Chapter 17: Blood of the Eagle and Lion

This battle will pit you against two enemy forces; the much larger imperial army and the smaller but equally potent Kingdom army. Dimitri leads the third force, along with his trusty retainer Dedue. If you recruited all other Blue Lions students prior to the timeskip, you don’t have to face them here. Since the battlefield is a large, open space, Mounted units and Fliers will excel here. As such, healers with Psychic, Fortify, and Rescue will be invaluable in keeping your army safe.

It may seem that the middle platform is a great position to capture, since it has a ballista that can cover the entire middle portion of the Map. However, that platform is protected by fortress knights so you’ll have to units that can deal magical Damage or use effective weapons against them. Take note that later in the battle, if you managed to take over this platform, Edelgard will set the entire platform on fire, dealing damage to everyone standing there every turn, including her own units.

As soon as the battle starts, Edelgard will order her Mounted units to engage your forces. Position your units who can lure and intercept them, away from your vulnerable healers, mages, and archers. You can move your main army towards the central platform or divide your forces, with a powerful and smaller punitive force to take on Dimitri’s army to the east. However, don’t scatter your forces early on since Dimitri will call in reinforcements that will spawn behind your forces to the north and northeast flanks. Make sure that you protect your softer units since they can be easily taken out by these powerful Kingdom units.

If your forces have crossed the river, you can block the bridge with a single unit to remove the movement Range advantage of the Kingdom horsemen. If you managed to get the kingdom’s main army’s attention, they’ll start moving northeast instead. You can fall back to the bridge and funnel their forces there.

Once you have wiped out the enemies on the hill, Edelgard will set it aflame, regardless if she still has surviving units there or not. Nevertheless, once the hill is on fire, have your units evacuate it and heal up. Use Fortify if you have access to it to heal multiple units at once.

At the same time, Hubert and his forces will make their move to take advantage of the fire attack. You can fall back or just face his forces head on. Prioritize eliminating him since he’ll be quite a problem if he gets to attack preemptively.

Continue whittling down the kingdom’s main forces until you get the chance to have Claude talk to Dimitri and finish him off. Unfortunately, aside from the special dialogue between them, there’s no way to spare or save Dimitri. Finish him off and the rest of the kingdom forces.

After eliminating the kingdom forces, you can now regroup and take down the two artificial demonic beasts in the imperial forces. Edelgard has a long-Attack Range so make sure to lure the demonic beasts and other imperial forces to your army instead. Don’t forget to loot the Lampos Shield from the chest to the south, near Edelgard’s stronghold.

Edelgard will not move from her location or attack preemptively as long as you stay out of her Attack Range. You can soften her up with coordinated Gambits but don’t expect to snipe her since she can counter any attack at any Range.

Finally, have Claude and/or Byleth attack her and deal the finishing blow for another special dialogue. Once she’s defeated, the mission will be complete.