I’m on the idea that Merlinus type units are actually good. Giving him some sort of extra utility just to make it harder for players to past him up for deployment would make sense.
I always thought removing convoy only units was just removing a part of the strategy and the fun, aside from Ike’s games of course since it transforms it a little. I think this with weapon durability as well… I’ve only used 1 or 2 weapons per unit in Engage. It made it all more disengage, to me at least.
But otherwise give lore that may or may not play a part of the story later, like what Rickochet said explaining it with DnD. Or like the magic mirror idea!
I never liked Convoy Lords either. It always felt lazy to me. A system with FE6 Merlinus but he gets levels each chapter he’s deployed like FE7 would be the ideal in my opinion. You could also give the Convoy unit other roles, like rescuing, interacting with certain tiles on the map, recruiting, etc.
There’s a lot of untapped potential for a pure utility unit that isn’t a refresher.
fe6 and fe7 have their individual problems with how they handle merlinus (taking up a deployment slot for relatively little utility, being unable to send items once he gets defeated) but the universal thing i really dislike about merlinus in both fe6 and fe7 is that he is a 5 move mounted unit with max con. he is very slow and cannot interact with the rescuing system, which means he often gets left in the dust. if he had at least 6 or 7 move and had the infantry aid formula to let him perform rescue drops it would be much more fun to move him around rather than just being someone you forget about until the ch21 secret shop or the battle before dawn convoy warp. in general convoy units becoming a more general utility unit with more widely applicable scenarios of use would make them more interactive and fun and justify them taking up a normal deployment slot
I’m not sure if anyone has said this already, but…
My take is that Convoy lords only really make sense (at least on a narrative level) in the context of like, say, 3H for example where you can have batallions.
I say this because the presence of batallions gives a valid explanation for something like a supply train that would allow for access to the convoy. (Because there are multiple units explicitly present at that point).
Otherwise, the only reason why they exist is for gameplay convenience.
And on that note, the issue with Merlinus type units is whether or not they eat a deployment slot- if they don’t, I’ll use them, but if they do, its not worth it because that slot could be used on a more valuable unit instead.