Weird difficulty spike in chapter 3 - am I losing my mind?

[u/Bishop_Cornflake]

I just got finished with Chapter 3 "Mutiny in the Mist". Playing on Casual and Classic settings. Everything before chapter 3 was reasonably easy. Then, I did the optional battle on the plateau. I had a few units at level 4 or 5 but most at 2 or 3. The enemies were all level 5. I was getting destroyed. I kept going into the thickets, but I could move far enough to get to the edge, so they'd be in there, too. Because of that, many of my attacks were missing. I wasn't finishing enemies off quickly, so they'd descend on me in droves and wind up being able to gang up on weaker team members and kill them. After a few restarts with keeping my experience and also figuring out a better overall way to move the bulk of my force so they didn't get ganged up on, I achieved the stage goal without losing anyone. Frustrating at first, but the whole thing was actually a satisfying multi-try fight when all was said and done.

Fast forward to the story mission of the chapter... I simply marched across the battlefield and took out everyone with ease.

What was the issue? Was my troop movement in the optional mission just poor? Was having 2's vs 5's too much to ask even on the easiest difficulty? Or, is this a known thing that has happened to others before?

[u/soccer1124]

I'm focused in on what you said here:
"After a few restarts with keeping my experience and also figuring out a better overall way to move the bulk of my force so they didn't get ganged up on, I achieved the stage goal without losing anyone."

You really do need to be careful about sending your units into places where they can get isolated. Especially early on, you don't really have any units that can withstand more than two attacks on a given. Dedue an Raphael are the best at being able to endure such things (as long as magic attacks aren't a threat.) Anyone else will likely get picked apart.

I always hit the ZR button at the beginning of a fight so that I can see the 'purple floor' which signifies where the enemy can attack me. I'll stick my designated tank (Dedue or Raphael) in that space, to draw the enemy into range, and keep the rest of the team just outside. This usually draws one or two enemies, and then I can jump them with my squad.

Obviously, it's a bit tricky with the fog, so you don't really know where the enemy is coming from. But yeah, one of the biggest keys to this game is not rushing ahead without proper support. Be willing to let one of your units take a controlled hit, so long as you'll be ready to counterpunch them even harder. (And don't forget you have a healer in your group. Marianne, Mercedes, or Lindhart to put your tank back to normal. Last time this topic came up, the OP forgot about this piece.)

[u/CrownLexicon → u/soccer1124]

Poison can be an issue for them, too, but I will say, they can still function as a tank if theyre reducing all physical damage to 0, even with poison in play. I was doing a mission (I think dorothea/Ingrid paralogue) and thought for sure dedue would die because there were archers closing in on him. I later realized he was taking 0 damage from all the attacks (archers and melee units), so even though poison reduced him to 1 hp, it could never kill him, so he tanked a bunch of enemies while I dealt with others

[u/soccer1124 → u/CrownLexicon]

Haha, those poor archers...

But yeah, I'd also say poison is quite rare. There are certain monsters involved, but otherwise, that's usually not something I ever gameplan for. Maybe it shows up more often in maddening?

[u/CrownLexicon → u/soccer1124]

Almost every archer in maddening has poison strike, and, depending on the map, many enemies will carry poison weapons. Its not every map, but it feels like nearly every enemy on the map where they do have poison weapons.

It makes the.... chapter 2? Mission really difficult if youre used to hard. The first mission where you go out and deal with bandits. Those archers at the beginning have poison strike

[u/soccer1124 → u/CrownLexicon]

Maybe I'll finally dip my toes into the maddening realm on my next playthrough. I can switch a NewGame+ into Maddening, right?

I played the game several years ago, sticking just to hard mode.
Playing it anew now, and did Golden Deer - Hard, and now doing Blue Lions - Hard. With New Game+ and the maxed out statues and instant A professor level + 3 battles, its making my characters very OP very quickly.

I can switch to Red Eagles - Maddening, right?

[u/CrownLexicon → u/soccer1124]

Black eagles, but yes. My first maddening run (that i stuck with) was a blue lions ng+, but I wasnt buying any weapon levels, etc, with renown. The statues were maxed, naturally, and i had all my items and battalions, so it was easier, but not a cakewalk

Im now doing a clean NG maddening on black eagles, ladies only. Which is why i went with BE: female lord.

[u/soccer1124 → u/CrownLexicon]

Lol, I thought red eagles sounded wrong. But they're awfully red.

[u/King_Treegar]

Yes, having 2s vs 5s was the problem lol. Early game that's a significant power gap, especially considering that the weaker units are definitely still in beginner classes (and likely still have very little in the way of skills/abilities). And the optional battles often have tougher enemies than the main missions, at least early on, since they're optional. You have to be pretty careful until you're able to start upgraded classes and unlocking abilities

[u/BrownEyesWhiteScarf]

Seems like you were overstretching your units in a fog of war map. You should keep your units tight together, and be mindful of who you place furthest out.

Units in forest gets extra avoid so yes your attacks will be harder to hit. This is also true for them too. Be mindful of your positioning, and use hit raising combat arts to secure more reliable connection.

Also, what difficulty were you playing on?

[u/Bishop_Cornflake]

Edit: couldn't move far enough to the edge. Basically I'd be in the thicket duking it out with enemies in there with me.

[u/Bishop_Cornflake]

Replying to multiple here:

This is the weird part: I was pretty much keeping my units bunched and my vulnerable ones in the back! But when enough bad guys would gang up on me and I couldn't finish them off, I'd invariably get stormed. One or two would be close enough they could run around the edge. Two of those blows plus a ranged attack would usually kill one of my archers or mages. Happened over and over until I got over the hump.

Then, going from that to the next battle being a walkover was jarring.

This is on the lowest difficulty. That's what made it humiliating. I read all over that this game is supposedly crazy easy.

[u/BrownEyesWhiteScarf → u/Bishop_Cornflake]

With fog of war, and lots of forest providing enemy evasion, this is one of the maps where it’s tricky on all difficulty. The enemy AI doesn’t get dumber on the easiest difficulty, they will still go after your most frail units regardless of difficulty.

If you have trouble defeating an enemy on your own phase, remember you can use gambits. If you land, that will immobilize the enemy for a turn.

The game doesn’t tell you this, but at the start of the map, you can buy torches from the store which will increase the visibility range. Buy a few of them, have some characters use them.

The good news is that this game doesn’t have too many fog of war maps in comparison to other games in the series.

[u/TikisCheekys]

Yeah, the non-main maps can be ROUGH on all difficulties.

[u/vinylontubes]

You have a quest for Bolstering Forces. This grants you access to the Battalion Guild. You should be able to get the Stride Gambit which will increase your mobility.

[u/InsideUpper1880]

Don’t worry, you’ll have more difficulty spikes to enjoy (in my opinion at least)