Beren the Empty-Handed
Member
I find going through with a team of 5 to be better than a team of 6. 6 spreads the experience too thin for my liking. Slot #6 can be an HM slave. Or, you can just solo with one Pokemon and crush everyone that way. A Blastoise with Surf/Blizzard or Ice Beam/Dig or Earthquake/Normal Move will crush most everything.
Fire types aren't any good in this game. You can play with them out of personal preference, but everyone except Charizard lacks move variety, and most of them have misaligned stats that don't prioritize their Fire type (which always runs off the Special stat in Gen 1). Other types cover Fire strengths much better (Ice mainly, because Blizzard is broken good in this Gen). If you want to use them for fun purposes, by all means. But if you're wondering why they don't seem to pull their weight, that's why.
Charmeleon is so bad. I taught him Cut because I needed a reason not to just drop him.
His movepool is crippling, and he lacks any sort of utility or niche that isn't better filled by Fearow (or Dodrio later in the game)...
I never used Charizard in the original games (I picked Bulbasaur back in the 90s). He needs Flamethrower at a better level than the mid 40s. It's ridiculous. He's sort of hanging on now, in the mid 20s, but once I hit the 30s, Ember just isn't going to cut it anymore. He shouldn't be three shotting Grass types 2 levels under him.
Fire types aren't any good in this game. You can play with them out of personal preference, but everyone except Charizard lacks move variety, and most of them have misaligned stats that don't prioritize their Fire type (which always runs off the Special stat in Gen 1). Other types cover Fire strengths much better (Ice mainly, because Blizzard is broken good in this Gen). If you want to use them for fun purposes, by all means. But if you're wondering why they don't seem to pull their weight, that's why.