Scenario 25 "The continent's strongest knights"
Winning condition: -Death of all enemies
Losing condition: -Death of Elwin
Items: War hammer, Great sword, Wand, Longbow, Arbalest, Chain mail,
Plate armor, Cross, Necklace, Orb, Speed boots.
Heroes: Elwin, Hain, Scott, Riana, Sherry, Aaron, Keith, Lester, Larna.
Enemies:
Front row:
( Imperial General Wizard L7 Wand, Orb, Armored Soldier x6 ) x2
Middle row:
Leon Royal Guard L10 Flame Lance, Large shield, Amulet
Royal Horseman x6
Laird Silver Knight L10 Great sword, Plate armor
Royal Horseman x 6
Imperial General Knightmaster L10 Royal Horseman x6
Back row:
Imperial General Dragon Lord L10 Necklace, Griffin x6
( Imperial General Paladin L10 Heavy Horseman x6 ) x2
( Imperial General Paladin L10 Necklace, Heavy Horseman x6 ) x2
A nice, straightforward melee, with little terrain to get in the way. Egbert returns Jessica to you at the start of the battle, but she joins with no MP, so she won't play much of a role here. This is the first and last time you are actually required to defeat Leon, but you should have had plenty of practice.
Basic strategy: All-out assault[edit]
Put phalanxes in the middle, and dragoons on the side. You might want to mix in a couple of units of elves with one of your phalanx leaders. You want to kill both wizards by the end of turn 1 - you don't want to have to deal with any magic but your own in what is already a very intense battle. Make a line out of your *good* phalanxes stretching from one dragoon group to another, forming a U, with your weaker characters in back. It's hard to figure out which of your characters are tough enough except by trial and error - if Leon mauls the unit at the start of the enemy's first turn, then you know. Hopefully, you will have enough good units to form an unbreakable line. If you don't, you might want to try the other strategy.
When the enemy charges you, take out the royal horsemen first - they are the most dangerous. Leon's amulet lessens any magic attacks you throw at him, but the other commanders have no such restrictions. Zone, Charm, and Sleep to your heart's content. Always make sure that your leaders are protected, since it only takes one horse charge to send a mage or soldier type character to oblivion. Keep fighting, and use heal2 a lot - *after* everyone else has attacked.
Because the enemy tends to cluster around your flanks, where the horsemen are, you might want to send a 'fodder' unit in front of the center. Leon will charge this unit, and you will be able to attack him from all sides instead of just with one flank. Taking down Leon early makes the rest of the scenario much easier.
Finesse strategy: Mountain defense[edit]
This starts out the same as the above, use dragoons to kill the two wizards. However, instead, of having the phalanxes support them, have them stay by your starting position, forming an n-shaped line along the forests and mountains below the main road. Put the characters with the worst A/D bonuses on the mountains, they'll need the +25% bonus more than anyone else. If for some reason you have characters that can't recruit phalanxes, dragoons, or angels, put them as far behind your lines as you can.
On turn 1, the royal knights will charge and kill some of your dragoons. Hopefully, your leaders are strong enough that they will not be attacked. On turn 2, retreat all your surviving cavalry back to your main line, and await the enemy assault. The teleport spell helps here. Cast protection/attack on anyone whose troops bonuses you're not confident of. When the enemy charges, just kill them all, using the same spells as described above, but without moving your line away from the protective terrain.
The advantage of doing it this way is that your phalanxes can take advantage of the mountains and forests to get defensive bonuses. Also, you're using the edges of the map as your flanks, which are much more stable than dragoons. The disadvantage is that on turn 1 your dragoons are in a very precarious position, and if your leaders aren't powerful enough they could easily get killed by either Leon or Laird.
One interesting thing to note is that Leon's unit will never attack Larna in this scenario, no matter how heavily the odds are stacked in his favor.