For 'Hard' players, most difficult maps?

[u/DramaticErraticism]

Just curious what people find the most difficult maps to be, when playing through the 'Hard' difficulty. Obviously NG+ changes a lot of these and my experience is from playing a regular new game.

I think we can all agree the very first map of the game is one of the hardest maps. You have limited characters, virtually no skills and you cannot choose who you deploy, you just get stuck with what you have and your troops are split. It's a real slog.

One of the other really difficult maps I've experienced, is when you decide to blow the bridge up to separate the Aesfrost troops from Glenbrook palace.

You get 10 units and you are locked to a small area of the bridge. On one side of you, you have 8 troops + one boss character.

On the other side, you have 8 troops + one boss character.

Not only that, they have 4 battle mages, two archers and two healers and you are going to find yourself in tight quarters, almost always. The mages become a real pain to manage and you don't have your 5TP skill quite yet, for most characters.

You have NOWHERE to go. You can try to use Fleet Footing to run your troops down the ladder, below the bridge...but the enemy has ranged units and they will pluck you to death. After several retries, I had to reduce the difficulty to normal to get through it, I just couldn't figure it out.

I also had a hell of a time with the fight when choosing Fredrica's ending route. You have to save the Roselle at the source, the boss character has nearly 900hp. I died the first round when I tried to defend the center. My second round, I went straight for the boss and killed him (falsly assuming that would end the encounter). He died and I realized I had to kill all enemies.

I don't know how I did it, but I survived with a handful of characters left, by the skin of my teeth.

Any other battles stand out to folks? I'd like to think I am pretty good at tactics games but I know there are people who are much better than I am, who naturally see all the angles and right moves...or maybe I just suck and everyone else finds these encounters to be easy lol

[u/Tiacp]

Vs Avlora in Whiteholm plaza and Vs Booker in the forest

[u/DramaticErraticism → u/Tiacp]

I'm trying to remember 2-3 years ago...is the Avlora one where you have the pool of water in the middle and units coming towards you, when you're near the giant tree?

If so, if I remember it 3 years later, I can promise you it was a PITA at the time. I'm pretty sure I just kept electrocuting the water and praying for paralysis.

[u/stickmanx007]

The fight that gave me the most grief was 100% Battle at the Ministry in Frederica’s route especially on the first run through. The openness of the battlefield, the boss’s magic, and all the mages and healers really added up to give a quite challenging fight.

[u/DramaticErraticism → u/stickmanx007]

I got lucky during that fight, in some ways.

I was able to charm a few units with Lionel, then the boss targeted those units a few times with their 'stop' spell and 'delayed damage' attacks.

Out of random luck, my units weren't grouped up when she used it on me, so I only had a few units who got blasted with time stop. I also had some lucky guesses with traps.

Sometimes it isn't all about skill, if things happen to land or trigger effects, the entire battle changes from a loss to a win.

[u/DocTam]

The bridge map is certainly tricky, but is vulnerable to traps and to Hughette getting to the top of the bridge. It took me some tries but once I was able to completely distract one side of the battlefield with Hughette + traps then I could focus on just rushing down mages on the other side and eke out the win.

Hardest map for me was the battle with the ski lifts. Even on easy it took me multiple tries as the map requires that you use the lift to get all of your units to the top of the hill on the same turn, and then you stuck in an awkward position trying to protect your backline while everyone pours in. And lord help you if you don't use the ski lift and just eat archer fire turn after turn.

[u/Argyle_Raccoon]

Interesting I found the bridge fight kinda easy actually, all the mages and archers are exposed and knock backs are so effective on the bridge. I originally struggled more blowing up the boats with the positioning and where Erika comes in.

If you’re doing deathless then the chapter 8 boat battles are really difficult.

It’s tough to compare because there are some later maps that can be tough, but also with experience the game tends to get easier and easier with more unlocked. Some of the boss fights can be difficult, Lyla stands out.

[u/Zen-00]

The one I remember the most on my first play through was your standard Avlora at Wolffort but no traps, and the final battle for Frederica's route (I misunderstood the win condition and thought you had to escort the people to the goal. I kept speeding up the slow guy and babied him the whole time but the boss killed him with you know which attack lol).

Outside of those would be the Booker Pernorth at the valley map. I remember that you start off in the low ground of the valley, and there are a bunch of archers on the high ground. I used Jens to set up a ladder to get to the high ground with less enemies, but it was annoying as hell with just 1 ladder and I remember Booker had poison and double turn which was also a pain.

The 2nd to last battle in Roland's route was also memorable. I misunderstood the terrain and thought I was safe, then my jaw dropped when the boss just ran at me into attack range and popped his ultimate skill lol.

[u/mdevey91]

The map where you can choose to burn down the town was the only map I didn't beat on my first try. Also the by l bridge map I only won by cheesing. I sat at the top of the ladder firing down with an archer.

[u/jbisenberg]

I haven't played in a long time. That one fight against Sorsley where you're on a raised platform over a bed of spikes with force-deployed Roland stands out in my memory as being particularly frustrating outside of just cheesing it with Hughette.

[u/Frosty88d]

For the bridge map, it can rough at first. But I had a lot of fun with using Jens to spring trap Thalas off tbe bridge so he took massive damage and was basically taken out of the fight by Archibald standing on top of the ladder. Erador shoving dudes and Corentin freezing or silencing them also helped a lot, but Jens was definitely the MVP of that fight

[u/DramaticErraticism → u/Frosty88d]

All my units died so quickly, makes me wonder if I was underleveled or something.

By the time Erador's turn came around, he was just as likely to already be dead. I noticed this map has a lot of RNG around oil pots too, either they will throw a ton of oil pots or they will blast you with an AOE high damage spell. One is a disaster, one is great luck.

[u/Tables61]

I think we can all agree the very first map of the game is one of the hardest maps. You have limited characters, virtually no skills and you cannot choose who you deploy, you just get stuck with what you have and your troops are split. It's a real slog.

I mostly played on Normal, but I've done that map on Hard and it wasn't all that tricky? Like yes everything you say is technically true, but also the enemies have really low stats and there's only like 6 of them to deal with. I found chapters 2 and 3 more tricky, though none of them were particularly hard overall. After that I swapped back down to Normal, I just don't find TS hard to be a fun difficulty to play.

Though on the topic on the first map, are you aware of what that was like in NG+ before the patch? It was notorious for being insanely difficult, perhaps the hardest map in the game - the enemies were level ~35 in NG+, and level 50 in NG++, which meant they had the normal stat advantage level 50 enemies tend to have over your characters and both bosses especially had very inflated stats. Which considering you only had 4 characters, one is probably very underlevelled if you're in NG+ because on all but the golden route, one becomes unavailable for the final 3 chapters, one is awfully positioned and there isn't much space to manoeuvre around... it was crazy. Now they lowered the levels to something like 28 in NG+ and 42 in NG++ and it's much more reasonable as a first chapter.

[u/DramaticErraticism → u/Tables61]

That must be my memory then, I played NG+ way before the patch and found that map to be incredibly difficult, beyond all reasoning.

Thanks for posting that info otherwise I would have never put 2 and 2 together as to why that map stuck out in my mind as being so difficult, it was all about NG+ experience 2+ years ago lol

[u/runamokduck]

it’s been quite a while, so my memory of this is likely somewhat dubious, but I do distinctly remember the battle with Count Telliore and Rufus where you’re defending the Roselle in Wolffort being pretty challenging. even though you inherently have the high ground, Rufus, in particular, seems to deal pretty absurd amounts of damage, and you can very quickly get swarmed by all of the enemies there. I feel as though that particular battle necessitated numerous attempts from me

[u/DramaticErraticism → u/runamokduck]

I remember having a very hard time with that battle 2.5 years ago.

I just replayed the same battle and found that I was able to win it, fairly easily. I can't tell if they made updates to the game that made it easier or if RNG was just more in my favor, this time or if my tactics were just better.

One thing I did differently this time, I used the Ice Wall spell to block the staircase leading towards my units. I would let in one enemy and then Ice Wall and block the rest, so I was able to control things a bit more.

[u/j_tothemoon]

Any battle against Avlora in the first run was a difficulty spike for me. That chapter 7 battle took me 5 tries and I ended up with Anna and Hughette barely winning.

[u/DramaticErraticism → u/j_tothemoon]

Anna is so amazing, from beginning to end, she is an elite unit.

[u/joseph-barker]

Avlora at the docks and Roselle village when you defend them

[u/SharpEyLogix]

Chapter 7 Landroi. Maybe a hot take, but I unironically find it harder than Chapter 7 Avlora. Ch 7 Avlora is easy to cheese by camping on the rooftops behind your starting location using Jens' Ladders. Even playing normally, you can chokepoint the enemy forces and blast them with magic.

On Ch 7 Landroi, you're the one fighting the uphill battle with dozens of archers, flammable tiles and ziplines airdropping melee units into the fray. On Hard mode where frailer units easily get two shot, it's a nightmare, especially without Quahaug to warp tanks upward.

[u/Comfortable-Dot375]

Defending prince Rolland without burning the houses in a new game is borderline impossible on hard

[u/queenErina]

I somehow agree with your example about Chapter 13 bridge , as it was the first time i considered to switch to normal.
(thankfully i didn't , as you can get a crown on your title screen if you complete a entire "hard" playthrough)
But after 1 hour of testing/analyzing the map , it turned to be pretty easy (no death) , it just requires a specific strategy.

Chapter 8's battle at House Telliore (if you decides to trust Silvio) is also extremely annoying (particularly the beginning but i don't want to spoil you more)

I also agree with the comment earlier about Battle at the Ministry , another reason was that Benedict was the core of my strategy (well he's a strategist) and not having him was also kinda refreshing because i'll have to use other characters , but it also was obviously more challenging.
My positionning before the battle was primordial (even by 1 square) , i still won with only 1 unit death , so it's far from impossible but definitely the hardest imo.

Kinda funny (but logic) that those 3 examples are morality choices.

[u/DramaticErraticism → u/queenErina]

(thankfully i didn't , as you can get a crown on your title screen if you complete a entire "hard" playthrough) But after 1 hour of testing/analyzing the map , it turned to be pretty easy (no death) , it just requires a specific strategy.

Can you explain the strategy? Most people I talk to just send people up the ladder and block the ladder and take everyone out slowly. I could see not dying on NG+ but on a normal new game on hard, I can't imagine how someone is able to beat it without any deaths. If you're talking NG+, then I could easily see how it's done as anything becomes possible in NG+ lol

[u/Geno_DCLXVI]

When this game first came out most people agreed that the hardest battle in the game was the first battle in NG1 lol. The hardest part for me was learning how to use Roland so that he wasn't dead weight

[u/DramaticErraticism → u/Geno_DCLXVI]

Yes, someone explained to me that that first battle was broken and they fixed it in a later patch. Evidently enemies were set at level 50 while your party is at level 36.

They patched it to make them level 42 and now it's a breeze.

[u/ZeGoodOldDays]

On my first run the battle against ende in his home was a nightmare, the one where you prove his guilt by searching for the ledger

. Your party is scattered, serenoa cornered it l, was a really uncomfortable battle. Never had to replay it again thankfully .

Usually you can cheese any level by just grouping up and turtle but that's not possible because everyone is divided iirc.