Why is some opponents putting their own units gets behind and blocked by multiple terrain placements in the Defense Maps for Aether Raids?

[King Marth 64]

I did noticed this when I was going to those Raid Battles in the Aether Raids to get those Bonus Items Daily. I noticed some Fire Emblem Heroes players that were customizing their own opposing units for the Defense Maps are getting blocked by the terrains placements such as Healer Terrain Objects, Fortresses, Towers, etc. and they couldn't be moved a single inch and attack the player's party and counterattack (except for Archers, Mages, and some units with Range Counters like Ike for example). I also saw a few maps that I encountered that had one unit and a lot of terrain objects blocking the opposing units way that feels that it looks like not good war tactics design and it's very winnable with stronger units available in any player's side to me. Does anyone with a good knowledge of knowing more of Aether Raids that why some Fire Emblem Heroes players are customizing like this in their own Defense Maps?

Edited May 29, 2021 by King Marth 64

[Baron the Shining Blade]

It's done to waste your turns, of course. If it takes most of your turns to defeat the other units, you can run out of turns before you have a chance to engage the lone blocked unit in the corner.

Admittedly I've employed this "bad war tactic design". So far I've only had one success via exceeding the turn limit. Any other success I've had have been surrenders; One guy didn't even try, and I'm not exactly a pro AR defender.  '_'

Edited May 29, 2021 by Baron the Shining Blade

[LoneStar]

Like Baron said it's just a stall tactic. I'll admit corner Surtr used to get me but once you know it's what people are doing you will be ready, and it becomes a free win most of the time. Sometimes people will have corner Seiros with Wings of Mercy because she will either stall or nuke something.

[Ice Dragon]

Stalling

Placing an extremely bulky unit behind a large number of structures forces the challenger to waste turns breaking structures. At the same time, the rest of the defense team weakens the challenger's team, making it harder for them to kill the final unit after breaking the structures to reach it.

Support

Units with infinite-range buffs or debuffs can be locked in a corner to prevent them from getting themselves killed charging at the challenger's team.

This is relatively common to see done with Aversa and Legendary Eliwood.

Restricting Challenger Movement

With a defending team with high-mobility units, you'll occasionally see a map with a wall at the maximum range of the front-most attackers. The wall wastes at least 1 action, making it more difficult to attack the defending team on the first turn when it is possible to start the turn with a ranged cavalry unit able to reach the front line. This forces the challenger to always spend at least 2 actions just to initiate the first round of combat.

The open space in front of the defending team makes it hard to create choke points to protect units in the back, and placing the wall far enough out also limits the amount of space the challenger has to work with to hide supporting units, as danced ranged units can hit the squares adjacent the wall. The high mobility of the defending team also discourages destroying too much of the wall early on, which delays the challenger from reaching structures hidden in the back.

Restricting Defender Movement

Most commonly used with the "armors in a box" map archetype. Structures are used to prevent the defending team from moving out of position, which keeps them in range of their teammates' Save and Drive/Ward skills.

[Samz707]

18 hours ago, King Marth 64 said:

I did noticed this when I was going to those Raid Battles in the Aether Raids to get those Bonus Items Daily. I noticed some Fire Emblem Heroes players that were customizing their own opposing units for the Defense Maps are getting blocked by the terrains placements such as Healer Terrain Objects, Fortresses, Towers, etc. and they couldn't be moved a single inch and attack the player's party and counterattack (except for Archers, Mages, and some units with Range Counters like Ike for example). I also saw a few maps that I encountered that had one unit and a lot of terrain objects blocking the opposing units way that feels that it looks like not good war tactics design and it's very winnable with stronger units available in any player's side to me. Does anyone with a good knowledge of knowing more of Aether Raids that why some Fire Emblem Heroes players are customizing like this in their own Defense Maps?

The intention is, I think, that (and  this happened to me a few times), you'll get slowed down by the other enemies, except since that one enemy is stuck, he can't attack you and get killed by counters and that you'll run down the clock before you can get to him.

It's actually the main reason in my line-up I kinda find Fallen Edelgard useless, since she needs a turn to transform and is super slow if untransformed. (While Brave Edelgard is generally more useful IMO.)

[kradeelav]

(Just got in VoH)

One tactic I don't see mentioned here is to enable Save skills - so let's say you have squishy mages next to armors in mage/armorball; the boxing-in is to make sure that your omnitank with a save skill can cover anyone else's weak ranges, and so they don't accidentally wander out of effective range. Henriette and Gustav are still harder for me to kill in AR than F!Edel who at least has more counters (in my barracks, at least).