The bigggest problem with Armor units imo is the fact that they even suck in what they are suppossed to be good in.
Taking 5 less damage but then getting doubled means in the end you will take more damage. They need way way way way higher Def.
Effie was useful in Conquest because she was the only one that could tank reliably, as an example.
FE 16 Armor units absolutely sucked. Not only did they have bad mov, the enemies in FE16 were super high quality and had very high attack. When you are facing 50-70 ATK enemies having 35 defense oppssed to the usual ~20 def won’t help you. Especially if you are getting doubled.
archers typically have low strength so they don’t do much damage, armor knights have high strength so putting a steel bow on them with their high strength and con gives them amazing 2 range damage and since how the GBA FEs work where the AI typically attacks units that can’t attack back. you can also use the method to have the armor knight be a damage sponge
They’ll probably just be dropped if they have good defense early on, simply because you’re just going to be using that unit to soak damage so your other units can get levels and when you try to attack with them, they have a low hitrate with not good damage. Gilliam from FE8 is a prime example of this, unless you’re getting good early levels with him. there’s no point to bringing him to the late game.
Being stuck with lances in an axe heavy earlygame sucks for him. A second weapon type is really useful for amors. Gilliam with a sword can put some work in.
I played a hack the other day where he had axes and his hit rates where shakey. He could use the intimidate skill. Or use swords and axes instead of lance and axe.
In the older games there were enemy exclusive classes one of these were the Barons, they had access too everything, yup everything.
Even magic.
They were…
Scary in my experiences.
I don’t think that’s right exactly,
from the enemy’s side knights are pretty good at tanking attacks the problem is weapons have too much might and too many uses and playable characters have too much Str.
From the player’s side armorslayers and, particularly, mages can prevent effective use of armored units.
I think the knights (I’ll say Benny and Effie) are good in Conquest because there are barely any magic users and armorslayers where you set them up.
For examples, the Kaden, Zola and Iago, Eternal Stairway, Saizo, Sakura, Hinoka, Ryoma, and two Takumi chapters, from my memory there weren’t a lot of mages to defeat or armorslaying weapons.
If I remember correctly, if you look at the bottom of the Zola and Iago chapter there’s nothing but physical fighters, so basically the only reason knights are good in Fates Conquest is because the creators just wanted them to be good for Conquest but from a game perspective I don’t think they are, which could be the reason they were planning to add the Armor Shield skill because they thought that would make knights better which means I.S. might have noticed how subpar knights are themselves. (P.S. I don’t think the skill would’ve helped the knights much because it would have wasted an important skill slot and Luna, Dragon Fang, Rend Heaven and/or Vengeance could easily bypass the skill’s effectiveness but that’s another topic.) https://fireemblemwiki.org/wiki/Armor_Shield
I’d like to argue that Radiant Dawn had the best armorknights/generals.
(And meg.)
Tauroneo is a knight who starts already promoted and has perfectly viable growths and huge speed for a general (Though not to the point it caps too easily, looking at you meg), as well as a skill called brokenness–I mean, Resolve, which doubles speed and strength when at half health. Definitely one of the best units in the dawn brigade… That’s not a high bar isn’t it?
Gatrie also has enormous defense, but when he promotes to marshall, all his stats go over the top. He’s especially useful during the endgame chapters, where there are floods of enemies that require choking. He literally can hold a chokepoint against like 30 of them if you use them correctly, and his speed gets so absurd that he can double swordmasters. AN ARMOR KNIGHT DOUBLES ENDGAME SWORDMASTERS.
I can agree with this one. Gatrie has been a very strong unti for me too. Always took him until endgame. Always found him relevant, except in huge maps where you have to move very far and fast. But stat-wise, he was really good.
I’ve always had great success with the Tellius armor knights. But I think that’s more so because of Gatrie and Brom’s stats, not so much the characteristics of the class (kind of like how RD shinon is incredible not because he’s a sniper, but because he’s shinon.)
The reality is there’s a divorce between a unit’s “class” and their actual stats and growths. I could make a fighter with the stats of an armor knight or a myrmidon with the stats of a Calvary unit.
What “class” really determines (from the player’s side) are side effects like movement, weaknesses, and maybe skills (depending on the game). Whereas horse units and fliers generally benefit from these things, armor knights take penalties on account of their class. This means that if an armor knight is good it is in spite of their class, not because of it. For example, if you take an armor knight from almost any FE game, keep their stats exactly the same, and change their class to “Soldier,” they’re immediately a better unit.
I like how Gaiden/Echoes did armor knights. The game is designed around getting doubled, so that doesn’t hurt armor knights as much as in other games. Their drawbacks are not being fast enough to double to be a delete button, low move (which I don’t like), and being weak to mages. Overall I think they are useful and balanced.
I even got use out of a almost untrained Forsyth to choke a point in act 4 and spam armor crush against enemy knights. That speaks to how useful having a high defense stat can be in that game.
Were I to theory-craft, I’d think that something that aligns between Armor-knights and Soldiers would be the best balance, ie
-speed on par with, or maybe 1 or 2 points less then, soldiers, and 5 move
-either decent growth or a decent base stat total in, RES
-slightly lower defense
I think what helps as well, and something that has mostly been missed in official design, is slightly more weapon versatility; if they were the counterpoint on the weapons triangle to Social Knights, they would have a purpose other then plugging holes with their fat defense scores