How many troops do I need?

[White Shadow]

So I just got through the first tutorial battle, and I am on the world map for the first time. How many troops should I recruit, and how many troops are you usually allowed to deploy in future battles?

[Mechalibur]

Usually you can only deploy 6 troops, but a few missions have 7. There's actually a total of 7 story characters, but you don't get some until later.

So technically you don't need more than that, but it's good to have backups in case anyone gets injured. You also might as well recruit everyone you want at the start of the game so they can get AP while benched, even if they don't participate.

Personally I ended up having 7 generic recruits, and it was more than enough. The generic recruits have access to some different classes than the story characters, so if you like experimenting with builds, I recommend recruiting at least 3 generic recruits (in addition to the 2 you get at the start of the game).

[White Shadow]

Originally posted by Mechalibur:

Usually you can only deploy 6 troops, but a few missions have 7. There's actually a total of 7 story characters, but you don't get some until later.

So technically you don't need more than that, but it's good to have backups in case anyone gets injured. You also might as well recruit everyone you want at the start of the game so they can get AP while benched, even if they don't participate.

Personally I ended up having 7 generic recruits, and it was more than enough. The generic recruits have access to some different classes than the story characters, so if you like experimenting with builds, I recommend recruiting at least 3 generic recruits (in addition to the 2 you get at the start of the game).

Thank you for this! Yes, I love making builds and min/maxing them, so I want as many generics as possible. I assume most battles will require you to use at least one or two "story" characters?

[Mechalibur]

Kyrie is required on the story missions, but with only a few exceptions, most of the other story characters aren't needed at all.

[Conan The Librarian]

Originally posted by Charles George Gordon:

Originally posted by Mechalibur:

Usually you can only deploy 6 troops, but a few missions have 7. There's actually a total of 7 story characters, but you don't get some until later.

So technically you don't need more than that, but it's good to have backups in case anyone gets injured. You also might as well recruit everyone you want at the start of the game so they can get AP while benched, even if they don't participate.

Personally I ended up having 7 generic recruits, and it was more than enough. The generic recruits have access to some different classes than the story characters, so if you like experimenting with builds, I recommend recruiting at least 3 generic recruits (in addition to the 2 you get at the start of the game).

Thank you for this! Yes, I love making builds and min/maxing them, so I want as many generics as possible. I assume most battles will require you to use at least one or two "story" characters?

To add to what Mechalibur said, yes, there is certainly plenty of room in encounters to use both story heroes and generic heroes.

For myself (all a matter of playstyle) I tend to utilize 4 recruits in total (the two you start with, Lana and Virgil, and two more which I hire). This lets me utilize a "smaller group" in general, but makes sure I can rotate in people as I need. But, the fun of the game is experimenting, so, see what works best for you.

[Whatever100500]

The more recruits you have, the easier it gets. 2 factors:

1) XP levels work mostly against you.
Enemies match your exp level, by about level 20+ on hard they get fully leveled advanced classes (druids with doublecast, warmages with full skillset, etc). They also seem to get level-appropriate equipment (even if it is ahead of best available shop).
If you play with small party of 6, you won't be anywhere near the same in class progression by level 20.

2) Benched AP gain is beast when you have large party. Deploy 6 guys, get half AP progression for 18 more sitting on bench, all while getting limited exp (since you rotate to spread it evenly). Vicarious learning also stacks quite high as result. Additionally this allows you to skip stat growth in classes with undesirable multiplies (for example, all my melee want to unlock Duelist, but do not want to level in Reaver. So Reaver is bench-learned only).

[Calo]

I'd say early on, 2 generics works fine, I'd eventually go up to 3 at least - the badge classes are a ton of fun, and being able to swap toolsets is real handy for some of the earlier maps in particular. Outside of one mission, I can't think of any that require using more than 2 story characters, and even 2 is a rarity.

[King Joshington]

Originally posted by Whatever100500:

The more recruits you have, the easier it gets. 2 factors:

1) XP levels work mostly against you.
Enemies match your exp level, by about level 20+ on hard they get fully leveled advanced classes (druids with doublecast, warmages with full skillset, etc). They also seem to get level-appropriate equipment (even if it is ahead of best available shop).
If you play with small party of 6, you won't be anywhere near the same in class progression by level 20.

2) Benched AP gain is beast when you have large party. Deploy 6 guys, get half AP progression for 18 more sitting on bench, all while getting limited exp (since you rotate to spread it evenly). Vicarious learning also stacks quite high as result. Additionally this allows you to skip stat growth in classes with undesirable multiplies (for example, all my melee want to unlock Duelist, but do not want to level in Reaver. So Reaver is bench-learned only).

Ok, I read stuff like this and I'm thinking ... ok ... BUT -- how many battles do you need to have a member sit out to bench learn the Reaver class?

In theory I like this idea but it just seems like it would take SOOOO much grinding to make it feasible. It stresses me out seeing a large team become unbalanced ...

[Rynielz]

Last playthrough I've started recruiting 7 units right away, managing the AP/Exp gain by doing 2 Patrols for every Story Battle. To me its not so grindy, plus I do play on Hard/Very Hard so I do want some skills asap generally speaking.
You can afford to sit one unit to bench-learn a class if you have a large roaster and can take more then few battles, while the character will remain some levels behind.
But you can farm EXP way faster then AP, so it makes sense from a min-max point of view.

But that's something you don't need to do in your first playthrough, the best part of playing was discovering how to maintain a decent amount of characters without getting the "unbalanced" feeling you mentioned. A suggestion to make it work is to have mirror units -for instance 2 Mender/Wizard- and use one each battle. Same goes for others units, and mix them in Battle.
Some older players, even the ones that play on higher difficulty, seems to agree on the high value of Mender/Wizard early on, this skillset is indeed a solid choice and deploying 2 of them can makes the very first part of the game easier. Others classes will follow too.

[Whatever100500]

Originally posted by King Joshington:

Originally posted by Whatever100500:

...

Ok, I read stuff like this and I'm thinking ... ok ... BUT -- how many battles do you need to have a member sit out to bench learn the Reaver class?

In theory I like this idea but it just seems like it would take SOOOO much grinding to make it feasible. It stresses me out seeing a large team become unbalanced ...

You need level 3 of Reaver for Duelist. Taking 2 cheapest abilities, this is 300 AP. Given that typical story battle rewards ~200 AP and benched get half -> about 3 story battles or 6 patrols.

Adding more recruits does not increase amount of battles. They all learn at the same time (well, except the 6 currently deployed). Once fresh recruits catch up with initial team in levels you just rotate mirror units (as Ryniel mentioned) to stall exp gain and maximize benched AP.

Also, it's a good idea to hire all your recruits as early as possible to maximize benched AP.

[King Joshington]

Originally posted by Whatever100500:

You need level 3 of Reaver for Duelist. Taking 2 cheapest abilities, this is 300 AP. Given that typical story battle rewards ~200 AP and benched get half -> about 3 story battles or 6 patrols.

Adding more recruits does not increase amount of battles. They all learn at the same time (well, except the 6 currently deployed). Once fresh recruits catch up with initial team in levels you just rotate mirror units (as Ryniel mentioned) to stall exp gain and maximize benched AP.

Also, it's a good idea to hire all your recruits as early as possible to maximize benched AP.

Ok, I like the idea of mirror units. I'm not even to the first temple yet and I hired 3 recruits (so I have 5 total). I'll go ahead and get 5 more and see how it feels with 10 non-story chars.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by Whatever100500:

2) Benched AP gain is beast when you have large party. Deploy 6 guys, get half AP progression for 18 more sitting on bench, all while getting limited exp (since you rotate to spread it evenly). Vicarious learning also stacks quite high as result. Additionally this allows you to skip stat growth in classes with undesirable multiplies (for example, all my melee want to unlock Duelist, but do not want to level in Reaver. So Reaver is bench-learned only).

What is considered a "large party"? 12? 18?