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Amelia is horrible. Not using her >>>>>>>>>>>> using her.

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The same is true of Dozla, so this isn’t much of a point. Indeed, I have trouble seeing any meaningful point in your post, as all it does is stress this one fact right here.

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The facts that matter here are these: Amelia is terrible upon joining, but excellent later on. Dozla is middling upon joining, and terrible later on. Amelia’s average performance over the course of the entire game is considerably better.

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For example, during later chapters, Amelia is fully comparable to, if not better than, Franz, featuring less Att and Con but more Res, Crit and much more Avo. Dozla, on the other hand, isn’t ever comparable to Franz, even during the time after he’s very first joined, when he compares the absolute best. A 15 Franz actually beats 1 Dozla in base Att and Def, and rapes him in AS and Avo, in addition to being more mobile and having two weapons types instead of one.

At this point I’m sure you’ll bring up the fact that Amelia, when she first joins, is not at all comparable to Franz at that time either. Don’t bother, as this is obvious. Indeed, Amelia is almost certainly your worst unit when she first joins. I won’t deny that. However, I’ll also point out that Dozla is almost certainly your worst unit during the later chapters, and his time as the worst lasts alot longer than Amelia’s. He’s arguably your worst unit from as early on as Ch. 13, through the entire rest of the game.

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This is all magnified by the fact that later chapters, when Amelia compares best, have many more enemies than the earlier ones, where Dozla compares best, and thus carry significantly more weight than said earlier, less populated chapters.

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You didn't even address things like:

And Amelia needs a promotion item, a desired Knight Crest at that, so Dozla isn't getting in the way of promotions and gets you more money.

Which hold true even after your entire post.

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How they compare to the team is much less important than how they fare in battle against enemies, compared to each other. Amelia dies to every enemy and makes small scratchwounds. Dozla can take a beating, he can use weapons to adapt to the situation (Hand Axe to not take a counter, Swordreaver/Swordslayer for swordies, Garm for whoa). Both Amelia and Dozla may be your worst units at a point, but Dozla is doing much better relatively.

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Amelia gets one rounded by everything when joining. She can't dodge. Amelia has only 8 Atk with Slim or 10 with Javelin. She's not hurting anything, and with Slim she takes counters, while with Javelin she misses. Some enemies, like Fighters, not only OHKO, but also double her.

Worst possible offense and worst possible defense, nicely packaged into a class with 4 movement.

Dozla in the endgame, however, doesn't buckle that easily.

35 Dozla
Killer Axe: 34.0 atk, 14.6 AS, 100.6 hit, 52.7 crit - - 37.4 avo, 55 hp, 15.2 def, 9.5 res

First off, that crit means he's already one rounding on player phase without taking a counter over half the time.

There is some things he can actually double. Last Hope, for example, he doubles all unpromoted enemies (except thieves, which he can OHKO with Killer, and Myrmidons, which he can do the same with with Silver). He can double Druids and Generals, all but 2 Great Knights, a few Warriors and Snipers, etc. Most promoted monsters of the next chapters get doubled by Dozla (Maelduin, Wight, for example), and some even can be OHKOed AND doubled (the huge hordes Mogalls).

On the defensive, it does take some balls to take him down. A Silver Lance General with 29 Atk takes 4 rounds to kill him, assuming he always gets hit with the 65% real hit. Half the Swordmasters double him, much less if he has 15 AS rather than 14, and do double 10s.

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Or even if comparing your unit to the rest of the team is significant: Dozla is doing fine when he joins. The gap between him and the team is bigger than the one between Amelia and the team (no one is even close to her suck). However, when Amelia has caught up, everyone else is uber, and Dozla is meh.

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As far as I know it's relative difficulty that matters. When Amelia sucks, your team has less supports, much less good weapons, no Sacred Twins, less healers, and generally speaking PC growth > enemy growth. Dozla sucks during a time everyone else can hold their own. When Amelia sucks, not everyone can hold their own yet, and in addition they have to keep don't-tickle-me-I'll-die from getting one-rounded by shit like ballistae and fliers, while they also can't shrug off and kill without their eyes closed yet.

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Eh, amount of enemies equals amount of weight now? With that logic, Prologue with just facing a Draco Zombie using just base Eirika would be easier than playing Ch1 in the actual game using Eirika, Seth, Franz and Gilliam.

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It’s a fairly trivial point. By the time Amelia wants a Knight Crest, one will be readily available, and this game lacks a Funds rank, a fact that strongly devalues money. Undeniably it is still Dozla’s advantage, but it’s far too small to save him from his inferior overall performance. Even if you wanted to dwell on such side points as these, Amelia’s probably winning that argument anyway with her superior support list.

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I beg to differ. In this case, performance relative to the enemies doesn’t matter at all.

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I say “when it’s relevant” because usually, it isn’t relevant. In debaet, pplz are usually comparing their units at the same point in the game (i.e. Kent in Ch. 15 vs Lyn in Ch. 15, then Kent in Ch. 20 vs Lyn in Ch. 20, etc); thus the other PCs are the same for both units in their comparisons, and therefore, comparing relative to the enemies is the best way to gauge which unit is better.

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I’m glad you posted this, as it’s my case in point. Comparing early Amelia vs late Dozla, Dozla does indeed hold up better, in a purely technical sense……but everyone does better later rather than earlier (Dozla is a rare exception), so Dozla’s supposed “advantage” is in reality quite meaningless. Conversely, comparing late Amelia vs early Dozla, Amelia wins very clearly. Her abilities are equal, arguably superior, to those of the godtier units during that time, while Dozla is trounced by the godtiers even when he first joins.

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Your point? All of this is obvious. Both have a point in the game where they’re terrible.
However, Amelia also has a time when she’s excellent, while Dozla is never better than mediocre.

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I’m glad you posted this, as it’s my case in point. Comparing early Amelia vs late Dozla, Dozla does indeed hold up better, in a purely technical sense……but everyone does better later rather than earlier (Dozla is a rare exception), so Dozla’s supposed “advantage” is in reality quite meaningless. Conversely, comparing late Amelia vs early Dozla, Amelia wins very clearly. Her abilities are equal, arguably superior, to those of the godtier units during that time, while Dozla is trounced by the godtiers even when he first joins.

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Yes, a chapter that has five times more enemies in it than the previous one holds more weight than said previous chapter. I’d rather have a unit who does well in the chapter with 50 enemies than one who does well in the chapter with 10 enemies. Being good against 50 enemies > being good against 10 enemies. A chapter that lasts four times as long as the other individual chapters before it, holds more weight than two of those previous chapters combined. This is common sense, and shouldn’t require further explanation.

Now, your counterexample would be perfectly valid if anything like that actually existed in the game, but, that’s never the case, or anywhere even close to it. Enemy strength from one chapter to the next builds gradually and consistently throughout the game. It doesn’t ever fluctuate massively from one chapter to the next, as in your example.

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The 5k it costs you is a not-to-be-belittled advantage for Dozla though. You can buy 10 Silver Card'd Killer Axes for it, for example, which Dozla or someone else can use. Money may be plentiful, but not infinite, so it is definitely a good plus.

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And no, just Amelia's support list advantage doesn't cut that alone, especially since Amelia is a very undesirable support partner anyway. She's the most inflexible person on your team for a time (4 mov + one rounded), and still down there after Trainee stage (dies in 1, 2 or 3 rounds depending on enemy). That restricts her as much as her support partners.

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And on Eirika route Amelia should join even later (Ch13) so you get a second Speedwing. I don't even want to look at base Amelia vs Dozla that's been around for 3 more chapters.

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And Amelia used weapons up until Dozla joined, so that money gap is even wider.

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And Amelia's move sucks in the desert chapter.

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This is what I did in my first post. Amelia lost massively to Dozla midgame, and wins later on, but not by as much as Dozla won at first. But I'll play along and show Dozla wins anyway. We'll use a good unit and compare how Dozla and Amelia do relatively to them at a few points.

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I've proven that this generalisation doesn't hold true

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Being relatively bad when everyone else has no trouble staying alive is better than being downright horrible when everyone else is still a bit shaky on their feet. It is much easier to keep Dozla safe if he is in danger with a bunch of overpowered units than it is to keep Amelia safe with a bunch of units who just hold their own.

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My point was that amount of enemies should not be the only factor. Your own strength relative to the enemy's is significant as well.

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The only chapter where Amelia claims a clear victory over Dozla in strength is Last Hope. Other maps have Dozla in the lead (early-mid) or the difference is almost nill (like 19 and 20, where Dozla can rape monsters pretty much as effectively as Amelia with normal weapons, and has Garm for a rape trump card).

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There should be no need for a huge conclusion paragraph. Dozla wins where it matters, and even if he only ties Amelia at combat overall, he has many tiebreaker advantages to win.