No, their stats don’t effect major battle stats
You’ll want somebody fast and ranged. But don’t sacrifice speed for power. I’d recommend making a magic user (Luc or Mazus) into your shock trooper. Give him a horse (Pesmerga preferably, but Miklatov is decent) and a set of wings (Chaco).
Make sure you beef up your best characters. Stick Shu, with somebody strong, either your hero or somebody like Georg, Kiba, and Ridley.
I think at the height of my army, I think I had
- Hero (Tai Ho, Klaus) for a very nice 10/13 with Cavalry for fast healing and Evade. He’s your hero, so you’ll want him alive.
- Georg (Humphrey, Apple) for a whopping 12/12 with Heavy armor (takes 3 swords of damage to be killed instead of 2) on top of that along wiht critical and evade. He makes a great meatshield and front line attacker.
- Kiba (Shu, Lorelai/Lo Wen) 10/15 with heavy armor, cavalry, critical, evade, and melee. Impenetrable and has enough skills to destroy boss units.
- Ridley (Gijimu, Jess) 14/7 with evade, critical and melee.
It’s always nice to have a ranged unit to provide extra fire. I tend to use Magus with Tsai and Hannah or Teresa with Hannah and Lo Wen
The rest of your characters generally don’t matter since you’ll find that only your best will be fighting the battles later on.