Binding Blade Race

[Jowy]

I'll pick Geese and Fir.

Spoilers:

Wrong again, Fenn picked a cavalier. At least we've got Marcus. Too bad it's not the FE7 version
Anyway I picked Geese for a second axeman, and Fir as a wild card. She joins at Lvl1 in Chapter 9.
She might be completely useless, it's hard to say without knowing how much time I will have to train while still completing maps quickly.
If she can catch up in levels she'll be one of the strongest units I could pick at this point in the draft.

[Katon]

Lot

Still no Oujay taken, and I can't wait to get into spoilers and see why Jowy thinks Fir's better - her strength growth is massively unreliable and it's not like she shows up before him. If Oujay's still around after Fenn picks, I'll have to . . . probably ignore him for one more round because what's Jowy going to do, pick three all-sword unpromoted units plus a hero?

My biggest weakness at the moment is that I'm lower on good early bodies than the other two; I'm the only person who hasn't drafted multiple combat units from the first three maps, and with my lack of prepromotes I need to be careful about volume. Lot's the best of the unpicked starter units, he has a support with Lance (albeit a slow-growing one), and of all the specialists in the game Gonzales cares by far the least about having his legendary weapon stolen (see also BRick's GIF).

[Fenn]

Zeiss and Niime.

Damn you Katon! I wanted Lott for this round. In that case, Zeiss is useful enough as a second flier, though I doubt he'll be all that great at combat. Niime joins with 21 Magic and A Staves/A Dark, making her probably the best staffer in the game.

Not sure who I'm going to pick after this, I suppose some combination of Juno, Igrene, Ray and Yodel. Starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel here...

[Katon]

Ray

Niime's a ready-made staffbot, good for all kinds of creative lategame Rescue and Warp shenanigans even if she is made out of tissue paper, so it'll be fun to see what Fenn does with her. And, since there are two worthwhile dark magic users in the game and I really want a third eventual healer, I should probably grab the other one. If Jowy lets me get away with it, the plan after this is Oujay -> Cath, since I'll have a balanced team and can go best unit available.

Given Fenn's mobility focus and the way Zealot and Cecelia let him put up with really late recruitment times, I think Zeiss was the most predictable pick of the last few rounds.

[Jowy]

I'll pick Igrene and Dorothy.

Spoilers:

Kinda running out of useful characters. Igrene is a solid addition.
Dorothy was picked to buffer my early game in case the early chapters are hard.
I considered the remaining pre-promotes against Dorothy, but didn't find anyone exciting.

[Katon]

Oujay

He's a good unpromoted unit joining somewhere in the ch8-13 range, of course I had to take him eventually. Next pick's my last, so I'll have to take a thief - messing around with door keys is a major headache in a race, and while there aren't that many castle levels after Cath joins it's not like I'd be passing up any great contributors. Meanwhile, Igrene continues Jowy's streak of picking up most of the prepromotes with genuinely good stats.

[Fenn]

Guess I'll go with Hugh and Juno.

[Katon]

Cath finishes me off.

[Jowy]

To finish off my team I will pick Yodel.

And with that, we're done! Time to open up those spoiler boxes.

Then we play. AND WE DONT NEED NO GODDAMN CAVALIERS WHERE WE ARE GOING

[Fenn]

Fool...we'll crush our foes beneath our thundering hooves!

I'm realizing now that I probably should have picked Chad over Astohl - I'll have to slow down in Chapter 6 to recruit Sue anyway, so it would have been nice to be able to get some of the treasure while I did that. Oh well!