This is a no shame save state game, where you'll have anywhere from 4-6 states per battle, and 1-2 back up for old battles just in case you NEED a character in a latter stage and they ran out of stamina.
Also I can't stress enough to new players, look up maps for every fog of war battle, or else you'll redo the same battle 4-5 times just figuring out where you actually need to go.
Also this images sums up how borderline romhack hard this game is
The game is hard and even unfairly hard at times. But this image example is just a bad.
First things first, in terms of story; Tahra was the only City to openly rebel against Imperial opression. They bribed functionaries and hired mercenaries to defend themselves, but the Jugrdal Empire wants to make an example out of it and crush it. The mercenaries flee and the empire moves in. So Leif's army arrives to help fight a hopeless battle, one which they cannot realistically win but have to fight in terms of principles. The game does a great job at painting how futile it is and the actual level reflects this appropriately.
So let's break down the image. First of all, this is a defense map. You only need to survive for 15 turns, so you don't need to fight this "Insulting" boss that is on the south east. The boss won't move at all. So why is he there? Well, the house he is guarding contains a secret event if you visit it with one of the units that joins your army at the start of the map. He's a promoted Wyvern Lord with insane stats, but he alone cannot take on that squadron. The secret event rewards you with his personal weapon, the Dragon Lance which is basically a better Brave Lance. It's really good but it's complete overkill as he does just fine with Silver and Killer Lance for the duration of the game. If you do want to get it, you can easily warp and return him turn 1 with any of your staff users.
The second boss, the one that rushes you starts near this new promoted Wyvern Lord you just got. The boss gets one rounded by him or any other strong unit you have and can be killed as early as Turn Two with the Wyvern Lord no problem without leaving you at risk thanks to Canto allowing for hit and run tactics.
The 4 Ballistas that start near you can hit the where the side walls get broken down but cannot hit the center of the town. They also have mediocre accuracy since it's a regular Ballista, not the Iron one. You can deal with it by rushing with your Cavalry or by staying in the middle and defend those choke points.
The armored reinforcements are pathetic. They have Hand Axes, Javellins or Hammers mostly. All which are awful weapons that have terrible accuracy and low might. They're not particularily bulky either and will get wiped out by any decent unit.
The dark mages that start coming later, which can't do anything on the first turn they appear if you're inside the city can hit pretty hard since magic is super op in this game but have low accuracy. Any of your magic units or units with good avoid will make quick work of them.
The Draco Knights that appear near the end of the turn limit are the biggest threat, but can be dealt easily if you put your bulky units on the southern choke points and start withdrawing youir squishy units.
There's good examples of Thracia purposely kicking you in the balls. Chapter 4 and the whole of the Manster Arc is a good example. But this photo is just a terrible example "rom hack" like difficulty.
