AWKWARD ZOMBIE

Thanks for all of the advice, guys, but I went with Sumia for Chrom's wife. This is the only time it will happen, I swear.

I've read a bit of some fan translations for Fates, and if the official translation is like those, then they'll do a good job of making the conflict of which side to choose more difficult. The Nohr kids aren't assholes(except Leon, but he's a dick to everyone) or evil, they're a supportive family.

which side do I pick if I want to watch the world burn

Bern

I bought Fire Emblem Awakening (because I'm late to every video game party) and I'm having a lot of fun with it! I'm kinda ignoring the story mode and just working on supports. They're pretty cute. Any tips for a nerd who's never played a FE game before?

not really awakening is pretty much built to allow an easy transition into the series.

KEEP. TRACK. OF. YOUR. WEAPONS.

Don't be that guy who lets someone's weapon break in the middle of a fight with no replacement.

Don't be that guy.

Also at least for Awakening, sometimes it's better to put two units together to fight one enemy than to have them fight two separate ones.

So far, I've been pretty good about keeping my weapons stocked. Except for Panne since she only had her one beaststone. I got a new one, so it's okaaayy.

I've also found myself extremely over leveled, what have I done.

Oh shit, I thought of another tip. You may be tempted to promote your units before they reach their level cap, but just hold out on it. It's worth it to wait until they reach that level cap so they have all their basic skills and maximized stats. That way you can promote afterwards and have optimal units.

Luckily, that's what I've been doing so far. Save for Lissa since I both didn't realize there was a level cap and kinda hated babysitting certain characters since they couldn't defend themselves.

I hear you can earn skills through certain classes though, like Sumia getting Galeforce through her dark pegasus knight promotion and that you can just change back to a more optimal class after getting said skills. Any notable skills that aren't too out of the way to get?

The ones that come to mind are Lethality(instant kill) through the Assassin class and Astra(five hits at half damage) through the Swordmaster class, but you need high Skill for either of those to be useful, so you might as well just use those classes for their Skill stat. Galeforce is excellent though. And most classes also get a Rally skill, which boosts a certain stat for every friendly unit within three spaces.

Other useful skills: Luna(Great Knight class), weaponbreaker skills(various classes), I guess Pavise???(General class), maybe Sol(Hero class).

Aether and Ignis are also good, but those are from Great Lord and Grandmaster classes, respectively, and you can only get those by promoting from their starting classes, Lord and Tactician, which most units can't change into.

Also ignore Katie's old Fire Emblem comic, war clerics are garbage. Dark Knights are also garbage. Just promote your magic users to Sage. Dark Fliers are also garbage, but they also get Galeforce, so.....

Sounds good, thank you for the advice!

Tips: Sol

Sol

Sol

Sol

Armsthrift

Hero class best class

Haha, right, forgot about Armsthrift.

Hero really is bests class.

Aside from Swordmaster.

Dodge them hits all day err day

My advice?
Robin+Tharja: deadly magic users, Elthunder/Arcthunder crits raining.
Lon'qu+Cordelia: Killer Edge all day every day, then Killer Bow when upgrading; Cordelia's lance game is huge, and magic pretty bad, so don't magic.
Chrom+Sumia: I don't remember them, but at least Sumia could transport Chrom. *shrugs*

I'm so sorry toward the rest of my troops, who were not as heroic. Especially when I played with perma-death on and one unit had to die every battle (I've not progressed past a few chapters, by fear of the upcoming crushing defeat).