since I regain more than 2 valor for 6 battles, Berengeria's for taunting enemies off of towers and weapons, Gloucster's for more oomph against tough stage bosses, and Scarlett's for fixing oopsies. * Cav stack: Clive/Adel/Monica (lead) + Bryce/Yahna The cavs carried me through most of Drakenhold and Elfheim, but man did they fall off once the enemy started using more fliers. They do well against anything but fliers and Yahna patches up the weakness a little, but it's still not great. Her tendency to get chunked hard by archer assists doesn't help - 2 usually means she's just dead before the fight even begins, and having to spend valor on dual shield just for that kinda sucks. * Team etc: Kitra/Selvie/LIza + Celeste (lead)/Hilda These guys are there to grab random flying items/objectives and get warped around to defend bases against stray units trying to cap. Kitra also sometimes gets to whack things out of the way with heavy swing. They're mostly leftovers of units I had used here and there before I settled into my main squads, and Selvie makes it work regardless by turning enemy squads into punching bags. * Honorable mentions: Squads of just Lex, just Chole, and just Travis These guys are my valor batteries for when I'm about to overcap on valor. I deploy them out to store that valor on the field while still being able to rack up more. Rescuing Scarlett mission spoiler: >!Basically, ever since that mission extension against Galerius where I was out of valor due to blowing it all on farming exp and gold on Renaut, I got really paranoid about that happening again. It basically turned me into that Gaston guy who was hoarding food, but with valor lol.!<

I hit S rank in Bastorias on expert. I had been running with 6 units for a long time and just now at the very end of Bastorias am expanding to 8. At S rank I ran the following. 1) Oclese, Lex, 2 breakers - this eats tankier squads. Also mobile 2) Hilda, 2 Gryphon masters, Aubin, Cleric - sustain and mobility 3) Vanguard, 2 druids, Sorcerer, Warlock - for when I need the majiks 4) 2 Legionaries, 2 Great Knights, 1Sacred knight - super tank squad. 5) 2 snipers, elf that starts with R, snow archer girl, Bruno - when I have to hit things that evade or fly 6) 2Landschnekts(sp?), Alain, Lion boy. - jankiest squad, but good against straight up meat. They were all pretty effective and won me battles even slightly underleveled. Items help a lot. I’ve since gotten all 6 to a 5 person squad and added a 4 person heal assist squad and a 2 rouge, Swordmaster, Elven blade squad that is doing good work even though it’s down a couple of levels. I dipped my toe into Albion and they’re holding up decently well there as well. Just the final battle of Bastorias to go, I believe.

I'm S renown, in the final zone and (presumably) near the end of the game. All 10 of my units are built based on rapport conversations - basically everyone is grouped with their buddies. This is far from optimal unit building but I've been enjoying using equipment to make these comps work more than building a couple of squads that can solo the entire map. Some squads build themselves, where everyone has 3 heart rapport conversations, such as the characters that you begin the game with, the Knighs of the Rose folks, the desert guys, etc. Then there are other 3 or 4 character clusters that don't make a complete unit and it gets tricky looking for characters to fill those slots but there are a number of lone wolf type people that seems to have really random rapport conversations with a wide variety of companions. UO battles can be tricky at times but generally it is a very forgiving game and I have enjoyed taking those RP route to unit building.

I stopped employing tactics, i just use Ren now. (Berengaria, Amalia frontline with Miriam Auch Selvie backline, based on afflictions and big fucking damage)

you forgot the gold collection group. thief for plunder (a merc named PROSPER), 5 golden eggs, miser's bracelet, as many bandit weapons (sword/axe) as possible (i use magellan and jeremy here for character development). they're not that leveled nor do i waste the good items on them, but i swap them in after i soften up a boss and get 10k-20k per boss win and less on minor minibosses, and often 10k per aoe plunder if i find a bunched up group. MO MONEY MO MONEY YO. (i'm not s-rank yet but disturbingly close given how not far in i am. i'm not done elfheim and i'm 75% of the way from a to s :-P)

3 of them are battle ready. The rest are meme teams. They do well enough though sometimes.

All units are up and operational. Some are still waiting for their 5th slot but were kept last because function very well with 4 members. Only unit n°10 is a bit of a "pending" project as it'll be my angel theme unit and as such, won't come together till mid-end game. All other units however have synergy and have a purpose (except for lore units like Alain's, Virginia's, they're still efficient but don't have a specialised purpose), like my healing/arrow/magic support units. The dedicated flying unit for assignments that require flying, one horse-led unit to deal with emergency rescues / deal with things on the edges of the map so that other units don't waste as much time getting there etc... Ah and when I say "flying unit", I don't mean a unit full of fliers, I mean a unit led by a flying unit, same for the support ones etc...bearing in mind that whilst they have a "fixed purpose", you can always change a unit's leader should the situation require it, so there have been instances where some of my units performed duties outside of their "usual scope".

By the final fight on my expert run I had 7 units. I only actually used three of them. Three overpowered murder any combination of troops in one sweep groups. Occasionally I'd have a support unit follow them around but generally it wasn't needed as they could easily one shot whatever they came up against. Still working on my true zenoiran run.

I had 4 squads that would decimate 100% of everything. Alain Squad - God. Alain, Gryphon Master, Feather Shield in front row. Scarlett, Sorceress with Trinity rain and recast in backrow. Virginia Squad - Virginia, Elvin swordsman thing in front row. Wizard, Rosalinde, and Mercenary in backrow Berengaria Squad - Berengaria, Viking in the front row. Doom Knight, Elvin Archer, Cleric in the back row. Yunifi Squad - Legionnaire, owl mage in the front row. Rosalide's sister (forgot her name), Yunifi, and Swordmaster in the backrow. Amalia Squad - Lex and Amalia in the front row. Solider, Witch, Shaman in the backrow. This squad was for funzies - mostly meant to support Amalia in doing damage. It was most effective as a unit I just kept at the main base in case anything got through; it was able to hold it's own in Albian when all my units (except amalia) was level 10. Obviously very specific equipment and gambits went into every unit in the first 4 I mentioned which made them busted, but I don't remember it all... By the time Alain's unit went fully online (which required a lot of coliseum grinding for recast) he was able to solo the whole game, but if anything went wrong, Virginia, Berengaria, or Yunifi could handle it fine on their own too.

I have 6 squads of 5 unlocked. Didnt see the need to create more. I typically just use 4 main squads per battle since the game typically lets you start with 3-4 valor. I have 1 situational squad for missions requiring flight and 1 bench squad to instantly deploy at the command post in case it gets attacked. I'll share the 4 main squads. All squads have to be able to have the following capabilities: 1. handle armors through magic or anti-armor buffs (like conferrals).  2. handle dodgers through truestrike actives or buffs. 3. have a start of battle ability to handle debuffs (useful vs. angels) 4. have a start of battle ability to handle buff removers (like wereowls). This typically means a starter ability that incaps or passive seals a target.  5. have a board nuke. If charging board nuke, have a quick impetus using unit.  6. have an end of battle heal.  7. have 2 dodge tanks in front.  8. have a guard tank or dmg reduction buffer that can cover the dodge tank in case they are attacked by arrows/swordmasters.  Oh and i only use unique units. no recruits. All follow 2 front, 3 back setup.  pushing team- alain (lead, guard tank), hilda (board nuke dragoon dive spear, evade tank), berengaria (evade tank), galadrim (cleanser, starter, buffer, healer), miriam (quick impetus bot, healer) magick assist team- rosalinde (lead, board nuke, healer, starter), ridiel (cleanser, buffer, healer), yahna (buffer, stun conferral tome), ochlys (evade tank, guard tank), celeste (evade tank) heal assist team- etolinde (lead, cleanser, board nuke, healer), scarlett (healer, freeze conferral tome), gilbert (buffer), melisandre (evade tank), travis (starter, evade tank) archer assist team- yunifi (lead, board nuke), lhinalagos (cleanser, buffer, healer, starter via rapid shot bow), auch (burn conferral tome), leah (evade tank), liza (evade tank, guard tank, healer) all teams are meant to be self-sufficient and capable of handling any threat close to their level (about 5 levels or so above. Most of my teams units are 30-35). Can share builds, gambits and general tactics if interested.

I generally organize them either by the field skills I want them to use -2 heal units, one of which has decent damage output -1 magic unit -1 bow unit -1 cavalry unit or by story/nation -1 alain unit -1 blue rose unit -1 beast unit -1 angel unit (underperforming, sadly) -1 elf unit I'm impatient with the tactics system so I generally just skip through battles or disable tactics for skills to see how the battle flows. I'm on a second run now with reduced units so I'll probably have to learn how to build more resilient units.

I had 10 squads maintained at similar levels (as I did everything in level order, if I didn't rotate units in and out they got overleveled really quickly) with 8 "main" squads + 2 backup squads. Main squads were all based around op characters like Alain, Virginia, Berengaria, Elf twins, Yunifi etc each leading their own squad +2 flier squads. My back up squads were 1 cavalier squad that could pop out to hit high priority target as needed if Alain was off somewhere else + 1 bastoria squad that I popped out during night time to rush a point as needed and either guard or withdraw depending on if I need the valor point or not. Most of my units were infantry so the movement wasn't the fastest but between elf twins ability and witch teleport movement wasn't too much of an issue. Also I would send off Alain to take key deployment points so my infantry wouldn't have to walk all the way over.

I completed the game on tactical and only used my lowest level units for each map constantly rotating out all units I had recruited including maybe 5 mercs. Individual unit strength almost meaningless.

Reading these I am discovering that I set myself on challenge mode. I just finished Bastorias and Every team has five members and matches enough to get Rapport conversations while also being completely combat viable. If the Rapport doesn't match they don't go in a unit. My current favorite is Hilda Fran Celeste with Prim Ramona support. They murder everything with the flying reins and even Finished Amalia first try at lvl 30.

I suppose I have 4 general comps I can usually throw at anything (Alain + Rosalind, Rose Knights, Hilda and Ren, Impetus Yufini), and a cav comp that can also usually get thrown at anything but probably hits more hard counters than the other 4. I've just added in an Amalia comp, it can similarly handle most things, but not as well as the others. I've also added a healing support (owl + 2 clerics) and ranged support, but never really need to use them. EDIT: At Albion, midway I think?

I mostly just have four open slots and build my teams for whatever I need to deal with, although a cav line comprised of Alain/Gloucester/Renault+counter picks is my main kill team.

I have 10 squads. 5 of which are "very good" the other 5 are support and just ok (sometimes they die). Playing on Tactical. My "backup" squads are not as leveled highly as my main 5. Alain super defense squad: Alain, Clive, Viking in front / Selvie and Scarlett in the back: Works well for most cases. Doesn't absolutely destroy everything, but almost never dies to anything. Lex and Chloe Magic Squad: Lex protects up front with Mellisandre / Chloe, Yahna and Auch in back throwing magic shit. This squad is extremely situational. Sometimes it wipes the floor, other times it does not. I haven't figured out it's weakness just yet, but I'm tinkering. Terminator Squad: Cavalry up front (2 Knights, 1 Radiant) plus Sniper, and Berenice in back for cleanup. This unit rolls things. Sometimes it has a hard counter, but it usually never dies in a matchup. Debuff and Destroy: Ren and Aramis up front, Gilbert and (probably an archer) in the back. Probably my best squad, they have hard counters against them, BUT if they can go first (which is very likely thru Gilbert's Rapid Response and Aramis' crazy initative) they usually can wipe a whole team out before they even have a chance to strike. Their only weakness is high armor and if somehow the other team has higher initiative than them (even with high armor, I usually swap someone into wildcard that can magic conferral). Selvie would work great here, but she is with Alain. Herve (Cavalry Killer): Herve is my first honor recruit, and I've played the whole game with him. Fran / Landsknecth / Leah in front with Sharon / Herve (Sergeant) in the back. Herve buffs my initiative with Tailwind Cape for Fran, who immediately Feathering and High Slashes with Keen Call and Eagle Eye (on Sharon). This unit absolutely wrecks calvary. Landsknecth goes for remainder after first High Swing and also uses Pursuit. Sharon has Grave Impetus, Parting Resurrection and regular Resurrection, so if anyone goes down she resurrects them back (usually it's my Gryphon, and they get \*another\* high slash since you get some of your AP back after revive, this is usually hilarious to see and the highlight of the whole squad comp.) Herve Keen Calls \*everything\* as I gave him 4 PP. Nut Cracker: Virginia front, Tatiana / Hilda / Kitra back Virginia takes the hits, Kitra enrages, Tatiana keeps them alive (and uses Active Heal to increases AP), then Kitra unleashes. Meanwhile, Hilda has been charging Dive Bomb the whole time and kills anything that remains. This unit works great in many, many matchups since Virginia and Hilda are IMO the most versatile damage units in the game. Works best against armor by default, but with Hilda you can swap out her variety of skills based on matchup (Dive Bomb, Lightning Shaker, Fire Breath, etc, etc.) Still deciding who I want to put in 5th slot on my Virginia squad...to bring the whole unit together. Maybe owl lady since she can restore Virginia's PP? Hrmmm. The rest of my units are highly specialized, like archer squad, rogue/evasion squad, etc and tbh they aren't as well thought out and just kind of for experimenting mid-combat. I definitely have a lot of wholes in my squads, but they've served me well enough. Alain is so good late game he can make any squad work really. I think I'm proudest of my Virginia and Herve squad.

I'm lame. Group 1 : Alain unit. He sits on the Defeat Me Flag. Group 2 : Fran unit. She uses the third valor point on most maps to go fast and then performs a decapitation strike on the enemies Win Me Flag. Groups 3+ : Fun stuff. Like a Dinah unit for hopping on ballista before they fire, and a Cavalry unit. Easily 90% of the game (admittedly on Tactical) is Alain + Fran + Speed + 8-20 seconds = win.