Analyzing Chapter 7 Binding Blade

                          

                               So here’s a chapter that a lot of people consider difficult. In fact, a lot of hardcore ltc veterans consider this chapter to be either the hardest or one of the hardest chapters in the game. Whichever side of the spectrum your opinion may be it’s generally agreed upon that this chapter is fun to play (and also challenging). So let’s take a look at this map shall we?

•                                   Enemy Unit Placement: This map begins with wyvern riders at the top who have high range and will threaten the player if not appropriately dealt with. These wyvern riders are pretty tough. Then there are several cavaliers who appear lower on the map, designed to be more-or-less wyvern knights without wings. They’re not as tough but their high movement still means that you have to watch out for them. There are several Armor Knights planted near the enemy villages that help to effectively slow down the player and they work as functioning walls for archers to shoot behind.

•                             Terrain: This chapter gives you two ways to approach the map: The first one comes through the gate north of the shop while the other path is near the treasures at the far right hand corner of the map. Speaking of treasures, this map has two of them in the right hand corner in addition to multiple villages. Normally this would be put under “Anti-Turtling Incentives” but in this case they aren’t being threatened by a brigand or a thief so there’s no rush to get to them first which means that they don’t count as anti-turtling incentives. However, obtaining the treasures does make it easier for both the enemy to box you in and for the player to create chokepoints in order to deal with enemy units. There’s also a really nice spread of forest tiles strewn throughout the center of the map that the player can take advantage of in order to deal with enemy units.

• Anti-Turtling Incentives: There are two anti-turtling incentives in this chapter. The first comes in the form of enemy reinforcements:
  
  

                                    At the end of Turn 10 enemy cavaliers will show up behind the player encouraging them to play faster. On Hard Mode these reinforcements will also show up on Turns 15 & 20. After crossing a certain point on the map you get more enemy reinforcements (2 soldiers, an archer and a mage) that will help protect the boss. This adds some additional strategy to the chapter since the player will now have to think about how they want to deal with these reinforcements. 

                                     The second comes in the form of Zealot and Treck. Keeping these guys alive can be pretty tricky on Hard mode. They’re threatened by competent enemy units and the possibility of them dying before you reach them is real. Zealot is pretty good so recruiting him is well worth the effort.

                                Overall: This map’s not bad. It gives you plenty to do, encourages the player to play faster and throws a couple of surprises at them.