Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon/Chapter 7

Lefcandith Gauntlet "Aurelis was free, but Marth and his army- now known as the Akaneian League- still had much work ahead of them. They followed the Middleroad south, bound for Akaneia Palace- a perilous route, for it took them right into Lefcandith Valley and the jaws of trouble. The countless fortresses lining the valley made it a veritable gauntlet and compounding the danger was the presence of the Whitewings, a knightly order led by Princess Minerva of Medon. It would be a fierce battle."

Preparation
This battle will be relatively hard, but it is imperative as always not to take all your units. After all the items from last battle, you might need to sort them out. When you are ready, enter the battle as normal.

Begin
Minerva will charge but WILL NOT attack. You can kill the archers around the gate, I would wait until she leaves before you continue to the village though.

Note that you can kill Minerva, with an archer, though this is unnecessary. You still can (interestingly) recruit her later, and killing her will make the three other pegasus knights fly off.

Defeat the other Pegasus Knights (the ones that rush you) with your archers then wait. When you see a thief about to unlock the gate, get Ogma or an able unit ready. Kill him and like one or two turns later Minerva says...

Now, go and rescue the village to get a special unit. He needs a firestone to attack, luckily we got one earlier. Note that the character, name is Bantu, cannot attack without a firestone. I don't like him for this reason, since you don't even get another firestone until Chapter 17.

Rush downward, and you are promptly met with a solid 4 enemy reinforcement each turn. To cover them, do as follows:


 * 1) Shiida use Wing Spear to kill one.
 * 2) Magic + Nabarl + Wolf/Gordin for another
 * 3) One cavalier
 * 4) A different cavalier.

Another strategy that works is you have all of your units get into the area of the town. place Draug at the place where the gate was. Have Shiida fly over the mountais to the south. When the reinforcements appear, fly back over the mountains to safety. If Draug takes no damage from all the enemies, the strategy is flawless. You can have Draug sit there and break the weapons of all your enemies. Or, you can have him kill them all.

Once they die, this map has nothing left of a challenge...except the boss which can be beaten easily be a long ranged attacker. He also can be abused if one of your archers can hit 1 damage with steel bow.

Seize the gate, save, and continue.