Ironman HHM BBD Strategy

[Graveless]

I just lost my third attempt at HHM Ironman, the second attempt which was lost to the exact same problem: Zephiel in BBD. 

Both times, it's been the first sword merc that makes it to him. He gets one rounded and there's the loss.

Last time, I tried to rush and didn't make it in time to stop the first one. I might've been able to if I was willing to let Eliwood take a bolting hit, but that felt too risky when he was res screwed. 

This time I brought the sleep staff and planned to sleep him with Pent and Priscilla, but Maxime was a problem that required Pent's attention and the merc wound in FoW when I otherwise would've been in range.

Does anyone who's pulled it off have advice for getting through this issue?

[OriginalRaisins]

Is there not a way you can make it in front of the throne room? I know you mentioned you tried rushing but what was your strategy? Splitting left and right? Going down only one path?

Most of my Hector mode experience is from draft races but I know that if you go from the right you'll likely intercept the mercenary. You have to deal with Ursula, but that's just how it goes.

Regarding your sleep strat: I'm sure you know this now but could you also budget a torch staff (not the item, a staff) to reveal the area in order to set up your sleep play?

[𝐅𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐥]

if i remember well enough, depending on where you place certain units(lords mainly), Jaffar can either go to the left or right side of the map depending on the route you've taken with those units from the start of the chapter.

do mind that it also partially depends on luck from Jaffar's side with criticals, because if he gets kills while you manage to "lure" him to the right side of the map, he might also be able to intercept/engage the enemies going to Zephiel's room.

i know because i lost count of how many times i reseted that chapter in HHM before, until i noticed that odd behaviour from Jaffar when i tried to proceed with the whole army from the right side of the map, rather than splitting it in two at the beginning.

you could eventually loose some chests to enemy thiefs, but at least you'll get through the chapter. horseback units help a lot in getting to Zephiel's room earlier, but a thief with torches helps way more in terms of scouting for enemies(especially those with bolting) and get your kills properly without getting stuck between enemies in FoW.

also, if you have a small and reliable group such as Pent, Louise and Hawkeye, you can eventually send those 3 to the left side of the map to take care of Maxime and proceed to clear out the rest of the enemies on the way until you can secure the stairs that keep spawning enemy reinforcements.

[OriginalRaisins]

6 minutes ago, 𝙵ᴇɴʀᴇɪʀ said:

you could eventually loose some chests to enemy thiefs, but at least you'll get through the chapter. horseback units help a lot in getting to Zephiel's room earlier, but a thief with torches helps way more in terms of scouting for enemies(especially those with bolting) and get your kills properly without getting stuck between enemies in FoW.

regarding the thieves, they only come out on the left side and there's more than one of them. If you keep the right chests unopened, the thieves may pass to the right, carrying the droppable loot directly into your hands.

[Eltosian Kadath]

From what I remember from my HHM ironman, I sent everyone to the right as fast as I could, with Harken (I seem to remember his brave sword wrecking her) and Pent sent to assassinate Ursula, while the rest rushed the throne room, and tried to secure a path to Jaffar and whatever chests survived (although this strategy is leaving that side of the map up to whatever luck Jaffar can muster). Never luring Maxime, and ending reinforcements as quickly as possible were my prime objectives with this strategy. As luck would have it, on my winning ironman run Jaffar would survive (fully breaking his killer sword, and sitting on a pillar by the end...).

[Graveless]

6 hours ago, OriginalRaisins said:

Is there not a way you can make it in front of the throne room? I know you mentioned you tried rushing but what was your strategy? Splitting left and right? Going down only one path?

Most of my Hector mode experience is from draft races but I know that if you go from the right you'll likely intercept the mercenary. You have to deal with Ursula, but that's just how it goes.

Regarding your sleep strat: I'm sure you know this now but could you also budget a torch staff (not the item, a staff) to reveal the area in order to set up your sleep play?

Part of the problem with the rush was that I had no paladins. My movement was a lot slower because I needed to be careful about archers.
On that run I lost Marcus to him critting too many times in chapter 25 and taking a bunch of low% hits. Isadora went down to a failed 10% dodge with none of the other cavs either alive or trained thanks to bad levels.

I sent Hawkeye and Pent left there and everyone else right. 

For the sleep strat, torch staff + sleep was the main plan. Pent needed to finish Maxime off though because Hawkeye and Farina both missed their attacks. 
 

6 hours ago, 𝙵ᴇɴʀᴇɪʀ said:

if i remember well enough, depending on where you place certain units(lords mainly), Jaffar can either go to the left or right side of the map depending on the route you've taken with those units from the start of the chapter.

do mind that it also partially depends on luck from Jaffar's side with criticals, because if he gets kills while you manage to "lure" him to the right side of the map, he might also be able to intercept/engage the enemies going to Zephiel's room.

i know because i lost count of how many times i reseted that chapter in HHM before, until i noticed that odd behaviour from Jaffar when i tried to proceed with the whole army from the right side of the map, rather than splitting it in two at the beginning.

you could eventually loose some chests to enemy thiefs, but at least you'll get through the chapter. horseback units help a lot in getting to Zephiel's room earlier, but a thief with torches helps way more in terms of scouting for enemies(especially those with bolting) and get your kills properly without getting stuck between enemies in FoW.

also, if you have a small and reliable group such as Pent, Louise and Hawkeye, you can eventually send those 3 to the left side of the map to take care of Maxime and proceed to clear out the rest of the enemies on the way until you can secure the stairs that keep spawning enemy reinforcements.

Jaffar is also bad, I've lost one attempt to him just dying turn 2 thanks to bad rng.