It looks like I missed HOUSECARL: Housecarl I think is at least A tier, it has a great valor skill to restore stamina to a group, it has a cheap row attack, it can use its AP/PP to deal damage. I would put it in S if it had better mobility and better accuracy on its row attack as well as access to better weapons. Axes early on are lacking in utility, there isn't a good magical axe for most of the early game. Stun axe is decent but has low damage and is competing with things like Knight column stun.

i been subbed since fe engage videos and its nice to know i always got this channel to visit when im tryna beat a game on hardest difficulty

Good tier list, agree with most of it. However, Gryphon Knights for early game are A tier imo. Like you said they do need a dove plume to setup feathering to boost a rows initiative, that is why I like to use a front row filled with Gryphon Knights or with other dmg dealers. This is at the cost of an item slot, but in a bunch of cases their overall dmg is better then other dodge tanks like thiefs and featherswords, since they do dmg in a row with a 100 potency move even if it is coming off an axe. Furthermore, they have S rank in evasion which makes them great dodge tanks 2nd to Ochlys. Also their dmg can be buffed by dancers bracelet and/or a soldier using keen call to guarantee a row attack to crit, last but not least close to the midgame you could get the Heavenwyvern Reins which grants fliers a truestrike and atk buff which is not limited. And they have the added value to deal with cavs, which is huge early game since the enemy team comps likes to stack cavs in rows. Their valor skill hastend call (the base one) is also not just decent, but good. Later into the early game valor points are abundant and then you can use hastend call on a gryphon led squad to boost its mobility. This allows you to snipe assist towers before they attack you. After that they can use the boost to easily get out, Ochlys cant do this due to midling mobility for example. Gryphon Knights get outclassed by S rank guys, but have enough niches to make it into A tier imo.

Glad you are giving the paladin his due. His stats fall off really fast, but they can easily be compensated for, and until you get the ability to promote he will likely be your best unit (NEVER underestimate an extra attack),if not crucial on some maps like the level 4 mage map. By the time I unlocked promotions. He had done more than enough to carry his weight, a true zenorian champ.

Oh sweet, your tier lists have the names to go along with the icons! I can usually tell most by just the icon but with so many the name really helps.

The way how you value valor skills is quite dubious. Wild Rush and Dragoon Dive is rated very highly but you use 3 VP for it, which if you are beating the map fast is not cheap. I've been playing TZ for awhile now and in the early game you are just not going to be generating 3 VP if you beat the map fast. I would also argue that other Valor skills are much more tactically valuable than those two skills such as gravity, teleport, life aid, haste, and provoke. On that same token, it's crazy that you're only calling Hastened Call decent. It's 1 VP for double movement speed, and it would completely facilitate how you play the maps (sending a cav-lead squad to fight and take forts). Hastened Call would let you do that but with half the time and less resources used. This is disregarding how flier speed can be boosted to cut through the map in half the time as well. The big thing is you can always do this at the start of any map, even if that is the literal only thing the Gryphon Knight does and you undeploy it afterward.

Its been an icg day for me and i am here for it! Nice list again

I went to check on your vids and this dropped 7 minutes ago. Uncanny timing. Nice tier list, chad.

We need that mid/end game tier list asap 👀

Looking foward to the next ones, i'm in Bastorias and have no idea who to invest in.

Its a pleasant surprise that no comments say "your tier list so bad i had to burn my house down".

"Summon Archers" is pretty OP in some maps to add some ranged assist when fighting.

AT LAST Not since the Dawnspear have I been this excited for a video of yours Now..go do the mid game and end game tier lists ❤

I like this list, but I still don't completely agree with Shaman. Both Offensive Curse and Passive Curse can be incredibly useful for making sure a glass cannon unit like Warrior can actually get their attack off instead of being killed by something faster, and that Warrior could be the difference between you one rounding something or not. I don't know what you have against Shamans but they are way better than you give them credit for.

Hard agree on the shaman evaluation. Everybody rates this unit so highly, but I can't say why when you can run classes that just kill shit instead.

Finally tier list!

Do we ban summon warriors that scale upon the map?

If you put your hoplite in double go-getter it has higher mobility than knight.

Need full tier list plz . I feel like elves are really good

Can't wait for the no units challenge run

You can use Blaze on enemy reinforcements, if they take Any damage whatsoever they actually stop making another squad and go directly to healing.

Car unit goes vroom vroom. Me like horsy and nitro speed boost from Peter Griffin.

Wonder how Swordfighter will be rated at mid-latter game. To me it is the unit that falls of the cliff the most because making sure meteor slash is not wasted is a nightmare. Even Sniper is more useful since you can set conditions to target backline casters with row attack and still nuke evasion units.

i agree with the early game unites, prince is still has high potential, especially priestess

Griffin knights make great evasion tanks though

I don't understand your comment about the Sellsword not having access to a repeating attack until level 10. They start out with Following Slash at level 1, which is arguably better than Assaulting Lance depending on the group comp. It's just that one relies on blocking or getting hit, and the other is simply AP/kill dependent. A single Sellsword should out damage a single Knight in most groups even before level 10. In an actual dedicated "cavalry" group though, with high initiative is where knights pull ahead. Having said that though, put three Sellswords in a group with Alain and watch what happens. Enemy squads just fall over without you having to do anything. Both of them have phenomenal valor skills, but I think you might be underselling the Summon Warriors though, since it scales with enemy level. This means the Sellsword is the best unit to use to blow through maps that are much higher level than what you would normally be ready for. This really helps to sequence break and speed running to get access to higher level units that join you, that you should not really have access to. Regardless, I agree with your placement of both of those units. The Knight, as a complete package would be better. It grants move movement speed, better rest times, Assaulting Lance for more aggressive groups, can also hit rows, and has Wild Rush...in two forms. 😆 edit: Clerics as batteries are actually very useful even early game if you pair them with a Wizard using the Chlorotic Staff just to ensure that at least one enemy is still burning at the end so that the Wizard can do the full screen nuke. This was my really early strategy right after getting the Lyrical Wand and it destroyed everything. Its biggest weakness was from the Wizard getting killed from arrow assists. I used a group of Hoplite, Cleric, Wizard and would swap between Warrior or Ranger (burning bow) as my dedicated "armor breaker" team, and the Wizard always got an initiative buff right at the start as well. Also, early game I'd argue Gryphons are better than Wyverns simply for their valor skill. Yes, you can get the same effect through a consumable, but when you are limited to only five on TZ, Gryphons just get you where you need to be faster than anything else. Gryphons can also kill the full back row early on (or freeze), while Wyverns can't until promoted. You can also very easily mitigate their initiative issues and have them attack first.

Kind of weird criteria to base a tier-list on. Because the start of the game is pretty easy, so by default battle prowess doesn't matter that much and movement speed/type is valued very highly. In fact, by these criteria I wouldn't put lord in S-tier. Because he neither kills fast, nor moves fast at the start of the game. He's still nice to have as a tank, but something like a bunch knight is just so much better. Gryphon should probably also be higher. Flying makes some maps much faster. I also still think you're underrating it in combat. Especially at the start where you can't really do all the OP combos yet. In that same way I'd rate wyvern lower, because at the start you can't really combo with them unless you put all your resources towards that. Moreover, isn't that dragoon spear an item you get at the start of the elven area? Is that still the early game? I'm also still not that big a fan of the radiant knight. There aren't that many mages at the start, and when there are no mages this unit is pretty mid. Though I guess if you mainly look at clearing(-> movement) speed, they are good. Horses are (a bit too) good after all. Ps. You forgot doom knight.

Alain continuing to be a giga chad. We are back to badass tactics rpg main characters like Ramza and Denem instead of poopy FE lords.

Agree with most everything here. Priestess is worse than Cleric because for the slot, you want something reactive for your team to survive long enough to wipe the board. Early on, maybe priestess is better but that changes pretty quick. 10/10 I'd rather have counters to debuffing and spot healing than more dps that's just OK. I run one for my Alain team start to finish and it has always performed far better than priestess in every matchup. Also, gryphon master can be good when buffed by tailwind cape and gambler's coin (or dirty for back row buffing since I run two), often cleaving down an entire row with one shot. They do gain access to the drake axe by the end of Drakenhold, so there is an early option for really good dps from them. Whether it's better than dragoon dive I guess is debatable. I think once you have access to both, it's worth running one of each for the gambler's coin buff plus wyvern reins. TBH it's probably a toss-up and either can be chosen depending on your preference.

I think you forgot the Housecarl, Dark Marquess, Crusader, Dark Knight, and arguably the Elven Augur since all you need to jump into the woods when they open up and take Rosalinde into dragon lands. I definitely agree with most of your list. I think flying is strong enough that I would bump Gryphons up to A.

Missed housecarl. Maybe you could pin a comment with your tier rating and reasoning for it.

Since this is an early game tier list, shouldn't hunters be much higher since they kill most things in a single hit with flame arrow? I am also on True Zenovian and they have been excellent. Nothing in the backline can survive a shot+burn. Feathersword in particular is pretty weak offensively speaking, imo hard carried by capability to evade tank and pre-promote status. Gladiators are better off as a backline dps, they have 95% accuracy vs most things if you just give them spectacles. You round up their kit with a +10 accuracy axe early on (froms with the gryphon), then the dark knight gives you a +20 accuracy axe. While other classes are trying to bump their damage, gladiators gear to fix initiative and hit. They can often 1 shot a whole row of enemies, esp if a witch is there for confer magic. Wizards imo start off better than witches: Fire burst is your ONLY map wide AoE for a long time, and is not difficult to set up. Fireball will kill stuff. Your team can just deal chip damage to enemy teams and fire burst (technically staff skill) will finish them off. Shamans are somewhat useless until they get the flame hex staff, which sets a whole row on fire. Its actually not as amazing as it sound due to lacking a proper damage component, but it also ensure your assault attackers (knights, warriors, sellswords) have a weakened target to sweep. You actually do not even need to sweep: since they are free to just buff a wizard for +50% mag damage, flame hex + fire burst will often just 1 round things. Your list seems to cut off around level 15. Things have maybe 45 hp. Burn removing half of it is stupidly strong.

You missed Housecarl, especially because Housecarl has stamina +2 valor skill, which you can use on carry team.

if you can clear a map in 9 seconds on the clock without spurging out over fast map movement, does it really matter?

you missed housecarl

Only one I disagree with is Griffin. I think you are underplaying how powerful a row clear is. Again, they can row clear the entire back line (and they rarely have the defense to survive it) very easily and one shot any cav unit. And this is their base ability. Their valor skill is also better because it cost 1 and can be given to any unit, and can be done at the beginning of the map as you usually get 4 points. Wyverns don’t have the same level of clear. Dragoon Dive is nice but if you can’t make it instant, you can just die because you are grounded when charging. Otherwise, they only attack one unit. Also, keep in mind that Dragon’s Dive range is limited and is a bit expensive. I’d also argue that Joseph is an A but that because he falls off VERY fast. Once you have Scarlett you might as well bench him because he won’t start leveling until Elfland. Better to use the two Radiant Knights you get than him given the scaling. His only advantage is 2 action points.

Yknow what? Im gonna become a official shaman apologist! Ok but joking aside, its super interesting how literally how in some difficulties some units can feel way different…like how clerics become more and more important the more things get difficult. And how also shamans early game just feel so useless but in late game they can legit change the tide of battles That said, early game seems very “copy and paste”. And by that i mean that so long as it works you dont “necessarily” need to actually plan any intense or complicated tactics/gambits. So maybe in late game the tierlist may change just because of this reason

Good early tier, I would swap Hoplite and warrior because early you got a tons of good Spear+TowerShield (Damage spear for knight, skill spear for Hoplite) but very few good axe that always goes to Griffon Knight. Also If your value "killing fast" make Shaman D tier then you should make Griffon S or A tier because their Valor skill. Shaman Valor skill is good though, it's only cost 1 point and negate all flying enemies advantage on dodge.

hunters should have like 150 speed and not be slowed in forest. maybe a detection bonus too.

Kinda disagree on Gryphon Knight, as a unit they're actually not that good but if you discuss in term of how quick can you beat the map they're definitely S tier, their Valor skill is so good and versatile, you can use them to farm maps as well

be prepared to see people complain about Gladiator in C ^^

Legionaries/hopilites have some very strong match ups, and I think can be very useful when used properly. Berserkers/gladiators don’t seem to do well into anything.

From C to High B , Gryphon W

Well I can tell you hate any class with the 'Knight' in the name.

glad slander

The fact that you conpletely switched up the format of the tier list, the scope and certain rankings because you got some pusb back is super dubious. Half the fucking people crying about druid are struggling to win on tactician, you know how i know? Some clowns claimed it was absolutely impossible tbat i went halfway through bastorias right after drakenhold to get yunifi, the lion, and bryce. Saying shit like its impossible to win 8 levels down. That's the crowd giving you a hard time about the tier list