Fire Emblem Heroes Cavalry Guide

Table of Contents

1. Offensive Core Page 3

1. Gunter (Green Axe)
2. Reinhardt (Blue Mage)

1. Defensive Core Page 11

1. Jagen (Blue Lance)

1. Eliwood (Red Sword)

1. Melee Wing Page 19

1. Cain (Red Sword)

1. Eldigan (Red Sword)

1. Stahl (Red Sword)

1. Abel (Blue Lance)

1. Sully (Blue Lance)

1. Peri (Blue Lance)

1. Frederick (Green Axe)

1. Ranged Wing Page 41

1. Leo (Red Tome)

1. Olwen (Blue Mage)

1. Cecilia (Green Tome)

1. Ursula (Blue Tome) ****In progress*****

Foreword

Cavalry Guide Ver 1.1.1 by Rainrir

Cavalry units are generally inferior to their armor/flying/infantry counterparts in a straight fight. This is because the designers of the game seem impose a BST (Base Stats Total) penalty of at least 5-10 points on all cavalry units (compared to Infantry) to compensate for their higher movement. When the map permits, cavalry units will always get the first strike on enemy. This can be devastating, but it is not something to be relied on. This is because the maps in this game are often small, narrow and full of choke points.As a result, when used by themselves a lot of cavalry units are inferior versions of their armor/infantry counterpart. 

To compensate for their BST weakness, cavalry units have access to unique buffs which only affect cavalry units, which helps them close the BST gap.  Yet this creates a dilemma of incompatibility with other non-cavalry units. Furthermore, the mobility difference creates situations where firepower of a mixed team cannot be concentrated on the enemy. If cavalry opts to wait for their slower allies, their mobility advantage is gone and they become gimped infantry. This thinking is what led me to experiment with obligate cavalry teams, in order to maximize their effectiveness.

Since Flying and Armored units also get the same “type” of buff, it is important to understand why an all-cavalry team is more viable. In my view,while the mobility advantage (for armored), or the relative lack of hard counters (for both) are important factors, the key reason is an all-cavalry team has good mix of ranged and melee units that can go into it. This allows an all-cavalry team to focus its firepower to take down dangerous units on the enemy team. This is something all-armored teams cannot do, and all-flying teams can only rarely do. Therefore it is important that a cavalry team not run x4 melee units. Otherwise, it will make it not much better than a all-flier team.

Counters

At this stage of the game, there is only 3 direct counter units to cavalry in the game. This is a far smaller number than the number of flying unit counters (all archers + Merric), or the number of armored unit counters. However, these 3 units (Raigh/Ursula/Robin-F) are very dangerous as they often have the ability to instantly defeat any cavalry unit who they do not have WTD against. Therefore, the guide will always reference the performance of various units against them, regardless of their popularity in the meta.

• Raigh is not popular, but he is a fast Red Mage. While his ATK isn’t high, he will kill most non-blue cavalry units if he doubles. 
• Ursula is even more dangerous as she matches cavalry mobility and is a Blue Mage with even better SPD than Raigh. It also doesn’t help that there is no unit who hard counters Blue units in the cavalry lineup.
• Robin-F in particular tricky as she has great physical durability (survives melee rushes) along with being a Green Mage (counters ranged approaches), which makes it hard to take down with losses or damage outside specific units and setups

Offensive Core

These teams rely on the ATK and SPD boost to field a overwhelming offensive that will win half the battle in one engagement. As such, these teams generally likes to pick units who become offensively powerful after the boost. Such teams will want to have a balance between ranged and melee units. 

However, the core challenge when deploying this team is that much of the offense will be carried by 3 units, since the one of the core units of this team can’t fight very well and neither are all that durable at all. Remember, as with all cavalry teams, if the core falls the team falls apart.

Gunter (Green Axe)

Without a doubt the core member for an offensive cavalry team. Until we get another three varied units with Goad Cavalry (or his Hone Cavalry becomes transferable), he will be the anchor of an offensive cavalry team. +6/+6 ATK/SPD is really powerful, and have great synergistic effect (more doubles at higher power). +6 SPD is also a magical number (compared to +4 from the standard Hone), as +5 SPD difference is the breakpoint of whether someone doubles/get doubled or not. A unit affected by +6 SPD basically jumps a tier in general.

As such, it is important to know his capabilities and how he can be piloted. Gunter can’t really do a lot of damage despite his high 47 ATK, due to his below-average 24 SPD and his lack of attack boosting skills/special. Despite his good defensive stats (33 DEF, 42 HP), he lacks enemy-phase defensive skills and is not durable at all. He is also vulnerable to being doubled physically AND getting OHKO/ORKO by magic damage due to his meagre 18 RES.

Gunter as an Attacker

As such, he should never attack, if he can help it, to keep himself safe. This creates an interesting dilemma, as he often is the only Green in an all-cavalry team, and the Meta is full of powerful Blues who needs killing. The only times Gunter should attack is:

1) 1-on-1 vs. Blue-Lances

He can never ORKO, but his high DEF + Armoured Blow means he will almost always win in the end. This key Blue Lance Matchups are:

• Elfie ((61/55)*0.8 – (33/39) = 15/5(!) on attack/counter) vs Gunter (23 on attack/counter) Gunter wins after 3 attacks/counters with either 7/42 HP or 22/42 HP left.
• Ephraim (51*0.8 – (26/32) = 14/8 on attack/counter vs Gunter (24 attack /counter). Gunter wins in 2 attacks/counters if he initiates with 20/42 HP left.
• Sharena (48*0.8 -33/39 = 9/0(!) on attack/counter vs Gunter (27/23 attack/counter). Gunter wins after 2 attacks/counter with 33/42 HP left.

As we can see, his offensive presence is really uninspiring. as he needs 2-3 attacks to beat popular Blue-Lances. Since his defensive abilities are Player-phase only, only fight if no other enemies can threaten Gunter, or Gunter might get killed in the Enemy Phase. When using Gunter to fight Blues

• Always initiate first to maximize Armoured Blow and reduce incoming damage. 
• Beware of anyone with a special (Ephraim with Moonbow etc.), they can do surprisingly high damage as almost all Specials negate or bypass Gunter’s best defensive attribute (DEF).

2) Killing specific Blue-Mages 

In many cases, Gunter might be the only Green unit on the all-cavalry team. However, since his RES is so bad, and Blue Mages used in the meta can still OHKO him, he needs to pick his targets very carefully (ATK Bane Gunter is not considered). 

• Gunter can OHKO any Linde.
• Gunter can OHKO any Reinhardt/Olwen, except +SPD Reinhardt (21 SPD = No Double) and +DEF Olwen (23 DEF = 1 HP left)
• Beware of Odin and Robin-M, as both can double Gunter, and Gunter needs 2 hits to kill them (20+ Damage). Gunter loses if they have special up.   
• If Ursula becomes popular, and her datamined stats is correct, +ATK Gunter needed to OHKO her.

3) Softening a Green/Blue/Colourless Unit

Armoured Blow will mitigate a lot of incoming damage from physical attackers, His 1-hit power is decent, so it will not be difficult for a follow up attack to finish off the target. If Gunter is used this way, always try to ensure that another unit finishes the target off in the same phase, and there are no mages in range.

• Good against Takumi (18 damage taken) and Hector (26 damage taken) especially, even better if Gunter has DEF nature (12 damage/20 damage taken). 

• Do not attack into Reds, they will slap Gunter silly even with Armoured Blow, avoid Ruby Sword users.

• Red Mages should be avoided unless defeated on the same phase by another target. Gunter’s damage is not good against Henry/Raigh.

• Do not attack Nowi unless she can be finished off in the Player Phase, and there are no enemies nearby to threaten Gunter in the Enemy Phase.

Gunter as Support

Since his choice of targets is so narrow, Gunter’s role is to position himself such that he can affect as many members of the team with Hone Cavalry as possible for each round. At the start of battle, the two initial T-shaped formations that will be used a lot is either:

Formation 1 (left) is good for a 3-melee, 1-ranged team and puts Gunter in the front, while Formation 2 is a 2-melee and 2-ranged team that places Gunter at the back. Note that these two formations can be used with any combination of melee and ranged units due to the superior mobility of cavalry units (more so than Infantry).

• Gunter should always be ready to switch between formations depending on now the enemy approaches and whether if Gunter wants to be in an offensive posture (Formation 1) or a defensive posture (Formation 2).

• The horizontal version of this formation (toppled-T formation) can be used, but the furthest back unit might have issues reaching enemies unless that unit is ranged.

•  A 4-melee cavalry team is generally a bad idea there will be problems providing concentrated firepower to avoid casualties.

• Always keep in formation before the first strike, then unleash a devastating alpha strike in the right time to win half the battle.

• If the map does not allow an approach in formation, then an all-cavalry team should always opt to wait in formation. 

• T-formations is not possible on certain maps (lava/maze)

After contact with the enemy, the team wouldn’t have the the luxury of staying in the T-formation. Yet, it is not wise to let Gunter wander off and engage random enemies. As stated before, despite his huge DEF, Gunter lacks firepower, has bad RES and lack Enemy Phase defensive skills. This combination makes him more fragile than his stats would suggest, especially if more than one foe is in attack range. After the initial strike:

• The easiest way to use Gunter at this stage is to make Gunter stick closely to the key offensive unit (usually Reinhardt, but it can change depending on remaining targets).

• Always move Gunter last if he is playing a supporting role, so he can be inserted into a location that guarantees his safety and allows units to be buffed next turn.

•  Always find opportunity to “regroup” into a T-formation when it is safe to do so. This sets up another alpha strike which will allow a decisive win. 

Harsh Command is an unfortunate support skill that sounds good on paper, but it doesn’t have many situations where it is applicable in actual combat. It can be a lifesaver if the attackers are ever de-buffed out of OHKO/ORKO stage, or if someone sticks –DEF/RES on exposed units. This can help prevent unnecessary deaths as the swing in stats it provides is massive. Note that it does not counter Panic, which is a shame as Panic really messes up Horse teams (though rarely seen).

Summary

Gunter is very offensive limited, and he is a surprisingly fragile unit. When using him, always remember that the value of the damage of his single,47-ATK strike is low compared to +6/+6 bonus he gives to just even allied one unit. 

Boon: +DEF makes him really tanky, which helps conserve HP when used as first striker to soften opponents. 

+ATK is a convenient the team has no other green, and Gunter needs to kill Blue-Mages. This is the only variant of Gunter who can OHKO Ursula her without Reinhardt’s help.

Bane: -RES is the way to go as being at 21 RES barely helps anyway.

Reinhardt (Blue Mage)

Now that we have our first Goad Cavalry unit, the horse team is finally complete. Unlike Hone Cavalry, Goad Cavalry is applied whenever another allied unit is 

1. Within a 2 panel range (2 panel horizontally/vertically, 1 panel diagonally)
2. Whenever combat starts

The same rules apply for Ward Cavalry. For example, in the picture below, Gunter, Olwen and Eliwood are all affected by Reinhardt Goard Cavalry, while Reinhardt and Gunter are affected by Ward Cavalry from both Olwen and Eliwood.:

And here is the maximum effective range of Goad Cavalry

To put it simply, so long as a unit stays within an infantry unit’s movement range of Reinhardt, they will get the Goad Cavalry buff.  This makes it much easier to use than Hone Cavalry, and is tactically important, since it is not always possible to bring both Gunter and Reinhardt to support a particular unit due to terrain considerations.

It is important to note that Goad/Ward skills, like the Spur skills, stack with themselves. Since their range is greater than the Spur skills, it is much easier to stack their effects. This is the core strategy behind using cavalry teams. As shown below with Ward Cavalry from Eliwood and Olwen on Reinhard. Notice Reinhardt takes more damage from Elise as Eliwood, then Olwen moves away.

The extended range of Goad allows Reinhardt to have far greater offensive  flexibility in choosing the targets he wants to attack while still providing buffs for his team, which is good because he is a very good attacker who is worthless on defence. 

OHKO is Reinhardt’s only goal

Reinhardt is a very good attacker despite having a moderate 41-44 ATK stat and incredible 18 (lol) SPD. This is because the meta is filled with characters with only moderate or bad RES, and Reinhardt uses a Brave-weapon, which doubles that moderate ATK for massive damage against those targets..Due to his bad SPD, if Reinhardt doesn’t kill a target (who can counter) in those two hits (OHKO), he will eat a double counter from the target. 

Thankfully, he is a pretty good at the OHKO business. A neutral Reinhardt without Hone Cavalry only fails to KO the following Red characters:

• Red Swords: Eliwood, Fir, Caeda and Roy w/o Triangle Adept
• Red-Mages: Leo, Raigh, and Sanaki w/o Triangle Adept

This is good coverage, but there some significant gap in that coverage (Roy/Sanaki). However, when used with Gunter, he can ORKO every Red-unit in the game without issue. Furthermore, Reinhardt will also heavily dent most Blue he attacks. His Blue matchup is very important, because Gunter often cannot attack Blues without putting himself at risk. 

Against the popular Blue units (Azura, Abel, Catria, Elfie, Ephraim, Linde, Nowi, Peri, Robin-M, and Sharena), the breakdown of his matchup (Neutral/Attack nature and Buffed/Unbuffed) is as such:

• 41 ATK-OHKO w/NEU/N.Buff: None!
• 44 ATK-OHKO w/ATK/N.Buff: Sharena, Ephraim, Robin-M, Corrin-F
• 47 ATK-OHKO w/NEU/W.Buff: Abel, Azura, Catria, Linde, Sharena, 
• 50 ATK-OHKO w/ATK/W.Buff: Nowi, Elfie
• 50 ATK-Lives with 1 HP: Peri (lol)

The Nowi OHKO is very important, as Gunter should almost never attack into her, she is tough to kill without another Green/Blue unit with good RES and ATK and her counter will hit Reinhardt hard. For the rest of the Blue units, the ones who will survive are a +ATK Reinhardt backed by Gunter are: Jagen, Florina, Est and Wendy. 

As for colourless coverage, a neutral Reinhardt will OHKO Takumi (41-18 * 2 hits = 46 of 40 HP) and Gordin (41-17 * 2 hits = 48 of 43 HP) if he attacks first with no buffs. He can OHKO all archers except Niles when buffed by Gunter. To sum up his colourless coverage,

• ·        OHKO w/N. Reinhardt/Unbuffed: Takumi, Gordin, Saizo.
• ·        OHKO w/N. Reinhardt/Buffed: All Archers except Niles, All Daggers except Felicia

This incredible coverage is why a +ATK Reinhardt is so good, and why Gunter should stick with Reinhard almost all the time. With Gunter, Reinhardt provides coverage against all reds, all blues that matter, and all archers

In any case, as a Brave-user, Reinhardt should never attack high-RES units like Niles/ Felicia/ Jagen unless there is no other target to attack. Hiis damage will go down to nothing against them. For the same reason, avoid attacking Greens unless they have very low RES (low 20s). RUN AWAY from Green-Mages, they will beat him clean due to his bad SPD and average RES. 

Interaction between Vantage and Rising/Blazing Thunder.

Furthermore, his Brave-weapon allows him to activate his Rising/Blazing Thunder special much more easily than every other AOE special user. Rising/Blazing Thunder’s AOE is a straight line of 5-panels, so it easier to hit more than one target with it. 

As long as Reinhardt lives, he is always capable of erasing one unit from the opposing team instantly. This is because there is almost no Blue/Red/Colourless (Jagen/Felicia maybe) unit in the game can survive Blazing Thunder + Dire Thunder when it happens. Since his special is so powerful, there is a temptation to let him tank attacks to build special count quickly

• Player Phase 1: Reinhardt attacks (+2 special count)
• Enemy Phase 1: Reinhardt’s possible counter (+1 special count) 

Reinhardt getting doubled. (+2 special count)

• Player Phase 2: Special Ready

Resists this urge, only get attempt to tank attacks when

• He has Vantage active and can counter (+1 special count)
• He can kill the other target in one hit.
• He can survive the doubled and wins the battle next round.

Vantage will occasionally give him some unexpected ranged-combat counter-kills and charge his special, but it is very unreliable as 

• Brave-weapons only hit ONCE on counter (half of his offensive output). 

• His defenses are average (38 HP/27 DEF/25 RES), so he will be hurt quite badly by any double attack (possibly killed). 

• Rising/Blazing Thunder has a count of 5, and does not activate mid-combat. There is no reason to raise the special count beyond 5.

Summary

To maximize his usage, Reinhardt should always stay near Gunter…or rather Gunter should always go where Reinhardt is. They complement each other’s offensive abilities well and make a good team. Always try to have allies fight with range of Goad, or move him to a location where an ally can potentially get his buff whenever they attack (or defend if attempting to revenge kill). 

Boon: +ATK. Accept no substitutes. This allows him to OHKO in the very important Nowi matchup with Hone Cavalry (barely). It also gives him more KO power in case he and Gunter are separated.

Bane: -SPD is very preferred since his SPD is so very bad.

 ‘

Defensive Core

These teams rely on the DEF and RES boost to field a formidable defense that will allow them to grind the enemy down over time. As such, these teams need to pick members who are offensive capable, or at least have some way to do good damage, without the need for offensive buffs. 

The field of usable candidates is much narrower than an Offensive team, this team wins much slower, and this team is harder to use than the offensive cavalry team. It can be an interesting change of pace for a player who is tired of the hyper-offensive nature of the game. This might be the only team in the game where a healer is a viable member of the team, even in the Arena.

Similar to the offensive team, the core member of this team can’t fight very well. However, depending on the rest of the team, he can at least attack safely, tank certain units and not get killed. This team is very capable against magical opponents, and handles the Manaketes quite well.

Jagen (Blue Lance)

The original player clutch unit, so iconic that almost every FE game thereafter has a character based on his archetype. Jagen doesn’t suffer from the Jagen syndrome stat-wise anymore in FE:H, as he has the second highest BST of the cavalry unit (just behind Eldigan). However, does this mean he is finally a good unit?

Well to start, his offensive stats are average, even after Fury. 45 ATK is decent, but 27 SPD very awkward, especially against popular Red-Swords. This means that Jagen will have problems with killing stuff, as he cannot reliably double. Thanks to Fury, he will also always take 6 damage whenever he enters combat, which means he is penalized heavily (12 HP) for failing to ORKO.

Jagen is not a good physical tank. His DEF is only average for a melee unit at 28, and his HP is bad for a melee unit at 37. This is his biggest flaw, more so since he is a Fury user, Fury users need high HP to survive the frontlines and the self inflicted damage from Fury. Jagen has the lowest HP of any Fury user, which makes him a poor user of the skill. However, Jagen’s stats does excel at one area: RES

Anti-Magic?

To put it simply, Jagen laughs at all almost all magic damage. His 38 RES (with Fury) is the highest in the game (tied with Felicia), If an cavalry team needs someone who can tank magic, Jagen is the man for the job. To illustrate, we look at how he tanks Green Mages

• Jagen survives a hit from Cecilia ((46*1.2 -38) with 14 HP left 
• Jagen survives a double from Merrick (40*1.2 -38 x 2 hits) with 11 HP left 
• Jagen survives a hit from Julia (49*1.2 -38) with 11 HP left (!)
• Jagen survives a double from Nino (46*1.2 -38 x 2 hits) with 1 HP left (!!)
• Jagen survives a hit from Robin-F (39*1.2*1.5 – 38 with 1 HP left (!!!)

This type of performance against Green Mages indicate that there is almost no Red/Blue-Mage in this game that can OHKO Jagen naturally. The only mage Jagen needs to worry about is Ursula (who can ORKO him if she doubles) and buffed Green Mages. If that is not enough, Jagen is also packing Aegis. This allows him to survive almost any single-hit magic attack. All tactics discussed with Abel’s use of Aegis applies to Jagen, except Jagen takes less damage but is less Abel to kill stuff.

The last part is very important. Jagen can certainly tank magic, but he needs someone else to kill them for him. He is a poor revenge killer due to his lack of offensive ability. The only mages he can ORKO are all Red-Mages: Leo, Lilina, Sanaki, Sophia. That’s it. Furthermore, Jagen tanking too many magical hits is a bad idea, even if they do little damage, as Jagen will only take damage from Fury for no return. If only Jagen has Distant Counter….

Jagen Barrier

What can make Jagen usable in all-cavalry teams though, is that he comes with the unique skill Fortify Cavalry. WIth this Jagen gives adjacent units +6 to DEF and RES. This draws an obvious comparison to another old man who can’t attack but provides support to his team: Gunter. Is Jagen good enough to be the core of the Cavalry team like Gunter?

The key issue with Fortify Cavalry, when compared to Hone Cavalry, is that it is less synergistic and only provides a defensive boost. Hone Cavalry helps the team by making everyone hit more times, and making those hits hurt more. To put it simply, Hone Cavalry can potentially add +12 damage to a unit’s output by itself, and it also provides defensive boost by preventing doubles (+10-30 HP depending on strength of hit prevented). Conversely Fortify Cavalry give only +6 HP at best in any one combat. This is because while most battles will have a mix of magic and physical damage, only one of the defensive stats (RES/DEF) is used at any one time. 

This is not to say that Fortify Cavalry is bad, just that its potential isn’t as high as Hone Cavalry. Fortify Cavalry needs to be built around, and there specific teams that can make it work. 

For example, if we use Eliwood with Jagen, they form an will a pretty impressive core who is almost immune to magic (Jagen: 42 RES (!) Eliwood: 38 RES) and have decent physical defenses (Jagen: 32 DEF, Eliwood: 29 DEF). Eliwood makes Jagen a very good tank as he now has Armor-like DEF to go with his huge RES, He takes zero damage from Red Mages, but remember he still can’t kill things to save himself. 

In such a team, the choice of the 3rd and 4th member is crucial. Here’s a quick run down of characters (including Eliwood) who can go into a Jagen team and what they gain:

• Eliwood 

Provides: Ward Cavalry Synergy, Green Coverage, General Offensive Power

Gains: Improved Red/Green coverage, Immunity to Green-Mage

• Olwen 

Provides: Ward Cavalry Synergy, Red/Armor Coverage, Ranged Attacker

Gains: Not much.

• Cain

Provides: Threaten ATK Synergy. Some Green-Axe coverage.

Gains: Not much.

• Eldigan

Provides: Green-Unit Coverage, General Offensive/Defensive Power

Gains: Immunity to Green-Axe (!), Improved Red Coverage.

• Stahl

Provides: Green-Unit Coverage, 

Gains: Near immunity to Green-Mages except Robin-F

• Leo*

Provides: All Mage/Archer Coverage, Robin-F coverage. Death by 1000 Cuts 

(Savage Blow)

Gains: A use, see his section. 

*only applies when Eliwood and Olwen are used together with him

• Abel

Provides: Complete Red-Sword Coverage. Secondary magic tank.

Gains: Not Much.

• Sully

Provides: Red Coverage, Spur Defense Synergy.

Gains Immunity to Red-Swords

• Peri

Provides: Red-Unit/Blue-Mage Coverage. Team offensive boost via Threaten DEF

Gains: Ability to revenge kill, Easier use of Threaten DEF. 

• Reinhardt

Provides: Red-Unit/Armor Coverage. Team offensive boost via Goad Cavalry.

Gains: Not Much. Better use of Vantage (lol).

• Frederick

Provides: Blue/Armor Coverage. Situational physical defensive boost via Spur DEF 

Gains: Immunity to Blue-Lances (except Elfie) and Green-Axes. 

• Gunter

Provides: Team offensive boost via Hone Cavalry.

Gains: Blue-Lance immunity on attack.

• Cecila

Provides: Blue/Armor/Colorless Coverage. Ursula coverage. 

Gains: Better Colorless Coverage.

Defensive Jagen-naut

As we can see above, some units gain the ability to be immune to damage. Sully and Stahl are now almost immune to an entire color, the added defenses can help prevent OHKOs from weakness colors on them when disaster strikes. Frederick only takes 6 damage from Elfie on attack, and nothing from other Blue-Lances. Eldigan benefits greatly by being with Jagen, as he becomes a offensively powerful tank, and takes no damage from all Green-Axes (even Hector). 

Of particular importance are characters like Peri and Eliwood. These are offensive characters who can do good damage without buffs, but are too fragile in general unless they OHKO the enemy. Jagen fixes this. He enables them to do things that are previously too risky for them in melee combat. This is especially true for Peri, who can now try to bait attacks to charge her special. Similarly, Cecilia gains the ability to be an actual colorless attacker rather than a revenge killer, it also makes it easier to use her as a support fire (read her section), and can used if the team needs a Green ranged attacker against Blues and Colorless

Other characters have much less synergy. Reinhardt can be placed in the team if it needs more offensive presence, and his Goad Cavalry helps the team on offense. However, he himself will not benefit much himself beyond added survivability (though his low SPD means the added defence might not even help). Olwen does not benefit much herself, but her Ward Cavalry can form a powerful defensive combination with Eliwood since their buffs stack. She is also another ranged attacker, which can be important if the team have too many melee units. Ironically, Cain and Abel both don’t benefit much from being paired with Jagen as well.

Leo also has a fringe use if the team runs Olwen/Eliwood/Jagen. 

Interestingly, Gunter is a bad fit with Jagen. Old geezers don’t get along it seems. This is because Jagen and Gunter are both poor attackers, and this places too much pressure on the remaining two members of the team to defeat enemies. There is also the issue of positioning Home/Fortify Cavalry. It is impossible to position Gunter/Jagen such the whole team get Hone/Fortify Cavalry. Furthermore, Jagen himself don’t become particularly effective as an attacker even after Hone Cavalry, while Gunter still suffers from bad RES and low SPD.

Summary

Jagen needs to have a team built around him for him to be effective. In many cases, he acts much like a Gunter for a defensive team and can be used in the same way. Jagen should avoid attacking unless it is safe. His main aim is to to position himself to give his allies Fortify Cavalry, used to to tank magic attacks and occasionally soften enemies.

Boon: Neutral. +SPD prevents him from being one-shotted by Ursula, but he has no good stat to Bane in.. 

Bane: Neutral. -DEF is acceptable, if he never takes damage from physical attackers.

Eliwood (Red Sword)

Eliwood is an underrated unit who seems to always miss the mark by a little. He is an average-to-poor unit until he reaches 5* and unlocks Durandal. Durandal makes him usable in regular teams. However, his full potential unlocks when he is used in a Horse team. Once that happens, he becomes a hyper-offensive glass cannon who can tank magic quite well and provide powerful support to his cavalry buddies. In a sense, he is kind of like a Red version of Peri who has consistently high firepower, since he has no need to charge his special.

A neutral Eliwood’s effective attack power is (47+4= 51) on offense. His SPD is decent at 30, but will not protect him against Ryoma/Lucina. That combined with his bad DEF (23) means that should stay away from Red-Sword battles. His RES is very good at 32, and his Sacred Cowl special that can activate it easily, allows him to fill a mage-killing role. To put it simply, Eliwood has two roles in any team: Defeating Axes and defeating Mages.

Eliwood vs Axes

Where is falls short though, is at the fringes. While Axe Breaker means he wins against almost all Green-Axes, he has an inconsistent matchup against the one that matters: Hector. The Hector match-up is very interesting because, by himself, he can win OR lose it depending on their natures The cases below assumes Eliwood always initiates, since he has superior mobility:

• NEU Eliwood (51*1.2 -37 x 2 hits = 48/52) vs. NEU Hector (52*0.8 -23 = 18/39) = Eliwood wins next round with 3 HP left.
• NEU Eliwood (51*1.2 -37 x 2 hits = 48/52) vs. ATK Hector (55*0.8 -23 = 21/39) = Eliwood loses next around
• ATK Eliwood (54*1.2 -37 x 2 hits = 55/52) vs. ATK Hector (55*0.8 -23 = 21/39) =  Eliwood wins ORKO with 18 HP left.
• ATK -DEF Eliwood (54*1.2 -37 x 2 hits = 55/52) vs. ATK Hector (55*0.8 -20 = 24/39) =  Eliwood wins ORKO with 15 HP left.
• ATK Eliwood (54*1.2 -40 x 2 hits = 49/52) vs. DEF Hector (52*0.8 -23 = 18/39) =  Eliwood wins next round with 3 HP left.
• ATK -DEF Eliwood (54*1.2 -40 x 2 hits = 49/52) vs. DEF Hector (52*0.8 -20 = 21/39) =  Eliwood loses next round.

Regardless of the result, the surviving unit will be badly hurt, so these two are pretty evenly matched against each other (lore-appropriate!). The most consistent Eliwood against Hector is +ATK with no penalty to DEF, but a DEF Hector can cripple  ATK Eliwood. A +ATK,–DEF Eliwood will also lose against a +DEF Hector as well. These results can be broadly applied to all other high DEF/high ATK Green-Axes like Bartre/Minerva, Eliwood can beat them, but might take excessive damage. All other Green-Axes can be beaten easily by Eliwood.

Eliwood vs Mages

Eliwood can be used as a bait character to expose Red/Green enemy mages thanks to his good RES.  Given his huge ATK, one would expect he should easily be able to kill any mage. Yet…for a +ATK Eliwood (Effective ATK: 54) initiating attack and assuming no Sacred Cowl activation:

• ORKO: Nino, Julia, Cecilia,, Lilina, Sophia, Leo, Reinhardt, Olwen
• 2-RKO: Robin-F (Eliwood: 14 Damage!) Merric (Eliwood: 0 Damage lol), 

Raigh (Eliwood: 31 Damage!), Tharja (Eliwood: 13 Damage), 

Henry (Eliwood: 2 Damage)

• 3-RKO: Robin-M (Eliwood: 32 Damage), Odin (Eliwood: 20 Damage)
• Loses to: Ursula, Linde (!)

Eliwood pretty much can beat any Green Mage alone, even Robin-F. However, his matchup against Blue mages is iffy. 

Sacred Cowl is important at the fringe matchups and against specials. It is important against Raigh, it also helps him survive specials such as Tharja’s Vengeance, Robin-F’s Ignis, and Henry’s Ignis (the only time he does huge damage to Eliwood). While it helps, do not try Eliwood’s luck against Robin-M’s Bonfire/Odin’s Moonbow. Linde/Ursula will still crush Eliwood.

When used with Reinhardt/Gunter, his performance increases in peculiar way.

• +ATK Eliwood w/Goad ORKO: Robin-F, Hector, Henry
• +ATK Eliwood w/Hone ORKO: Raigh
• +ATK Eliwood w/Both ORKO: Linde, Tharja, Robin-M, Odin, Merric.
• +ATK Eliwood still loses to: Ursula

What this tells us is as follows,

• Always stick Reinhardt near Eliwood when facing Hector/ Robin-F. 
• Always double buff before fighting any Blue-Mage.
• Nino, Julia, Merrick, Cecilia and Robin-F should be killed by Eliwood ASAP.

Eliwood as a General Attacker

Beyond his role as anti-mage and anti-axe, Eliwood’s final role is that of a free-roaming attacker who finishes off opponents.. Eliwood has a massive 51 ATK,, and will always do massive damage. Just make sure it’s the finishing blow so Eliwood doesn’t take unnecessary damage.

Do not forget that he also has Ward Cavalry, and can be brought close to Gunter/Reinhardt to enhance their defences if he has no safe target to attack.. This is particularly important when Gunter has to attack/Reinhardt has to tank attacks.

Eliwood as a Tank?

Now, Eliwood works very well when buffed by Hone/Goad, but it is also possible to make Eliwood tanky by using him with Jagen/Olwen. As stated before, Eliwood’s issue is that he is a glass cannon. To protect himself, he HAS to kill units to reduce incoming damage. However, when used in a full defensive team, his DEF/RES can be as high as 33/42 (29/38 with just Jagen). At this defense level, Eliwood is very consistent against Hector, and Hector now can’t damage Eliwood as badly as before. Eliwood’s matchup against Red/Green mages (except Raigh) also improves as he can tank their damage down to nothing..

The benefits of using Eliwood in a defensive cavalry team is that it mitigates the pressure for him to OHKO or ORKO, as he nows have good enough DEF/RES to survive whatever that comes next (Red Sword are still a problem, so avoid them). He provides defensive synergy in the form of Ward Cavalry. Furthermore, he is one of the few cavalry units who is already good attacker without offensive buffs, and this is very important for defensive all-cavalry teams who will run units who either can’t fight (Jagen) or fight inconsistently without offensive buffs (Olwen).

Summary

I personally use Eliwood to great success, but he might be too hard to use for many as he needs to be piloted carefully. He is like a midfielder who does a little of everything in an  all-cavalry team and is flexible enough to be deployed anywhere..

Boon: +ATK is probably the best. It gives him a better matchup against mages and Hector. This is especially true for the mage matchup. +SPD helps his matchup against Red Swords (but hurts his Hector matchup), as he avoid doubles from Lucina/Ryoma naturally, and can double them (43 SPD) with both buffs for ORKO.

Bane: –DEF is least bad choice. Ideally, this should not be on a melee unit, but given his niche this is the best banes to have

Melee Wing

If there is anything cavalry teams have a big selection of, it is the sheer number of different melee units they can choose from. There is also an oversupply of Red-Sword units, but to the developer’s credit, they all play pretty differently and provide a different user experience. Unfortunately, the two Blue-Lances play very similarly, though important differences remain. The Green-Axe situation is dire, and we can only hope more of them are added into the game as time goes by.

Most of the good units in cavalry are melee. Regardless of their power level, it generally pays to have only 2 or less melee units in any cavalry team.

Cain (Red Sword)

The original red cavalier is heavily overlooked compared to his green brethren. I suppose being Red-Sword in a Meta of powerful Red characters will do that to you. He can be used as an Eldigan-lite, since they share many similarities: good durability, lack of ORKO power and a weakness to mages. His stats are very similar to Abel, but Abel is heavily used while he is not. Understanding the reason to this is key to understanding how to use Cain on this team

Cain’s Offense

To be honest, Cain’s offensive stats and skills are non-ideal for a physical attacker who uses Brave-weapons. 40 ATK and 27 SPD is not very ideal for a red where every top tier unit has decent DEF, more so for the Green-Axes he is expected to fight. This is the reverse of Reinhardt, where he is in an environment where most top units have poor RES. Despite gaining WTA and hitting twice, 

• Neutral Hector laughs at neutral Cain’s (40*1.2 -37 x 2 hits =) 22 Damage . 

Against Red-lords, Cain will always fail to seal the deal, and activating their Defiant abilities.

• Lucina: 40-25 x 2 hits = 30 Damage
• Ryoma: 40-27 x2 hits = 26  Damage

This sets him up to be revenge killed, yet his SPD is also awkward at 27. This is not low, but not high enough to consistently achieve QUAD on Greens, and avoid being doubled by Reds. He is moderately durable at 27 DEF, but his SPD lets him down and he is more fragile as a result. The QUAD issue is the heart of why Abel is good by himself but Cain isn’t. Abel can kill consistently QUAD Reds before things get too hairy (and try to survive other units), Cain can’t kill Greens and he has to tank his target and other units.

That said, Cain becomes a whole different unit when used in an offensive all-cavalry team. 

• With Reinhardt only, Cain is now able to QUAD Hector and ORKO him (44*1.2 -37 x 4 hits= 63!) which settles all Greens in one round (except Bartre, the secret high-tier noone uses) and pushes him out of double range of units slower than Lucina (< 36 SPD). 

• With Gunter only, Cain is now immune to doubling from all Reds other than Fir/Hana/Lon’Qu, and he will win if he lets Red-Swords (other than Hana) attack into him first. He will also OHKO Takumi.

• With both Gunter and Reinhardt, he OHKOs Lucina and Ryoma (50-27/26 * 2 hits = 46/48) while taking no damage. 

This is why Cain needs to be used in an offensive cavalry team, if he is used at all. Once buffed just by Reinhardt, Greens are no longer an issue and he will beat any Red in melee who is less offensively powerful than Ryoma (basically only Lucina/Hana) if he lets them attack first…

Cain’s Defense

..and he doesn’t mind them attacking into him first. His other skills gives him good defense. Escutcheon has a 2-count timer, and reduces damage by 30%. Since Cain is a Brave-weapon user, he basically will have it up almost constantly.  He can even block Hector’s counter in the middle of a QUAD sequence to take laughable damage from him. However, because it activates by itself and Cain will be constantly in melee, it is less easy to “store it up” than the Sacred Cowl/Aegis skills for a big dangerous hit. 

Be sure to stay away from magic! Cain has pretty average RES, but the lack of defensive skills means mages will slap him silly. However, if Cain’s offensive matchup against mages is not bad at all if he gets the first strike..

• Base ORKO: Cecilia, Julia, Nino, Linde (!), Reinhardt, Leo, Lilina, Sanaki, Sophia
• Goad ORKO: Raigh, Tharja, Olwen. Robin-F, Merric
• Hone ORKO: Reinhardt 
• Both ORKO: Ursula, Odin, Robin-M

Complimenting his defensive skills is Cain’s access to Threat-ATK. If he manages to land Threaten-ATK (-5 ATK to all!), he can basically stay in the melee party all night, every night. To make sure Threaten-ATK lands on the enemy, plan it such the target end their turn two panels directly in front from Cain. Alternatively, if Cain has Escutcheon up, he has a SPD buff and there are no blues around, he can simply charge into the enemy group and try to affect as many of them as possible.

Cain’s…Mercy?

Wings of Mercy is good, but situational skill, it allows some hilarious wins when the stars align. 

He can use it to block a melee attacker’s access to a wounded unit. However, please remember to warp Cain in first, THEN move the unit to be protected if the unit in question is being pursued by Archers. Do not warp to protect allies from mages! Remember that he can attack out of this skill, so aim to kill the mage instead. 

This skill can also be used to set up focused-fire attacks, where an ally attacks into an enemy s/he know will badly damage him/her (after doing good damage). Cain can then teleport in and finish of the enemy.This can be done repeatedly as long as the damaged ally stays alive.

However, due to the need to stick closely together in a Cavalry team, this might already happen naturally. Since Cain rely heavily on buffs for effectiveness, be careful not to warp out of Goad Cavalry radius unless Cain can finish the enemy without needing buffs.

Summary

The reason why Cain isn’t used as much as Abel is because his skill set is designed to be defensive, but his base SPD is not good enough to last long in melee and his offense is suspect against the Green Axes. When using Cain, NEVER leave him without an offensive Cavalry Buff, or attack a Blue unit with high DEF. Otherwise, his effectiveness will drop off a cliff.

Boon: +ATK is the only way to go for Brave-weapon users. This expands his KO range significantly, and allows him initiate and OHKO Lucina/Ryoma (!) with just Reinhardt supporting him.

Bane: -RES. His RES is already uninspiring, so do not gimp his HP and DEF or SPD, as his physical defensive power needs these stats to be where they are.

Eldigan (Red Sword) 

Eligan has unconventional skills, but monstrous stats (good for Arena). He is the closest thing to armored unit in a all-cavalry team. Eldigan is an interesting choice in a horse team, especially if the team is also running Ward Cavalry users. 

Eldigan has very high ATK (51), and is physically very tanky (37 DEF, Same as Hector!). Eldigan can beat almost any non-blue unit in two attacks, but he can’t double much due to his awkward SPD (27). He does, however, have the survivability and mobility to force those 2 hits on anyone. Eldigan fears no Red-Sword, laughs at Green-Axes, and can survive big hits from strongest Blue-Lance. Eldigan

• Beats Ryoma [(50-37 x2 hits -6 = 32/45) vs. (51 -27 = 24/41)] with 5 HP left if he waits
• Beats Lucina [(50-37 x2 hits -6 = 32/45) vs. (51-25 = 26/43)] with 5 HP left if he waits
• Beats Takumi [(46-37 x2 hits -6 = 24/45) vs (51-25 = 26/40)] with 1 HP left if he initiates

• Laughs at Hector’s Double Counter [(52*0.8 -37 x2 hits +6 = 14)] with 31 (!) HP left.
• Tanks Ephraim’s Moonbow [(51*1.2 – 37*0.7 -6) = 36/45] with 9 HP left.
• Tanks Elfie’s Deathblow Attack [(55 + 6)*1.2 – 37 – 6 = 42/45] with 3 HP left.

A lot of these matchups will be far better if Eldigan can double….

Just to get this out of the way: DO NOT equip Lunge, it generally hurts more than it helps as since it is easy to Lunge into a mage’s range and out of buff range The main issue when using him entirely boils down to three things: How to mitigate Fury, How to charge his special, and how to avoid mages (and archers to a lesser extent).

Charging Rising/Growing Light

The reason why Eldigan’s special deserves as second look is because he can actually use it in a timely fashion. Mystletainn drops special count to 4, and his toughness helps him survive to charge up his Rising/Growing Light special. 

When it is ready, whatever he hits will usually be defeated. The special essentially works like a second hit with damage equals to (ATK-DEF) without WTA/WTD modification, then Eldigan initiates combat normally (for another hit).. Eldigan’s high ATK score helps this special to always hit moderately hard, though its effectiveness drops against very high DEF targets (Even against Hector, it does at least 14 damage). 

However, the checkerboard AOE of this skill will make it hard to hit multiple targets as seen below (though it happened in this case):

Every time Eldigan hits or is hit by something, his special count goes down by 1. However, its very important to know that unlike most specials, the AOE specials can only activate on the Player Phase and there is no value in having the special charged in the Enemy Phase. This is very different from all other specials that can happen at any Phase. A possible scenario in which Eldigan has special ready in one turn is:

• Player Phase 1: Eldigan hits a enemy (+1), enemy hits back (+1)

Enemy Phase 1: Any enemy hits Eldigan (+1), Eldigan counters (+1)

Player Phase 2: Special Ready, erases one unit from map.

This is how Eldigan can use his tankiness and convert it to offensive potential. Therefore, if Eldigan can avoid being doubled and he is in good health, he should always look to tank physical hits that do not damage him badly to charge his special. On the flip side, due to the interaction between Fury (activate once after combat) and special count (+1 every hit), it might seem logical to think that Eldigan should get doubled, so as to maximize the speed in which he gets special (+3 count per round). Don’t, it’s a trap! .

• Player Phase 1: Eldigan positions himself

Enemy Phase 1: Enemy doubles Eldigan, Eldigan counters back (+3)

Player Phase 2: Special not ready.

• Player Phase 1: Eldigan hits enemy, enemy doubles back (+3)

Enemy Phase 1: Enemy doubles Eldigan, Eldigan counters back (+3, +2 wasted)

Player Phase 2: Special Ready, erases one unit from map.

As we can see, Eldigan would have taken a lot of unnecessary hits to achieve the same result. Therefore, one should always be mindful of Eldigan’s relative SPD vs the enemy when attempting to charge his special. It is NEVER worth it to be doubled to get special, unless the damage is negligible (Like vs Hector). 

Therefore, always make sure Hone/Goad Calvary is nearby to avoid doubles, or Ward/Fortify Cavalry to reduce incoming damage. Of course, Eldigan doubling an enemy is always worth it even if the generated special count is wasted.

Managing Fury

Fury does damages him every time he enters combat, and this puts his incredible toughness on a timer. Like Ultraman, he wants the battle to end within 3 minutes. One interesting way is to pair him up with Ward Cavalry users to reduce actual combat damage. Eldigan’s DEF becomes crazy when used with Ward/Fortify Cavalry. For example, Lucina and Ryoma hits Eldigan for:

• 9 damage/hit (Eldigan DEF: 41 RES: 26) with Ward Cavalry 
• 2 damage/hit (Eldigan DEF: 47 RES: 32) with Ward and Fortify Cavalry

Having Ward/Fortify/Both, goes a long way to make Fury viable. Unfortunately, there is no Breath of Life user who is mounted, or it would be a great combination (hint hint). Avoid getting hit by Archers, unless it will allow Blazing/Growing Light to be ready next round, as Fury gives them a free 6 points of damage even if they fail to penetrate Eldigan’s high DEF. 

Fighting Mages

Due to Eldigan’s horrid RES (22), his two options are to kill them quickly with his superior attack power and mobility, or running away. Since his effective ATK is same as Eliwood, and SPD is worse than Eliwood, he can only reliably kill Sanaki, Sophia, Leo, Lilina, Nino, Julia and Cecilia. 

Therefore, he defaults to running away in most situations. It pays to give him a partner who can kill or tank mages. Partners like:

1. Eliwood: 

Pros: Tanks Red/Green-Mages. Reliable & high damage. Ward Cavalry Synergy. 

Cons: Inability to ORKO Blue-Mages, Melee Congestion.

Bane: Robin-M, Linde, Ursula

1. Frederick: 

Pros:  Damages Blues badly, Kills Armor, Spur Defense Synergy

Cons: Can’t tank Mages, Spur Defense Positional Issues. Melee Congestion

Bane: Raigh, Tharja, Robin-M

1. Peri: 

Pros: Tanks Red/Blue-Mages. Threaten DEF synergy in melee fights. 

Cons: Unreliable damage that relies on Special. Melee Congestion 

Bane: Merrick. Robin-F

1. Olwen: 

Pros: Tanks Red/Blue-Mages. Ward Cavalry Synergy. Ranged Follow-up Attacker

Cons: Minimal damage from Olwen vs Green.

Bane: Ursula, Merrick, Robin-F.

1. Jagen: 

Pros: Tanks Red/Blue-Mages, can tank some Green Mages (!).Fortify Cavalry synergy.

Cons: Low damage in general. Fortify Cavalry Positional Issues. Melee Congestion

Bane: Robin-M, Robin-F, Merric

Summary

Eldigan doesn’t bring any special buffs into the Cavalry team, but mounted team buffs can bring out Eldigan’s strengths like no other. Do consider running him if what is essentially a mounted armored unit is needed.

Boon: +SPD is good for increased double chance and protection against doubles. Eldigan is a terror if he can double, but he might find it hard to do so against Red Swords and he will not ORKO Hector even if he doubles unless he has Goad Cavalry. 

Bane: -RES. His RES is bad, no reason to gimp his good DEF and HP.

Stahl (Red Sword)

Stahl is surprisingly usable unit if the team is looking for a unit that can shut down any Green without the need for any support. The mileage from using him may vary greatly depending on how he is piloted. 

Stahl has Gunter-level DEF (33) and HP (45), but he also has Gunter-level RES (22). His offensive ability is very similar (46 ATK, 26 SPD), meaning that it is not impressive at all. Yet none of his stats matters, this is because the only rule to using Stahl is to avoid Blues completely and go after the Greens.

Ruby Weapon

He will lose even against the weakest of blues, and beat the mightiest of greens due to the nature of his weapon. Ruby Sword increases his WTA against Greens both offensively and defensively. Stahl does more damage against Greens, but he take less from them as well. The reverse applies when Stahl fights Blues. To demonstrate,

• Against Hector, Stahl takes 0 damage (52*0.6 -33) , and does 27 damage (47*1.4 -37) 

• Against Donnel, Stahl takes 54 (43*1.4 -33 x 2 hits ) damage, and dies.

Note that he takes no damage from every Green-Axe user in the game. While he does good damage, he can’t really OHKO any Green-Axe with decent defenses because he lacks SPD. He can only OHKO Anna, Julia, Nino, Cecilia and Camilla by himself. This can be mitigated by using Hone/Goad Cavalry to improve his SPD and ATK, the effects will be very noticeable as each point of ATK increase becomes multiplied by 1.4 times (4/6/10 ATK  roughly becomes 5/8/14 Damage). 

Against Reds or Colourless, he does not have much of an offensive presence. His DEF allow him to be used much like a Gunter to weakening foes, though he will take more damage compared to Gunter. Stahl will have the same problems as Gunter in securing OHKO on Red and Colorless units even when buffed heavily (Hone + Goad) since 37 SPD is not high enough to double most popular Reds and Colorless (Lucina/Ryoma/Takumi). 

Never use him to attack any Blues, as he cannot do meaningful damage to them in general. This would be different if he had a special attack (hint). He can be a meat shield to tank one hit from Blues-Lances in an emergency. That said, the only Blues-Lances Stahl can survive a round against are: Gwendolyn, Ephraim, Est, Florina, Oboro, Tsubaki and Jagen. Not a big list eh? 

Magic Tanking at 22

An interesting side effect of his weapon is that he can actually survive green mages better than his stats suggest, as he doubles up on his WTA defence bonuses. He can be used to bait green mages when necessary, and he only takes low-to-moderate damage despite his low RES (22). This is a tactically important option, and also helps out a core of Reinhardt/Gunter team and protects Jagen since they all lose to green mages. To demonstrate:

• Against Julia, Stahl takes (49*0.6 -22 =) 7 (1) damage. He kills Julia in 1 hit.
• Against Nino, Stahl takes (46*0.6 -22 x 2 hits =) 11 damage. He kills Nino in 1 hit.
• Against Robin-F Stahl takes (40*0.6*1.5 -22 =) 14 damage. He kills Robin-F in 2 hits. 
• Against Merric, Stahl takes (40*0.6 -22 x 2 hits =) 2 damage. He kills Merric in 2 hits. 

This is his performance when unsupported. With Jagen/Eliwood, he can becomes immune to Green Mages. Note that this works ONLY against Green Mages, as all other mages will beat him due to his poor RES and low SPD. Even the weakest Blue Mage (Odin), will  be a terror against Stahl.

Filler Skills

Other than his weapons, his other skills are Swap and Obstruct. Unfortunately, his traits make him situational at using these skills best. The problem is not in the skills, but in him!  

Swap is very effective as a positioning tool. Beyond its ability to save a damaged unit from death against melee enemies, it can also be used to position a unit to provide Hone/Spur buffs that would be otherwise impossible. Unfortunately, Stahl isn’t a very good Swap user as:

1. He dies harder to any Blue unit compared to a normal Red unit. There will be times he can’t Swap in as it will expose him to a Blue.

1. He doesn’t have ANY defensive skills/combo that helps him survive Blue/Red attackers or recover damage taken.

1. He doesn’t have Hone/Spur ability, so he can’t utilize Swap’s synergy with providing buffs..

As such, he can only apply few uses of the multi-dimensional Swap ability. One use is that he can use it to save a damaged unit from a non-Blue melee attacker. Another is that he can force a Green-Axe to suicide itself by using Swap with a Blue Unit who is about to be attacked next turn, but this too is a very narrow application

On the flip side, Obstruct is a very situational skill that doesn’t have much general application due to how narrow the battlefields are in this game. When combined with Swap, He can use it to prevent other enemies from moving past him to reach a Swapped target. Yet Obstruct only shows its value when it blocks more than one enemy. While he has the DEF to tank hits, and Ruby Sword allow him to take minimal damage from all Greens, he still doesn’t make a very good tank for the following reasons

1. Poor SPD & RES. As such, he can’t tank any speedy Red-Sword or Red Mage.
2. Lack of Enemy Phase defensive abilities to mitigate damage.

Summary

Use Stahl if the team needs a unit who can walk up to a Green unit and win. He is the hardest counter available to a Cavalry team to the colour Green. The principles to using him are very easy to understand, but he is also toughest Red-Sword Cavalry unit to use effectively.

Boon: Doesn’t have a strong preference any way. His traits mean that his stats are not as important as compared to how he is piloted by the player. +ATK/+SPD is probably the best.

Bane: -RES. He is basically Red Gunter in stats after all. Ruby Sword will help mitigate most of the damage from Green-Mages even with -RES. Avoid –SPD, -HP or –DEF if he is used to tank melee hits, or used as a first-striker. 

Abel (Blue Lance)

The original green knight used to be an auto-include in any horse team. However, Reinhardt has given him a serious run for his money. Abel is still highly competent and knowing his abilities will help understand why he is used almost any team who lacks a better blue.

Abel’s base chassis is very similar to Cain (41 ATK vs. 40 ATK, 27 SPD for both), and has slightly better defensive stats (4 more RES, 2 more HP, 2 less DEF). From the stats, one will think that Abel should perform like Cain. As a matter of fact, against most targets, he performs exactly like Cain, which means he doesn’t perform, offensively or defensively, very well at all.

Abel sees Red

What Abel does excel at, is killing Red-Swords. He is one of the most deadly Red-Sword killers in the game. This is due of the combination Swordbreaker skill and his Brave Weapon. He will always QUAD Red-Swords so long has he has 50% health left. The only Red-Sword in the game who can survive his unbuffed QUAD is Draug and Hinata (and maybe Zephiel when he is available). Another commonly overlooked perk is the Swordbreaker prevents a Red-Sword from being able to double him when it is active, even on defense. This mitigates his low SPD and explains why he performs in an environment with high SPD Red-Swords.

Given the popularity and strength of Red Lords (Marth/Ryoma/Lucina/Roy/Lyn) this is no surprise that the hard counter unit will be highly popular. His +5 HP passive has a synergistic effect with Sword Breaker, and allows him to use Sword Breaker for a longer period of time.  Even without Swordbreaker, he still has a very good Red Mage matchup, as he can ORKO every Red-Mage in the game unbuffed. This is another important differentiating factor from Cain that affects the player’s experience using him.

Against all other targets, his effectiveness drops off a cliff if unbuffed (just like Cain). He suffers from the same low ATK, low SPD problem, and he is defensively vulnerable to being doubled. This is made worse due to his lack of the defensive skills, and is thus unable to stay in melee for long. Blues that he can ORKO against when unbuffed are: Azura, Olwen, Reinhardt, Linde, all of these units are important targets, but it is also a very narrow list.

When used in an all-cavalry team, his performance is very similar to Cain, as seen below:

• With Goad Cavalry only 

Abel is immune to being doubled by all Blues, with the exception of Azura and Linde. He is now able to OHKO Takumi. This is great. as it conserves his HP for more Swordbreaker action. His ORKO against Blues now includes Ephraim, but note that Ephraim will hit back for 26 damage! Only attack Ephraim with Abel if it is safe and there are no other enemies nearby.

• With Hone Cavalry only,

Cain is now immune to doubling from all Reds other than Fir/Hana/Lon’Qu naturally. This means he struggles less defensively at 50% HP vs Red-Swords. He can now ORKO Nowi, but will take 20 damage. which is important if Reinhardt isn’t +ATK

• With both Hone and Goad Cavalry, 

He ORKOs Robin-M, Sharena, Catria and himself. Note that Elfie and Corrin-F are still out of reach. Abel will do 33 damage to Elfie (with Wary Fighter) while taking 30 damage, and do 34 damage to Corrin-F while taking 15 damage. What this means is that it is always safe to attack into Corrin-F, and Abel should never attack Elfie unless she does not have Wary Fighter active.

Anti-magic Aegis

While Abel’s RES is decent, do not attempt to randomly tank magic. Abel is not Eliwood or Jagen, his anti-magic abilities are only formidable when Aegis is active. Thankfully, Abel can QUAD any Red Sword and get Aegis instantly charged. Such a convenience is baked into his character, just like his fellow knight Cain with his Escutcheon. If the Red Sword can’t survive 4 hits, then Abel will have to attack someone once before he has it active…

His Aegis special allows him to be reasonably protected against magic and arrows by cutting their damage in half. However, due to its 3 charge count, it is actually less likely to be active at any one time than Cain’s Escutcheon. The neat thing about Aegis is that since Abel has great mobility and generally fights in melee, he has the option of “storing” Aegis for later use by staying away from ranged until melee foes are defeated. 

When Aegis is active, Abel can 

• Bait and revenge kill all Red-Mages. He can already do this without Aegis, but this is insurance against a massively buffed Tharja, or any Red Mage with a special charged.

• Bait Blue-Mages, but beware of Linde, Ursula and Reinhardt. Having sufficient SPD boosts to avoid being doubled is important as Aegis only reduces damage for the first hit. Abel can revenge kill if he is buffed enough, otherwise get a Green unit to kill the now exposed Blue-Mage.

• Bait Green-Mages, but beware of Nino and Merric. The same principles apply, be be careful of units who can double. Leave the revenge killing to a Red unit.

• If Robin-F’ attacks with Abel, he takes (49*1.2*1.5 -27 =) 61 damage. Aegis will help him survive by burning this down to 30 damage. This is very important if approaching Robin-F is a problem for a particular team setup. 

• Aegis can also be used to tank large single hits from mages with their Special active. I believe it halves the damage as a final calculation step, so it will be effective against all specials, other than the AOE specials.

Always keep the tactical option enabled by Aegis in mind when using Abel, as it can prevent unnecessary deaths in the Arena.

Summary

Remember that as a Blue Brave-weapon user, Abel should never attack Greens and never attack high Defense target without buffs. A team of Abel and Cain works well together as Threaten-ATK cover’s Abel’s defensive weakness, while Aegis can lure troublesome Green Mages into Cain’s blade.

Boon: +ATK. As with all Brave-users, this is essential for his performance against non-reds and helps him conserve HP by enabling OHKOs on Reds instead of ORKOs.

Bane: None are a good choice.-DEF is an interesting option, since he doesn’t do well in prolonged melee and he tends to OHKO popular Red-Swords like Lucina/Ryoma./Eirika.

Peri (Blue Spear)

This girl has been written off as an “inferior Abel” by players. To me, she is more like “Eliwood-lite” as she doesn’t fill the same niche as Abel. Using her effectively can be quite challenging due to her natural traits.

This might be a surprise for some, but Peri’s BST is the 4th highest amongst Cavalry units. She is only behind the Fury users, and Eliwood (always the dark horse). However, when using her, it certainly doesn’t feel that way. This is due to her awkward spread of her stats. Her biggest issue is that she is a melee unit with 35 HP(low), 33 SPD (not fast enough vs Reds) and 23 (!) DEF. 

This stats put her in a very awkward position where she can’t double popular Reds-Lords like Lucina/Ryoma/Lyn/Marth, and can end up getting revenged killed (or badly hurt). I once had a level 40 Peri being revenged killed by a level 40 Lucina. The other issue is that her damage output is a little unreliable, due to how she is designed around using her Special.

Glimmer Killer

As far as special attacks go, Glimmer (Astra-series) is an average special attack on her due to her average ATK, compared to Luna-series (situational), the AOE specials (comparable), and the +stat to damage specials (Great!) This is due to how the game calculates damage.

Damage = ([{ATK* WTA} – DEF/RES] * %Damage Multiplier + Stat to damage) * %Reduction.

What this means is that

• Luna-series specials are situational because they act on DEF/RES, which means they only significantly improve damage on high DEF/RES targets. 

• Astra-series affects Damage Multiplier and performs better when difference between ATK and DEF/RES is great. This is the reverse of the Luna-series. Its performance drops when DEF is high. 1 damage multiplied by 1.5 is just 1 damage rounded down. 

• AOE specials act like an extra attack with no WTA/WTD. it suffers the same issues as Glimmer, but compensate for the chance to hit multiple enemies and bypass WTA/WTD..

• Stat to damage specials are the best, assuming stat in question is in the 30-40 range, in 1v1 as they does consistent, WTD-exempt damage. (hint, hint) 

• Blocking-type specials greatly enhance the survivability of units who can use them a lot.

• Sol-series specials are terrible because they get reduced by many different effects.

To compensate for her average special, Peri uses the Killer Lance, which reduces her Special Counter by one. Glimmer is now on a 2-count counter. This means that she can charge it within a single phase by

1. Getting hit and countering in the Enemy Phase

1. Doubling when attacking in the Player Phase

The issue trying to squeeze value out of this is 

1. She can’t use her special if she doubles someone in the Player Phase unless she is attacked during the Enemy Phase. However, she must survive to counter, which is not helped by her bad DEF. The AI can also choose what unit tanks Glimmer…

1. One situation where she can use her special in Player Phase is if she is hit and she counters during the Enemy Phase, which is again not helped by her bad DEF.

1. Another situation is if she tanks magic a few times, but isn’t attacked in melee during in the Enemy phase  Her good RES (33) helps, but her good SPD works against her as she wouldn’t be doubled and can’t charge special in one exchange

1. She cannot OHKO popular Red-Lords even with her Special. Marth lives with 6 HP, Ryoma survives with 4 HP, Eirika edges out with 3 HP and Lucina clings on with 2 HP. She only oneshots Lyn and Roy if he has Triangle Adept.  

Threatening Girl

At this stage, everyone probably thinks Peri is crap and should not be used. While she isn’t top tier by any means (yet), using her effectively is to understand that her main skill is not Killer Weapon + Glimmer. Her main skill is actually Threaten DEF.

Peri should be piloted in such a way that her main goal is to land Threaten DEF on the target she wants to attack. If she lands Threaten DEF, it basically means she does +5 damage (+7 on special. +10 on double. +13 on special + double). This is not insignificant, as it can mean achieving OHKO/ORKO or being revenged killed. This also applies to the matchup against the Red-Lords. With Threaten DEF, she should be able to OHKO all of the abovementioned Red-Lords (except Marth) with her special.

It goes without saying that Threaten DEF helps other physical attackers greatly, and Peri is more at home in Melee team. She works very well with Brave-weapon users like Cain/Abel, as Threaten DEF means +10 (!) damage for them. She can land Threaten DEF on a target, then let another physical unit finish the target off. Landing Threaten-DEF consistently is easier for Peri. as she is a mounted unit with great mobility.

However, it is by no means easy, as she cannot apply it in the most direct way (charging in) without getting killed. The best way to do so is to predict where Peri’s target will move next turn, and move her such that the enemy will end their movement 2-panels away in front of her. This allows her to attack with Threaten DEF active. Do not worry if the unit is a Red-Mage or a Blue mage, as Peri has good RES and good SPD. Just watch out for Linde, +ATK Linde ORKOs her.

This leads to the idea that Peri should also use her superior mobility and RES to hunt down mages. Glimmer seems to imply this as well, since it is expected for mages to have bad DEF. Her matchup against the mages is as follows:

• ORKO: Sanaki, Liliana, Sophia, Leo
• ORKO w/T-DEF: Henry, Linde, Reinhardt, Julia, Cecilia
• ORKO w/Glimmer Raigh, Tharja, Ursula, Olwen
• Don’t: Any other Green-mage

This isn’t a very inspiring spread of targets, but highlights how important Threaten DEF is for her mage matchups. Note that she can take out horse slaying mages Ursula and Raigh when she has Glimmer active. While she can’t ORKO Robin-M or Odin, do note that she doesn’t take much damage from them either, so these matchups can be considered a win for her.

Peri needs Friends

That said, being on all-cavalry team fixes a lot of her issues. With Gunter her matchup against mages much more consistent, as she can now ORKO Ursula, Raigh and Olwen by just attacking, and ORKO Tharja with only Threaten DEF. Her matchup against Red-Lords also become more consistent with Gunter, with the sole exception of Marth (+DEF/+HP is a problem). If she has both offensive buffs, she is actually capable of OHKO amy Red Sword more fragile than Lucina (HP+DEF =< 68, no defensive ability)  just with just Threaten DEF.

She also pairs up well with Cain, the synergy between Threaten DEF and Threaten ATK is great. Cain hits much harder with with Threaten DEF, while Peri survives melee better with Threaten ATK. Peri can also bait mages to protect Cain from magic, while Cain can almost always make follow-up attacks via Wings of Mercy if Peri’s target survives and counterattacks Peri for more than 50% of her HP (very likely). 

Her best partner, however, would be Eliwood. Ward Cavalry is much easier to use than Threaten ATK, and makes her RES ridiculous (37!) and DEF passable (27). Threaten DEF has good synergy with Eliwood’s monstrous ATK score (51), and helps him against Greens/Reds. Together, hey can cover almost every Green and Red. She can also work in a team that uses Jagen with Eliwood, as her effective defenses become 33 DEF (good) and 43 RES (!). This setup finally allows her exploit her Killer Lance + Glimmer combo in a revenge killer role.

Summary

Peri is a unit that needs to be piloted carefully to have any type of effectiveness. Her biggest contribution to an all-cavalry team is Red/Blue Mage killing and Threaten DEF, This might seem limiting, and it is, but she is still usable.

Boon: +SPD. +SPD makes her charge her special more consistently, and improves her matchup against Mages (Linde/Tharja can’t ORKO unless +SPD). +ATK is acceptable.

Bane: -DEF. Again, the least bad choice if she is focused on killing mages,

Sully (Blue Lance)

FE:A’s red cavalier Sully is built very much like her Green cavalier counterpart Stahl. It is no coincidence that Sully resembles Abel in performance (Blue-Lance/Magical Defense focused), while Stahl resembles Cain (Red-Sword/Physical Defense-focused). The only difference from their FE1 predecessors is that Stahl/Sully have their colors and personalities switched. Like Stahl, how good she is depends on how she is piloted.

As far as stats go, Sully has good SPD (34), and this helps compensates for her poor ATK (38) in some matchups. Her HP is decent at 42, and her RES is good (28). She shares Abel’s affinity of tanking magic, She is, however, very let down by her terrible, terrible DEF (24). She will almost always die against powerful Greens-Axes, and she will struggle in Blue-Lance matchups.

Sapphire Weapon

Like Stahl, she wields a gem-weapon, this means that she wins harder against Reds and lose harder against Green. However, there are some key differences in the experience of using her vs Stahl

• While Stahl is completely immune to Green-Axe attacks, Sully is only mostly immune to Red-Mage attacks. She will only take 3 damage/ hit from Lilina, who is the Red mage with the highest ATK. The only Red-Mage she cannot ORKO is Henry and Tharja.

• Even so, her defense against Red Swords is still high despite her bad DEF. For example,She will only take about 8 damage/hit from the strongest Red Sword (Chrom), and will not be doubled by any Red-Sword other than Hana/Lon’Qu/Fir thanks to her SPD. 

• Like Stahl vs Green-Axes, she has issues getting ORKO vs Red Swords if she is left to rely on her ATK and SPD stats alone. Her SPD protects her from doubles, but she will not double against Lucina/Ryoma/Marth

What puts her above Stahl, and makes her very good at her role, is Swordbreaker. Just like her predecessor, Abel, she possesses this skill. With it, she automatically doubles a Red-Sword unit she attacks, and prevents a Red Sword from doubling her (unnecessary with her SPD). This means that there is no popular Red-Lord she cannot ORKO (except Eldigan) and she always takes little damage from them. That said, she is less powerful than Abel, and there are more Red Swords she can’t ORKO than Abel: Draug, Hinata, Eldigan, Laslow, Alphonse (!), Chrom (!!) and Seliph (!!!).

What this also means, is that Sully struggles less compared to Abel in a Red-Sword fighting role even if she drops below 50% HP. This is because she still has the defensive and offensive boost of Sapphire Lance to fall back on in those times. In a sense, she is more reliable than Abel against Red Swords even if she does less damage than him.

That said, her matchup outside Red-units are bad. She will lose to almost any Blue-Lance due to her bad DEF. Her low ATK doesn’t allow her to kill Blue-Mages effectively (though she can tank hits from them all other than Linde and Ursula). Beware of Archers and Daggers, she dies when hit by an arrow and Takumi can revenge kill her if she attacks first. Just ignore Greens completely, Sully only does 5 damage to Julia (who has 17 DEF) and any Green-Axe will OHKO her.

Unlike Abel, she isn’t helped as much by Cavalry buffs. The only important Red-Sword ORKO she gets when having Hone Cavalry is Eldigan. When she has both Hone Cavalry and Goad Cavalry, she also achieves ORKO against Tharja, and she can double all popular Red-Lords when below 50% HP. Offensive Buffs do not improve her Blue matchup very much, but there one important matchup to know: If Sully has a Goad Cavalry, her she can ORKO Ursula. Defensive cavalry buffs help her little more. With just Jagen’s Fortify Cavalry, she becomes immune to all Red Swords except Chrom (1 Damage per hit) and takes very little damage from all Blue Mages except Linde. 

Push and Pull.

Sully’s other skills are Draw-Back and Spur DEF. The nice thing about these two skills is that they have some synergy. Using Draw Back on the target will mean that the target will always be affected by Spur DEF. This is nice as Draw-Back is usually used to protect an ally from ranged attacks by pulling them out of range, while Spur DEF protects that ally from physical attacks (which Draw Back is useless against in general). This combination is useful defensively.

In general, Draw Back is only really useful on a ranged character, as melee units would generally want to stay up in front. However, since Sully has such poor DEF, good RES and good mobility, there is no harm to let her lurk at the back to provide Draw-Back Support and Spur Defense and only bring her out when a Red Sword shows up. Spur DEF has nice synergy with with cavalry teams based around Eliwood/Jagen as this stacks with Ward/Fortify Cavalry to give the 1-2 members beside Sully very high DEF.

Summary

Sully, like Stahl, is a unit for a team that needs a one-stop solution to enemy Red units, and she comes with some utility in the form of Drag Back + Spur Defense., She excels at her preferred role much more than Stahl, but is also much more useless than Stahl outside that role. 

Boon: Doesn’t have a strong preference any way like Stahl. Neutral is probably best. +ATK or +SPD is acceptable

Bane: Neutral. There is no stat that can afford to be low. Try to avoid -HP or -ATK or -SPD on an offensive team, and -DEF -RES on a defensive team.

Frederick (Green Axe)

The only armor-crushing Cavalier in the game, Frederick occupies an interesting niche. In my view, he is probably the best mounted Green-Axe unit in a straight fight (not like there is too many of those though).

Frederick’s stats are very similar to Gunter. Like Gunter,he excels at defense, with 43 HP and 36 DEF. Like Gunter, he has 47 ATK. Like Gunter, he also has below average SPD (25). Unlike Gunter, who only have bad RES, Frederick’s RES (14) is horrendous. This stats combined indicate he is a not very good attacker, or at least not much better than Gunter. Yet Frederick has skills and abilities that help him fight more kinds of enemies and increase his effectiveness in combat.

Hammer time.

The first thing that comes out is that Frederick uses the Hammer. This gives him a 150% bonus against armored units. Solely on his ability to fight armored units alone, he is already a better attacker than Gunter. Frederick’s ideal matchups against Armored units is as follow

• Hector: Wins if Hector attacks first with 27 HP left.

• Draug: Wins if he attacks first with 15 HP left 
• Elfie: Wins if he attacks first with no damage.
• Gwendolyn: Wins if he attacks first with no damage.
• Sheena: Wins eventually, but don’t bother with it.

Frederick is already better than Gunter by handling the 2 most problematic armored units (Hector/Elfie) in the meta within 2 phases, and he has the mobility to force the desired outcome against armored opponents. As for his matchup against Blues, it is very similar to Gunter if we discount their skills. Frederick will not be able to ORKO most Blues/Greens as he lacks the SPD to double. However, Frederick’s secret weapon is that he has the New Moon/Luna special.

Luna-tic

New Moon/Luna series of specials work by reducing the enemy’s DEF/RES before damage is calculated. What this means is that this special works best against units with high DEF but barely does anything against units with low DEF. To illustrate:

Damage = ([{ATK * WTA} – DEF/RES] * %Damage Multiplier + Stat to damage) * %Reduction.

• Frederick vs Hector: (47*1.5 – 37) = 33 damage
• Frederick w/Luna vs. Hector: (47*1.5 – 37/2) = 52 damage (+19 Damage. OHKO!)
• Frederick vs Linde: (47*1.2 – 14) = 42 damage (OHKO)
• Frederick w/Luna vs Linde: (47*1.2 -7) = 49 damage (+7 damage. Wasted)
• Frederick vs Sanaki: (47*0.8 – 17) = 20 damage
• Frederick vw/Luna vs Sanaki (47*0.8 – 8) = 29 damage (+9 Damage. Does not KO)

Therefore, its very important to keep this general rules to use Luna effectively.

1. Frederick’s damage gain from Luna is target’s DEF/2, rounded down 

1. Frederick will always gain at least +7 damage from Luna.

1. Look for the foe with the highest DEF to unload Luna on him/her,

1. Do not waste Luna on foes that would have died if Frederick hit them normally, unless that unit is threatening to KO Frederick or one of his allies in the next phase.

1. Don’t use Luna on a target with Buckler/Escutcheon/Pavise ready. The damage gain will be pathetic as it is halved,

Now when Frederick has Luna, his ability to seriously harm Blues/Green increase drastically, However, he still can’t OHKO some popular targets in the meta. For the blues (damage from a normal hit in parentheses), 

• Ephraim (24) and Nowi (23) lives with 5 HP left, 
• Corrin-F (22) ekes out with 2 HP
• Sharena (27) clings on with 1 HP
• Catria (27), Abel (31), Robin-M (27) Azura (35), Peri (33) can only be OHKO w/Luna
• Linde (42), Olwen (36), Reinhardt (29 x2), and Ursula (37) can be OHKO w/o Luna.

For the Greens,

• Hector (33), Julia (30) and Nino (28), can only be OHKO w/Luna
• No other Green unit can be OHKO w/Luna though most will take 25-30 damage.

Though Frederick it covers many important Blue-Mages (Linde, Ursula), he doesn’t kill ORKO a lot of Blues without LUNA. His Green matchup is awful outside Hector, and needs Luna to beat low DEF Green Mages like Julia/Nino. This means that if Frederick needs to kill Green/Blue mages, he needs to wait for Luna to be ready, as any mage can OHKO him due to his very bad RES. This is problematic, as it is not easy to get Luna ready with Frederick, since it has a 3 count timer and he can’t really double that well. 

Frederick in Teams

This is why Frederick should be use in all-cavalry teams. With offensive buffs his matchups become:

• Hone only: Ephraim, Cecilia (ORKO), Julia, Azura, Peri (OHKO)
• Hone + Goad: Catria (OHKO) Nowi, Robin-M, Abel, Camilia (ORKO),
• Hone + Goad + Luna: Robin-F

He also provides some defensive support to offensive cavalry teams in the form of Hone DEF, which can help Gunter out when he has to attack into something (43 effective defense will protect Gunter from anything physical, even Red Lords will not be able to ORKO him).

Like Cain, Frederick has Wings of Mercy and it can allow him to be a good follow-up attacker to a damaged ally. Wings of Mercy + Luna is a cool combination because Frederick can teleport and attack right out of it. If Luna is ready, Frederick can use this skill to teleport across the map and hit that enemy with Luna for the win. It is hilarious when it happens, and the CPU will abuse this tactic if it can. 

Wings of Mercy can also can form a good combo with Hone DEF, as it will allow Frederick to move beside a wounded ally to protect him/he from melee enemies and provide additional DEF for the next Player Phase (this means the ally is still vulnerable in the upcoming Enemy Phase), This would have been better if it was a Spur DEF instead.

Another possible team up is with Eliwood/Jagen, which gives him an incredible 46 DEF and a passable 24 RES. At 46 DEF, he is basically immune to Blue-Lances and Greens-Axes will only do less than 6 damage per hit, He also doesn’t die instantly to magic, which is a huge plus. This increase in durability allows him to charge into melee with abandon and use Luna more often, as he now doesn’t fear being doubled. Watch out for Red Lord though, while they can’t ORKO him, they still hurt him when they double him (Ryoma does 28 damage on a double.).

However do note that his Hone DEF does not stack with Fortify Cavalry, so he can only provide Jagen with the boost. This is probably of marginal utility compared to what it can do for Gunter.

Summary

Frederick isn’t a very solid attacker with his Gunter-like stats, but his skills salvage the situation for him by giving more of an offensive edge. That said, if the cavalry team needs someone to beat Armored foes, no one does it better than Freddie.

Boon: +ATK in offensive teams, since he can’t double, he should aim to increase his single hit damage/ Neutral is best for defensive teams, but +ATK is acceptable.

Bane: -RES in offensive teams. Neutral is best for defensive teams, but -SPD is acceptable

Ranged Wing

The selection of mounted mages used to be very limited, there was really only two choices at the start of the game (and one was a 5*!). 

With the release of Reinhardt, at least one slot in an offensive team is now taken. Olwen also joined the pool the same time and Reinhardt, and two weeks later yet another mounted Blue Mage arrived: Ursula. So unlike the Melee wing, the ranged wing is filled with Blue Mages.

The selection of another ranged mounted unit is important, as the selected unit should work well with Reinhardt on a offensive team, or is offensively strong enough to do damage without Hone/Goad Cavalry on a defensive team.

Leo (Red Mage)

The only mounted Red-Mage in the game for some time. Although he is a natural 5* unit, and a popular (maybe?) Fates character, he is a surprisingly bad unit by himself. To be honest, he only really works inside a very specific cavalry team…

Leo’s biggest problem is his terrible SPD (22), compounded by his uninspiring ATK score (43). As a result, he can’t be safely used to bait opposing mages, because everyone and their moms will double him. He also can’t safely attack any ranged units, as everyone and their dads will double him. Unlike Reinhardt, he doesn’t bring his own double attack, so his ORKO potential is pretty low. 

This means he is struck taking potshots at melee units that cannot hit him back, or trying to tank and revenge kill Green Mages.. Since he is a Red Mage, one would expect him to melt Hector. That’s not true, Hector melts him instead due to his inability to OHKO, or survive Hector’s next turn after a double Armads counter (39 HP and 25 DEF). As such, his stats cannot rescue him, but what about his skills? Unfortunately, his skills are a pretty bad fit for his stats as well.

Not Quick Enough

His primary skill is Quick Riposte, which allows him to double counter when he is attacked at above a certain HP% at the start of battle. This is basically the Passive slot B version Hector’s Armads skill. This is a good skill, as Hector shows, but it is wasted on Leo as::

• Leo does not have the ability to counter melee units, this means he can only apply this skill to ranged attackers. This is quite narrow compared to Hector, who counters everyone and their parents.

• Leo’s ATK (43) is not as high as Hector’s (52), so getting hit twice by Leo is not very scary unless the attacker has low RES, or is Green-Mage. 

• Leo’s defenses are not high. His DEF (25), RES (30) and HP (39) are decent for a mage, but is not strong enough to withstand two hits from a powerful archer (Takumi). Counter attacks always happen second, so Leo has to survive two hits before his second hit.

• Due to his low SPD, he will not get value out of Quick Riposte. In exchange for countering twice, almost every attacker will be attack Leo twice (2 for 2). As a result, he can easily lose access to this skill once he loses 11 HP (30% of 39).

This basically makes Leo only good at baiting and revenge killing Green Mages, Archers with poor RES/ATK and Red Mages with poor RES. To make him viable, he needs either massive SPD buff to avoid doubles, or massive RES/DEF buffs to allow him to win trades using this skill.

Too much Initiative

The other problem with Leo, is that his other skills all have their trigger happening only when Leo initiates attacks. This creates a huge compatibility issue with his Quick Riposte ability, as they do not trigger on counter-attack.

His Savage Blow ability looks impressive, but it is mainly used to put enemy units in OHKO/ORKO range of other allied units. This skill is nice when Leo is taking potshots at enemy units who cannot counter back, but I generally find that when Leo can afford to do something like that it means the battle is already won, This is some fringe importance depending on team setup (e.g. Abel/Eliwood conserve HP by OHKO instead of OHKO). Unfortunately, it only initiates on attack and have no compatibility with Quick-Riposte. 

The Gravity Trigger on his Brynhilde is also very worthless, as it also triggers only when initiating attack, and is a very niche effect that is barely useful. It can be god-tier if the enemy only has melee units, and there is an ally with Draw-Back (Sully), as it allows them to kite the enemy forever,

His Rising/Blazing Light special is very good when it activates, allowing him to OHKO his target, Unfortunately, UNLIKE most other specials, AOE-type special triggers on initiation. Yes, Leo has yet another skill he cannot use it during a counterattack. I am starting to think the designers of the game hate Leo.

This special require 5 counts to trigger, meaning that a standard counter-attack sequence of two attacks from the enemy and two counters from Leo will not charge it in one round. Leo needs to attack something in the prior Player Phase for it to be available in the next Player Phase (assume he only counters once). When activated, it should perform about the same as Reinhardt’s special.

Leo-pard 

To avoid being doubled on defense by any Red/Green/Colorless on defense, he will need to be at an impossible 36 SPD (Tharja + Darting Blow). His highest possible SPD is 35 with a +SPD Leo and with both Goad/Hone Cavalry support. This makes him immune to doubles from all ranged attackers but Tharja with Darting Blow. 

At this SPD tier, he can now safely pick fights with Red Mages and Colorless units, and not be doubled. He helps the Gunter-Reinhardt team by being able to beat all Green Mages safely and from a distance. In an offensive cavalry team, his Quick Riposte is basically a once-per-battle skill, so just us it to safely kill any opposing Green mage who might threaten Gunter/Reinhardt.If Leo still has access to it afterwards, bait a Red/Colorless ranged attacker to repeat the process.

Since he is now free to attack any target (except Blue mages) create value by sniping the enemy team with the Savage Blow effect when he attacks. He will create incredible value if he just manages to hit 2-3 targets over the course of a battle with it (generating 14-21 points of “free” Damage). It also helps put some targets in one-shot range for other team members such as Nowi vs a non-ATK Reinhardt..

The other way to approach is to try and buff his defenses with Ward/Fortify. In a team of Olwen/Eliwood/Jagen/Leo, his maximum defenses will be 43 DEF, 48 RES (!). 

At this defense level, only the following ranged Red/Green/Colorless can hurt him.

• Red; Lilina (5 damage), Sanaki (3 damage)
• Green: None!
• Blue: Reinhardt (1 damage x 2), Linde (10 damage x 2)
• Colorless: Virion (1 damage x2), Jeorge/Takumi (3 damage x 2), 

At this stage, Quick Riposte shows its true value, and he can eventually take down every ranged attacker in the game by counter-attacking (except Linde). He beats most Green Mages in 2 attacks anyway, so that matchup is settled. He can ORKO almost all Colorless since kill them all in 2 hits with the exception of Niles/Setsuna/Klein.

This makes him an excellent ranged tank in drawing out Red/Green/Colorless attackers for other members to kill in a defensive cavalry team. He frees up Olwen to deal with Red Swords and Linde (by grinding her down with single digit attacks), while Eliwood and him fights any Green-Axe/Green Mage. When there is no ranged to kill, Leo can contribute by taking potshots at enemy melee units (which is what he does on any other team anyway).

Summary

Leo is a unit that needs to be built around to achieve any type of effectiveness. Without building around him, he is stuck as a ranged attacker who can only really handle Green Mages and Melee units who cannot counter. He CAN be effective in a specific niche once it is set up, but the question is if a player would bother to do so…

Boon: For counter-attacking Leo +DEF makes him functionally immune to Archers at 46 DEF, while. +RES makes him take no damage from all mages but Linde and Liliana at 51 RES. 

For attacking Leo +SPD is the way to go

Bane: -SPD is the least bad for counterattacking Leo, since he takes no damage anyway…

-DEF is probably the least bad option for an attacking Leo. Since Reinhardt can handle Colorless quite well already, there is less need for Leo to bait colorless ranged attackers.

Olwen (Blue Mage)

The younger sister of Reinhardt was an actual playable unit back in FE5, while her brother was unplayable. Since FE4 was never released, she seems overshadowed by her older brother’s offensive presence this time. Is Olwen doomed to live in his shadow for her world debut?

Looking at her stats, this might just be the case. She is hyper fragile at 20 DEF. Melee, arrows and daggers will end her. Her SPD (29) is not low for a Brave-Weapon user, but it prevents her from doubling naturally.He most crippling flaw is her terrible 35 ATK. It is too low, and creates all sorts of bizarre underperformance. For example, Olwen will:

• Do only 10 damage in a Mirror match against herself.
• Do only 16 damage vs Linde.
• Do only 28 damage and fail to ORKO Sanaki with Triangle Adept (!)

It is a bad sign when she shares the same ATK value with the weakest Blue mage (by most players) in the game (Odin). Even Odin can have his damage buffed by allies (via the Blarblade Tome), while Olwen can only hit twice for low damage. Are things really that dire for Olwen? 

Buff Olwen

Olwen’s greatest attribute is her natural SPD. With it, she is only a little away from being able to consistently QUAD most units. She is very similar to Cordelia in this aspect.. As luck would have it, she also has access to the most powerful SPD buffs in the game due to being a Cavalry unit. Her color also helps, since as a Blue unit, she can already kill most Reds (a color with a highest number of units with high SPD) without the need to QUAD. The ability to QUAD is to improve her matchup against Blues, Colourless and the odd high RES Red unit.. 

With both offensive buffs affecting Olwen, her effective stats become 45 ATK, 39 SPD (!). Olwen can

• OHKO all Red units in the game.
• ORKO all Blue units in the game except Jegan, Azura and Shanna
• OHKO all Archers, ORKO Niles (Not recommended)
• Halve the HP of almost every Green-Melee other than Sheena and Hector.

This incredible performance is almost entirely due to her being able to hit the enemy 4 times. This is especially true against Green units. Take, for example, Hawkeye who has 30 RES and 24 SPD. Owen only does 6 damage per hit, but she hits him 4 times for 24/45 HP. Her matchup against Greens is synergistic with Gunter, who can often move in to finish them off..

However, do note that Olwen’s effectiveness drops quite drastically when she is not double buffed. When she is only left with Goad, she performs much like Reinhardt does without any buffs, except she can trade with Mages better thanks to Warding Blow and get doubled less. This applies to when she only has Goad as well. Olwen only becomes Ace when she has both.

Mobile Artillery

The key to using Olwen effectively is to chain her to Gunter and Reinhardt all the time. When this is done, Olwen has higher offensive potential than her brother. As a ranged unit, she has a easy time staying in formation while still being able to attack. Do this by using what I call the “Mobile Artillery” formation. 

The idea is basically to always move them in a line, or a L-shape. This allows Goad and Hone Cavalry to affect Olwen, while she can provide her Ward Cavalry buff to both Gunter and Reinhardt.

We using this formation, try to always act in this order:

1. Reinhardt first. Since he already has the Hone Cavalry buff at the start of the turn to maximize his offensive ability, he has the most flexibility to move around. Reinhardt should always aim to OHKO a target as long as it doesn’t expose the team to danger.

1. Olwen second. As she needs to be near Reinhardt to reach full effectiveness, always make sure she is in Goad Cavalry range when she has to attack that round. Double-buffed Olwen can usually handle threat that Hone-buffed Reinhardt can’t handle, However, only attack a Green-Axe if Gunter (or the 4th unit) can kill them next.

1. Gunter moves last, He should decide whether to attack (if he can kill something safely), or try position himself such as the key combat units are affected by Hone Cavalry next round. Staying near Olwen maximizes his survivability.

As both Reinhard and Olwen are ranged attackers, Goad provides 2-range coverage, and Gunter doesn’t attack if he can help it. This formation is easier to deploy, and more offensively flexible than most buff-centred teams. The 4th team member will almost always be a Red unit, and any of them (except Leo) can be used effectively here. 

Flipping Mage-slayer

Olwen’s other skills are Reposition and Warding Blow. In a general, Reposition can be use to

• Flip Reinhardt back after he overextends himself to defeat an enemy unit. However, this will mean that Gunter can only buff one of them (her or Reinhardt) next turn.

• Flip a melee ally to the front to protect herself,or allow them to reach a far-away enemy. Good with tanky units Eldigan/Frederick.

• Move Gunter such that his buffs will affect more units. This happens very rarely.

• Position herself to tank magic attacks meant for another ally. Usually to protect low RES partners units like Frederick/Eldigan.

The last application requires serious consideration. While Olwen’s RES (30) is good, she is only half a mage slayer compared to units like Jagen/Eliwood etc. This is partially because her RES isn’t as good as theirs, and because she has no real defensive skills against magic. 

Her only anti-magIc skill is Warding Blow, and she only has its bonus when attacking. 

The key application of Warding Blow is to allow her to attack into mages with relative safety, but it does nothing on defense. Furthermore, as a Brave user, her counter attack is only at half strength compared to her regular attack. Combine this with her naturally low ATK, she can’t really work well in a revenge killing role against mages. Thanks to her low HP and low DEF, she can’t really revenge kill archers either. To put it simply, she is a bad defensive unit.

Olwen must be used as an offensive unit. However, her worth as an offensive unit only shines when she is used with a all-cavalry team. Teams that build around her will find that she is terrifying effective against everything, but those that use her by herself will find her very underwhelming compared to Reinhardt.

Boon: +ATK. +ATK is obvious since she is a Brave-weapon user. This is very important especially for Olwen in a defensive cavalry team. If she doesn’t have +ATK, her offensive ability will be too low to contribute to the defensive team.

+SPD is acceptable if used in a offensive cavalry team.I am going against the grain here by saying +SPD for a Brave-weapon user. At 31 SPD, she can QUAD a lot Blue units naturally, and +SPD allows her some flexibility to work solely with Hone/Goad to achieve QUAD.

Bane: -DEF. She doesn’t need it, as she can OHKO every Archer in the game when buffed without taking damage, and she should never be exposed to melee anyway. 

-DEF even in a defensive cavalry team, her DEF should never need to be tested as she can ORKO Takumi with +ATK nature…

Cecilia (Green Mage)

She was my MVP when I was a new player, so I will be very biased in my write up on her. Cecilia is the only Green Mounted Mage in the game. Since Gunter can’t really attack well and Frederick dies even to magical paper cuts, she is basically the only way for all-Cavalry teams to handle Blue Mages (and Nowi) before Reinhardt showed up. Does Cecilia have a role still in all-cavalry teams?

Cecilia’s best attribute is her ATK (46), she can hit pretty hard on blues. Unfortunately, she can’t double up on that high ATK with her low 25 SPD. However, she is helped by the fact that Blue’s top tier units all have poor RES: Corrin-F (21), Robin-M (22), Ephraim (20), Elfie (23), Sharena (22). Therefore, the meta has been kind to her. Her RES is average-to-high for a mage (29), so she can hang with blue mages like Linde when necessary. 

That said, Cecilia has very very bad physical defenses, she has only 22 DEF, 36 HP and a below average 25 SPD. She WILL die if someone physically attacks her, which is awkward when considering her skills…

Raven you a new one.

Cecilia is one of the 3 -raven tome users in the game (for now). The Gronnraven tome is unique because it basically makes all colourless units have WTD to Cecilia. Now, given Cecilia good ATK she can now hit pretty hard on all colourless units, but is it enough? Her damage against colourless archers/daggers that matters is as follows if she initiates:

• Takumi: Cecilia Inflicts 37 damage and receives 14×2 = 28 damage.
• Gordin: Cecilia inflicts 38 damage and receives 12×2 = 24 damage. 
• Jorge: Cecilia inflicts 33 damage and receives 14×2 = 28 damage. 
• Klein: Cecilia Inflicts 31 damage and receives 07×2 = 14 damage
• Saizo: Cecilia Inflicts 39 damage and OHKOs
• Kagero: Cecilia Inflicts 27 damage and receives 10×02= 20 damage
• Felicia: Cecilia Inflicts 17 damage and receives 04×02= 08 damage

Notice something? Cecilia almost always loses if she initiates. She does a lot of damage to these guys, but these guys will always kill her in their phase. This means Cecilia’s usage against colorless is highly suspect, she can only beat them if she revenge kills. This means taking damage is inevitable, but can a damaged Cecilia still do much afterwards? Her Blue Mage match-up if she initiates:

• Linde: Cecilia inflicts 28 damage and receives 10×2 = 20 damage
• Reinhardt: Cecilia inflicts 60 (30×2) damage and ORKOs
• Olwen: Cecilia inflicts 25 damage and receives 00×2 = 00 damage
• Robin-M: Cecilia inflicts 33 damage and receives 03×1 = 03 damage
• Ursula: Cecilia inflicts 25 damage and receives 17×2 = 34 damage (!)

The big problems are Linde and Ursula, who will easy defeat Cecilia on their phase. This means she must again tank their attacks and revenge kill. What this means, is that if a enemy team has both an Archer and Linde/Ursula, there is no way for Cecilia to beat both by herself!  So much for being a counter unit! She is a wonky revenge killer who can only fight her best targets once,

However, one cool trick that Cecilia as a revenge killer can enable, Once she tanks 18+ damage, she gains the use of her skill Escape Route. It sounds like a skill used to run away, but it has both offensive and defensive potential. This skill can be used

• To move Cecilia to safety, obviously
• To move Cecilia to a buff radius
• To make opening/follow-up attacks against any enemy near allies.

The last use makes this skill very powerful, since she is a ranged attack (compared to this skill on someone like Marth). When Cecilia is in Escape Route mode, every unit on the map is vulnerable to sudden death because the firepower of 2 units (Cecilia + chosen ally) can be concentrated on them regardless of terrain.  This skill is why CPU Cecilia should never be left at 50% HP in the Arena. She is either defeated now, or someone will be in her turn. Just don’t accidentally teleport her into a location surrounded by impassable terrain + a tree on 4 sides. That will be hilariously sad.

The reason why this skill is better than Wings of Mercy is that it only costs 50% of Cecilia’s HP; Wings of Mercy requires the 50% of the other 3 member’s HP to achieve the same level of mobility.

General Cecilia

Things change if she is buffed offensively or defensively in an all-cavalry team. It will sound like a broken record by now, but with Gunter and Reinhardt she becomes an offensive monster (56 ATK, 35 SPD). Cecilia can now OHKO every single one of the above-mentioned units. This gives her perfect colorless and blue-mage coverage. 

Blue melee will never be a problem, so long as attacks first or she is protected by…Gunter? Gunter and Cecilia make a great team together. Cecilia even has Rally RES to help Gunter survive the odd magical attack that slips through from time to time. This is even more effective during emergencies if Eliwood is in on the action (18+4+4 =26 RES).

Just like Olwen, the Mobile Artillery formation can be used with Cecilia. All tactics discussed in the Olwen segment applies to Cecilia as well. One important thing is to examine is her key Green Matchups in this state. When buffed, Cecilia can (numbers in brackets indicate damage Cecilia takes):

• ORKO: Robin-F (29 damage), Julia (20 damage), Hector (30 damage), Camilia
• 2RKO, Nino (34 damage over two rounds), Minerva

As we can see, Cecilia has almost perfect green coverage against commonly used Greens. She will ORKO them, but will be hurt back (which she doesn’t mind because she wants to be in Escape Route mode). Just remember to protect Cecilia from Minerva, and let Nino attack first if Cecilia wants to reduce incoming damage from Nino. 

In fact, she might be a better fit than Olwen if there is no good Red-Sword cavalry unit to use against Hector/Nino. She will be badly hurt in most of these fights, but this also means is that if Cecilia wants to activate Escape Route, she can simply pick a fight with any Green Mage OR Hector to do so.

On the flip side, with Eliwood/Jagen, most of the previously mentioned units stop doing any damage to Cecilia (32 DEF, 39 RES) other than the ones below.

• Takumi: Cecilia receives 4×2 = 8 damage
• Gordin: Cecilia receives 2×2 = 4 damage.
• Jorge: Cecilia receives 4×2 = 8 damage. 
• Ursula: Cecilia receives 7×2 = 14 damage 

This is the experience a player has when they use Robin-M against Takumi: Barely taking any damage, but taking 2 phases to kill Takumi. Cecilia can replicate this in a Eliwood/Jagen team. 

Cecilia outside defensive cavalry teams can revenge kill a Takumi at best, Cecilia in a defensive cavalry team can revenge kill 4 Takumis and live (unless those Takumis have Vantage).

However, do note that in a defensive cavalry team, her Green matchup isn’t as good as on the offensive team (loses to Hector, takes excessive damage against Nino/Julia), so let Eliwood handle those Greens. She also can’t use Rally Resistance on any target other than Jagen, but I suppose its very useful when Jagen has to tank an Ursula/Robin-F at low HP… 

Summary

Cecilia, being a free unit, isn’t as effective as her P2W version (Robin-M) when used in a regular team. However, inside an all-cavalry team, she offers nearly unmatched Blue and Colorless coverage, and at 50% HP she basically can help any ally double-team their targets. These two traits make her still a good choice for any all-cavalry team.

Boons: +ATK. +ATK Cecilia will OHKO any Takumi that doesn’t have RES Boon with no buff. Since her SPD is awkward (boon or no), +ATK also help maker her focus fire abilities stronger.

Bane: -DEF on offensive teams. Neutral for defensive teams.

Updates:

13/3/2017 Completed

Credits

To myself I guess, 

The creators of the FE franchise and games.