If you can afford to spare him, throw Oswin to the instant west. Park him on one the spaces where the reinforcement Cavaliers show up. He should generally crush the one Cavalier that appears.
As for the mid-map... yeah, it'll be tricky. Those Caelin soldiers do love to suicide themselves at the Shamans, in my experience. Now, iirc, the Caelin soldiers don't do anything until you reach a certain point in the map, so you could take the map slowly, since there's no real rush. I'd recommend using two of your Cavaliers in the corridor to block it off, then have Erk take potshots at the Knights from behind them. Naturally, Serra and Priscilla should heal up the Cavaliers when possible.
Sorry if this is bad advice, I've not played FE 7 in... ooh, some time.
I think you get something like five or seven turns before the Caelin troops break out of prison. I usually send most of my forces up the center, giving one of my cavaliers the Heavy Spear to make short work of the knights. After that, it's mostly just keeping them healed and chewing through the archers as quickly as possible. Once you've cleared the hallway, move Priscilla just outside Raven's attack range (don't know if he'll charge her or not, but just to be on the safe side...)then recruit him next turn. If you move quickly enough, you should be able to recruit Raven on the turn that the soldiers would rush out. Then just rescue the soldiers and have your Lords/axefighters/Oswin finish the level.
It's good to deploy the cavaliers to rescue the Caelin soldiers and escort Priscilla as fast as possible. Don't hesitate to use Marcus, even though he's an exp. hog. You probably don't need anyone but Oswin to sit by Merlinus. There are other chapters where you can feed your low-leveled units experience (16x is good for training one of your swordsmen, for instance); I wouldn't set it at too high a priority here, where you're got plenty else to do and the map is so cramped and sprawled out.
It Just Bugs MeIf you have the Horseslayer from last chapter, park Oswin at the bottom left area of the map to butcher any Cavalier unlucky enough to cross his path.
A corpse should be left well enough alone...Ooh, I forgot about the Horseslayer.
However, I'm not using Oswin or Marcus. Marcus is a pre-promote so he counts as like level 12 at least, and Oswin is also level 12. I'm only using the level 11 Lyn because of a sentimental reason, as stated above. The my party is as follows, with these starting levels/XP: Eliwood 4/80, Lowen 5/92, Bartre 6/74, Hector 5/13, Guy 5/17, Matthew 7/67, Priscilla 3/89, Lyn 11/22, Wil 6/94, Serra 6/51, Florina 7/75.
I think the cavaliers start showing up at around turn 6 or 7, two per turn for three turns (a total of six). The Caelin soldiers break out of jail at around the same time, or a bit later. They actually lave the jail door open for one extra round, I think, before making a run for it. Usually I get to Raven the round they make a run for it.
If you haven't recruited Raven by then, Raven 2-hit-KO's each one, in one turn due to his superior speed. The shamans are actually slow enough that, because only one Shaman can attack one soldier at a time, the soldiers are smart enough to run away and use their vulneraries.
I've realized that after that, I should just have Priscilla carrying one of them, and possibly just block them with my characters from going anywhere near the boss. Ideally they show up when there are still cavaliers down south so I send them down there. They are probably competent enough to take care of those.
The knights are a good source of XP for Hector, and I'm trying to get Eliwood to land the killing blow on some of the archers for the XP bonus.
I'm mainly screwing things up due to my own bad decisions. I actually had one run where I put Priscilla in danger twice, and after dodging three arrows the first time, she fell to two. The main challenge is that I want to get her to Raven as fast as possible, but she can't take more than one hit at a time. Usually I've left Serra to play defense at the bottom of the map (there was one time where she helped Guy and Florina valiantly stave off four of the six cavaliers that came for Merlinus), but perhaps I'll let them take care of things using vulneraries and have Serra join up. (I do want her to stand next to Matthew as well :P.)
Actually, Priscilla only takes 4 damage from the Shamans, which is a good thing. She can basically pick up a Caelin soldier and then then survive up to three hits from the Shamans in that hallway. The problem is getting her there.
As much as I protest, I'm actually perfectly content to play with these constraints, to be honest. It's like a tough intellectual/strategic exercise.
edited 19th Sep '10 10:47:58 AM by GlennMagusHarvey
The only thing I'm a bit annoyed at is my having to play the scenario from the beginning each time. Though I've learned one interesting fact from that, which is that the two archers at the entrance actually can be generated with 22 or 21 HP. This is important because if the one on the right has only 21 HP, then Guy and Eliwood can KO him on the first turn and let Bartre through to deal 18 damage to the first Knight, giving me a head start on getting my units through that first bottleneck.
The second main problem is getting the right units to deal with the first shaman and the steel bow archer guarding the chests. Matthew steals the door key, and currently my strategy is to have other units take care of the archer just west of the entrance and then have Florina pick up the key from Matthew (who has to go on immediately to steal a vulnerary and another door key in course of the next three or four turns), have Florina (with her higher resistance) take care of the shaman then hand off the key to someone else to take care of the archer (such as Wil).
After that, I need to get Wil back to the main front as quickly as possible, because he has a bow and can actually counterattack the large number of archers. Florina should probably be going to the bottom front to help defend against the cavaliers. I figure someone else can pick up the stuff in the chests later, or since the stuff gets sent to Merlinus anyway I shouldn't have to worry too much. Not like I can use it immediately anyway, since it's a promotion item and an unlock staff.
Right now, Lyn is basically a meatshield, with 31 HP and decent attack power (strength 9 plus Iron Sword, unless I really want to use the Mani Katti), though no ranged attack.
Eliwood and Hector are to forge ahead, along with Matthew and Priscilla and probably Lowen who could use the XP. Lowen pulls back to the bottom front when the enemy cavaliers show up, though he's probably my strongest unit on the field, easily double-hitting (and thereby flattening) some of the slower archers. He also has a javelin for good measure. Bartre also goes up with them, as he's basically like a surrogate Hector.
Matthew can steal the first item on the first turn, though that may depend on whether the right archer has 21 HP or 22—if it's 22 I can't off him on my first turn anyway so I might as well position Matthew for an early advance, since the second stealable item is going to be within range by turn 2. By turn 3, the archer with the third stealable item will be in mid-screen two-square hallway, and I have to deal with him while trying to keep my team moving, especially Priscilla, but not putting Priscilla in too much danger—which usually means two squares away from the front, due to the large number of archers. Or, one square away if there's only one way to hit her. (Perhaps I can afford to be slightly more risk-taking if I have Serra around, both to draw fire and to co-heal.)
Sure, I could just throw Sent and Kain Kent and Sain to the bottom of the screen defending and have Marcus carry Priscilla and him and Lowen totally pwning everyone, but what's the fun in that?
Honestly giving yourself extra challenges makes FE 7 a lot more fun, gamewise—it's rather easy otherwise.
Lowen is another one of my favorite characters. Defensive cavalier is a really great niche. I always support him with Rebecca :)
It Just Bugs Mehttp://safebooru.org/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=484316
I know it's an "original" (i.e. not fanart) pic, but should I file this image under Fire Emblem?
Or maybe I'll just not have my wyvern riders use ranged attacks. ...or, actually, turning it off does sound like a better idea.
I wonder if someone's made a romhack patch to fix this.
I thought you could have other...oh wait, this is a base class, not a promoted class.
edited 21st Sep '10 2:00:37 PM by GlennMagusHarvey

So I'm currently working on Chapter 16 of FE VII (Blazing Sword) with the following conditions:
The damn mid-map hallway is giving me trouble for some reason.
edited 18th Sep '10 2:49:06 PM by GlennMagusHarvey