Let's see, it was FE9. Oscar and Boyd, and maybe Soren were promoted before Ch11. But I still got caught at Ch11 due to me not realizing things about the BK, and other stuff like that. I eventually got past, and I managed to recruit everybody else including Nasir and Stefan, and beat the game and whatnot, but the Ch11 block has made me dread that chapter always. It also made me a baby with FE9, making me scared of hard mode, and giving me trouble with it.
All I remember of my first FE7 file was that I tried leveling people evenly too much, and so I had units like Kent just promoting at Ch26 (whatever the defend mission with Zephiel was).
I don't remember FE8, 10, or 11 though, except that FE11's normal mode gave me a lot of trouble, so my 'uncomfort' zone starts with hard mode there.