Fire Emblem Echoes - Shadows of Valentia

[Hard Classic / no deaths / no consumable items / no springs / no forging / no stupid turnwheel crap / no "grinding" (engaging in battles with the sole intent of training units)]
Prologue - Slayde picking on kids
Mycen wrecked them all, lol.

Ch1-1 - Bandits outside the Ram Village
Alm, Lukas, and Gray weakened units for Faye, Kliff, and Tobin to kill. Faye got the first kill AND the first level-up!

Ch1-2 - More bandits
Alm and Faye killed off the Archer. Lukas, Gray, and Alm weakened other enemies for the villagers to kill. All villagers hit Lv3 (cept Gray and his Lv5 base)

Thief Shrine - More bandits, really?
Okay, the Brigand Boss was pretty tough. Villagers leveled more than they needed to, so I let Alm finish the boss off.

- Gray Mercenary, Tobin Mage, Kliff Cavalier, Faye Cleric

Ch1-3 - Bandits in the valley + Leather Shield Merc
Charged ahead and had Gray + Kliff sit on the sweet 2-square chokepoint. Bandits charged in and I attacked back. Tried to avoid killing bandits, since they retreat (towards the healing spot, apparently) when weakened, allowing me to distribute my damage around. The Archers and the Boss were dealt with asap though. After killing the boss (with Silque of all people), I moved units to the west to deal with the Leather Shield Merc. Alm was just able to catch the Merc before he left the mountain, blocking him from leaving the mountain (so he effectively was locked to 1 Movement and couldn't hit anybody but Alm) while Tobin sniped from behind Alm. Alm actually got critkilled the first attempt, so I had to restart. I also let Faye finish off the Merc (with Tobin standing by just in case she missed) because /healerfavoritism.

Ch1-4 - Two walled rooms
Pretty straightforward. Kliff went into the forest and lured enemies in for everyone else to pick out. Tobin and Silque killed the Archer before it could strike on EP. Faye got a lucky crit on the other soldier behind the wall. Tobin and Gray took out the boss.

Ch1-5 - Open plains with Cavaliers far west
Charge ahead, with Kliff baiting the Archer. Special mention to Gray for ORKOing everything he touches. I was able to coordinate actions to ensure that Clair killed the Archer, the boss, a soldier, and a cavalier, because she's kinda lagging in levels.

Ch1-6 - Eight Cavaliers on an open field
Charged west, killing Cavaliers on the way. Gray no longer ORKOs, but leaves enemies at 2 HP, which is perfect for training Clair. When the boss's squad arrived, the boss himself ended up on the bridge, allowing Alm to sit directly south to tank him while Tobin sniped from a distance. Unfortunately, I didn't account for the boss running away at low health, so I had to pursue him. Clair finished him off with a crit.

- I tried to avoid Terrors in the Deliverance Hideout, but nope, had to fight a few of them. Tobin learned Excalibur!

Ch1-7 - Zofia Castle!
Probably inefficient, but I took the left path into the castle. Clair opened the door and let everyone in. Clive and later Alm stood at the chokepoint as the cavaliers charged in while the others sniped them. I emphasized training Python due to his underlevelled start and even had him kill Slayde. Tobin then solo'd the western Archers (Excalibur ftw) while the rest of the party took out the last set of enemies.

- Clive Paladin, Gray Myrmidon, Python Sniper (yup, he gained 4 levels in one battle)

Ch2-1 - Celica in the cemetary
Camped in the woods and killed all the zombies as they charged in.

Ch2-2 - Pirate Attack!
Saber stood on the chokepoint and tanked pirates while Celica/Mae/Genny sniped, with Genny healing occasionally.

Ch2-3 - More pirates!
As before, Saber stood on the chokepoint to tank. A few pirates came from the side as well, but Celica/Mae/Genny took care of them easily. The LeatherShield Merc was rather dangerous, and also doubled Saber, but he fell easily to Celica/Mae/Genny snipes.

Ch2-4 - Valbar's party vs Barth
Headed west, no need for chokepoint abuse because Valbar's party is in trouble. Well, okay, no, they handled the enemies on their side pretty well, and then they retreated to the healing pot in my ship. I did have Saber abuse a chokepoint to lure Barth out though, so that Mae and Celica can snipe him to death.

Ch2-5 - Lonely Cantor in the ship
That Cantor is eeeeeviiiiil. I charged in, took care of the Terrors as they spawned, but the Cantor himself was seriously evil. Kept dodging attacks and hitting hard. He also doubled Celica, so she couldn't do much. Thankfully, he never attacked in EP. I also abused the fact that Celica gets doubled to let him shave off 8 HP from just countering her. Still though, it was pretty much a stalemate until Leon fire a glorious crit, despite only having 34 Hit (can't recall crit rate), allowing everyone else to gang up before Kamui finished him off.

Ch2-5x - Necrodragons at Seabound Shrine
...I thought there was only one. Anyhow, Saber lured them in, and then... Genny Invoked! The illusory soldiers were excellent bait and I had no worries about them stealing EXP. Obviously Celica abused Seraphim, but she only used them to weaken the dragons enough for Saber and Kamui to finish off.

- Seabound Shrine was annoying; I tried to avoid battles, but couldn't escape them all. The gargoyles were especially troublesome.
- Saber Myrmidon, Kamui Myrmidon, Leon Sniper

Ch2-6 - So many pirates!
Plank is a chokepoint, yeah, should be obvious how this went out. Saber/Kamui alternated on the chokepoint while everyone else sniped.

Ch2-7 - Even more pira- wait, why are they Dark Mages?
This time I had Mae tank the chokepoint because of her Res. Leo sniped the boss quite a few times from across the ships. Nothing special.

Ch2-8 - Masked Knight against Cantor
I bet it's her brother who was mentioned in Zofia Castle with Alm. Anyhow, nothing special, just charged and killed. Masked Dude helped a bit.

Celica 3-1 - Whitewings under attack
Celica, Saber, and Leon in the south; Kamui, Genny, and Mae in the north. I tried to clear Darth's squad quickly to try getting Celica to talk to the Whitewings, but they took a bit longer to clear out and the Whitewings flew away to pick off wounded enemies, ending the chapter earlier than I hoped for.

Celica 3-2 - Mountain Graveyard
I tried to feed Catria most of the kills, and Palla the rest. Venin Claws were annoying, and both sisters got poisoned >_>.

Celica 3-3 - Desert Stronghold
This was a loooooong battle, since the stronghold was filled with annoying Archers, making it difficult to approach while Palla/Catria (who needed EXP the most) couldn't do much. Leo sniped a whole lot, while Celica/Genny healed him. Once the numbers thinned down a bit, Kamui just charged in like a boss and tanked everybody.

Celica 3-4 Deen - Mercs in the Desert
I chose to fight Deen because iirc I fought Sonya back in FE2. I almost regretted my choice here, because Deen's stats and weapon are insane. Anyhow, I tried to set my party up to the east, forcing the Mercs to come into the desert, making it easier for me to pick them off one by one. Deen was insane though, and once he caught up I had no choice but to have Genny Invoke, in order to prevent him from ORKOing any actual people. I spammed a bunch of magic attacks against him for two turns before he went down.

Up next is Grieth's Citadel, which was the single most difficult battle for me back when I played FE2. Let's see how brutal it is in FE15 Hard Classic!

Celica 3-5 - Grieth's Citadel
I went all out and actually cleared this in my first attempt, at the expense of not training the underlevelled peg sisters much. I gave Saber the Iron Shield so that he can tank every physical attacker, including Grieth. Celica got the Blessed Sword, which sounds dumb, but I don't regret giving Kamui the Brave Sword.

Anyhow, I had Saber, Kamui and Mae charge to the left corridor and deal with the enemies there while everyone else stayed back at the desert area to finish off approaching enemies. Then everyone regrouped in the left corridor, while warding off the infinitely spawning Bonewalkers. Saber and Kamui were the main walls on the corridor, with Kamui often scoring crits to ORKO. Sometimes I'd send in Catria instead of Kamui for EXP. Leon, Mae, Celica and Palla (Javelin) sniped the Bonewalkers from a distance. The whole group would move north slowly, until Saber/Kamui were just outside Grieth's range.

I then had Saber charge into the center room, intending to lure Grieth to the center room where Saber on the healing tile can tank Grieth forever. However, instead of Grieth, it was a Myrmidon that attacked Saber. I already anticipated this, intending to lure Grieth in afterwards, but... what I didn't expect was for Grieth to charge in anyway, despite having nobody in his attack range (Myrmidon blocked Saber)! He charged towards the left corridor, where all my vulnerable units were! I tried to run away to the desert, but well, I couldn't really outrun a 7-Move Dread Fighter...

I managed to set it up so that Kamui was the only one in Grieth's range, who was thankfully able to survive his double attack... WHILE KAMUI CRITTED BACK! Brave Sword ftw! After that, I had everybody snipe Grieth until he died. Mae got the kill, fyi, even though she was already overlevelled from the Bonewalker clearance. After that, well, the party advanced while clearing Bonewalkers as before, but no longer worried about Grieth, while Saber tanked more Bonewalkers and Mercs in that center room. He scored a lucky crit on a Myrmidon, which was great because a wounded retreating Myrmidon might have caused problems against the rest of my party. The Cantor was surrounded and easily dispatched. All that remained know was the Sniper and the Dark Mage in the right side, which were easy to pick off, especially since I can go directly to their room.

(I spent 87 minutes on this battle btw; from playtime went from 12:24 to 13:51 from this battle alone)

After recruiting characters at the Citadel, I headed back to the Mountain Village to pass the Rion Shield and stuff, and then backtracked all the way to the Seabound Shrine (returning the Fugue Shield on the way). Mountain Village Graveyard + roaming enemy encounters allowed Palla and Catria to reach promotion level.

- Mae Priestess, Genny Saint, Palla FalcoKnight, Catria FalcoKnight, Kamui Dread Fighter

Celica 3-6 - Blake in the Valley
Everybody charged ahead, though I deliberately tried to feed Sonya most of the kills. This was really easy compared to the Deen and Grieth battles.

The Dragon Temple was pretty straightforward, tbh. Five necrodragons were easily dispatched since almost everyone had Seraphim and the Falcoknights hit hard.

- Sonya Priestess, Atlas Mercenary

Celica 3-7 - Liberating Mila Temple
Everybody charged north, warding off approaching gargoyles. Then I realized the door was locked so I sent everyone west. Thankfully the Sniper had crap spee and couldn't double anybody, while the gargoyles had really low attack. Once at the west, things got a bit more complicated, but sending Saber and Kamui to charge north helped quite a bit, while the mages and falcons took care of the gargoyles while picking off Dark Mages. Then Kamui charged east just outside the boss room, tanking a bunch of crap while everybody else slowly approached to kill off the enemies. Once the boss room sniper was out, things got a lot easier because Palla and Catria were able to charge in. Sonya killed the boss with an Excalibur crit.

- Leon BowKnight, Saber Dread Fighter

Alm 3-1 - Fernand in the same wide area
This map layout seems identical to 1-6... anyhow, had everyone charge to the area under the bridge, warding off enemies from the north before Fernand caught up. Tobin got an Excalibur crit and killed him. The boss Jakson arrived and Tobin... also got an Excalibur crit on him >_>.

Alm 3-2 - Dark Mages in the forest
Aaaan this one looks identical to 1-2, welp. Anyway, everybody charged north and killed Dark Mages, nothing special. Alm killed the boss.

Alm 3-3 - Against Berkut!
...it's literally just Berkut, Fernand, and a generic Paladin. Surrounded by Alm's party. Oh, and Berkut seems programmed to attack Alm no matter who else is in range. So it was easy to snipe him and finish him off without worrying about deadly retaliation.

Alm 3-4 - Desaix's Fortress
Despite Mathilda being sniped, I decided to take it slow, tanking the bridge with Python and then sending in other units to snipe enemies. Mathilda dodged a lot and took only 1 dmg from Revenants anyway. I lured Desaix with Tobin, and killed him with Luthier. I continued turtling the bridge until most ArmorKnights were killed, before charging ahead. Clair visited Mathilda to help ward off zombies and the Cantor was finished off by Luthier.

Alm 3-5 - So many horses
I remember soloing this with Ridersbane!Mathilda back in FE2. Anyhow, this time, I had everyone charge west, warding off the approaching cavalry. There were a lot of them, but they didn't hit very hard, so my units tanked them pretty well while Faye and Silque healed.

Sylvan Shrine was pretty straightforward. Wasn't expecting the Gargoyle ambush from getting the Gold Marks in the chest, but they weren't too bad, since I just sent everyone west and warded the gargoyles off.
- Faye Saint, Silque Saint, Clair FalcoKnight, Tobin Sage, Luthier Sage

Alm 3-5 - Archers, Snipers and Gazelle across the bridge
Alm's turn to face an army of bows, eh? This was easier than Celica's version, tbh. I had Python bait archers at a forest, and then had everyone fall back to lure the archers in, before picking them off. Mathilda's Ridersbane weakened Gazelle enough for Tobin to finish him off.

Alm 3-6 - Tatarrah and Delthea
I as hoping Delthea would warp to me, so that I can hurt her below Aura-range so that she would be incapitated with no hope of healing. Anyhow, I charged up ahead and killed enemies. After crossing the bridge, I had everybody hug the left wall, so that Tatarrah would have to go to his left wall to attack. He hit really hard! I weakened Delthea to below Aura range so that took care of her. A Dark Mage did heal her, but she didn't heal much and tried to retreat to a healing spot instead of finishing off my Python (who was weakened by Tatarrah). Tobin then scored a crit on Tatarrah, causing Delthea to retreat. Tobin, stop critting bosses so much!

Okay, since I just got Delthea, I figured this was a good time to do some sub-quests. I had to farm for Bonewalker Oil, and kill some Scepters, which probably counts as grinding a bit, I guess? I stopped as soon as I got the required spoils, but Delthea did hit Lv11, since I had her kill almost EVERYTHING!

Celica 4-1 - Garcia in the Swamp
Sending everyone to charge together ended in failure. Instead, I had Palla and Catria fly north to distract and kill Gargoyles (and a few Bonewalkers), so tat the rest of the party can cross the swamp without disturbance. The Dread Fighter was annoying, but magicians ganged up on him and finished him off. Saber charged alone to a forest and dodged all the Dark Mages, which was awesome. Once the enemies in the south were taken care of, Palla and Catria returned to reunite and everyone charged together to kill off the last two Cantors, including Garcia.

Celica 4-2 - Necrodragons in the Graveyard Swamp
Now that there's a lot more Seraphim spells and two FalconKnights, these Necrodragons were easy to deal with. Draw them in, and annihilate them.

Celica 4-3 - Dolth's Keep
Actually easier than it looked. Everybody charged southward, straight into the swamp. Necrodragons approached, but they couldn't do much against Seraphim and FalconKnights. The Snipers were annoying, but thankfully they didn't hit very hard, even against the fliers. Saber and Kamui charged towards the single opening in the wall, while the mages sniped from against the wall. Once the Dark Mages and Snipers were dealt with, everybody was able to get inside the keep (while dealing with Necrodragons), and then they charged against Dolth.

Lost Treescape was fairly straightforward; I just kept hugging the right wall so I'm pretty sure I explored the entire area and got all chests (only three, right?), all while avoiding enemies easily.

Celica 4-4 - Jamil's Fortress
While I still cleared it in my first attempt, this was a lot more intense than Dolth's Keep. Everybody charged north to kill the witches easily, but the annoying part came in approaching the fortress entrance. Gargoyles by themselves wouldn't have been very annoying, but Jamil's Earthquake thingy was annoying, and dealing with Dread Fighters and long-ranged attackers in narrow corridors were really troublesome. Mage Ring was MVP here, allowing Sonya to snipe Jamil from far, and finish him off after an eventual Excalibur crit. This was probably the one intense battle where Saber and Kamui didn't do much, since they lacked the superior range of the mages and the free wall-ignoring flight of the falcons. Nomah was still a healbot.

Celica 4-5 - Jedah in the Swamp
The battle I reset the most to. Not because I had trouble clearing it, oh no, I succeeded easily in that early on. But because I wanted Sonya to be the one to kill Jedah... while she did 1 x 2 dmg only. Anyhow, I had Leon and MageRing!Sonya snipe Jedah on turn 1, while everyone else advanced, with Palla throwing a Javelin at an armor. Turn 2, I had Leon break Jedah's barrier, while the others cleared the way and surrounded Jedah. Turn 3 is when Celica engaged Jedah with a Ragnarok x 2, while the Angel Ring helped her dodge Jedah's attack. Leon sniped him again after that. Turn 4 involved more clearance, with Leon and MageRing!Sonya sniped Jedah. Turn 5 was the main turn, where Celica fired Ragnarok x 2 again, bringing Jedah down to 2 HP. Three more attacks broke Jedah's barrier, allowing Sonya to kill him with Excalibur x 2. With such a clear strategy, why did I need to reset so much? Because I needed Celica to a) not gain ATK in her level-up (or she kills Jedah), b) dodge both of Jedah's 24 Hit attacks, and c) not crit Jedah at any of her four attacks with 32 Crit. And I also needed d) Jedah to not summon too many monsters on turn 2 that I can't surround Jedah, allowing him to run away from Celica. Yeah, it took a lot of resets, but the satisfaction of having Sonya kill him was well worth it.

- Conrad Gold Knight (yeah, that took a while)
Switching to Alm now because I'm not sure I can use Celica after completing Duma's Tower.

Alm 4-1 - Berkut and Fernand at the border
Everybody started on the east, except Clair who flew to the east. The enemies at the east were baited and killed, and then the center enemies, and then the western enemies. Then my party cautiously approached the forests in the north until Berkut's group reacted, allowing my party to finish them off as they came. Faye killed off Berkut.

- Alm Hero (I forgot to promote him until I noticed at the Berkut battle)

Alm 4-2 - Xaizor at Crossroads
Everybody charged north and cleaned out the enemies there pretty quickly. Then Mathilda baited the two Dread Fighters (including Xaizor) one by one, each time allowing the rest of the party to gang up on the Dread Fighter to kill it. The witches were kinda ignored during this time, since they couldn't do much. After the Dread Fighters were down, the rest of the enemies were easily cleaned up.

- Python Bow Knight, Gray Dread Fighter, Delthea Priestess, Mathilda Gold Knight

Alm 4-3 - Marla at Fear Mountain
Most units charged northeast to Marla, while Mathilda stayed back a bit to tank the Cavalry from the southeast. Python, Delthea, and Gray led the northeast assault, with Pythn sniping at Marla safely until she died. Delthea was almost dead when the northeast was cleared. Everyone returned to support Mathilda, but only Gray really made it back quickly in time, taking care of the armors with Luthier's and Tobin's help.

Alm 4-4 - Nuibaba's Abode
I took a rather slow approach to this, because Medusa seemed scary. I had everyone charge north and then Python kept sniping the enemy Bow Knight back and forth with Luthier healing him while the rest of my party exterminated gargoyles. Eventually, Python got a crit, which took care of the Bow Knight. Traversing through the side of the fortress was easy after that. Once at the north side, I abused Python and Alm to snipe at Dark Mages, before using Clair to lure in Dread Fighters for Alm, Python, and Luthier to snipe. While the rest of the party took care of gargoyles at first. After sniping out all three of the Dread Fighters, only Nuibaba and the Cantor remained, so I had everybody charge inside and gang up on the two. Mathilda dealt the finishing blow to both of them, because she was behind on EXP (possibly because her gargoyle-slaying and lack of attack range made her less important).

Alm 4-5 - Zeke vs Jerome
No, seriously, it was just Zeke vs Jerome, while Alm's party did very little. They charged ahead, with Gray, Mathilda, Clair, and Python engaging Jerome's army while Tatiana, Faye, and Tobin used Physic to heal Zeke's units. Jerome ended up far enough south that I was able to get Tatiana to kill him, which was really satisfying.

- I saw the Dragon's Maw event, so I decided to load and clear Celica's route first, to make the dragon attack easier to deal with.

Duma's Tower
This was incredibly annoying. There were a total of four unskippable battles, if I counted correctly. I actually died to the fourth battle in my first attempt, so I had to retry. This time I made sure to return to the shrine after the second battle, so that I only have two battles left. This time I was able to clear them. No notable strategies aside from abusing the Dread Fighters and the pegs, letting mages Seraphim out monster or just let Mae/Celica hit hard with Aura/Ragnarok, while Sonya/Leo snipe enemies from far. I tried to feed Conrad some kills.

- Oh, huh, the Dragon's Maw event is skipped entirely if you clear Celica's part first...? That's interesting...

Alm 4-6 - Split up with Hestia + Magnus in the north
Southern party was Alm, Gray, Tobin, Luthier, Faye, and Clair, while northern party was Mathilda, Zeke, Tatiana, Silque, Delthea and Python. Southern party was relatively straightforward, with Alm tanking the south and Gray-Clair destroying the enemies below the bridge. The northern party proceeded cautiously, trying to feed Zeke and Tatiana kills. The gargoyles + witches were being annoying, so I had Silque Expel out the gargoyles. Faye and Tobin provided Physic support to the north party too. Tatiana killed Hestia, and was supposed to kill Magnus too, but Delthea critted him instead.

Alm 4-7 - Slayde in the Last Bastion
The map design was begging me to cheese it, so I cheesed it. Basically, I set Python just in the tip of the range of the enemy Bow Knights (or Dark Mages), one by one, and had him weaken them until a ranged unit came in to finish off the Bow Knight. The finisher was whoever needed the EXP the most, so it was Tatiana for quite a while until she hit Lv8. All that was left was Slayde and some Armors. This time I prioritized Zeke, who badly needed EXP, and had him tank each Armor in a narrow passageway (with Tatiana, Luthier and Python behind him for support) until he finished them off. Same with Slayde, but I gave him Mathilda's Ridersbane to speed it up. I also used Clair to bait Armors, so that I didn't have to backtrack across the narrow passageways. She also blocked them from retreating to heal as well.

Alm 4-8 - Rudolph!
Yet another battle with no Cantors or other factors that emphasize speed. Wheeeee! Anyhow, Silque warped Mathilda to the inner area on the right, while Tatiana warped Python to the one on the left. Mathilda hit the Bow Knights hard with her Ridersbane and dodged a lot too, with Faye's massive Physic range healing her from time to time. Python simply sat on the healing spot and dueled other Bow Knights, with occasional healing from Tobin's Physic. Aside from Mathilda and Python, everyone else huddled in the starting area, picking off enemies that come out to greet them. A few Bow Knights came out as well, due to retreating to heal, but they didn't come all at once, so they were easily dealt with. Eventually, the only enemies left were Rudolph, the three Dark Mages, and two other Gold Knights. I had everyone charge at this point, except Python. Mathilda finished off the Gold Knight in the east. Rudolph decided to charge to the front gate as well, possibly as a response to my own charge. I had Luthier (Sagittae), Delthea (Ragnarok), Tobin (Excalibur) and Gray (Levin Sword) snipe Rudolph so that he ends up with exactly 1 HP, allowing Alm to finish him off (he did 1 dmg only).

- Small note about the Duma Temple lineup. Since I was restricted to 10 units, I decided to go with Alm, Delthea, Mathilda, Zeke, Faye, Silque, Tatiana, Gray, Clair, and Python. Yes, I benched Luthier and Tobin, because while Tobin is excellent, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to use 3 Saints, and didn't want to replace anybody else.

Berkut - YOU MONSTER HOW COULD YOU???
Rinea was such a loyal and loving woman... you are despicable, Berkut, seriously, go to hell. Anyhow, the two Dread Fighters at the east were pretty annoying, but I had Gray (now with a Brave Sword, finally free of that old Levin Sword) bait them and hit back hard, before Delthea and the three Saints ganged up on them. Then the Dark Mages and Mogalls were easily baited and eliminated. Gray baited the Scepters, which Delthea + Saints had fun ORKOing. Finally it was just Berkut and Rinea left (plus occasional Witch summons). I sent Gray ahead for a first strike, intending to have Delthea finish off Rinea, but Gray scored a crit and killed Rinea anyway. Tatiana's Physic patched him up for Berkut's attack, and then it was my entire army against Berkut with no reinforcements. I stationed Mathilda (with Ridersbane) in front of Berkut as the only unit in his range, healing her with Physics as she tanked Berkut. Then I sent Delthea (with a Mage Ring now) to hit Berkut hard before Zeke finished him off.

Alm's Gauntlet 1 - Safe tank spot is a trap!
The trap got me the first time, gah! Anyhow, on the successful run, I had Alm hold the Blessed Shield and stand one space below where the healing spot started off, i.e., the space where the healing spot shifts to later. This allowed him to tank everything and kill them eventually.

Unfortunately Alm was fatigued at this point. Since I'm going No-Items and No-Springs, I had no other choice but to press onward with reduced HP.

Alm's Gauntlet 2 - Gargoyles
I moved to one of the healing spots. It alternates every turn, but at least I'll heal and get defensive bonuses every two turns. Blessed Shield did its magic and kept Alm alive. Player Phase had Alm snipe Gargoyles for super-effective bow damage while avoiding counters. Pretty straightforward.

Alm's Gauntlet 3 - Dragooooooons
This was really scary, but I somehow cleared it in my first attempt. I moved Alm to the southwest corner to engage a dragon, and then he just sat there, tanking dragons. They were far from the Arcanist so the dragons couldn't heal. Eventually all the dragons fell, allowing Alm to charge at the Arcanist. The guy doesn't move, so I had Alm snipe him safely with a Blessed Bow until he died.

FINAL BATTLE - DUMA
...Okay, Alm is still fatigued. Thankfully he was the only one Fatigued (no-grinding, whee), but no-items no-springs meant that he had to stay Fatigued. In other words, fighting Duma with max 22 HP (23 if he gains HP on his only level-up). His damage output against Duma is 10 x 2 (11 if he gains Atk), and while he can survive a Tentacle if he gains HP or Defense, he can't survive Oculus. In my experience, Duma switches to Oculus at somewhere between 52 to 54 HP... yeah, this is going to be tough. It actually took me three days to refine my strategy until it was sustainable enough to ensure victory.

Anyhow, it began with Alm's "army" (I mixed the units around) charging east, running away from the Gold Knight + Dread Fighter x 2 (I used Clair bait to slow one Dread Fighter down) to catch up to Celica's army at Jedah's area. The two Bow Knights arrived at this area at around the same time too. Mathilda (Alm side) and Zeke (Celica side) did heavy damage to both Bow Knights. The one on the right (which Zeke weakened) still survived, so I had Silque Warp Delthea to finish him off. Meanwhile, the remaining units took care of the Gold Knight + Dread Fighter x 2, with Celica and Mae being the main contributors. As for Jedah, the units that burned his invincibility turns varied across Dread Fighters, pegasi, Zeke, and Python (not Leon, sadly, he dies). Delthea was the 4th to attack, using Fire to keep him alive at 8 HP, allowing Sonya to finish off Jedah (again) as the 8th attacker, finally avenging her sisters. Jedah died on turn 5 in my victorious run.

Speaking of Sonya's sisters, yeah, the northeast area with Duma looked pretty scary. Scary enough to rely on a cheesing technique. No, I don't think Invoke would have worked, so I resorted to... Warp + Rescue. Basically, Silque warps a unit (range 8) to Duma's area, where the unit attacks a boss before getting rescued by Faye (range 11). Meanwhile, the three Dread Fighters (Saber, Kamui, Gray) + Zeke form a wall in Duma's area to ward off the infinitely spawning enemies. Tatiana casted Fortify every single turn, with somebody (variable) healing her. As for Sonya's sisters, I thought about it for a while and decided that it would be most appropriate for Sonya to be the one to release her older sisters from their suffering, so she was the only one who engaged them, bringing peace to them both. I'm not sure if they had special dialogue with Sonya; they definitely talked about Sonya (with Hestia explicitly addressing her directly as "you"), but Sonya never replied...

Anyway, eventually it was just Duma + infinite Mogalls left. I continued my hit-and-run cheese, this time sending Delthea to dish out heavy damage with MageRing!Aura. GrimoireRing wouldn't work since she dies to Tentacle, so she needed the boosted range. Ragnarok hurts her too much that she dies to Ocular Beam counter. Zeke actually outdamages her if she gets hit by the Ocular Beam (i.e. fails to fire a second Aura), but Ocular Beam had something like 40 Hit, so she dodged enough that I decided to stick with her.

The problem is when Duma switches to Oculus. Oculus outright kills Alm and nobody else could hurt him (Gradivus doesn't work, so I doubt there's anything else). Alm does a measly 10-11 damage (he doubles, but that doesn't help if he gets hit) while Oculus activates once Duma's HP reaches somewhere between 52-54 (guessing 52 HP, since that's how far GBA games display HP). The only option I could think of (without depending crucially on Alm dodging) is to hit Duma hard with a crit when he's just only slightly above the Oculus threshold, allowing Alm to finish him off. Delthea achieves 20 Crit, surpassing everyone else who can survive the non-Oculus counter AND weaken him enough for Alm to finish off. So basically, I would wait until Duma is not surrounded (so that the finishing blow can actually happen) and then warp Delthea to hit Duma. If she doesn't crit, I rescue her back, wait for Duma to regenerate until he disables Oculus, and then repeat. If she crits, then I can use Tatiana to (stop Fortifying) warp Alm to finish off Duma.

The problem is, once Duma gets hit (very first hit from max HP), he starts moving. He doesn't move when he summons or fires Upheaval, and the swamp slows him down, but he still comes closer and closer. I tried sending Catria to a wall (near the upper-left corner near Jedah) where Duma can attack her while being stuck in the northern area, but nope, he didn't take the bait, choosing to advance towards my Dread Fighter x 3 + Zeke wall. While I'm sure the Dread Fighters can tank Ocular Beams, the 5 range grants him a lot of flexibility, letting him come closer and closer while being surrounded by Mogalls, which I anticipated would make it impossible to find an opening for Silque's range-8 Warp (note that Alm also needs to finish off Duma eventually).

Eventually, I figured out a way to possibly stall Duma indefinitely. Basically, in the southeast corner where Celica starts, there is this narrow passage to the west. I had no idea why that was there, but now I think I have a clue. The end of the passage is exactly five squares away from the closest traverseable area in the north (which is the wide area between Alm's and Celica's starting positions). So basically, if I leave somebody in that spot while Duma is in the upper area, Duma would be baited to attack that unit. AFAIK this is the only spot where I can bait Duma while completely restricting Duma's movement (5 range attack offers too much flexibility). Furthermore, there's a broad area to the northwest where the enemy Gold Knight + Dread Fighter x 2 start. So basically, I'll keep hitting Duma while he slowly approaches, and then when he's in the middle area, he'll get baited by DragonShield!Clair in the dead-end spot at the bottom. This would prevent him from advancing to my main party, which would tank the Mogalls and continue Warp-attack-Rescue sequences to hit Duma. Furthermore, Tatiana and Faye have huge range with their Physic, allowing them to heal Clair if necessary.

In other words, I would be able to stall Duma indefinitely until Delthea scores the crucial crit. In theory anyway. I don't quite know if it would work, because the first one in which I intended to employ this strategy... was also my last. Delthea got lucky and scored a crit before Duma actually made it that far, allowing Alm to finish him off. There seems to be special dialogue involving Alm AND Celica for the finishing blow, as well as a special finishing blow animation for Alm.

Everybody except Conrad was useful for the final battle. I suppose this would suggest that I could have replaced Tobin, whose Excalibur and Physic would undoubtedly be very helpful, but the problem is that Conrad's high movement allowed him to quickly escape the pursuing Paladin + Dread Fighter x 2 in the northwest in the early turns of the battle. Tobin wouldn't be able to outrun them as fast, and I was too lazy to try incorporating a different strategy when my original approach (which has a useless Conrad) had no problems.

Battles/Victories Counts:
Valbar 0/0
Est 0/0
Jesse 0/0
Mycen 0/0
Atlas 1/0
Forsyth 2/0
Nomah 6/0
Boey 7/0
Lukas 14/3
Kliff 35/10
Clive 37/10
Tatiana 33/20
Zeke 53/21
Silque 89/25
Conrad 50/32
Genny 99/35
Faye 111/42
Luthier 115/44
Gray 175/52
Palla 153/59
Mathilda 149/65
Python 283/69
Sonya 141/74
Saber 231/76
Catria 136/79
Kamui 182/79
Delthea 129/86
Leon 287/88
Clair 171/91
Tobin 181/92
Mae 197/95

Celica 189/103
Alm 331/109

(Interestingly, my top two were Alm and Celica. I wonder if their endings would still be shown at the end if they weren't the top two.. Also, Tobin was #4 despite being benched for the final dungeon and battle. Well, he was there from the start, and Excalibur is always great, especially before Luthier shows up)

========
POSTGAME
========
Same rules:
[Hard Classic / no deaths / no consumable items / no springs / no forging / no stupid turnwheel crap / no "grinding" (engaging in battles with the sole intent of training units)]
The only difference is that I can look up advice and suggestions from online or other people. From what I learned, the postgame is all about one really difficult dungeon. Therefore, I decided to focus on using only ten units from now on, to prepare for the dungeon. I also heard that the Beloved Zofia and Killer Bow are great, but no-forging is still in effect. Python is stuck with a Steel Bow while Celica continues with the Ladyblade, which I heard has a really good final Combat Art.

AC 6-1 - Pirates in ships again
This seemed like an easy fight, so I tried to focus on Celica building up weapon EXP for Ladyblade. Unfortunately, she couldn't tank a lot, so I stationed Mathilda to do most of the tanking while Celica charged in later. Python dueled the western Archer and eventually killed him. Delthea and Mae had fun sniping the eastern Archer and other enemies with Mage Ring.

AC 6-2 - Dark Mages and Cantors in ships now
So much monster spawns... Anyhow, I had Saber hold the left bridge chokepoint, with Mathilda and Python behind him, while everyone else defended the right bridge from fast gargoyles. Tatiana abused Fortify quite a bit. Sonya took every opportunity to snipe the Cantor with Mage Ring Excalibur until she murdered him with a crit. Celica was fast enough to avoid getting doubled by Gargoyles, so I used her to tank them and gain Ladyblade weapon EXP. Once the Cantor died, it was easy for everyone to charge up and kill all enemies.

AC 6-3 - Scary monsters in the ship
This was actually really intense. Anyhow, the first thing I did was to abuse Mage Ring's range to Seraphim out two of the dragons on the left. I had my magic units near the left side (but outside the third dragon's range) while my three physical tanks (Saber, Mathilda, Alm) covered the right side to bait and tank the deathgoyles, and then the pegasi. The magic units then killed off the third dragon and the eyeballs, before retreating quickly to the right to escape the northwest deathgoyle reinforcements. The physical units moved left to tackle the deathgoyles instead. The white dragons then arrived southwest, but they couldn't ORKO anybody due to their low Speed, so I allowed my mages to be in their range. Once they closed in, the white dragons were cleanly ORKO'd by Seraphims, while the other units cleaned off the weakened deathgoyles.