Dillthepill

👏👏👏👏

For the story it was Ingrid/Dorothea. I liked the girls sticking up for each other. For gameplay it was Hilda. That’s a great map. I’m surprised they didn’t recycle it 100 times.

What gambit do you have on Byleth? I had the straight line one with 2 charges. That helped a lot Don’t be shy about using Dimitri’s new one, too. I used all 4 between the two of them.

When did you move Byleth into range? If you move one space on the first turn to get into range then all of the mobile baddies will rush you and cluster around the entrance before Mercedes shows up. There is one brawler who sits in the corner but he doesn’t move unless provoked.

Pasting my text from another thread: First off, I used the convoy to give a training lance to Dimitri. Then I parked Byleth in the door for the first few turns. I made careful use of gambits and ranged attacks from Byleth to keep the mobs choked off. Dimitri would either help with his spear or hide in the bushes whining about his life. Eventually, some mobs will get through because they have pass or I had to move Byleth. Dimitri had decent enough avoidance in the bush and the training lance was enough to kill some with counters that had already been softened with gambits. Also used Dimitri’s new gambit on mobs in the room. Once Mercedes comes in you have to move Byleth towards her. She stays in the corner and heals. Annette stands there and looks cute. From there it’s a challenge but is straight forward positioning and target prioritizing. Your goal is to keep them off the mages and get to the corner to deal with the brawler that has them pinned in. There is zero room for error and I had to DP a few times. The most annoying was a 30% gambit they landed on Byleth. That allowed the archer to get to Mercedes. After saving the mages you work back to team up with Gilbert/Ashe and then towards the NW corner. If you’ve made it this far in the game on Maddening then you’ll be able to clear the rest of the map. I’d never used more than 3 DP’s before and I used 8 on this map.

I’m autistic and Linhardt is the character I identify with. He is consumed by an intellectual goal (Crest research) and can be unaware of how people react to his questions. He’s simple and honest in his conversations. His A level support conversation with Lysithea is exactly like something I would do. I won’t spoil it but he takes something personal and emotional, then translates it to an abstract concept because that’s how he relates to the world. If you’ve got Linhardt and Lysithea, it’s worth doing the choir practice every time with them. They both benefit from faith and their conversations are great. I don’t see it with Felix. He goes out of his way to be cruel and condescending. It’s not just a byproduct of not understanding people.

This game feels to me like they rebalanced it late in the dev cycle after the systems were in place. Maddening is closer to the intention but way too hard to be the default. The biggest difference is that hit matters. On my first two play throughs I didn’t understand why the game had so many things to raise hit. I missed too rarely for it to be much of a factor. On maddening I’m looking for any +hit perks I can get. The breaker skills matter. I also rarely used gambits for anything but breaking armor on beasts. The combat arts didn’t matter so much in hard. I used them but doubling regular and brave weapons was often better. Now I use combat arts for the +hit as much as anything else.

I don’t remember how it played out but I was able to get Byleth out of the doorway. I think some mobs used pass to get to Dimitri. One of my DPs was a miss on the mob in the bush on the way to the mages. That one blocked my way and had to go down for this to work. I had to take down the archer who would one shot Mercedes. I also pulled Dimitri out of the entrance room for one turn to use a gambit. In my play Mercedes was able to heal for a few turns before they came after her. I think it was key that I aggro’ed the mobs on the first turn and had them clustered around the entrance before the others on my team showed up.

My last post got me thinking if I’ve abused any mechanics to do this maddening run. I used the +2 movement from the DLC on Byleth. That feels a little like cheating. The mechanic I debatedly abuse is +3 range on Lysithea from early in the game. +2 is from Lorenz’s staff and +1 from using NG+ renown to buy up her reason skill.

Enlightened One or whatever it’s called. The only flyer in my original BL team is Ingrid, and she comes in the far side of the map. What I described above wasn’t flying around or abusing some mechanic — just positioning and ability tactics. Not that I’m judging. I would have taken any advantage I could get. It seemed unwinnable at first, but the key was to tank with Byleth in the door and use all my gambits to slow down and soften the mobs. I’m not sure if the lighter weapon ever was the difference in Dimitri not being doubled. But the training lance was enough to kill anyone already hit from a gambit.

I posted the same thing up above but I figured it out yesterday. First off, I used the convoy to give a training lance to Dimitri. Then I parked Byleth in the door for the first few turns. I made careful use of gambits and ranged attacks from Byleth to keep the mobs choked off. Dimitri would either help with his spear or hide in the bushes whining about his life. Eventually, some mobs will get through because they have pass or I had to move Byleth. Dimitri had decent enough avoidance in the bush and the training lance was enough to kill some with counters that had already been softened with gambits. Also used Dimitri’s new gambit on mobs in the room. Once Mercedes comes in you have to move Byleth towards her. She stays in the corner and heals. Annette stands there and looks cute. From there it’s a challenge but is straight forward positioning and target prioritizing. Your goal is to keep them off the mages and get to the corner to deal with the brawler that has them pinned in. There is zero room for error and I had to DP a few times. The most annoying was a 30% gambit they landed on Byleth. That allowed the archer to get to Mercedes. After saving the mages you work back to team up with Gilbert/Ashe and then towards the NW corner. If you’ve made it this far in the game on Maddening then you’ll be able to clear the rest of the map. I’d never used more than 3 DP’s before and I used 8 on this map. Lysithea is also my star so not having her (or Hilda on a Wyvern) was difficult. Ashe and Annette are on my bench. It seems a lot people take Ashe down the Wyvern class path with BL. I liked Hilda from my GD run, but that would have made this easier to have a useful Ashe. Thanks to @AxelVDP for reminding me I had the convoy. I was channeling Emo Dimitri and giving up.

I accidentally aggro’ed the DK in chapter 4 with Byleth. It didn’t happen until I was in the marked range for the DK. It was just a mistake on my part. But it didn’t turn out to be that difficult. He wasn’t able to one shot Byleth and she got in a counter. I think I healed up Byleth and attacked on her turn. She could survive a DK counter. Maybe I finished the DK off with Sylvain and the Ruin lance? Is it possible to have it that early? I don’t remember. Could have been Lysithea. Funny thing is I’ve killed the roving DK in each fight before the time skip. I didn’t do that in my normal/hard play throughs. It’s been easier on maddening because he leaves his defensive position. Pre time skip, the battles have been harder but the bosses are usually easier they don’t turtle. Edelgard advanced and left herself exposed in the last battle before the time skip. That was a very fun fight.

I turtled for a bunch of turns with everyone in their safe spots and nothing happened. So I moved Gilbert to aggro one thief and game over. Maybe I didn’t turtle for as long as I thought. I was in rage quit mode by that point. Byleth can survive a couple of attacks but Dimitri only one. It looked like there were just too many mobs to get past. But maybe if I strategically sacrifice the other 4. Mercedes is equipped with Stride so if I can get them to meet. I’d hate to lose Mercedes but I have Marianne and Linhardt recruited, so I’ll manage. I’ll sure miss Fortify. I could do this with Gilbert plus 3 from my roster if I could pick them. But Mercedes and a level 18 Annette are not going to survive in their spot. What level are other people at in chapter 13? My active roster is 25-28 and it would be tough but I could do it with them. But Gilbert/Ashe on the left and Mercedes/Annette on the right are terrible combos. Not enough healing to tank the left and not enough DPS to push through on the right. Dimitri is killed every time if he leaves his bush at the entrance.

I guess my BL maddening run is over. I’m at the first fight after the timeskip. There is no way to win this map with the characters they give me. It sounds like people are beating it by sending a flyer to trigger the other side? The game isn’t giving me Ingrid. As soon as I aggro one thief they all rush. Is there some way to cheese it? Because it’s unwinnable with this config and my bench players.