Chapter 15: Valley of Torment

This lava-stricken landscape is the Map as Ingrid and Dorothea’s Paralogue. (Rumored Nuptials) Having Fliers will make navigation a lot easier since they can fly over most of the Terrain here and remain immune to the damaging crater tiles. If you have fliers, have them carry a Chest Key each to make it easier for them to open the two Chests. Healers with Physic and Rescue will also help tremendously in this battle. Take note that there’s a lot of armored units here so have your main melee units carry special weapons like Armorslayers, Mace, Hammers, etc to heal deal Bonus Damage to these sturdy units.

The enemy commander is a Great Knight named Gwendal. He’s a tough nut to crack if you use your melee units against him. He also has a Lampos Shield equipped, which can remove the Bonus Damage from weapons that are otherwise effective against his class (Armorslayer, Horseslayer, etc). Thankfully, he can be easily squashed if you managed to get a Mage or perform a magical attack against him.

In this Golden Deer route mission, you’ll find Ashe among the enemy forces, even if you managed to Recruit him to your house prior to the time skip. Have Byleth defeat him in battle and you’ll have the option to persuade him to join your army without killing him.

Start off by luring the nearby enemy forces to attack you. If you have Fliers, keep an eye out for the enemy archers. If your fliers can fly to them and preemptively kill them, do that but make sure you have healers that can Support them. If you have someone with Rescue, you can send a Flier to kill an Archer, then Rescue him/her back to a safe location. You can repeat this hit-and-run tactic to wipe out enemy archers and give your fliers free reign in the skies.

If you want to rescue Ashe, have Byleth move towards him. Defeat him using Byleth to get his Killer Bow and get the option to persuade him to join your army or kill him. If you spared him, he will join your army but he will leave this battlefield and not participate for the remainder of the battle.

Have your Fliers move north to reach the two Chests. The chest to the east contains a Bolt Axe while the other chest to the west contains a Silver Shield. In the meantime, you can divide your forces; one going north and one heading west. This will force the enemies to scatter their forces as well and head towards your allies nearest to their location.

Once your forces reached the middle of the Map, Gwendal will start mobilizing and heading towards your position as well. Thankfully, the Terrain will restrict his movements which will give you time to prepare. After a few turns passed, Judith and a couple of her armored units will arrive from the northeast section of the map. After that, the Defeat Condition of this mission will be updated as well; you must keep Judith alive. You can also have Claude talk with Judith for a special dialogue.

Continue mopping up the enemy forces until you face Gwendal. He can easily take out your softer units so have a strong melee unit to take him head on. Don’t hesitate to use Gambits against him to further restrict his movements. You may need to use coordinated attacks to take him down completely.