Why FE4 Player Phase is King (Read Description)

This is some footage of my second playthough (ranked) that I'll be using for my Fire Emblem 4 "review".

This part of Ch.10 is kind of notorious for being really problematic for an ill-prepared player army. Mainly because this is FE4, where almost all of your units get torn to shreds by dark mages with their paper mache Res stat. And they had the audacity to cramp A WHOLE BRIGADE OF THEM right from the jump.

But conversely, this is the perfect chance to show off how FE4 rewards you for crafting well-planned strategies in what's seemingly a really scary disadvantage. Let me lay it all out here:

Yeah, at a glance, this just looks like a mob of mages with some melee units backing them up. Well, two of these Dark Bishops have a Sleep staff... and unless you're one of the few units in the army with more than 16 Res (which in my case, I can count them on one hand), yeeeeeeeeeah, they're priority #1 to kill. So, making sure Fee was in range for Lene's refresh was essential to snipping one of the two sleep staffers, who's way too out of range to snipe on Turn 1. Leif took out the second Sleeper.

Then there's THREE of these losers with a Hel tome, and your REALLY don't want them to attack you on enemy phase. It's a spell that reduces anyone it touches to 1 HP, and given how single RN system works, you don't want to risk someone who's still in range for EP Turn 1 to get killed by a follow-up attack from another enemy.

There are two Fenrir siege tome users. One of which we kill, and the other I keep alive because he's too far. Leaving one alive is fine, since one Fenrir isn't strong enough to kill anyone it targets. The way FE4 AI works is that it'll try to target the weakest unit in range. Lene is good bait for this so they won't target someone like Finn, who was in range to potentially die from his position.

Seliph and Arthur were the prime candidates to take out the Snipers, as one posed an immediate threat to Fee, and the other to Lene.

Speaking of Seliph, me moving him next to the Hero was essential, as making use of his Authority stars are crucial to insuring your units are getting maximum mileage out of the extra hit and avoid it provides. Though in hindsight, it'd have been even better if I moved Dermott first, so he and Nanna's Charm skill (which gives even more passive hit and avoid bonuses to all allies within 3 spaces) would stack with Seliph's authority. Though for an LTC, it'd be better to just have Seliph move as far as he could after he's finished, as the siblings alone were enough to guarantee hits for the others.

In the end, this gave me the most favorable result: all of the most dangerous foes are killed immediately, and we're using the forest terrain against them so they'll target the units who're guaranteed to survive on enemy phase. Lene took a hit from the seige tome, but that's intentionally. Cairpre needs EXP, so people taking damage a lot is preferred to level him up ASAP. Turn 2, my infantry units clean up the leftovers and the cavs/fliers push full steam ahead to save the children/villages/stomp that b**ch Hilda.

It's worth nothing that bringing a Silence staff will make this even safer on enemy phase. It can be a nice failsafe in case you get some terrible RNG, or just further protect someone like Finn from the nearest dark mage. I didn't find it necessary here since that staff can be used for harder situations in the final map (and repairing the damn thing is expensive...)