Eliwood Normal Mode vs Hector Normal Mode

[Holla99]

I recently finished playing on Eliwood normal mode and I've heard that Hector normal mode is supposed to be more difficult? I know there are additional maps and unit starting positions vary between the modes but what exactly makes Hector normal mode harder than Eliwood? Do enemies have increased stats, or is it something else?

I'm just curious as I'm going to start playing Hector normal mode soon and I want to know what to expect. thanks!

[Eltosian Kadath]

26 minutes ago, Holla99 said:

is it something else?

On normal mode, its mostly about enemy composition and placement. Its hard to easily quantify how that makes things more difficult, beyond there being a lot more flyers and nomad units (even in very early maps), and some of the bosses (that aren't superglued to thrones) are in more dangerous places.

[Shadow Mir]

The main changes are to enemy composition and placement - you start seeing more pegasus knights and nomads early, for example. Also, Hector mode has a few exclusive chapters and units.

[Ertrick36]

The additional chapters certainly add to the difficulty as well.  In particular I can think of Chapter 19xx which is a Fog of War chapter with a number of enemies with siege weapons and Chapter 32x where you're just facing a bunch of strong units in a place where magic is mostly unusable (and, to add to that, there are countermeasures against you skipping to the end).

There's also the fact that Hector Mode is the only mode in which you can obtain Farina and Karla, the former which requires a crap ton of money and the latter of which needs you to build up one of the more difficult units to work with (Bartre) so that he doesn't end up dying to her attacks (though simultaneously you must ensure he doesn't kill her).  This isn't bad if you just want to play through Hector Mode without regard to getting every recruitable unit, but it just adds to the difficulties a completionist would face.