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* In ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic'', the fifth through seventh missions of the campaign pit you against the three lords you didn't pick. Castle Alamar, which is the last of the three for those who didn't pick the Warlock Leader, is significantly more difficult than the others, since there's a large maze separating you from him. While it's easy to find the way to the goal, the path is lined with [[GoddamnedBats Gargoyles]], making getting there a tedious process. Castle Alamar itself is protected by dozens of Dragons (the best units in the game), as well as the other Warlock units besides Centaurs. Compared to this mission, the last mission is easy.
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* ''VideoGame/Heroes of Might and Magic III''
** Steadwick's Fall, the last mission of the first Evil campaign, is a significant DifficultySpike over the previous missions. You have only three months to capture Steadwick, Enroth's capital, and it's guarded by General Kendal, a campaign-exclusive hero with a large army. The city is surrounded by garrisons and extra cities, so you'll be hard-pressed to break through all of them before the deadine.
** Tunnels and Troglodytes, the last mission of the second Good campaign. It's a large map, so it can be difficult to take and hold all the enemy cities. To make matters worse, the enemy starts with five Dungeon cities, while you start with a Castle, a Rampart and a Tower, making it difficult to field a large army of a single type.
** Steadwick's Fall, the last mission of the first Evil campaign, is a significant DifficultySpike over the previous missions. You have only three months to capture Steadwick, Enroth's capital, and it's guarded by General Kendal, a campaign-exclusive hero with a large army. The city is surrounded by garrisons and extra cities, so you'll be hard-pressed to break through all of them before the deadine.
** Tunnels and Troglodytes, the last mission of the second Good campaign. It's a large map, so it can be difficult to take and hold all the enemy cities. To make matters worse, the enemy starts with five Dungeon cities, while you start with a Castle, a Rampart and a Tower, making it difficult to field a large army of a single type.
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** Chapter 14 is a large defense map that has you staking out in the Tahra streets while the enemy army throws an enormous amount of reinforcements at you. They've got hordes of troops that will be relentlessly flooding the map, and have already set up four [[SiegeEngines ballistae]] around the walls whose range basically covers 60% of the city – which can easily pick off any of your units at low HP, along with dealing extra damage to your fliers and therefore severely limiting their movement. And it gets worse: in the middle of the chapter, a legion of Thracian dracoknights show up as green units. Anyone who's played literally ''any other game in the series'' will see the green affiliation and assume these dracoknights are allied units... until they join in on the siege and start attacking your units too. There's also a house in the bottom left corner which will net you a unique weapon if visited by Dean, but it's guarded by a ballista with ''fifteen range'' (the longest range in the series) which will do effective damage against him since he's a flier. Alongside that ballista is the boss of the chapter, whose has maxed defenses along with the incredibly hard-hitting, flier-effective Tornado tome, and the Master Axe, which not only gives him weapon triangle advantage over Dean, but lets him double no matter what.
** Chapter 14x is a FogOfWar map involving escorting fleeing Tahrans through a mountain pass. Aside from the standard gripes of Fog of War in Thracia being pitch-black, meaning that the player can't even see the terrain ahead of them, the chapter also throws squads of Pegasus Knights who will fly in, capture the citizens, and run off back into the fog of war, often within the same turn. Naga help you if you don't have any Torches available to dispel the fog.
** Chapter 16B. It's a map coated with forest, which slows down everyone's movement, albeit not as much as a desert map would. The obnoxious part about it are the invisible warp tiles, which will teleport the unit in question to a different spot on the map, often a spot behind where everyone else is. [[GuideDangIt There is no indication whatsoever as to where these tiles are and there is no way to avoid them aside from trial and error or looking up a guide.]] To make things worse, this map is an Escape chapter, meaning that you have to bring all of your units to the end point before Leif in order to complete it – any units who are still on the map after Leif leaves are treated as captured and will not be seen until you break them out of prison in 21x. Not to mention the boss, Reincock, who will be turning your army against themselves with his Berserk staff while they slog through the warp tiles – and since status effects never go away by themselves, your only hope is that your Restore staff users haven't accidentally stepped on a warp tile and are still close by.
** Chapter 14x is a FogOfWar map involving escorting fleeing Tahrans through a mountain pass. Aside from the standard gripes of Fog of War in Thracia being pitch-black, meaning that the player can't even see the terrain ahead of them, the chapter also throws squads of Pegasus Knights who will fly in, capture the citizens, and run off back into the fog of war, often within the same turn. Naga help you if you don't have any Torches available to dispel the fog.
** Chapter 16B. It's a map coated with forest, which slows down everyone's movement, albeit not as much as a desert map would. The obnoxious part about it are the invisible warp tiles, which will teleport the unit in question to a different spot on the map, often a spot behind where everyone else is. [[GuideDangIt There is no indication whatsoever as to where these tiles are and there is no way to avoid them aside from trial and error or looking up a guide.]] To make things worse, this map is an Escape chapter, meaning that you have to bring all of your units to the end point before Leif in order to complete it – any units who are still on the map after Leif leaves are treated as captured and will not be seen until you break them out of prison in 21x. Not to mention the boss, Reincock, who will be turning your army against themselves with his Berserk staff while they slog through the warp tiles – and since status effects never go away by themselves, your only hope is that your Restore staff users haven't accidentally stepped on a warp tile and are still close by.
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** And those chapters actually pale in comparison to Chapter 24x. The whole chapter consists of a never ending swarm of berserkers with ridiculous [[CriticalHit crit rates]] and always crit on retaliation and the mentioned Dark Mages with the stupid Poison-inflicting tomes. If that weren't bad enough, the map is full of invisible trap tiles that warp any unit unlucky enough to cross it to an ''inescapable room full of said enemies'' and the only way to get them out is to use a Rescue Staff to bring them to the staff's user... The problem is that particular staff only has three charges and there only 2-3 of them in the entire game, and you've likely used them up at this point and/or are saving them for the final chapter. Mind you, there are also a group of Dark Mages that you hit you with [[StandardStatusEffects Sleep, Berserk and Silence]]. And to make things worse, this is an escape chapter meaning your troops has to make it to the exit and leave before your Lord can, otherwise any units left behind will automatically be captured. And since 24x is AFTER the chapter you are able to break your captured units out of prison (Chpt 21x), anyone abandoned/captured here will be considered [[FinalDeath capital-D Dead]] at this point.
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** And those chapters actually pale in comparison to Chapter 24x. The whole chapter consists of a never ending swarm of berserkers with ridiculous [[CriticalHit crit rates]] and always crit on retaliation and the mentioned Dark Mages with the stupid Poison-inflicting tomes. If that weren't bad enough, the map is full of invisible trap tiles a la 16B that warp any unit unlucky enough to cross it to an ''inescapable room full of said enemies'' and the only way to get them out is to use a Rescue Staff to bring them to the staff's user... The problem is that particular staff only has three charges and there only 2-3 of them in the entire game, and you've likely used them up at this point and/or are saving them for the final chapter. Mind you, there are also a group of Dark Mages that you hit you with [[StandardStatusEffects Sleep, Berserk and Silence]]. And to make things worse, As a kicker, this is an escape chapter like 16B, meaning your troops has to make it to the exit and leave before your Lord can, otherwise any units left behind will automatically be captured. And since 24x is AFTER the chapter you are able to break your captured units out of prison (Chpt 21x), anyone abandoned/captured here will be considered [[FinalDeath capital-D Dead]] at this point.
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*** Enemy crossbowmen sniping you from the other side of a locked room you can't even think about opening until the damage is long since done.
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*** Enemy crossbowmen sniping you from the other side of a locked room you can't even think about opening until the damage is long since done. Some of them can hit you ''four times in a row'' before you can even counterattack.
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*** One of your troops being forced to fight you due to an IHaveYourWife ploy. And unlike [=FE3=]'s Abel, the enemy was smart enough to dress him in their colours. This means he ''looks exactly like a normal enemy {{Mook}}'', and there's no way to tell which one he is. Did I mention that to get him back, you need to rescue his fiance (who's ''very'' weak and underleveled) from a cell, get her back to him. And if you forget which of the {{Mooks}} is actualy him, she's going to get splattered.
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** Chapter 25 is the beginning of ''The Last Promise'''s infamous DifficultySpike. The generic {{Mooks}} go from having generally inferior stats to your units to having equal stats or even being outright ''stronger'' than them. Though this is the standard for the rest of the game, Chapter 25 is particularly heinous for being the first map with such difficult enemies being the norm. Add this to a map filled with overlapping enemy ranges – meaning that you'll rarely be taking damage from one enemy at a time – and you have a recipe for many a lost unit. The boss, General Lanmark, has incredibly high stats compared to what you've seen already, especially his defenses, meaning that he'll be a pain to kill. In addition, you'll need to divide your forces to take on this chapter since the map has three main routes, weakening your group's overall power even more... and you can't take it slow and carefully either, since Chapter 25x can only be unlocked by completing this chapter in a certain number of turns.
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** And those chapters actually pale in comparison to Chapter 24x. The whole chapter consists of a never ending swarm of berserkers with ridiculous [[CriticalHit crit rates]] and the mentioned Dark Mages with the stupid Poison-inflicting tomes. If that weren't bad enough, the map is full of invisible trap tiles that warp any unit unlucky enough to cross it to an ''inescapable room full of said enemies'' and the only way to get them out is to use a Rescue Staff to bring them to the staff's user... The problem is that particular staff only has three charges and there only 2-3 of them in the entire game, and you've likely used them up at this point and/or are saving them for the final chapter. And to make things worse, this is an escape chapter meaning your troops has to make it to the exit and leave before your Lord can, otherwise any units left behind will automatically be captured. And since 24x is AFTER the chapter you are able to break your captured units out of prison (Chpt 21x), anyone abandoned/captured here will be considered [[FinalDeath capital-D Dead]] at this point.
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** And those chapters actually pale in comparison to Chapter 24x. The whole chapter consists of a never ending swarm of berserkers with ridiculous [[CriticalHit crit rates]] and always crit on retaliation and the mentioned Dark Mages with the stupid Poison-inflicting tomes. If that weren't bad enough, the map is full of invisible trap tiles that warp any unit unlucky enough to cross it to an ''inescapable room full of said enemies'' and the only way to get them out is to use a Rescue Staff to bring them to the staff's user... The problem is that particular staff only has three charges and there only 2-3 of them in the entire game, and you've likely used them up at this point and/or are saving them for the final chapter. Mind you, there are also a group of Dark Mages that you hit you with [[StandardStatusEffects Sleep, Berserk and Silence]]. And to make things worse, this is an escape chapter meaning your troops has to make it to the exit and leave before your Lord can, otherwise any units left behind will automatically be captured. And since 24x is AFTER the chapter you are able to break your captured units out of prison (Chpt 21x), anyone abandoned/captured here will be considered [[FinalDeath capital-D Dead]] at this point.
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** Chapter 17 on the east path (17A) will make you feel like you had gone with HonorBeforeReason and wish you had been sneaky. The particular character in question is also in this chapter, and there's a bunch of Shooters and Meteo mages around the castle to keep you from getting in quickly enough. What's that? You'll take your time and avoid the distance bastards until you wipe out everything else? No you will not, you will get torn up by [[MagicKnight Mage Knights]] and Poison spell Dark Mages up the wazoo. Poison itself is a nasty status effect here, averting UselessUsefulSpell; it actually deals passable damage on each turn....or rather it would be JUST that if it ''didn't last indefinitely and the means for getting rid of it wasn't overly limited''. Worse, the bastards with the poison spell can teleport themselves with Rewarp Wands, and thanks to the hyper accuracy, they ''will'' hit and poison you even if you strike first, and no you will not OneHitKill them unless you have a seriously overleveled character, and the hyper avoid makes it quite possible that a second character will have to attack and risk being counterattacked and poisoned. It's so bad that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfu9PnzlUlM&fmt=18 MageKnight404 got upset having to deal with it and was relieved when the character finally left]], and he has experienced Chapter 22.
** Chapter 22. Lots of high-leveled enemies that all have a boosted 30% accuracy and avoid thanks to a particular character on the map, status-inflicting staff users (in this game, long-range staffs can affect anyone on the map, and bad statuses ''do not wear off over time'') and lots of ballistas that are subject to the same accuracy/avoid boost that love to snipe your weaker characters off. Although it is very easy to simply cop out and use a Warp Staff to kill the boss and seize the castle on the first turn, one of the bosses, who has an army of ''very'' powerful soldiers protecting him, gives a very nice sword to someone [[GuideDangIt if you have her talk to him.]] So, if you want that sword... godspeed, soldier.
** Chapter 22. Lots of high-leveled enemies that all have a boosted 30% accuracy and avoid thanks to a particular character on the map, status-inflicting staff users (in this game, long-range staffs can affect anyone on the map, and bad statuses ''do not wear off over time'') and lots of ballistas that are subject to the same accuracy/avoid boost that love to snipe your weaker characters off. Although it is very easy to simply cop out and use a Warp Staff to kill the boss and seize the castle on the first turn, one of the bosses, who has an army of ''very'' powerful soldiers protecting him, gives a very nice sword to someone [[GuideDangIt if you have her talk to him.]] So, if you want that sword... godspeed, soldier.
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** Chapter 17 on the east path (17A) will make you feel like you had gone with HonorBeforeReason and wish you had been sneaky. The particular character in question is also in this chapter, and there's a bunch of Shooters Ballistas and Meteo mages Meteor Bishops around the castle to keep you from getting in quickly enough. What's that? You'll take your time and avoid the distance bastards until you wipe out everything else? No you will not, you not. On turn 10 a certain High Priest will get torn show up by and give all enemies 30 HIT AND AVOID, while on the same turn, rewarping dark mages start to spawn. Then on turn 12, a squad of Thoron-wielding [[MagicKnight Mage Knights]] spawn where you started and Poison spell Dark Mages up the wazoo. every single one of them have dangerously high crit rates. Mind you, said High Priest will also pelt you with his Sleep staff and undo any damage you deal with his Fortify staff. Oh, and trying to run will force you straight into a squad of Horeslayer-wielding Green-Unit Pegasus Knights, led by a recruitable character. Poison itself is a nasty status effect here, averting UselessUsefulSpell; it actually deals passable damage on each turn....or rather it would be JUST that if it ''didn't last indefinitely and the means for getting rid of it wasn't overly limited''. Worse, the bastards with the poison spell can teleport themselves with Rewarp Wands, and thanks to the hyper accuracy, they ''will'' hit and poison you even if you strike first, and no you will not OneHitKill them unless you have a seriously overleveled character, and the hyper avoid makes it quite possible that a second character will have to attack and risk being counterattacked and poisoned. It's so bad that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfu9PnzlUlM&fmt=18 MageKnight404 got upset having to deal with it and was relieved when the character finally left]], and he has experienced Chapter 22.
** Chapter 22. Lots of high-leveled enemies that all have a boosted 30% accuracy and avoid thanks to a particular character on the map, status-inflicting staff users (in this game, long-range staffs can affect anyone on the map, and bad statuses ''do not wear off over time'') and lots of ballistas with boosted range that are subject to the same accuracy/avoid boost that love to snipe your weaker characters off. Although it is very easy to simply cop out and use a Warp Staff to kill the boss and seize the castle on the first turn, one of the bosses, who has an army of ''very'' powerful soldiers protecting him, gives a very nice sword to someone [[GuideDangIt if you have her talk to him.]] So, if you want that sword... godspeed, soldier. Specifically, upon any of your units making it halfway across the River Thracia, the first bridge will be cut and a squad of Thoron-using [[MagicKnight Mage Knights]] will rush you with their 20+ percent crit rates. These Mage Knights are led by [[ThatOneBoss an extremely strong Mage Knight]] who has a 20% chance to turn your attacks into [[NoSell No-Sells]], who always gets to hit you twice before you hit him, can reliably force you into a second round of combat, can randomly hit you an extra time, reliably crits you on follow-up attacks and has a 25% chance to move again.
** Chapter 22. Lots of high-leveled enemies that all have a boosted 30% accuracy and avoid thanks to a particular character on the map, status-inflicting staff users (in this game, long-range staffs can affect anyone on the map, and bad statuses ''do not wear off over time'') and lots of ballistas with boosted range that are subject to the same accuracy/avoid boost that love to snipe your weaker characters off. Although it is very easy to simply cop out and use a Warp Staff to kill the boss and seize the castle on the first turn, one of the bosses, who has an army of ''very'' powerful soldiers protecting him, gives a very nice sword to someone [[GuideDangIt if you have her talk to him.]] So, if you want that sword... godspeed, soldier. Specifically, upon any of your units making it halfway across the River Thracia, the first bridge will be cut and a squad of Thoron-using [[MagicKnight Mage Knights]] will rush you with their 20+ percent crit rates. These Mage Knights are led by [[ThatOneBoss an extremely strong Mage Knight]] who has a 20% chance to turn your attacks into [[NoSell No-Sells]], who always gets to hit you twice before you hit him, can reliably force you into a second round of combat, can randomly hit you an extra time, reliably crits you on follow-up attacks and has a 25% chance to move again.
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** In Chapter 3-13, you have to play as under-leveled characters fighting against a nearly endless wave of laguz. Especially egregious because [[spoiler: Ike, the best unit in the game to which everything falls in two hits, is the enemy boss.]] You have to rely upon mostly brain-dead ally units to do the dirty work for you, and only one of them, (the one referred to by fans as the "3-13 Archer") actually puts up a fight. There were several joke topics on Website/GameFAQs about how "3-13 Archer" was the best character in the game. The only redeeming factor (somewhat) is the SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ6WPnvukQ4 playing]] in that chapter.
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** In Chapter 3-13, you have to play as under-leveled characters fighting against a nearly endless wave of laguz. Especially egregious because [[spoiler: Ike, the best unit in the game to which everything falls in two hits, is the enemy boss.]] You have to rely upon mostly brain-dead ally units to do the dirty work for you, and only one of them, (the one referred to by fans as the "3-13 Archer") actually puts up a fight. There were several joke topics on Website/GameFAQs about how "3-13 Archer" was the best character in the game. The only redeeming factor (somewhat) is the SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ6WPnvukQ4 com/watch?v=kc0FTyIbp78 playing]] in that chapter.
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Altered the living legend section of the Fire Emblem section.
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** As a level pretty much copied from the previously-mentioned Arcadia from ''The Binding Blade'', Living Legend isn't much better. While it doesn't have FogOfWar (thank Elimine), you have the two bosses inspired by those in Arcadia, and one of them has a '''very''' valuable Guiding Ring (promotion item for magical units). Problem is, the character you're supposed to rescue (Pent the Mage General) is very badass, but being a high-level magic unit he moves around the map with lots of speed while trying to protect himself.. and if you can't reach for that specific boss and yoink the Guiding Ring with your best Thief, ''Pent will kill the boss before you can obtain the Ring''. (AUUUUGH.) And if your flier isn't overleveled enough to reach for Pent in time, s/he WILL get shot down because the level includes several archers, who have high chances to crit on them. Really, Pent is an awesome character in-story and in-stats, but in this particular level [[AnnoyingVideoGameHelper he can completely trash your strategies.]]
*** Not to mention that Pent can also screw you out of that chapter's sidequest, the requirement for it being that your party has to collectively gain 700 EXP during the map. That's hard to do when he's killing all the enemies! Oh, and that bit about there not being Fog of War? That only applies on Normal mode or Eliwood Hard mode; on Hector Hard mode, that small blessing is taken away.
*** Not to mention that Pent can also screw you out of that chapter's sidequest, the requirement for it being that your party has to collectively gain 700 EXP during the map. That's hard to do when he's killing all the enemies! Oh, and that bit about there not being Fog of War? That only applies on Normal mode or Eliwood Hard mode; on Hector Hard mode, that small blessing is taken away.
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** As a level pretty much copied from the previously-mentioned Arcadia from ''The Binding Blade'', Living Legend isn't much better. While If you just want to win, this isn’t that difficult. One requirement is to make sure Pent, who you can not directly control, doesn’t die. That may sound like the difficult part, but it doesn't have isn’t, as Pent is really powerful and can easily defeat most of the enemy units, including the bosses. The other requirement is to defeat all the enemy units, which should not be difficult thanks to Pent. Unlike Arcadia, FogOfWar (thank Elimine), doesn’t exist, unless you’re playing on Hector Hard mode, in which case it does exist and does make it harder, but you should be fine thanks to Pent. So... Why is this here? The answer is simple, trying to do anything else. For starters, you have the two bosses inspired by those in Arcadia, and one of them has a '''very''' valuable Guiding Ring (promotion item for magical units). Problem is, the character you're supposed to rescue (Pent the Mage General) is very badass, but being a high-level magic unit he moves around the map with lots of speed while trying to protect himself.. and if you can't reach for that specific boss and yoink the Guiding Ring with your best Thief, ''Pent Pent. More precisely, as we said earlier ''He will kill the boss before you can obtain the Ring''. (AUUUUGH.) And Now you might be thinking, “wow, on Hector Hard there’s FogOfWar, how difficult is getting the Guiding Ring on that mode?” Well don’t worry about that as it doesn’t exist on Hector Hard and is replaced with the white gem the other boss originally had. Instead of worrying about that on Hector Hard, you should worry the other issue with this chapter, getting the sidequest. The first requirement, recruiting Hawkeye, isn’t hard, though it is a case of GuideDangIt, but the other requirement of getting a total of 700 exp or more is harder because of, again, Pent. He will most surely get most of the enemy units before you can, meaning you can’t get that 700 exp requirement. (If anything, he would probably get requirement, if he could even get exp.) You basically have to outdo Pent, and good luck with that in a desert chapter, which limits movement of all, with the exception of fliers and magic users, the latter of which just so happens to be what Pent is. This is particularly bad if you are on Hector Hard Mode, as mentioned earlier it has FogOfWar, so it can be rather hard to plan in advance, unless you are really good at remembering where specific units are at, and can get there faster than the enemy can get to Pent. Oh, and if you’re thinking about sending to if your flier isn't to get to Pent, that can only happen if they are overleveled enough to reach for Pent in time, s/he if not, they WILL get shot down because the level includes several archers, who have high chances to crit on them. Really, Pent is an awesome character in-story and in-stats, but in this particular level [[AnnoyingVideoGameHelper he can completely trash your strategies.]]
*** Not to mention that Pent can also screw]] Overall, if you out of that chapter's sidequest, just stick to the requirement for it being that your party has to collectively gain 700 EXP during main goal of the map. That's hard to do when he's killing all the enemies! Oh, chapter and that bit don’t care about there not being Fog of War? That only applies on Normal mode or Eliwood Hard mode; on Hector Hard mode, that small blessing the side quest and promotions, this chapter is taken away.fine, otherwise, you are in for a bad time.
*** Not to mention that Pent can also screw
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** Duma Gate. You start off fighting several Witches (who, as stated above, can pick off your weaker units thanks to teleporting). Then you get to the gate itself, a set of single file corridors while being ambushed by Cantors, Arcanists, Fiends, and Dread Fighters. Lastly, you get to the boss, who has a skill that lets him drain around half the health of all your units every few turns regardless of range. Easily one of the hardest fights on Celica’s route.
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** Duma Gate. You start off fighting several Witches (who, as stated above, can pick off your weaker units thanks to teleporting). Then you get to the gate itself, itself: a set of single file corridors corridors, while being ambushed by Cantors, Arcanists, Fiends, and Dread Fighters. Lastly, you get to the boss, who has a skill that lets him drain around half the health of all your units every few turns regardless of range. Easily one of the hardest fights on Celica’s route.
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** Enemy Within also adds a mission where the Aliens attack XCOM's base. This wouldn't be too bad, except for the quality of life feature that is the "make items available," button. This button will change all soldiers not on the current mission to the default loadout, making it easy to field squads with top tier equipment while only buying five or six sets of armor and weapons. The catch is, when XCOM is attacked, your soldiers will spawn in the mission with whatever loadout they had equipped. Meaning that any weapons and equipment that were either equipped to wounded soldiers or not equipped to anyone (such as laser weapons when you've moved on to plasma) aren't used at all, and the majority of your team has only their basic weapons and armor. This can, mercifully, be fixed with some SaveScumming and manual loadout reassignment since the mission always happens at the same time.
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** From ''VideoGame/XCOM2'', we have Avenger Defense missions which can potentially trigger as a result of the "XCOM Hunt" Dark Event. In this mission, the Avenger, your flying base, gets grounded, forcing you to go on the defensive. Your primary objective is to destroy a device that is keeping the Avenger grounded, which is on the other side of the map, requiring a long trek while being attacked by never-ending waves of ADVENT troopers and other alien nasties. The other is to HoldTheLine against enemies trying to reach the Avenger: if even one of them gets into the Avenger, it's an [[NonstandardGameOver instant game over]]. The silver lining here is that even injured soldiers, who normally are forced to sit out missions until they recover, can participate, bolstering your side. You can also set defense turrets to keep enemies at bay. Regardless, after having to deal with this mission even once, most players make a point of preventing the "XCOM Hunt" Dark Event from activating just to spare themselves from this grueling mission.
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* Any ''{{VideoGame/XCOM}}'' mission that has [[DemonicSpiders chryssalids]]. A zombie apocalypse with ambushing giant insects that moves 3x faster than you do. Fun times.
** Most missions in ''VideoGame/XComTerrorFromTheDeep'', including cargo ship terror missions (bad AI means they can run into thousands of turns while you try to hunt down that one last alien hiding in a closet), alien colony assaults (same problem, except also with "Tentaculats" a.k.a. chryssalids galore), and Artefact Sites (same as colony assaults, except they pop up randomly and you have to do them immediately or take such a huge penalty to your score that it can sink your game).
** Similarly, there are two types of level in ''VideoGame/UFOAftermath'' that will give you a bad case of twitching: anything involving the [[BeeBeeGun Deathbellows]] (aka the [[TotalPartyKill Squad-Killing Abomination From Hell]]), and most things involving bases, especially in the later stages when the aliens are breaking out the big guns. Having your entire squad wiped out by the balloon fish behind that door you carelessly opened? Hurts. Having them wiped out by an alien rocket launcher with a blast radius larger than some European countries? Hurts even more.
** Also, with ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' expansion ''Enemy Within'': Site Recon. You're assigned to investigate a fishing village that's gone silent, and find Chryssalids, Chryssalid zombies, and a whale that's apparently one big Chryssalid hive. Once you find the last, Central decides the best way to deal with it is with DeathFromAbove, and you now have to activate the transponder before running to the landing zone. And you have to make it there in eight turns, while an immense number of Chryssalids chases after you.
** Site Recon is worse in ''VideoGame/XCOMLongWar'', as Chryssalids now come in packs of three to four, with the [[KingMook pack leaders]] using their "Lightning Reflexes" ability-- which allows them to dodge Overwatch fire-- to trick your soldiers into wasting their Overwatch shots, giving the rest of the pack an opportunity to close in.
** Most missions in ''VideoGame/XComTerrorFromTheDeep'', including cargo ship terror missions (bad AI means they can run into thousands of turns while you try to hunt down that one last alien hiding in a closet), alien colony assaults (same problem, except also with "Tentaculats" a.k.a. chryssalids galore), and Artefact Sites (same as colony assaults, except they pop up randomly and you have to do them immediately or take such a huge penalty to your score that it can sink your game).
** Similarly, there are two types of level in ''VideoGame/UFOAftermath'' that will give you a bad case of twitching: anything involving the [[BeeBeeGun Deathbellows]] (aka the [[TotalPartyKill Squad-Killing Abomination From Hell]]), and most things involving bases, especially in the later stages when the aliens are breaking out the big guns. Having your entire squad wiped out by the balloon fish behind that door you carelessly opened? Hurts. Having them wiped out by an alien rocket launcher with a blast radius larger than some European countries? Hurts even more.
** Also, with ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' expansion ''Enemy Within'': Site Recon. You're assigned to investigate a fishing village that's gone silent, and find Chryssalids, Chryssalid zombies, and a whale that's apparently one big Chryssalid hive. Once you find the last, Central decides the best way to deal with it is with DeathFromAbove, and you now have to activate the transponder before running to the landing zone. And you have to make it there in eight turns, while an immense number of Chryssalids chases after you.
** Site Recon is worse in ''VideoGame/XCOMLongWar'', as Chryssalids now come in packs of three to four, with the [[KingMook pack leaders]] using their "Lightning Reflexes" ability-- which allows them to dodge Overwatch fire-- to trick your soldiers into wasting their Overwatch shots, giving the rest of the pack an opportunity to close in.
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** Any
*** ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'''s expansion ''Enemy Within'' has one specific Council mission regarding this: Site Recon. You're assigned to investigate a fishing village that's gone silent, and find Chryssalids, Chryssalid zombies, fish hosting Chryssalids, and a dead whale that's apparently one big Chryssalid hive. Once you find that last one, Central decides the best way to deal with it is with DeathFromAbove, and you have to activate the transponder before running to the landing zone. And you have to make it there in eight turns, while being chased by an increasing number of Chryssalids. [[DownplayedTrope It's really not that terrible if you have the right strategy]], but the problem is that in your first playthrough you're ''guaranteed'' to get it very early on, when all you have is crappy armor, ballistic weapons, weak grenades and low-ranked soldiers barely able to pick their own noses, let alone kill bands of ultra-fast bugs with innate defense and venomous claws that normally hit as hard as a Plasma Rifle shot.\\
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It's worse in ''VideoGame/XCOMLongWar'', as Chryssalids come in packs of three to four, with the [[KingMook pack leaders]] using Lightning Reflexes to dodge Overwatch fire and trick your soldiers into wasting their Overwatch shots, giving the rest of the pack an opportunity to close in.
*** The first Terror Site mission is a huge pain. As it comes at the end of the first month, you won't have time to develop almost anything to help your units out in the field, so the Chryssalids that are guaranteed to appear have free rein to slaughter scores of civilians and create a small army of themselves, while you don't have the firepower or the aim to get rid of them quickly.
** Again in Enemy Within, the Council mission "Portent". It works as a Target Extraction mission, comes within the first two months so you're likely to have Sergeants at best in your roster, and the terrain works far more in the [[DemonicSpiders Thin Men]]'s favor than it does yours. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEbLVgP4XqA You can beat it with four rookies,]] but it takes a ''VERY'' rigid strategy.
** Most missions in ''VideoGame/XComTerrorFromTheDeep'', including cargo ship terror missions
** Similarly, there
* There are two types of level in ''VideoGame/UFOAftermath'' that will give you a bad case of twitching: anything involving the [[BeeBeeGun Deathbellows]]
** Also, with ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' expansion ''Enemy Within'': Site Recon. You're assigned to investigate a fishing village that's gone silent, and find Chryssalids, Chryssalid zombies, and a whale that's apparently one big Chryssalid hive. Once you find the last, Central decides the best way to deal with it is with DeathFromAbove, and you now have to activate the transponder before running to the landing zone. And you have to make it there in eight turns, while an immense number of Chryssalids chases after you.
** Site Recon is worse in ''VideoGame/XCOMLongWar'', as Chryssalids now come in packs of three to four, with the [[KingMook pack leaders]] using their "Lightning Reflexes" ability-- which allows them to dodge Overwatch fire-- to trick your soldiers into wasting their Overwatch shots, giving the rest of the pack an opportunity to close in.
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** Chapter 39, [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry "Devils Never Cry"]], a.k.a. [[MarathonLevel "Let's Make You Burn Through Your Items!"]]. You start out with half your army, flanked on either side by [[VideoGame/GhostsAndGoblins Astaroths]] and their minions, and the goal is to kill all enemies without Dante and Demitri buying it. Simple. But then once you kill them, [[VideoGame/ShiningForceNeo Riemslenne]] and [[VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles Selvaria]] arrive, both bringing their own forces, and you have to kill ''them''. And when you defeat them... [[VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}} Jedah and Lord Raptor]] arrives, hauling along their ''own'' armies, and suddenly [[TimedMission you have eight turns to kill Jedah]] before it's Game Over. Oh, and Lord Raptor's forces start directly on top of you. This is an ''incredibly'' tedious level at best, and an exercise in sending you to the final levels without any resources at worst.
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** Chapter 39, [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry "Devils Never Cry"]], a.k.a. [[MarathonLevel "Let's Make You Burn Through Your Items!"]]. You start out with half your army, flanked on either side by [[VideoGame/GhostsAndGoblins [[VideoGame/GhostsNGoblins Astaroths]] and their minions, and the goal is to kill all enemies without Dante and Demitri buying it. Simple. But then once you kill them, [[VideoGame/ShiningForceNeo Riemslenne]] and [[VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles Selvaria]] arrive, both bringing their own forces, and you have to kill ''them''. And when you defeat them... [[VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}} Jedah and Lord Raptor]] arrives, hauling along their ''own'' armies, and suddenly [[TimedMission you have eight turns to kill Jedah]] before it's Game Over. Oh, and Lord Raptor's forces start directly on top of you. This is an ''incredibly'' tedious level at best, and an exercise in sending you to the final levels without any resources at worst.
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* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' has Felix's paralogue, True Chivalry. You have to defend villagers from attacking bandits, which wouldn't be so hard were it not for Rodrigue giving them an order to retreat. This will cause all of them to run towards a specific spot on the edge of the map, [[TooDumbToLive in spite of the route there teeming with enemies with enemies and the spot itself having a Mage parked on it]]. While it's not required for all of them to live, [[PermanentlyMissableContent you lose access to Felix's personal Hero's Relic]] if even one of them dies, making the chapter a frustrating exercise in micromanagement. It's also likely for it to unlock before you've had any of your students learn Physic, which can render it flat out impossible to save everyone given how far away some of the villagers start.
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* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' has Felix's paralogue, True Chivalry. You have to defend villagers from attacking bandits, which wouldn't be so hard were it not for Rodrigue giving them an order to retreat. This will cause all of them to run towards a specific spot on the edge of the map, [[TooDumbToLive in spite of the route there teeming with enemies with enemies and the spot itself having a Mage parked on it]]. While it's not required for all of them to live, [[PermanentlyMissableContent you lose access to Felix's personal Hero's Relic]] if even one of them dies, making the chapter a frustrating exercise in micromanagement. It's also likely for it to unlock before you've had any of your students learn Physic, which can render it flat out impossible to save everyone given how far away some of the villagers start.
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* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' has Felix's paralogue, True Chivalry. You have to defend villagers from attacking bandits, which wouldn't be so hard were it not for Rodrigue giving them an order to retreat. This will cause all of them to run towards a specific spot on the edge of the map, [[TooDumbToLive in spite of the route there teeming with enemies with enemies and the spot itself having a Mage parked on it]]. While it's not required for all of them to live, [[PermanentlyMissableContent you lose access to Felix's personal Hero's Relic]] if even one of them dies, making the chapter a frustrating exercise in micromanagement. It's also likely for it to unlock before you've had any of your students learn Physic, which can render it flat out impossible to save everyone given how far away some of the villagers start.
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** Duma Gate. You start off fighting several Witches (who, as stated above, can pick off your weaker units thanks to teleporting). Then you get to the gate itself, a set of single file corridors while being ambushed by Cantors, Arcanists, Fiends, and Dread Fighters. Lastly, you get to the boss, who has a skill that lets him drain around half the health of all your units every few turns regardless of range. Easily one of the hardest fights on Celica’s route.
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Added Iron Wasteland. Screw Iron Wasteland.
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* ''VideoGame/DroneTactics'' gives us Chapter 21: Iron Wasteland. Iron terrain (and Rock, its equivalent) inhibits the movement of every non-flying unit in the game, and as one might expect, Iron Wasteland is covered in it. No easy paths through the Iron exist, and you'll be going all over the stage to pick up the Capsules scattered in the far corners of the map. The objective is to defeat all enemies, and said enemies are arranged in dangerous formations that prevent your flying units from moving forward quickly. You have one allied computer-controlled Moth, [[spoiler:Elisha's Kris-T,]] who is strong, bulky, and has powerful gear (that all [[BagOfSpilling disappears]] when [[spoiler:Elisha]] joins you), but will mostly mill about in the area she started out at and not do much, other than draw fire from a few Stag Beetles [[ArtificialStupidity and try to counterattack them with her mediocre Melee weapon.]] [[spoiler:It's not helping her case that the whole battle could have been skipped entirely had Elisha not thrown a temper tantrum.]] While not nearly as difficult as the [[BrutalBonusLevel Bonus chapter and later Badlands stages]], Iron Wasteland is both hard and '''hair-pullingly slow.'''
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** Chapter 16, Retaking the Capital. There's a rather powerful enemy General who must be kept alive in order to unlock the Gaiden level. I recommend putting him to sleep to get the bulk of your forces past him and leaving one unit with high HP and dodge, stripped of their weapons and packing an Elixir or two, in his range to keep him busy. Also, mages/sages and bishops with Bolting/Purge.
** Chapter 21: The Binding Blade. Let's see, we've got reinforcements arriving in groups of four, and as many as five of these groups arrive on certain turns early on. Most of these are Dragon Riders/Dragonlords, one of the toughest classes out there. It's also a really big level. Then once you get close to the boss, you've got another really powerful enemy character showing up, one that all indications thus far have shown might be recruitable. He isn't. He won't attack you, mercifully, but he and his units will get in your way if you decide not to engage them in battle. Luckily, reports that you have to leave him alive to get to the Gaiden Level aren't true. Then there's a boss whose HP breaks the usual cap and who also has insane strength and defense. Here's hoping your mages have either been loaded with Angelic Robes (which you can actually buy in the secret store in this game) or have developed high dodge rates. Oh, and don't bother staying near the start and waiting for the waves of reinforcements to come to you, or else you'll have trouble beating the level in 30 turns, which is required to get the Gaiden level--and remember, you need to get every Gaiden level to unlock the PerfectRunFinalBoss.
** Chapter 21: The Binding Blade. Let's see, we've got reinforcements arriving in groups of four, and as many as five of these groups arrive on certain turns early on. Most of these are Dragon Riders/Dragonlords, one of the toughest classes out there. It's also a really big level. Then once you get close to the boss, you've got another really powerful enemy character showing up, one that all indications thus far have shown might be recruitable. He isn't. He won't attack you, mercifully, but he and his units will get in your way if you decide not to engage them in battle. Luckily, reports that you have to leave him alive to get to the Gaiden Level aren't true. Then there's a boss whose HP breaks the usual cap and who also has insane strength and defense. Here's hoping your mages have either been loaded with Angelic Robes (which you can actually buy in the secret store in this game) or have developed high dodge rates. Oh, and don't bother staying near the start and waiting for the waves of reinforcements to come to you, or else you'll have trouble beating the level in 30 turns, which is required to get the Gaiden level--and remember, you need to get every Gaiden level to unlock the PerfectRunFinalBoss.
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** Chapter 16, Retaking the Capital. There's a rather powerful enemy General who must be kept alive in order to unlock the Gaiden level. I recommend putting You might want to put him to sleep to get the bulk of your forces past him and leaving leave one unit with high HP and dodge, stripped of their weapons and packing an Elixir or two, in his range to keep him busy. Also, mages/sages and bishops with Bolting/Purge.
** Chapter 21: The Binding Blade. Let's see, we've got reinforcements arriving in groups of four, and as many as five of these groups arrive on certain turns early on. Most of these are Dragon Riders/Dragonlords, one of the toughest classes out there. It's also a really big level. Then once you get close to the boss, you've got another really powerful enemy character showing up, one that all indications thus far have shown might be recruitable. He isn't. He won't attack you, mercifully, but he and his units will get in your way if you decide not to engage them in battle. Luckily, reports that you have to leave him alive to get to the Gaiden Level aren't true. Then there's a boss whose HP breaks the usual cap and who also has insane strength and defense. Here's hoping your mages have either been loaded with Angelic Robes (which you can actually buy in the secret store in this game) or have developed high dodge rates. Oh, and don't bother staying near the start and waiting for the waves of reinforcements to come to you, or else you'll have trouble beating the level in 30 turns, which is required to get the Gaiden level--and remember, you need to get every Gaiden level to unlock thePerfectRunFinalBoss.TrueFinalBoss.
** Chapter 21: The Binding Blade. Let's see, we've got reinforcements arriving in groups of four, and as many as five of these groups arrive on certain turns early on. Most of these are Dragon Riders/Dragonlords, one of the toughest classes out there. It's also a really big level. Then once you get close to the boss, you've got another really powerful enemy character showing up, one that all indications thus far have shown might be recruitable. He isn't. He won't attack you, mercifully, but he and his units will get in your way if you decide not to engage them in battle. Luckily, reports that you have to leave him alive to get to the Gaiden Level aren't true. Then there's a boss whose HP breaks the usual cap and who also has insane strength and defense. Here's hoping your mages have either been loaded with Angelic Robes (which you can actually buy in the secret store in this game) or have developed high dodge rates. Oh, and don't bother staying near the start and waiting for the waves of reinforcements to come to you, or else you'll have trouble beating the level in 30 turns, which is required to get the Gaiden level--and remember, you need to get every Gaiden level to unlock the
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** The final level is brutal in so many ways. [[spoiler: First off, there is the arena itself. It's covered in a red fluid that damages characters when walked over. Sure, it's just ScratchDamage, but it WILL add up in the long run because there is just so much of it. Also, the places where the playable characters spawn are bombs which will explode if even a single enemy steps on it, leading to an instant game over. So of course the game feels the need to shove [[BossRush Metal Face, Sigma, Ranmaru, Kamuz and Pyron]] right in front of them and have them dash at it the moment they get the opportunity to. Then there is the final boss itself. It hits like a truck, can attack almost the entire map, and is completely invulnerable to any damage unless Saya, who is at the very edge of the level, is killed. But to hurt Saya herself, first you need to kill Sheath, Dokugozu and Dokumezu. Do all of that and when you try to take out the BigBad you will find out it has a whopping 400000 HP AND the ability to summon enemies almost every turn! By this point you will almost be begging for the game to [[MarathonLevel give you a break]] and just be over.]]
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** In Chapter 3-13, you have to play as under-leveled characters fighting against a nearly endless wave of laguz. Especially egregious because [[spoiler: Ike, the best unit in the game to which everything falls in two hits, is the enemy boss.]] You have to rely upon mostly brain-dead ally units to do the dirty work for you, and only one of them, (the one referred to by fans as the "3-13 Archer") actually puts up a fight. There were several joke topics on Website/GameFAQs about how "3-13 Archer" was the best character in the game. The only redeeming factor (somewhat) is the CrowningMusicOfAwesome [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ6WPnvukQ4 playing]] in that chapter.
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** In Chapter 3-13, you have to play as under-leveled characters fighting against a nearly endless wave of laguz. Especially egregious because [[spoiler: Ike, the best unit in the game to which everything falls in two hits, is the enemy boss.]] You have to rely upon mostly brain-dead ally units to do the dirty work for you, and only one of them, (the one referred to by fans as the "3-13 Archer") actually puts up a fight. There were several joke topics on Website/GameFAQs about how "3-13 Archer" was the best character in the game. The only redeeming factor (somewhat) is the CrowningMusicOfAwesome SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ6WPnvukQ4 playing]] in that chapter.
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* All of Chapter 15 in ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles4'':
** The first battle is an extended exercise in FromBadToWorse. First, you start off in the middle of a pincer attack with bosses on each side. The only way to survive is to completely abandon your initial camp, something the game has conditioned the player never to do, and isn't suggested until you've already taken a beating. Then the two bosses [[CombinationAttack team up]], so the heavily-armored tank is now receiving covering fire from the Valkyria, who can slaughter any unit she can draw a bead on. Then it turns out that the Valkyria's power upgrades the tank's main gun into an armor-piercing laser. Hitting the tank safely at all is an ordeal, let alone getting an angle on its dorsal-mounted [[AttackItsWeakPoint radiator]] for more than ScratchDamage. Luckily, this battle [[EasyLevelTrick can be cheesed]], since [[spoiler:there's nothing between the tank and your starting position that can stop you demolishing it on turn one, before the Valkyria is in position, and this ends the mission immediately.]]
** Then there's the second battle, taking down the Valkyria herself. She's in the middle of a SuperpowerMeltdown, and you're the one that suffers for it: units don't regenerate HP passively, lose HP over time for being too close to her, and her attacks now ignore armor so they can destroy vehicles just as easily as infantry. She also has effectively global range on her attacks if another enemy can spot for her, and she herself can sight your home base (which you have to hold this time), meaning you're constantly under siege. Additionally, damaging her is a two-step process, requiring a small target to be destroyed just to render her vulnerable - and her protection restores itself immediately at the end of your turn, leaving her free to murder your strike force. And this isn't even getting into the conventional units flooding down both sides of the map that make even getting within range an ordeal.
** The first battle is an extended exercise in FromBadToWorse. First, you start off in the middle of a pincer attack with bosses on each side. The only way to survive is to completely abandon your initial camp, something the game has conditioned the player never to do, and isn't suggested until you've already taken a beating. Then the two bosses [[CombinationAttack team up]], so the heavily-armored tank is now receiving covering fire from the Valkyria, who can slaughter any unit she can draw a bead on. Then it turns out that the Valkyria's power upgrades the tank's main gun into an armor-piercing laser. Hitting the tank safely at all is an ordeal, let alone getting an angle on its dorsal-mounted [[AttackItsWeakPoint radiator]] for more than ScratchDamage. Luckily, this battle [[EasyLevelTrick can be cheesed]], since [[spoiler:there's nothing between the tank and your starting position that can stop you demolishing it on turn one, before the Valkyria is in position, and this ends the mission immediately.]]
** Then there's the second battle, taking down the Valkyria herself. She's in the middle of a SuperpowerMeltdown, and you're the one that suffers for it: units don't regenerate HP passively, lose HP over time for being too close to her, and her attacks now ignore armor so they can destroy vehicles just as easily as infantry. She also has effectively global range on her attacks if another enemy can spot for her, and she herself can sight your home base (which you have to hold this time), meaning you're constantly under siege. Additionally, damaging her is a two-step process, requiring a small target to be destroyed just to render her vulnerable - and her protection restores itself immediately at the end of your turn, leaving her free to murder your strike force. And this isn't even getting into the conventional units flooding down both sides of the map that make even getting within range an ordeal.
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** Any FogOfWar chapter in any game is met with groans of disgust, but Battle Before Dawn has a reputation for being particularly sucktastic, especially in hard mode. To elaborate: there are 3 different AI allies whom you need to rescue, and they are in the bottom left, center, and right. One is the prince, who at least has the sense to hide and use Elixirs. He's the only one required to survive this chapter (you get a Game Over if he dies), but the other two are required to survive ''and'' recruit in order to unlock a sidequest chapter. Said other two are Nino the wizard, who will get killed by any physical attack and Jaffar, who while quite competent, starts surrounded by enemy forces and can get killed by a couple bad RNG rolls. To top it all off, the boss will move to get you and has the long-range Bolting tome, which will kill weakened units or the aforementioned Nino and the prince. Even worse, there are two treasure rooms, each one holding ''fabulous'' treasure (one has a consumable item that permanently increases a unit's movement range by one, one has a staff that warps other units within range to near its user[[labelnote:*]]this one is particularly painful, because it's the first and only one of such staff that you get in the game, and it would make rescuing the prince '''FAR''' easier if it were only obtainable earlier; get the prince within range, use it, and voila, ''you would save him on the first/second turn''[[/labelnote]] and another is an equippable item that removes a flying unit's crippling arrow weakness). However, the enemy starts much closer to those treasure rooms, and deploys their own thieves to steal the treasure for themselves. So, in addition to needing to defend all 3 {{Non Player Character}}s, you also have to fight ''flawlessly'' in order to get to the thieves (who ''will'' have stolen the treasures before you get there) and kill them to get the treasures before they escape off the map.
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** Any FogOfWar chapter in any game is met with groans of disgust, but Battle Before Dawn has a reputation for being particularly sucktastic, especially in hard mode. To elaborate: there are 3 different AI allies whom you need to rescue, and they are in the bottom left, center, and right. One is the prince, who at least has the sense to hide and use Elixirs. He's the only one required to survive this chapter (you get a Game Over if he dies), but the other two are required to survive ''and'' recruit in order to unlock a sidequest chapter. Said other two are Nino the wizard, who will get killed by any physical attack attack, and Jaffar, who who, while quite competent, starts surrounded by enemy forces and can get killed by a couple bad RNG rolls. To top it all off, the boss will move to get you and has the long-range Bolting tome, which will kill weakened units or the aforementioned Nino and the prince. Even worse, there are two treasure rooms, each one holding ''fabulous'' treasure (one has a consumable item that permanently increases a unit's movement range by one, one has a staff that warps other units within range to near its user[[labelnote:*]]this one is particularly painful, because it's the first and only one of such staff that you get in the game, and it would make rescuing the prince '''FAR''' easier if it were only obtainable earlier; get the prince within range, use it, and voila, ''you would save him on the first/second turn''[[/labelnote]] and another is an equippable item that removes a flying unit's crippling arrow weakness). However, the enemy starts much closer to those treasure rooms, and deploys their own thieves to steal the treasure for themselves. So, in addition to needing to defend all 3 {{Non Player Character}}s, you also have to fight ''flawlessly'' in order to get to the thieves (who ''will'' have stolen the treasures before you get there) and kill them to get the treasures before they escape off the map.
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*** And the final kicker, the last nail in the coffin for this horrid level, is a story-related one. [[CrossesTheLineTwice From the previous game!]] (Granted, ''The Blazing Blade'' is actually a prequel, but to make players pissed off at the previous installment in a series with one level is no easy feat, and certainly not a respectable one.) You go through this hell to save the prince, and [[spoiler:not only he becomes the Big Bad of ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade The Binding Blade]]'', he also kills Hector (the man who helped to save his life in this particular level) during the events of that game]]. So much for this...
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*** And the final kicker, the last nail in the coffin for this horrid level, is a story-related one. [[CrossesTheLineTwice From the previous game!]] (Granted, ''The Blazing Blade'' is actually a prequel, but to make players pissed off at the previous installment in a series with one level is no easy feat, and certainly not a respectable one.) You go through this hell to save the prince, and [[spoiler:not only he becomes the Big Bad of ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade The Binding Blade]]'', he also kills Hector (the man (one of the men who helped to save his life in this particular level) during the events of that game]]. So much for this...
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** Chapter 6, Victims of War. Before the level starts, the level boss Novala decides to taunt Eirika by teleporting three random, defenseless civilians into the map, and putting them right near a den of [[DemonicSpider giant spiders]], which turns it into a TimedMission as letting all of the civilians die leads to a NonstandardGameOver. (And losing one of them will screw you over getting an Orion's Bolt, which is needed to promote archers, for free). Between the [=NPCs=] and the spiders is a fairly strong force of Grado soldiers (which can inflict some very painful damage on your still-squishy units). And the whole thing is covered by FogOfWar. It's basically a combination of almost every single ScrappyMechanic in the series.
*** Not helping ''at all'' is the enemy outnumbering you a lot more than in the previous levels and being spread out all over; if anyone but Seth goes out on their own (like Vanessa the pegasus knight trying to get the civilians out of spider range...) they WILL get ganged up on and most likely die. This level is one of the best arguments the "It's OK to use Seth" camp has in its arsenal early on. And even with this, it '''won't''' be a cakewalk to have him reach for the boss: with the FogOfWar around and how Novala is actually in an upper corner of the map, poor Seth ''will'' get ganged-up and die if you aren't careful.
** Ephraim's Chapter 11, Phantom Ship. If you didn't [[LevelGrinding grind]] in the Tower of Valni, is a ''nightmare'', especially on Hard Mode. You have to fight your way through a ship full of enemies to get to [[WhiteMage L'Arachel]] before she's stupidly killed because she's a noncombatant at this point, while her bodyguard [[UnskilledButStrong Dozla]] is running off attempting (and mostly failing) to hit enemies with his huge Battle Axe. You could send your fliers to rescue her, but the seas around you are swarming with flying enemies, including flying spell-casters that can nuke the otherwise hardy flier Cormag. And at this point, there is nobody in your army big enough to rescue Dozla. Adding to this is the small space in which to move and no space to hide, the boss that is way harder than any monster faced up to that point and averts the usual StationaryBoss by being a flier who ''will'' kill your weaker units is it can, and on top of all this we have FogOfWar, meaning you can't see most of those flying enemies until it's too late.
*** Not helping ''at all'' is the enemy outnumbering you a lot more than in the previous levels and being spread out all over; if anyone but Seth goes out on their own (like Vanessa the pegasus knight trying to get the civilians out of spider range...) they WILL get ganged up on and most likely die. This level is one of the best arguments the "It's OK to use Seth" camp has in its arsenal early on. And even with this, it '''won't''' be a cakewalk to have him reach for the boss: with the FogOfWar around and how Novala is actually in an upper corner of the map, poor Seth ''will'' get ganged-up and die if you aren't careful.
** Ephraim's Chapter 11, Phantom Ship. If you didn't [[LevelGrinding grind]] in the Tower of Valni, is a ''nightmare'', especially on Hard Mode. You have to fight your way through a ship full of enemies to get to [[WhiteMage L'Arachel]] before she's stupidly killed because she's a noncombatant at this point, while her bodyguard [[UnskilledButStrong Dozla]] is running off attempting (and mostly failing) to hit enemies with his huge Battle Axe. You could send your fliers to rescue her, but the seas around you are swarming with flying enemies, including flying spell-casters that can nuke the otherwise hardy flier Cormag. And at this point, there is nobody in your army big enough to rescue Dozla. Adding to this is the small space in which to move and no space to hide, the boss that is way harder than any monster faced up to that point and averts the usual StationaryBoss by being a flier who ''will'' kill your weaker units is it can, and on top of all this we have FogOfWar, meaning you can't see most of those flying enemies until it's too late.
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** Chapter 6, Victims of War. Before the level starts, the level boss Novala decides to taunt Eirika by teleporting three random, defenseless civilians into the map, and putting them right near a den of [[DemonicSpider giant spiders]], which turns it into a TimedMission as letting all of the civilians die leads to a NonstandardGameOver. (And losing even one of them will screw you over getting an Orion's Bolt, which is needed to promote archers, for free). Between the [=NPCs=] and the spiders is a fairly strong force of Grado soldiers (which can inflict some very painful damage on your still-squishy units). And the whole thing is covered by FogOfWar. It's basically a combination of almost every single ScrappyMechanic in the series.
*** Not helping ''at all'' is the enemy outnumbering you a lot more than in the previous levels and being spread out all over; if anyone but Seth goes out on their own (like Vanessa thepegasus knight Pegasus Knight trying to get the civilians out of spider range...) they WILL get ganged up on and most likely die. This level is one of the best arguments the "It's OK to use Seth" camp has in its arsenal early on. And even with this, it '''won't''' be a cakewalk to have him reach for the boss: with the FogOfWar around and how Novala is actually in an upper corner of the map, poor Seth ''will'' get ganged-up and die if you aren't careful.
** Ephraim's Chapter 11, Phantom Ship. If you didn't [[LevelGrinding grind]] in the Tower of Valni, is a ''nightmare'', especially on Hard Mode. You have to fight your way through a ship full of enemies to get to [[WhiteMage L'Arachel]] before she's stupidly killed because she's a noncombatant at this point, while her bodyguard [[UnskilledButStrong Dozla]] is running off attempting (and mostly failing) to hit enemies with his huge Battle Axe. You could send your fliers to rescue her, but the seas around you are swarming with flying enemies, including flying spell-casters that can nuke the otherwise hardy flier Cormag. And at this point, there is nobody in your army big enough to rescue Dozla. Adding to this is the small space in which to move and no space to hide, the boss that is way harder than any monster faced up to that point and averts the usual StationaryBoss by being a flier who ''will'' kill your weaker unitsis if it can, and on top of all this we have FogOfWar, meaning you can't see most of those flying enemies until it's too late.
*** Not helping ''at all'' is the enemy outnumbering you a lot more than in the previous levels and being spread out all over; if anyone but Seth goes out on their own (like Vanessa the
** Ephraim's Chapter 11, Phantom Ship. If you didn't [[LevelGrinding grind]] in the Tower of Valni, is a ''nightmare'', especially on Hard Mode. You have to fight your way through a ship full of enemies to get to [[WhiteMage L'Arachel]] before she's stupidly killed because she's a noncombatant at this point, while her bodyguard [[UnskilledButStrong Dozla]] is running off attempting (and mostly failing) to hit enemies with his huge Battle Axe. You could send your fliers to rescue her, but the seas around you are swarming with flying enemies, including flying spell-casters that can nuke the otherwise hardy flier Cormag. And at this point, there is nobody in your army big enough to rescue Dozla. Adding to this is the small space in which to move and no space to hide, the boss that is way harder than any monster faced up to that point and averts the usual StationaryBoss by being a flier who ''will'' kill your weaker units
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** Eirika's Chapter 14 can be ''quite'' annoying to deal with as well. It has a fairly large number of enemies, reinforcements that come at you from behind, and a priest near the throne room with a Berserk Staff. It also has a layout similar to Fluorspar's Oath to deal with on top of that. Oh, and the final kick at the player? The boss is a Swordmaster on a throne, so he'll take ''forever'' to hit and will probably double half your army unless you've been level grinding, and he can hit at range with his special Wind Sword to boot.
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diffuse => defuse
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** Despite [[SequelDifficultyDrop the sequel being easier]], there are several frustrating levels such as Chapter 11, which involves diffusing bombs aboard a cruise ship. One of them is guarded by [[VideoGame/StreetsOfRage Axel's robotic doppelganger, Break]], and halfway in the chapter, [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis Nemesis along with several Tyrants]] as well as [[VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}} B.B. Hood]] arrive. You have to take out Break in order to diffuse one of the bombs, and Nemesis's health will keep on regenerating unless you defeat him.
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** Despite [[SequelDifficultyDrop the sequel being easier]], there are several frustrating levels such as Chapter 11, which involves diffusing defusing bombs aboard a cruise ship. One of them is guarded by [[VideoGame/StreetsOfRage Axel's robotic doppelganger, Break]], and halfway in the chapter, [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis Nemesis along with several Tyrants]] as well as [[VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}} B.B. Hood]] arrive. You have to take out Break in order to diffuse defuse one of the bombs, and Nemesis's health will keep on regenerating unless you defeat him.
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Moving Battalion Wars example to Real-Time Strategy.
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[[AC:''VideoGame/BattalionWars'']]
* ''Battalion Wars'' has some levels that fall under this:
** Their Finest Hour in ''Battalion Wars 2''. Due to the shaky controls of your options in the Airbase defense, you have to contend with either potentially jumping out of the MG Tower without warning and not necessarily knowing how to get back into it, or if you switch to either air unit, you have to keep track of how you handle the Wiimote or else you might crash into something. Either way, the starting part is annoying. Oh, but the worst is yet to come: there are AA units all over the place, the Airbase you spend the whole time trying to capture will produce Fighters and Gunships that are already on top of you to be DemonicSpiders ''before Pierce or A-Qira mention that they have been sent out'', and all you get to fight them with is the Fighters, which, of course, have to contend with the AA units even if you do overcome the faulty controls. It's no wonder the time limit for a Perfect S Rank is 16 minutes.
** In the first game, X-Day. How many times did you die on that beachhead? Or right after that beachhead? Or...
*** There is a way to get through the Artillery at the start of that level. [[spoiler:Direct your units to move near the fence, so that they'll get right within the Artillery's safe zone.]]
** There's also "Siege of the Vladstad", which is a perfectly acceptable level right up until the end. And that's even ''if'' you realize [[spoiler:the Vladstag has a side entrance]].
** "Road to Xylvania" tops all of them. First of you have a Battlestation which unlike the sequel cannot turn to aim and thus you have to position yourself perfectly to beat the Pillboxes that will kill everything else in a heartbeat.On top of that the path is so curvy giving Heavy Tanks an advantage against the Battlestation. That's a just ridculuosly in itself,but then you have Gunships constantly after you mercilessly attacking anything in sight,and you only have 6 Missile Vets.You can spam the Y button all you want,they'll still get ya' down. Not to mention acid pits that are too easy to step into. At least Vladstag has assistance.
** Bonus Mission 3 may be a BonusLevelOfHell, but it has earned its place here. At the start, you're immediately bombarded by 2 Artillery, each guarded by 3 Rocket (Bazooka) infantry to deter your Heavy Tanks. You must destroy this Artillery ASAP or they'll destroy the fortress that the game [[GuideDangIt doesn't suggest is destructible]] and give you an automatic mission failure. You would want to work on tasks other than the Artillery because once the Artillery is destroyed, a respawning Bomber appears to make your life miserable, and you don't even get any anti-air units unless you're willing to count [[spoiler:Assaults, which still do likely too little damage to be worth considering]]. And to top it all off, your only units for destroying all of the enemy vehicles are Heavy Tanks, which are slow and big, which means thanks to similar reasons as to why Pit in VideoGame/SuperSmashBros is a SkillGateCharacter, are given grief by the Anti-Air Vehicles' attack spams causing them to repeatedly bounce along with all the damage they take. Oh, and guess what is ready to hammer your infantry and further mess up your Technique score? ''Two more Artillery!'' And if you finally get past ''all'' of this, say hello to a Bomber and Gunship spam to give your Fighters (which arrive, '''about time''') misery in killing them all quickly, which you need to do because of the fact that your Heavy Tanks are still [[EscortMission mission critical]], even if you wiped out every enemy vehicle. And if you're looking for a good score, you have so many units that basically amount to being little more than target practice for the Bombers that your Technique will be based on [[LuckBasedMission whether your units feel like surviving all the abuse]].
*** It turns out that thanks to [[spoiler:a [[ArtificialStupidity Bomber AI exploit]] that [[LeapOfFaith violates common sense beyond belief]]]], doing the mission with [[NoCasualtiesRun no casualties]] and a Perfect S-Rank is possible, as shown [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLD4eH9UfkQ here]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZryqxsj2bY here]]. Unfortunately, it's still a LuckBasedMission thanks to [[spoiler:AIRoulette]]. If not for these FakeDifficulty issues, the linked run would be a CrowningMomentOfAwesome.
** The Reckoning in the sequel borders on being ThatOneLevel, but doesn't quite manage it because it's the last mission. However, if you want that perfect S-Rank, have lots of hair ready to be torn out. Technique, although having a ridiculously high minimum (a whopping 70% with just the Battlestation, the mission critical unit, alive), doesn't hit 100% easily, so you have to keep plenty of units alive, which means you'd want to get through the first half of the stage without anything lost, because the second part is full of [[spoiler:[[DemonicSpiders Fighters and Strato Destroyers]]]], which are bound to tear apart your units like paper, and [[spoiler:your Anti-Air Vets have laughable lock-on range for their job if you thought you could [[GlassCannon switch to one to erase the air units faster]]]]. But things get really bad if you want 100% in both Power and Speed. Not only does the game place 2 Heavy Tanks and some Grunts behind the [[spoiler:Mining Spider]] but Speed is absurdly strict for the fact that you'd have to deliver the [[MightyGlacier painfully slow Battlestation]] from one end of the map to the other in order to do anything to the [[spoiler:Mining Spider]]. [[MasterKnight This troper]] has done ''every'' other mission in the game on a NoCasualtiesRun with a Perfect S-Rank (including Their Finest Hour, actually except Under Siege but he's convinced that one is possible with a competent teammate) and finds that a NoCasualtiesRun ''at all'' is harder on The Reckoning than on any other mission between both games except ''maybe'' Bonus Mission 3 in the first game, if it's even possible to do, never mind trying to do it in the time limit.
* ''Battalion Wars'' has some levels that fall under this:
** Their Finest Hour in ''Battalion Wars 2''. Due to the shaky controls of your options in the Airbase defense, you have to contend with either potentially jumping out of the MG Tower without warning and not necessarily knowing how to get back into it, or if you switch to either air unit, you have to keep track of how you handle the Wiimote or else you might crash into something. Either way, the starting part is annoying. Oh, but the worst is yet to come: there are AA units all over the place, the Airbase you spend the whole time trying to capture will produce Fighters and Gunships that are already on top of you to be DemonicSpiders ''before Pierce or A-Qira mention that they have been sent out'', and all you get to fight them with is the Fighters, which, of course, have to contend with the AA units even if you do overcome the faulty controls. It's no wonder the time limit for a Perfect S Rank is 16 minutes.
** In the first game, X-Day. How many times did you die on that beachhead? Or right after that beachhead? Or...
*** There is a way to get through the Artillery at the start of that level. [[spoiler:Direct your units to move near the fence, so that they'll get right within the Artillery's safe zone.]]
** There's also "Siege of the Vladstad", which is a perfectly acceptable level right up until the end. And that's even ''if'' you realize [[spoiler:the Vladstag has a side entrance]].
** "Road to Xylvania" tops all of them. First of you have a Battlestation which unlike the sequel cannot turn to aim and thus you have to position yourself perfectly to beat the Pillboxes that will kill everything else in a heartbeat.On top of that the path is so curvy giving Heavy Tanks an advantage against the Battlestation. That's a just ridculuosly in itself,but then you have Gunships constantly after you mercilessly attacking anything in sight,and you only have 6 Missile Vets.You can spam the Y button all you want,they'll still get ya' down. Not to mention acid pits that are too easy to step into. At least Vladstag has assistance.
** Bonus Mission 3 may be a BonusLevelOfHell, but it has earned its place here. At the start, you're immediately bombarded by 2 Artillery, each guarded by 3 Rocket (Bazooka) infantry to deter your Heavy Tanks. You must destroy this Artillery ASAP or they'll destroy the fortress that the game [[GuideDangIt doesn't suggest is destructible]] and give you an automatic mission failure. You would want to work on tasks other than the Artillery because once the Artillery is destroyed, a respawning Bomber appears to make your life miserable, and you don't even get any anti-air units unless you're willing to count [[spoiler:Assaults, which still do likely too little damage to be worth considering]]. And to top it all off, your only units for destroying all of the enemy vehicles are Heavy Tanks, which are slow and big, which means thanks to similar reasons as to why Pit in VideoGame/SuperSmashBros is a SkillGateCharacter, are given grief by the Anti-Air Vehicles' attack spams causing them to repeatedly bounce along with all the damage they take. Oh, and guess what is ready to hammer your infantry and further mess up your Technique score? ''Two more Artillery!'' And if you finally get past ''all'' of this, say hello to a Bomber and Gunship spam to give your Fighters (which arrive, '''about time''') misery in killing them all quickly, which you need to do because of the fact that your Heavy Tanks are still [[EscortMission mission critical]], even if you wiped out every enemy vehicle. And if you're looking for a good score, you have so many units that basically amount to being little more than target practice for the Bombers that your Technique will be based on [[LuckBasedMission whether your units feel like surviving all the abuse]].
*** It turns out that thanks to [[spoiler:a [[ArtificialStupidity Bomber AI exploit]] that [[LeapOfFaith violates common sense beyond belief]]]], doing the mission with [[NoCasualtiesRun no casualties]] and a Perfect S-Rank is possible, as shown [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLD4eH9UfkQ here]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZryqxsj2bY here]]. Unfortunately, it's still a LuckBasedMission thanks to [[spoiler:AIRoulette]]. If not for these FakeDifficulty issues, the linked run would be a CrowningMomentOfAwesome.
** The Reckoning in the sequel borders on being ThatOneLevel, but doesn't quite manage it because it's the last mission. However, if you want that perfect S-Rank, have lots of hair ready to be torn out. Technique, although having a ridiculously high minimum (a whopping 70% with just the Battlestation, the mission critical unit, alive), doesn't hit 100% easily, so you have to keep plenty of units alive, which means you'd want to get through the first half of the stage without anything lost, because the second part is full of [[spoiler:[[DemonicSpiders Fighters and Strato Destroyers]]]], which are bound to tear apart your units like paper, and [[spoiler:your Anti-Air Vets have laughable lock-on range for their job if you thought you could [[GlassCannon switch to one to erase the air units faster]]]]. But things get really bad if you want 100% in both Power and Speed. Not only does the game place 2 Heavy Tanks and some Grunts behind the [[spoiler:Mining Spider]] but Speed is absurdly strict for the fact that you'd have to deliver the [[MightyGlacier painfully slow Battlestation]] from one end of the map to the other in order to do anything to the [[spoiler:Mining Spider]]. [[MasterKnight This troper]] has done ''every'' other mission in the game on a NoCasualtiesRun with a Perfect S-Rank (including Their Finest Hour, actually except Under Siege but he's convinced that one is possible with a competent teammate) and finds that a NoCasualtiesRun ''at all'' is harder on The Reckoning than on any other mission between both games except ''maybe'' Bonus Mission 3 in the first game, if it's even possible to do, never mind trying to do it in the time limit.
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!!Example subpages
* ThatOneLevel/FireEmblemFates
* ThatOneLevel/NintendoWars
* ThatOneLevel/SuperRobotWars
!!Other examples
* ThatOneLevel/FireEmblemFates
* ThatOneLevel/NintendoWars
* ThatOneLevel/SuperRobotWars
!!Other examples
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** Paralogue 23: The Radiant Hero may be the single most difficult non-DLC chapter in the game. Good news, you get access to 30 units, the most of any chapter. Bad news? You have '''''50''''' enemies to deal with, and all of them are max level with top-tier equipment. As if that wasn't bad enough, the boss character is Priam, who not only has the legendary [[InfinityPlusOneSword Ragnell]] (which grants a +5 defense boost and is a 15 MT, 70% Hit Rate sword that can attack from 2 spaces away), but also has ''all three'' melee weapon breaker skills plus [[LifeDrain Sol]] and [[ArmorPiercingAttack Luna]]. Even worse? You don't get to just plan out a strategy and pick them apart step-by-step. The entire enemy formation, Priam included, charges you in a ZergRush that feels more like standing in the path of an avalanche. If you're trying to make it through all stages without losing anyone on Classic mode... good freakin' luck. Even on Normal, it's very hard to avoid losing at least one unit. At least if you survive this hellhole, that son of a bitch Priam joins you with the same stats he had as a boss.
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** Paralogue 23: The Radiant Hero may be the single most difficult non-DLC chapter in the game. Good news, you get access to 30 units, the most of any chapter. Bad news? You have '''''50''''' enemies to deal with, and all of them are max level with top-tier equipment. As if that wasn't bad enough, the boss character is Priam, [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority Priam]], who not only has the legendary [[InfinityPlusOneSword Ragnell]] (which grants a +5 defense boost and is a 15 MT, 70% Hit Rate sword that can attack from 2 spaces away), but also has ''all three'' melee weapon breaker skills plus [[LifeDrain Sol]] and [[ArmorPiercingAttack Luna]]. Even worse? You don't get to just plan out a strategy and pick them apart step-by-step. The entire enemy formation, Priam included, charges you in a ZergRush that feels more like standing in the path of an avalanche. If you're trying to make it through all stages without losing anyone on Classic mode... good freakin' luck. Even on Normal, it's very hard to avoid losing at least one unit. At least if you survive this hellhole, that son of a bitch Priam joins you with the same stats he had as a boss.
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* One level in ''VideoGame/AncientEmpires'' II requires you to move to the end of the level while killing every enemy on the map. You don't have a castle, so you can't produce more units except by raising Skeletons. There are several, increasingly powerful groups of enemies that appear from nowhere as you move along the path. If you try to take a shortcut, you'll just cause multiple groups to spawn at once. To have any hope of succeeding, you need to protect the units you start with, send in Skeletons as cannon fodder, and raise every possible grave as a new Skeleton.
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Moving Nintendo Wars examples to their own page.
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[[AC:''VideoGame/NintendoWars'']]
* The "Kanbei's Error?" mission of the original ''Advance Wars''. The normal Campaign version of it is quite easy, with the biggest challenge being ''if'' you're trying to unlock an optional series of missions that requires you to finish this mission and the two previous in a certain number of turns (and even that's not too hard). The Advance Campaign version, though, cranks the difficulty way, ''way'' up by giving Kanbei an assload of air units close to your starting position, which means he's likely to take out most of your units on Day 1 (especially given his boosted firepower). One might think you could just [[HoldTheLine wait out the airstrike]] and take out his air force one by one... but this is also a [[TimedMission capture-based mission]], and because of the way Kanbei's infantry is deployed, you automatically lose on Day 6 if you can't damage one of his infantry before then. Naturally, his infantry units are halfway across the map, and the aforementioned airforce makes rushing his infantry impossible. And because it just wasn't difficult enough even at this point, you've also got FogOfWar to contend with as well. All of this makes this mission borderline impossible without a day-by-day guide or ''lots'' of trial and error.
** Unless you have a grasp on the TacticalRockPaperScissors, any naval-based Drake mission can be really frustrating. And even some of the land ones; in "Captain Drake", Andy has to capture X amount of cities before Drake does. Except Drake has more units than you to start with. Oh, and he already has infantry on the center island. And you have to make infantry from factories. And both you and Drake have only one lander and no way to make more. And Drake has a submarine with his battleship. And... You know what? Let's just say Drake is one tough son of a bitch to beat. It's even worse if you choose Sami as she ''starts with no factories'' under her control and she has to contend with FogOfWar, which [[TheAllSeeingAI the AI cheats in regards to seeing your units unless they are in forests or reefs]].
* ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars Dual Strike'' has a number of levels that stray away from genuine challenge into FakeDifficulty and general annoyance:
** Crystal Calamity is the scrappiest of many teeth gnashing missions. Your first objective in the level is to fire off all nine Silos in the level whilst operating under a ''real time'' timer in an otherwise ''turn based'' game. The TimedMission is one thing, but if the enemy secures even ONE Silo, you lose. What's worse than ''that'' is that if you spend too much time fighting and do too much damage to the enemy forces you charge their special moves, leading to the very definite possibility of an enemy tag break that grants Black Hole ''two'' turns for each unit meaning they'll almost certainly reach at least one silo. Talk about FakeDifficulty. Plus on [[NonIndicativeDifficulty Normal Campaign]], Black Hole could send the Black Bomb toward red team and [[LuckBasedMission screw you over that way]] [[CharacterSelectForcing if you didn't cheap out a Day 1 T-Copter]]. And it doesn't even end there, as there's a second objective once the first one is done, and if you mess up there, you have to ''repeat the whole thing again''. The level is so bad that Webcomic/TotallyFlaked mocked it mercilessly.
*** It's hard enough just to ''beat'', but if you're going for an ''S-Rank''? Prepare to do this mission over, and over, and ''over again'', [[LuckBasedMission praying things go right the next time]].
** Pincer Strike. So many units, so many indirects, so much forest, so much fog, so much possibility of a Tag Break involving Drake, whose Super CO power does 2 damage to all your units and cuts their fuel in half. Not good for you. You're mostly better off barely bothering to tackle the enemy's naval force, believe it or not.
** Surrounded, especially the Hard version. It's made even worse that you don't automatically win by routing the enemy force, and only win by capturing the towers with your [[LethalJokeCharacter ever so slow Infantry]], so Kindle looks like a big time [[CutscenePowerToTheMax cutscene abuser]].
** Verdant Hills. The AI just loves to Tag Break ending on Javier's turn. Since Javier ensures control of at least one tower, he will have so much defense that he pretty much prevents you from retaliating against your reduced control over the choke-point. The only "easy" way to win: ignore the top half of the map, which Javier and Jess will swarm over, and sneak a Mech to take the HQ once all of their units have left. Of course, this ''will'' destroy your Technique score. Getting an S Rank on this level will cause baldness.
** Ring of Fire has difficulty dissonance on its fronts. How does the top front manage to be so very difficult but the bottom one which is the one that matters manage to be so very easy?
** Neverending War on Hard Campaign involves having the map flooded with enemy Neotanks while you can't deploy anything better than a normal Tank. Some suggest to get the airport, but that's still a dragged out war. And the 100 Speed limit is how many Days again?
** Dark Ambition is a boring piece of garbage thanks to Olaf's Winter Fury power that makes pushing through the defense of the HQ so annoying. In fact, if it weren't for that Stealth you get, you probably would lose thanks to the Megatank. (Yeah, what were you thinking, Allied Nations? You regarded the reverse engineering possibility and they actually would be causing you to lose if they actually had a Stealth of their own.)
* Sunrise in ''Days of Ruin'' also qualifies. The Nest provides explosive bombs to rip apart your units at the most inconvenient times, infinite free units which can whatever Caulder damn well pleases, and lasers covering ''rough terrain'' to keep your forces spread thin and repeatedly suffer the abuse. And it's made worse that Caulder, with daily healing and ridiculous combat boosts to anything near enough his unit or just his unit itself, makes [[GameBreaker Sturm]] look like a JokeCharacter. Watch as a Duster with him loaded effortlessly destroys your ''Fighter''. It's amazing how the level has a consistent Day-To-Day guide on Website/YouTube that makes it so easy to beat. Oh, and here's the best part: you have to repeat the level 10 times to [[HundredPercentCompletion get a certain medal]].
** Said Day-To-Day guide is pretty much the only way to complete it, and even then only if Caulder feels like following it. For instance, if he uses a Fighter instead of a Duster, you're screwed because he's only able to target your precious bombers instead of being distracted by other units. Also, said guide completes the mission in around 10 days at most. If you don't win by Day 13, Caulder pretty much tells you to give up. Now that's nothing uncommon for video game villains, but unlike most others, he's not bluffing. It's possible to beat it after 13 days, but good luck getting a half-decent rank.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb_7sT7wXwI This]] completes the mission in ''six'' Days.
** "A Hero's Farewell" in ''Days of Ruin''. The sea throws a Battleship ''and'' an Aircraft Carrier at you and the rough seas and lack of your own predeployed Battleship keeps you from doing much about either one quickly enough to avoid letting your Cruiser get shot, and if you don't kill the Battleship in one turn, your Submarine will inevitably get hit by the enemy Cruiser. The Aircraft Carrier, meanwhile, sends out Seaplanes. As for the land front, you're not going far quickly because of a terrain-covered Rocket Launcher, which allows Forsythe to build up.
*** The best part: if you go into the Tactics Room, instead of Lin, ''Forsythe himself'' tells you how to go about the mission. He's an AntiVillain, yes, but still... '''''the enemy CO takes pity on you!'''''
** Before that, "Greyfield Strikes"... ''you''. Greyfield, in order to show who's in charge, randomly shuts down one of your units every third day. There's a fairly reliable day-by-day guide out there... but if Greyfield decides to call out any but one of ''three'' units, it falls apart.
** "Waylon Flies Again" is considered one of the hardest non-boss missions in the entire series. You start off with NO factories or airfields - which your opponent DOES have - while the enemy has a HUGE airforce ready to attack. The [[ArtificialStupidity AI]] has an inadequate amount of anti air only to slow them down while your one Anti-Air in the center - and, inevitably, your infantry surrounding the center - get [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill bombed to Hell.]] And if the AI loses all its units, you lose. The one redeeming factor is Will's ShutUpHannibal to Waylon on the 2nd or 3rd day, his second CrowningMomentofAwesome in the game.
*** What's that? Look for a day-by-day guide? Thanks to how Waylon's programmed in this stage, ''there aren't any''. Waylon's actions are completely random, making a day-by-day guide impossible to consistently follow; even the best FAQ can only plot his actions up to about Day 4 before they have to give up.
** Some people consider "A Hero's Farewell" more of a BestLevelEver, but just about ''EVERYONE'' hates "Lin's Gambit", a FogOfWar TimedMission where Greyfield's units make advancing quickly extremely frustrating. To top it off, if you're not good with naval combat, you're not going to do well in this mission. At all.
*** "Lin's Gambit" is a pathetically easy mission. The enemy HQ is nowhere near entrenched, and is just begging for you to drop troops near it and capture it using naval transports, which can easily be done by turn 15. You have more bases than the enemy (thus more funds), and aside from the seas, two bridges lead from the enemy base to to yours, so you don't have to spread your forces thin to defend your base, just a medium tank and an anti-tank and you're all set. And the best part? The CO you play as during this mission has a DefogOfWar CO Power!
** Several non-campaign maps are an absolute terror. Comb Map casts you as a small force away from your own base, with powerful enemies bearing down on that base from all sides. It's guaranteed to be one of your longest missions ever.
*** Jay Islands is a four-way marine battle of attrition in Fog of War where you're constantly taking one step forward and two steps back. There doesn't appear to be any comprehensive day-to-day guide for Jay Islands online, probably because winning it takes equal parts patience and blind luck.
*** Tatter River, a massive 4-CO map, the largest map in the whole game. The sheer size alone makes it daunting, but the biggest challenge comes from establishing aerial supremacy on a map where everybody has a few airports and plenty of money. Oh, and all the [=HQs=] are surrounded by rivers, which only infantry and air units can cross. When you cross any of those rivers, there ''will'' be loads of Anti-Air units (which are also the most effective anti-infantry units) waiting for you on the other side. The turn limit for a 100-point Time score on this map is ''50 days'', by the way.
*** Wedding Ring is a copter-and-infantry focused race to capture as many cities as possible where the AI will punish you severely for the slightest misstep. As in many of the smaller Trial Maps, you're meant to go right for the opponent's HQ rather than actually try to fight them.
*** Metro Map. The blue team not only starts with a property advantage, but get to work with a nasty forest clump that is even more bothersome to the player. It desperately needs a Day-To-Day guide, but the sole one available is for the high score that [[LuckBasedMission requires too much luck]], even with SaveScumming.
*** Triangle Lake is another pretty hard Trial map despite being the first one unlocked through the campaign. The enemy outnumbers you two to one and has several indirect units, including an [[DemonicSpiders Anti-Tank]] parked on the HQ. While you ''do'' control the only factory on the map, it still requires a lot of strategizing in order to get a good score.
*** Time Map. It's a very small map and, similar to "Waylon Flies Again" above, the actions of the three AI players are totally random, and two of them have armies consisting solely of '''TEN WAR TANKS'''. The idea is to weaken them with constant barrages from missile silos, but there's no guarantee that the third AI won't attack ''you'' with them (because their army, like yours, is ten Mechs). Not only this, but if you want a high score, you ''can't'' just sit back and let the armies destroy each other because that causes the Power score to tank. There's also no comprehensive guide to this one, due to its highly random nature.
* Any map with Sturm in ''Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising'' is a qualifier, because you're shoehorned into battle against a GameBreaker. All of his units get a 20% bonus to offense AND defense and are unimpaired by all terrain, and his Super CO Power (Meteor Strike) will severely damage a patch of your best units and throw another substantial boost.
** Also on that note, "Sinking Feeling": Sinking 9 battleships in 17 days is tough on its own, but your units will spend half that time just getting within firing range, meaning that one mistake can doom you and reinforcements will need to be built a few days ''before'' you actually need them. Lash will throw Bombers at you fairly regularly, so you need to be extremely careful with positioning your Artillery and Rockets to keep them alive, while being equally cautious with your Anti-Air so they're still strong enough to kill Bombers. To make matters worse, you also need to send a unit to the other side of the map if you want to unlock the Neotanks mission for Green Earth.
** "Great Sea Battle", the last mission in the Green Earth campaign, will leave experienced players picking their teeth out of the gutter. Hawke has access to a factory, i.e. 3 free units per turn, while you're stuck with 3 meager bases. While you're still capturing cities and churning out your first Tank or Bomber, Hawke will be sending a few dozen units towards you, all while he gets covering fire from Cannons. Since you're managing 3 armies in this mission, you also have to move ''fast'' with your Green Earth troops to keep Orange Star from being overrun.
*** This map would be much easier if not for Hawke's Super CO Power: He drains 2 health from all your units and heals all his by 2. That enemy you thought was almost dead? Nope, it's good to go. This forces you to be extremely cautious with your units and use what would normally be considered overkill, since they'll have to be able to sponge Hawke's attacks even after he uses his CO power.
*** The CO select somehow makes the mission harder: You get to pick all 3 Commanding Officers in the battle, but Sami and Drake are next to useless, and Jess and Andy aren't very useful either, not that [[GuideDangIt the map layout lets you know]]. [[CharacterSelectForcing Players who don't like Max or Eagle are out of luck]].
*** Yellow Comet is basically dead weight in this mission: They start with a tiny base, take forever to capture the nearby Airport since it's protected by a Minicannon, and are far away from the rest of the fighting. It doesn't help that none of their [=CO=]s are a good fit: Sonja doesn't help when there's no Fog of War, Sensei isn't much use since Infantry won't encounter much resistance and B Copters will get thrashed by Hawke's Cruisers, and Kanbei's just impractical due to the low number of cities available. The only way to get some use out of them, cutting along the side of the map and destroying the pipe seam with Rockets, will complete the mission but result in a very low score. Paradoxically, this is also a good way to a high score, but you need to tightly coordinate Orange Star as a wall (since their losses don't hurt Technique), Green Earth to get one turn with multiple kills (for power), and Yellow Comet to end the map quickly for a Speed score, which requires far more forethought and choreography than even the most drawn out slug-fest.
** Probably the biggest ThatOneLevel of all in ''Black Hole Rising'' though is Liberation: Hard Campaign. Even though it's only mission 8, even though you're facing [[JokeCharacter Flak]]. Having a factory with Hard Campaign production orders on such a small map is just brutal.
* Bissum Desert (Campaign 36) in ''Game Boy Wars 3'', although potentially managing healthy difficulty, may give players grief even if they do manage to get past the DoWellButNotPerfect issues of the Campaign Mode in general. The gist is that the game's overly GlassCannon mechanics generally work in White Moon's favor on this map. This isn't a bad thing in and of itself, even though the mechanics generally favor the player in plenty of maps in Campaign. However, the later part of the map does have its annoyance factor.
** To elaborate on the difficulty of the map, it starts with White Moon having a bunch of planes deployed, among them 2 Interceptors, which can snipe your air units and can be very hard to get at safely on Day 2. The simple solution would be to not send out your air units right away, but navy is unavailable and since White Moon also has a bunch of tough land units predeployed to the east, you will need air units to help handle those buggers. This isn't so bad on its own, you just need to [[spoiler:use any Interceptor units you have to hammer the enemy's, and set up an anti-air perimeter to keep your units safe from flanking]]. However, as soon as you try storming White Moon's HQ, things get truly irksome as you have to deal with crossing a most likely Artillery-covered area with a lot of Desert terrain--yes, you read right, not the terrain template you would know in ''Dual Strike'' or ''Days of Ruin'', but terrain tiles that are similar to the Desert terrain in ''Fire Emblem''. And unlike the Plains and Forests and stuff like that (which in this game actually have some Movement Costs at 1.5), the Desert gives off painfully high Movement Costs to the point where your land units being able to move more than one space at a time is the only reason why it's not a surprise that they're far less likely to be slaughtered than [[spoiler:Cuan, Ethelin, and their group of Lenster Lance Knights]] in ''Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu''.
* ''VideoGame/BattalionWars'' has some levels that fall under this:
* The "Kanbei's Error?" mission of the original ''Advance Wars''. The normal Campaign version of it is quite easy, with the biggest challenge being ''if'' you're trying to unlock an optional series of missions that requires you to finish this mission and the two previous in a certain number of turns (and even that's not too hard). The Advance Campaign version, though, cranks the difficulty way, ''way'' up by giving Kanbei an assload of air units close to your starting position, which means he's likely to take out most of your units on Day 1 (especially given his boosted firepower). One might think you could just [[HoldTheLine wait out the airstrike]] and take out his air force one by one... but this is also a [[TimedMission capture-based mission]], and because of the way Kanbei's infantry is deployed, you automatically lose on Day 6 if you can't damage one of his infantry before then. Naturally, his infantry units are halfway across the map, and the aforementioned airforce makes rushing his infantry impossible. And because it just wasn't difficult enough even at this point, you've also got FogOfWar to contend with as well. All of this makes this mission borderline impossible without a day-by-day guide or ''lots'' of trial and error.
** Unless you have a grasp on the TacticalRockPaperScissors, any naval-based Drake mission can be really frustrating. And even some of the land ones; in "Captain Drake", Andy has to capture X amount of cities before Drake does. Except Drake has more units than you to start with. Oh, and he already has infantry on the center island. And you have to make infantry from factories. And both you and Drake have only one lander and no way to make more. And Drake has a submarine with his battleship. And... You know what? Let's just say Drake is one tough son of a bitch to beat. It's even worse if you choose Sami as she ''starts with no factories'' under her control and she has to contend with FogOfWar, which [[TheAllSeeingAI the AI cheats in regards to seeing your units unless they are in forests or reefs]].
* ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars Dual Strike'' has a number of levels that stray away from genuine challenge into FakeDifficulty and general annoyance:
** Crystal Calamity is the scrappiest of many teeth gnashing missions. Your first objective in the level is to fire off all nine Silos in the level whilst operating under a ''real time'' timer in an otherwise ''turn based'' game. The TimedMission is one thing, but if the enemy secures even ONE Silo, you lose. What's worse than ''that'' is that if you spend too much time fighting and do too much damage to the enemy forces you charge their special moves, leading to the very definite possibility of an enemy tag break that grants Black Hole ''two'' turns for each unit meaning they'll almost certainly reach at least one silo. Talk about FakeDifficulty. Plus on [[NonIndicativeDifficulty Normal Campaign]], Black Hole could send the Black Bomb toward red team and [[LuckBasedMission screw you over that way]] [[CharacterSelectForcing if you didn't cheap out a Day 1 T-Copter]]. And it doesn't even end there, as there's a second objective once the first one is done, and if you mess up there, you have to ''repeat the whole thing again''. The level is so bad that Webcomic/TotallyFlaked mocked it mercilessly.
*** It's hard enough just to ''beat'', but if you're going for an ''S-Rank''? Prepare to do this mission over, and over, and ''over again'', [[LuckBasedMission praying things go right the next time]].
** Pincer Strike. So many units, so many indirects, so much forest, so much fog, so much possibility of a Tag Break involving Drake, whose Super CO power does 2 damage to all your units and cuts their fuel in half. Not good for you. You're mostly better off barely bothering to tackle the enemy's naval force, believe it or not.
** Surrounded, especially the Hard version. It's made even worse that you don't automatically win by routing the enemy force, and only win by capturing the towers with your [[LethalJokeCharacter ever so slow Infantry]], so Kindle looks like a big time [[CutscenePowerToTheMax cutscene abuser]].
** Verdant Hills. The AI just loves to Tag Break ending on Javier's turn. Since Javier ensures control of at least one tower, he will have so much defense that he pretty much prevents you from retaliating against your reduced control over the choke-point. The only "easy" way to win: ignore the top half of the map, which Javier and Jess will swarm over, and sneak a Mech to take the HQ once all of their units have left. Of course, this ''will'' destroy your Technique score. Getting an S Rank on this level will cause baldness.
** Ring of Fire has difficulty dissonance on its fronts. How does the top front manage to be so very difficult but the bottom one which is the one that matters manage to be so very easy?
** Neverending War on Hard Campaign involves having the map flooded with enemy Neotanks while you can't deploy anything better than a normal Tank. Some suggest to get the airport, but that's still a dragged out war. And the 100 Speed limit is how many Days again?
** Dark Ambition is a boring piece of garbage thanks to Olaf's Winter Fury power that makes pushing through the defense of the HQ so annoying. In fact, if it weren't for that Stealth you get, you probably would lose thanks to the Megatank. (Yeah, what were you thinking, Allied Nations? You regarded the reverse engineering possibility and they actually would be causing you to lose if they actually had a Stealth of their own.)
* Sunrise in ''Days of Ruin'' also qualifies. The Nest provides explosive bombs to rip apart your units at the most inconvenient times, infinite free units which can whatever Caulder damn well pleases, and lasers covering ''rough terrain'' to keep your forces spread thin and repeatedly suffer the abuse. And it's made worse that Caulder, with daily healing and ridiculous combat boosts to anything near enough his unit or just his unit itself, makes [[GameBreaker Sturm]] look like a JokeCharacter. Watch as a Duster with him loaded effortlessly destroys your ''Fighter''. It's amazing how the level has a consistent Day-To-Day guide on Website/YouTube that makes it so easy to beat. Oh, and here's the best part: you have to repeat the level 10 times to [[HundredPercentCompletion get a certain medal]].
** Said Day-To-Day guide is pretty much the only way to complete it, and even then only if Caulder feels like following it. For instance, if he uses a Fighter instead of a Duster, you're screwed because he's only able to target your precious bombers instead of being distracted by other units. Also, said guide completes the mission in around 10 days at most. If you don't win by Day 13, Caulder pretty much tells you to give up. Now that's nothing uncommon for video game villains, but unlike most others, he's not bluffing. It's possible to beat it after 13 days, but good luck getting a half-decent rank.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb_7sT7wXwI This]] completes the mission in ''six'' Days.
** "A Hero's Farewell" in ''Days of Ruin''. The sea throws a Battleship ''and'' an Aircraft Carrier at you and the rough seas and lack of your own predeployed Battleship keeps you from doing much about either one quickly enough to avoid letting your Cruiser get shot, and if you don't kill the Battleship in one turn, your Submarine will inevitably get hit by the enemy Cruiser. The Aircraft Carrier, meanwhile, sends out Seaplanes. As for the land front, you're not going far quickly because of a terrain-covered Rocket Launcher, which allows Forsythe to build up.
*** The best part: if you go into the Tactics Room, instead of Lin, ''Forsythe himself'' tells you how to go about the mission. He's an AntiVillain, yes, but still... '''''the enemy CO takes pity on you!'''''
** Before that, "Greyfield Strikes"... ''you''. Greyfield, in order to show who's in charge, randomly shuts down one of your units every third day. There's a fairly reliable day-by-day guide out there... but if Greyfield decides to call out any but one of ''three'' units, it falls apart.
** "Waylon Flies Again" is considered one of the hardest non-boss missions in the entire series. You start off with NO factories or airfields - which your opponent DOES have - while the enemy has a HUGE airforce ready to attack. The [[ArtificialStupidity AI]] has an inadequate amount of anti air only to slow them down while your one Anti-Air in the center - and, inevitably, your infantry surrounding the center - get [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill bombed to Hell.]] And if the AI loses all its units, you lose. The one redeeming factor is Will's ShutUpHannibal to Waylon on the 2nd or 3rd day, his second CrowningMomentofAwesome in the game.
*** What's that? Look for a day-by-day guide? Thanks to how Waylon's programmed in this stage, ''there aren't any''. Waylon's actions are completely random, making a day-by-day guide impossible to consistently follow; even the best FAQ can only plot his actions up to about Day 4 before they have to give up.
** Some people consider "A Hero's Farewell" more of a BestLevelEver, but just about ''EVERYONE'' hates "Lin's Gambit", a FogOfWar TimedMission where Greyfield's units make advancing quickly extremely frustrating. To top it off, if you're not good with naval combat, you're not going to do well in this mission. At all.
*** "Lin's Gambit" is a pathetically easy mission. The enemy HQ is nowhere near entrenched, and is just begging for you to drop troops near it and capture it using naval transports, which can easily be done by turn 15. You have more bases than the enemy (thus more funds), and aside from the seas, two bridges lead from the enemy base to to yours, so you don't have to spread your forces thin to defend your base, just a medium tank and an anti-tank and you're all set. And the best part? The CO you play as during this mission has a DefogOfWar CO Power!
** Several non-campaign maps are an absolute terror. Comb Map casts you as a small force away from your own base, with powerful enemies bearing down on that base from all sides. It's guaranteed to be one of your longest missions ever.
*** Jay Islands is a four-way marine battle of attrition in Fog of War where you're constantly taking one step forward and two steps back. There doesn't appear to be any comprehensive day-to-day guide for Jay Islands online, probably because winning it takes equal parts patience and blind luck.
*** Tatter River, a massive 4-CO map, the largest map in the whole game. The sheer size alone makes it daunting, but the biggest challenge comes from establishing aerial supremacy on a map where everybody has a few airports and plenty of money. Oh, and all the [=HQs=] are surrounded by rivers, which only infantry and air units can cross. When you cross any of those rivers, there ''will'' be loads of Anti-Air units (which are also the most effective anti-infantry units) waiting for you on the other side. The turn limit for a 100-point Time score on this map is ''50 days'', by the way.
*** Wedding Ring is a copter-and-infantry focused race to capture as many cities as possible where the AI will punish you severely for the slightest misstep. As in many of the smaller Trial Maps, you're meant to go right for the opponent's HQ rather than actually try to fight them.
*** Metro Map. The blue team not only starts with a property advantage, but get to work with a nasty forest clump that is even more bothersome to the player. It desperately needs a Day-To-Day guide, but the sole one available is for the high score that [[LuckBasedMission requires too much luck]], even with SaveScumming.
*** Triangle Lake is another pretty hard Trial map despite being the first one unlocked through the campaign. The enemy outnumbers you two to one and has several indirect units, including an [[DemonicSpiders Anti-Tank]] parked on the HQ. While you ''do'' control the only factory on the map, it still requires a lot of strategizing in order to get a good score.
*** Time Map. It's a very small map and, similar to "Waylon Flies Again" above, the actions of the three AI players are totally random, and two of them have armies consisting solely of '''TEN WAR TANKS'''. The idea is to weaken them with constant barrages from missile silos, but there's no guarantee that the third AI won't attack ''you'' with them (because their army, like yours, is ten Mechs). Not only this, but if you want a high score, you ''can't'' just sit back and let the armies destroy each other because that causes the Power score to tank. There's also no comprehensive guide to this one, due to its highly random nature.
* Any map with Sturm in ''Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising'' is a qualifier, because you're shoehorned into battle against a GameBreaker. All of his units get a 20% bonus to offense AND defense and are unimpaired by all terrain, and his Super CO Power (Meteor Strike) will severely damage a patch of your best units and throw another substantial boost.
** Also on that note, "Sinking Feeling": Sinking 9 battleships in 17 days is tough on its own, but your units will spend half that time just getting within firing range, meaning that one mistake can doom you and reinforcements will need to be built a few days ''before'' you actually need them. Lash will throw Bombers at you fairly regularly, so you need to be extremely careful with positioning your Artillery and Rockets to keep them alive, while being equally cautious with your Anti-Air so they're still strong enough to kill Bombers. To make matters worse, you also need to send a unit to the other side of the map if you want to unlock the Neotanks mission for Green Earth.
** "Great Sea Battle", the last mission in the Green Earth campaign, will leave experienced players picking their teeth out of the gutter. Hawke has access to a factory, i.e. 3 free units per turn, while you're stuck with 3 meager bases. While you're still capturing cities and churning out your first Tank or Bomber, Hawke will be sending a few dozen units towards you, all while he gets covering fire from Cannons. Since you're managing 3 armies in this mission, you also have to move ''fast'' with your Green Earth troops to keep Orange Star from being overrun.
*** This map would be much easier if not for Hawke's Super CO Power: He drains 2 health from all your units and heals all his by 2. That enemy you thought was almost dead? Nope, it's good to go. This forces you to be extremely cautious with your units and use what would normally be considered overkill, since they'll have to be able to sponge Hawke's attacks even after he uses his CO power.
*** The CO select somehow makes the mission harder: You get to pick all 3 Commanding Officers in the battle, but Sami and Drake are next to useless, and Jess and Andy aren't very useful either, not that [[GuideDangIt the map layout lets you know]]. [[CharacterSelectForcing Players who don't like Max or Eagle are out of luck]].
*** Yellow Comet is basically dead weight in this mission: They start with a tiny base, take forever to capture the nearby Airport since it's protected by a Minicannon, and are far away from the rest of the fighting. It doesn't help that none of their [=CO=]s are a good fit: Sonja doesn't help when there's no Fog of War, Sensei isn't much use since Infantry won't encounter much resistance and B Copters will get thrashed by Hawke's Cruisers, and Kanbei's just impractical due to the low number of cities available. The only way to get some use out of them, cutting along the side of the map and destroying the pipe seam with Rockets, will complete the mission but result in a very low score. Paradoxically, this is also a good way to a high score, but you need to tightly coordinate Orange Star as a wall (since their losses don't hurt Technique), Green Earth to get one turn with multiple kills (for power), and Yellow Comet to end the map quickly for a Speed score, which requires far more forethought and choreography than even the most drawn out slug-fest.
** Probably the biggest ThatOneLevel of all in ''Black Hole Rising'' though is Liberation: Hard Campaign. Even though it's only mission 8, even though you're facing [[JokeCharacter Flak]]. Having a factory with Hard Campaign production orders on such a small map is just brutal.
* Bissum Desert (Campaign 36) in ''Game Boy Wars 3'', although potentially managing healthy difficulty, may give players grief even if they do manage to get past the DoWellButNotPerfect issues of the Campaign Mode in general. The gist is that the game's overly GlassCannon mechanics generally work in White Moon's favor on this map. This isn't a bad thing in and of itself, even though the mechanics generally favor the player in plenty of maps in Campaign. However, the later part of the map does have its annoyance factor.
** To elaborate on the difficulty of the map, it starts with White Moon having a bunch of planes deployed, among them 2 Interceptors, which can snipe your air units and can be very hard to get at safely on Day 2. The simple solution would be to not send out your air units right away, but navy is unavailable and since White Moon also has a bunch of tough land units predeployed to the east, you will need air units to help handle those buggers. This isn't so bad on its own, you just need to [[spoiler:use any Interceptor units you have to hammer the enemy's, and set up an anti-air perimeter to keep your units safe from flanking]]. However, as soon as you try storming White Moon's HQ, things get truly irksome as you have to deal with crossing a most likely Artillery-covered area with a lot of Desert terrain--yes, you read right, not the terrain template you would know in ''Dual Strike'' or ''Days of Ruin'', but terrain tiles that are similar to the Desert terrain in ''Fire Emblem''. And unlike the Plains and Forests and stuff like that (which in this game actually have some Movement Costs at 1.5), the Desert gives off painfully high Movement Costs to the point where your land units being able to move more than one space at a time is the only reason why it's not a surprise that they're far less likely to be slaughtered than [[spoiler:Cuan, Ethelin, and their group of Lenster Lance Knights]] in ''Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu''.
* ''VideoGame/BattalionWars'' has some levels that fall under this:
to:
*
** Unless you have a grasp on the TacticalRockPaperScissors, any naval-based Drake mission can be really frustrating. And even some of the land ones; in "Captain Drake", Andy has to capture X amount of cities before Drake does. Except Drake has more units than you to start with. Oh, and he already has infantry on the center island. And you have to make infantry from factories. And both you and Drake have only one lander and no way to make more. And Drake has a submarine with his battleship. And... You know what? Let's just say Drake is one tough son of a bitch to beat. It's even worse if you choose Sami as she ''starts with no factories'' under her control and she has to contend with FogOfWar, which [[TheAllSeeingAI the AI cheats in regards to seeing your units unless they are in forests or reefs]].
* ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars Dual Strike'' has a number of levels that stray away from genuine challenge into FakeDifficulty and general annoyance:
** Crystal Calamity is the scrappiest of many teeth gnashing missions. Your first objective in the level is to fire off all nine Silos in the level whilst operating under a ''real time'' timer in an otherwise ''turn based'' game. The TimedMission is one thing, but if the enemy secures even ONE Silo, you lose. What's worse than ''that'' is that if you spend too much time fighting and do too much damage to the enemy forces you charge their special moves, leading to the very definite possibility of an enemy tag break that grants Black Hole ''two'' turns for each unit meaning they'll almost certainly reach at least one silo. Talk about FakeDifficulty. Plus on [[NonIndicativeDifficulty Normal Campaign]], Black Hole could send the Black Bomb toward red team and [[LuckBasedMission screw you over that way]] [[CharacterSelectForcing if you didn't cheap out a Day 1 T-Copter]]. And it doesn't even end there, as there's a second objective once the first one is done, and if you mess up there, you have to ''repeat the whole thing again''. The level is so bad that Webcomic/TotallyFlaked mocked it mercilessly.
*** It's hard enough just to ''beat'', but if you're going for an ''S-Rank''? Prepare to do this mission over, and over, and ''over again'', [[LuckBasedMission praying things go right the next time]].
** Pincer Strike. So many units, so many indirects, so much forest, so much fog, so much possibility of a Tag Break involving Drake, whose Super CO power does 2 damage to all your units and cuts their fuel in half. Not good for you. You're mostly better off barely bothering to tackle the enemy's naval force, believe it or not.
** Surrounded, especially the Hard version. It's made even worse that you don't automatically win by routing the enemy force, and only win by capturing the towers with your [[LethalJokeCharacter ever so slow Infantry]], so Kindle looks like a big time [[CutscenePowerToTheMax cutscene abuser]].
** Verdant Hills. The AI just loves to Tag Break ending on Javier's turn. Since Javier ensures control of at least one tower, he will have so much defense that he pretty much prevents you from retaliating against your reduced control over the choke-point. The only "easy" way to win: ignore the top half of the map, which Javier and Jess will swarm over, and sneak a Mech to take the HQ once all of their units have left. Of course, this ''will'' destroy your Technique score. Getting an S Rank on this level will cause baldness.
** Ring of Fire has difficulty dissonance on its fronts. How does the top front manage to be so very difficult but the bottom one which is the one that matters manage to be so very easy?
** Neverending War on Hard Campaign involves having the map flooded with enemy Neotanks while you can't deploy anything better than a normal Tank. Some suggest to get the airport, but that's still a dragged out war. And the 100 Speed limit is how many Days again?
** Dark Ambition is a boring piece of garbage thanks to Olaf's Winter Fury power that makes pushing through the defense of the HQ so annoying. In fact, if it weren't for that Stealth you get, you probably would lose thanks to the Megatank. (Yeah, what were you thinking, Allied Nations? You regarded the reverse engineering possibility and they actually would be causing you to lose if they actually had a Stealth of their own.)
* Sunrise in ''Days of Ruin'' also qualifies. The Nest provides explosive bombs to rip apart your units at the most inconvenient times, infinite free units which can whatever Caulder damn well pleases, and lasers covering ''rough terrain'' to keep your forces spread thin and repeatedly suffer the abuse. And it's made worse that Caulder, with daily healing and ridiculous combat boosts to anything near enough his unit or just his unit itself, makes [[GameBreaker Sturm]] look like a JokeCharacter. Watch as a Duster with him loaded effortlessly destroys your ''Fighter''. It's amazing how the level has a consistent Day-To-Day guide on Website/YouTube that makes it so easy to beat. Oh, and here's the best part: you have to repeat the level 10 times to [[HundredPercentCompletion get a certain medal]].
** Said Day-To-Day guide is pretty much the only way to complete it, and even then only if Caulder feels like following it. For instance, if he uses a Fighter instead of a Duster, you're screwed because he's only able to target your precious bombers instead of being distracted by other units. Also, said guide completes the mission in around 10 days at most. If you don't win by Day 13, Caulder pretty much tells you to give up. Now that's nothing uncommon for video game villains, but unlike most others, he's not bluffing. It's possible to beat it after 13 days, but good luck getting a half-decent rank.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb_7sT7wXwI This]] completes the mission in ''six'' Days.
** "A Hero's Farewell" in ''Days of Ruin''. The sea throws a Battleship ''and'' an Aircraft Carrier at you and the rough seas and lack of your own predeployed Battleship keeps you from doing much about either one quickly enough to avoid letting your Cruiser get shot, and if you don't kill the Battleship in one turn, your Submarine will inevitably get hit by the enemy Cruiser. The Aircraft Carrier, meanwhile, sends out Seaplanes. As for the land front, you're not going far quickly because of a terrain-covered Rocket Launcher, which allows Forsythe to build up.
*** The best part: if you go into the Tactics Room, instead of Lin, ''Forsythe himself'' tells you how to go about the mission. He's an AntiVillain, yes, but still... '''''the enemy CO takes pity on you!'''''
** Before that, "Greyfield Strikes"... ''you''. Greyfield, in order to show who's in charge, randomly shuts down one of your units every third day. There's a fairly reliable day-by-day guide out there... but if Greyfield decides to call out any but one of ''three'' units, it falls apart.
** "Waylon Flies Again" is considered one of the hardest non-boss missions in the entire series. You start off with NO factories or airfields - which your opponent DOES have - while the enemy has a HUGE airforce ready to attack. The [[ArtificialStupidity AI]] has an inadequate amount of anti air only to slow them down while your one Anti-Air in the center - and, inevitably, your infantry surrounding the center - get [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill bombed to Hell.]] And if the AI loses all its units, you lose. The one redeeming factor is Will's ShutUpHannibal to Waylon on the 2nd or 3rd day, his second CrowningMomentofAwesome in the game.
*** What's that? Look for a day-by-day guide? Thanks to how Waylon's programmed in this stage, ''there aren't any''. Waylon's actions are completely random, making a day-by-day guide impossible to consistently follow; even the best FAQ can only plot his actions up to about Day 4 before they have to give up.
** Some people consider "A Hero's Farewell" more of a BestLevelEver, but just about ''EVERYONE'' hates "Lin's Gambit", a FogOfWar TimedMission where Greyfield's units make advancing quickly extremely frustrating. To top it off, if you're not good with naval combat, you're not going to do well in this mission. At all.
*** "Lin's Gambit" is a pathetically easy mission. The enemy HQ is nowhere near entrenched, and is just begging for you to drop troops near it and capture it using naval transports, which can easily be done by turn 15. You have more bases than the enemy (thus more funds), and aside from the seas, two bridges lead from the enemy base to to yours, so you don't have to spread your forces thin to defend your base, just a medium tank and an anti-tank and you're all set. And the best part? The CO you play as during this mission has a DefogOfWar CO Power!
** Several non-campaign maps are an absolute terror. Comb Map casts you as a small force away from your own base, with powerful enemies bearing down on that base from all sides. It's guaranteed to be one of your longest missions ever.
*** Jay Islands is a four-way marine battle of attrition in Fog of War where you're constantly taking one step forward and two steps back. There doesn't appear to be any comprehensive day-to-day guide for Jay Islands online, probably because winning it takes equal parts patience and blind luck.
*** Tatter River, a massive 4-CO map, the largest map in the whole game. The sheer size alone makes it daunting, but the biggest challenge comes from establishing aerial supremacy on a map where everybody has a few airports and plenty of money. Oh, and all the [=HQs=] are surrounded by rivers, which only infantry and air units can cross. When you cross any of those rivers, there ''will'' be loads of Anti-Air units (which are also the most effective anti-infantry units) waiting for you on the other side. The turn limit for a 100-point Time score on this map is ''50 days'', by the way.
*** Wedding Ring is a copter-and-infantry focused race to capture as many cities as possible where the AI will punish you severely for the slightest misstep. As in many of the smaller Trial Maps, you're meant to go right for the opponent's HQ rather than actually try to fight them.
*** Metro Map. The blue team not only starts with a property advantage, but get to work with a nasty forest clump that is even more bothersome to the player. It desperately needs a Day-To-Day guide, but the sole one available is for the high score that [[LuckBasedMission requires too much luck]], even with SaveScumming.
*** Triangle Lake is another pretty hard Trial map despite being the first one unlocked through the campaign. The enemy outnumbers you two to one and has several indirect units, including an [[DemonicSpiders Anti-Tank]] parked on the HQ. While you ''do'' control the only factory on the map, it still requires a lot of strategizing in order to get a good score.
*** Time Map. It's a very small map and, similar to "Waylon Flies Again" above, the actions of the three AI players are totally random, and two of them have armies consisting solely of '''TEN WAR TANKS'''. The idea is to weaken them with constant barrages from missile silos, but there's no guarantee that the third AI won't attack ''you'' with them (because their army, like yours, is ten Mechs). Not only this, but if you want a high score, you ''can't'' just sit back and let the armies destroy each other because that causes the Power score to tank. There's also no comprehensive guide to this one, due to its highly random nature.
* Any map with Sturm in ''Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising'' is a qualifier, because you're shoehorned into battle against a GameBreaker. All of his units get a 20% bonus to offense AND defense and are unimpaired by all terrain, and his Super CO Power (Meteor Strike) will severely damage a patch of your best units and throw another substantial boost.
** Also on that note, "Sinking Feeling": Sinking 9 battleships in 17 days is tough on its own, but your units will spend half that time just getting within firing range, meaning that one mistake can doom you and reinforcements will need to be built a few days ''before'' you actually need them. Lash will throw Bombers at you fairly regularly, so you need to be extremely careful with positioning your Artillery and Rockets to keep them alive, while being equally cautious with your Anti-Air so they're still strong enough to kill Bombers. To make matters worse, you also need to send a unit to the other side of the map if you want to unlock the Neotanks mission for Green Earth.
** "Great Sea Battle", the last mission in the Green Earth campaign, will leave experienced players picking their teeth out of the gutter. Hawke has access to a factory, i.e. 3 free units per turn, while you're stuck with 3 meager bases. While you're still capturing cities and churning out your first Tank or Bomber, Hawke will be sending a few dozen units towards you, all while he gets covering fire from Cannons. Since you're managing 3 armies in this mission, you also have to move ''fast'' with your Green Earth troops to keep Orange Star from being overrun.
*** This map would be much easier if not for Hawke's Super CO Power: He drains 2 health from all your units and heals all his by 2. That enemy you thought was almost dead? Nope, it's good to go. This forces you to be extremely cautious with your units and use what would normally be considered overkill, since they'll have to be able to sponge Hawke's attacks even after he uses his CO power.
*** The CO select somehow makes the mission harder: You get to pick all 3 Commanding Officers in the battle, but Sami and Drake are next to useless, and Jess and Andy aren't very useful either, not that [[GuideDangIt the map layout lets you know]]. [[CharacterSelectForcing Players who don't like Max or Eagle are out of luck]].
*** Yellow Comet is basically dead weight in this mission: They start with a tiny base, take forever to capture the nearby Airport since it's protected by a Minicannon, and are far away from the rest of the fighting. It doesn't help that none of their [=CO=]s are a good fit: Sonja doesn't help when there's no Fog of War, Sensei isn't much use since Infantry won't encounter much resistance and B Copters will get thrashed by Hawke's Cruisers, and Kanbei's just impractical due to the low number of cities available. The only way to get some use out of them, cutting along the side of the map and destroying the pipe seam with Rockets, will complete the mission but result in a very low score. Paradoxically, this is also a good way to a high score, but you need to tightly coordinate Orange Star as a wall (since their losses don't hurt Technique), Green Earth to get one turn with multiple kills (for power), and Yellow Comet to end the map quickly for a Speed score, which requires far more forethought and choreography than even the most drawn out slug-fest.
** Probably the biggest ThatOneLevel of all in ''Black Hole Rising'' though is Liberation: Hard Campaign. Even though it's only mission 8, even though you're facing [[JokeCharacter Flak]]. Having a factory with Hard Campaign production orders on such a small map is just brutal.
* Bissum Desert (Campaign 36) in ''Game Boy Wars 3'', although potentially managing healthy difficulty, may give players grief even if they do manage to get past the DoWellButNotPerfect issues of the Campaign Mode in general. The gist is that the game's overly GlassCannon mechanics generally work in White Moon's favor on this map. This isn't a bad thing in and of itself, even though the mechanics generally favor the player in plenty of maps in Campaign. However, the later part of the map does have its annoyance factor.
** To elaborate on the difficulty of the map, it starts with White Moon having a bunch of planes deployed, among them 2 Interceptors, which can snipe your air units and can be very hard to get at safely on Day 2. The simple solution would be to not send out your air units right away, but navy is unavailable and since White Moon also has a bunch of tough land units predeployed to the east, you will need air units to help handle those buggers. This isn't so bad on its own, you just need to [[spoiler:use any Interceptor units you have to hammer the enemy's, and set up an anti-air perimeter to keep your units safe from flanking]]. However, as soon as you try storming White Moon's HQ, things get truly irksome as you have to deal with crossing a most likely Artillery-covered area with a lot of Desert terrain--yes, you read right, not the terrain template you would know in ''Dual Strike'' or ''Days of Ruin'', but terrain tiles that are similar to the Desert terrain in ''Fire Emblem''. And unlike the Plains and Forests and stuff like that (which in this game actually have some Movement Costs at 1.5), the Desert gives off painfully high Movement Costs to the point where your land units being able to move more than one space at a time is the only reason why it's not a surprise that they're far less likely to be slaughtered than [[spoiler:Cuan, Ethelin, and their group of Lenster Lance Knights]] in ''Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu''.
* ''VideoGame/BattalionWars''
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* However, the level that stands head and shoulders above all is [[BrutalBonusLevel Rivals]], of the first Advance Wars.
** [[spoiler:Merely accessing the level requires a GuideDangIt by defeating all 4 Green Earth Missions as Sami, one level of which, Wings of Victory, is a ThatOneLevel unto itself. Proceed to defeat Sturm in the final mission, after which Eagle will challenge Andy to a "friendly" showdown.]] The map is wide, traversed by narrow bridges and islands, and you are given three foot soldiers, a small base, and are a long way off from the nearest neutral bases, which will not be neutral by the time you reach them. You are forced to play as Andy. Your foe starts with foot soldiers and a very strong base. The normal campaign version is harder than the majority of the advance campaign missions because Eagle owns more cities to build an army from at the start. The advanced mode of this mission? Your foe starts by owning the nuetral bases. And forward infantry. And an air force. In Fog of War. And both times, but much more pronounced here, he is using Lightning Strike, the best CO Power in the game. And with all those expensive air units you need to destroy, he will have very liberal use of that Power.
** It gets to the point that the only way to defeat him is days (literal, 24-hour segment DAYS) of trial and error. And then you will still be crying as the mass of unstoppable Bombers, Fighters, Medium Tanks, Battle Copters, and Rockets roll over your base. Again. And again. And again.
** There is a guide. It shows you exactly how to defeat the mission, by exactly, tile-by-tile, day-by-day, telling you how to fend off his attack in such a way, that allows you to escape with a few transport copters and infantry, while he overruns your base so thoroughly that you are actually depending on him saturating your properties, hoping that his own units block his infatry from taking your HQ. You then must execute a perfect suicide run for his HQ. If everything goes well, you triumphantly stand upon a shattered Green Earth HQ, a half-damaged infantry your unit on the map, and 30-some game-days of anguish behind.
** Guess what? [[spoiler: Even this exhaustive strategy guide [[UnwinnableByMistake doesn't work 100% of the time]]. Sometimes, Eagle will move his Battle Copter in a way that makes the entire strategy futile. Many, if not most, of the games have a randomized AI routine that is set when you first enter the Advance Campaign 22 levels earlier. This determines whether Eagle in ''Rivals'' sports a minuscule AchillesHeel, or if he is quite simply unbeatable.]]
** [[spoiler:Merely accessing the level requires a GuideDangIt by defeating all 4 Green Earth Missions as Sami, one level of which, Wings of Victory, is a ThatOneLevel unto itself. Proceed to defeat Sturm in the final mission, after which Eagle will challenge Andy to a "friendly" showdown.]] The map is wide, traversed by narrow bridges and islands, and you are given three foot soldiers, a small base, and are a long way off from the nearest neutral bases, which will not be neutral by the time you reach them. You are forced to play as Andy. Your foe starts with foot soldiers and a very strong base. The normal campaign version is harder than the majority of the advance campaign missions because Eagle owns more cities to build an army from at the start. The advanced mode of this mission? Your foe starts by owning the nuetral bases. And forward infantry. And an air force. In Fog of War. And both times, but much more pronounced here, he is using Lightning Strike, the best CO Power in the game. And with all those expensive air units you need to destroy, he will have very liberal use of that Power.
** It gets to the point that the only way to defeat him is days (literal, 24-hour segment DAYS) of trial and error. And then you will still be crying as the mass of unstoppable Bombers, Fighters, Medium Tanks, Battle Copters, and Rockets roll over your base. Again. And again. And again.
** There is a guide. It shows you exactly how to defeat the mission, by exactly, tile-by-tile, day-by-day, telling you how to fend off his attack in such a way, that allows you to escape with a few transport copters and infantry, while he overruns your base so thoroughly that you are actually depending on him saturating your properties, hoping that his own units block his infatry from taking your HQ. You then must execute a perfect suicide run for his HQ. If everything goes well, you triumphantly stand upon a shattered Green Earth HQ, a half-damaged infantry your unit on the map, and 30-some game-days of anguish behind.
** Guess what? [[spoiler: Even this exhaustive strategy guide [[UnwinnableByMistake doesn't work 100% of the time]]. Sometimes, Eagle will move his Battle Copter in a way that makes the entire strategy futile. Many, if not most, of the games have a randomized AI routine that is set when you first enter the Advance Campaign 22 levels earlier. This determines whether Eagle in ''Rivals'' sports a minuscule AchillesHeel, or if he is quite simply unbeatable.]]
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** [[spoiler:Merely accessing the level requires a GuideDangIt by defeating all 4 Green Earth Missions as Sami, one level of which, Wings of Victory, is a ThatOneLevel unto itself. Proceed to defeat Sturm in the final mission, after which Eagle will challenge Andy to a "friendly" showdown.]] The map is wide, traversed by narrow bridges and islands, and you are given three foot soldiers, a small base, and are a long way off from the nearest neutral bases, which will not be neutral by the time you reach them. You are forced to play as Andy. Your foe starts with foot soldiers and a very strong base. The normal campaign version is harder than the majority of the advance campaign missions because Eagle owns more cities to build an army from at the start. The advanced mode of this mission? Your foe starts by owning the nuetral bases. And forward infantry. And an air force. In Fog of War. And both times, but much more pronounced here, he is using Lightning Strike, the best CO Power in the game. And with all those expensive air units you need to destroy, he will have very liberal use of that Power.
** It gets to the point that the only way to defeat him is days (literal, 24-hour segment DAYS) of trial and error. And then you will still be crying as the mass of unstoppable Bombers, Fighters, Medium Tanks, Battle Copters, and Rockets roll over your base. Again. And again. And again.
** There is a guide. It shows you exactly how to defeat the mission, by exactly, tile-by-tile, day-by-day, telling you how to fend off his attack in such a way, that allows you to escape with a few transport copters and infantry, while he overruns your base so thoroughly that you are actually depending on him saturating your properties, hoping that his own units block his infatry from taking your HQ. You then must execute a perfect suicide run for his HQ. If everything goes well, you triumphantly stand upon a shattered Green Earth HQ, a half-damaged infantry your unit on the map, and 30-some game-days of anguish behind.
** Guess what? [[spoiler: Even this exhaustive strategy guide [[UnwinnableByMistake doesn't work 100% of the time]]. Sometimes, Eagle will move his Battle Copter in a way that makes the entire strategy futile. Many, if not most, of the games have a randomized AI routine that is set when you first enter the Advance Campaign 22 levels earlier. This determines whether Eagle in ''Rivals'' sports a minuscule AchillesHeel, or if he is quite simply unbeatable.]]
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*** One of your troops being forced to fight you due to an IHaveYourWife ploy. And unlike FE3's Abel, the enemy was smart enough to dress him in their colours. This means he ''looks exactly like a normal enemy {{Mook}}'', and there's no way to tell which one he is. Did I mention that to get him back, you need to rescue his fiance (who's ''very'' weak and underleveled) from a cell, get her back to him. And if you forget which of the {{Mooks}} is actualy him, she's going to get splattered.
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*** One of your troops being forced to fight you due to an IHaveYourWife ploy. And unlike FE3's [=FE3=]'s Abel, the enemy was smart enough to dress him in their colours. This means he ''looks exactly like a normal enemy {{Mook}}'', and there's no way to tell which one he is. Did I mention that to get him back, you need to rescue his fiance (who's ''very'' weak and underleveled) from a cell, get her back to him. And if you forget which of the {{Mooks}} is actualy him, she's going to get splattered.
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There's actually a Warp Staff you can obtain at the beginning of the chapter.
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** Chapter 22. Lots of high-leveled enemies that all have a boosted 30% accuracy and avoid thanks to a particular character on the map, status-inflicting staff users (in this game, long-range staffs can affect anyone on the map, and bad statuses ''do not wear off over time'') and lots of ballistas that are subject to the same accuracy/avoid boost that love to snipe your weaker characters off. Although it is very easy to simply cop out and use a Warp Staff to kill the boss and seize the castle on the first turn, one of the bosses, who has an army of ''very'' powerful soldiers protecting him, gives a very nice sword to someone [[GuideDangIt if you have her talk to him.]] So, if you want that sword, or if you ran out of Warp Staves... godspeed, soldier.
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** Chapter 22. Lots of high-leveled enemies that all have a boosted 30% accuracy and avoid thanks to a particular character on the map, status-inflicting staff users (in this game, long-range staffs can affect anyone on the map, and bad statuses ''do not wear off over time'') and lots of ballistas that are subject to the same accuracy/avoid boost that love to snipe your weaker characters off. Although it is very easy to simply cop out and use a Warp Staff to kill the boss and seize the castle on the first turn, one of the bosses, who has an army of ''very'' powerful soldiers protecting him, gives a very nice sword to someone [[GuideDangIt if you have her talk to him.]] So, if you want that sword, or if you ran out of Warp Staves...sword... godspeed, soldier.
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*** Not helping ''at all'' is the enemy outnumbering you a lot more than in the previous levels and being spread out all over; if anyone but Seth goes out on their own (like Vanessa the pegasus knight trying to get the civilians out of spider range...) they WILL get ganged up on and most likely die. This level is one of the best arguments the "It's OK to use Seth" camp has in its arsenal early on. And even with this, it '''won't''' be cakewalk to have him reach for the boss: with the FogOfWar around and how Novala is actually in an upper corner of the map, poor Seth ''will'' get ganged-up and die if you aren't careful.
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*** Not helping ''at all'' is the enemy outnumbering you a lot more than in the previous levels and being spread out all over; if anyone but Seth goes out on their own (like Vanessa the pegasus knight trying to get the civilians out of spider range...) they WILL get ganged up on and most likely die. This level is one of the best arguments the "It's OK to use Seth" camp has in its arsenal early on. And even with this, it '''won't''' be a cakewalk to have him reach for the boss: with the FogOfWar around and how Novala is actually in an upper corner of the map, poor Seth ''will'' get ganged-up and die if you aren't careful.
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** Chapter 17. First off, it's a four-part chapter with four different mission objectives--the first part is a Rout map, the second is a Seize, the third is a Survive (10 turns), and the last is a Defeat Boss. Much of it takes place in a swamp, which gives out even heftier movement penalties than a desert and only your fliers, rather than both fliers and magic-users like in the desert, are unhindered. The first part is relatively easy--not too much of the swampy terrain, and aside from one promoted unit with a Killer weapon, there's nothing too tough. Part two is where the swamp starts, but any unit can take the mission objective and it's not actually at the opposite end of the map (the short way goes through a ''lot'' of swamp, prompting you to take the long way around), so with a strong flier or two you can get through it quickly. Then things start getting really challenging. In between part 2 and part 3, Ike encounters an NPC in distress, and rescues her--which means that for the remainder of the chapter, he's permanently locked to having a rescued unit, cutting your speed and skill in half. (Better hope he's damn close to level 20, because he won't be doing much fighting anymore and he automatically promotes following the chapter.) Finally, part 4 throws a mage with a long-distance tome at you near the starting position, with trees protecting him from your units as he's able to get close enough (fliers can go after him, of course, as can an archer with a longbow). And once you go past a certain line--a line that you'd have to send someone over very early if you want to take out the mage with the Meteor tome? Four allied [=NPCs=] show up halfway across the map from your starting position and in the midst of the enemies' starting formation, one of whom is powerful enough to kill just about everything--and rob you of all of their dropped items--while another one is completely defenseless and will likely get killed if not rescued quickly. Your best bet to keep them from doing too much damage is to rescue all four of them as well...leaving you with ''five'' units who are going to be more or less useless in combat.
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** Chapter 17. First off, it's a four-part chapter with four different mission objectives--the first part is a Rout map, the second is a Seize, the third is a Survive (10 turns), and the last is a Defeat Boss. Much of it takes place in a swamp, which gives out even heftier movement penalties than a desert and only your fliers, rather than both fliers and magic-users like in the desert, are unhindered. The first part is relatively easy--not too much of the swampy terrain, and aside from one promoted unit with a Killer weapon, there's nothing too tough. Part two is where the swamp starts, but any unit can take the mission objective and it's not actually at the opposite end of the map (the short way goes through a ''lot'' of swamp, prompting you to take the long way around), so with a strong flier or two you can get through it quickly. Then things start getting really challenging. In between part 2 and part 3, Ike encounters an NPC in distress, and rescues her--which means that for the remainder of the chapter, he's permanently locked forced to having a rescued unit, carry her with him, cutting your his speed and skill in half. (Better hope he's damn close to level 20, because he won't be doing much fighting anymore and he automatically promotes following the chapter.) Finally, part 4 throws a mage with a long-distance tome at you near the starting position, with trees protecting him from your units as he's able to get close enough (fliers can go after him, of course, as can an archer with a longbow). And once you go past a certain line--a line that you'd have to send someone over very early if you want to take out the mage with the Meteor tome? Four allied [=NPCs=] show up halfway across the map from your starting position and in the midst of the enemies' starting formation, one of whom is powerful enough to kill just about everything--and rob you of all of their dropped items--while another one is completely defenseless and will likely get killed if not rescued quickly. Your best bet to keep them from doing too much damage is to rescue all four of them as well...leaving you with ''five'' units who are going to be more or less useless in combat.
