Now that you’ve reorganized your army, it’s time to put them to the next test. Jules will really soften up the enemy with 5 archers instead of 3 & make it easy to clear the first group of foes. Once you’ve done so, Barnabas will join your cause. Mounted squads can move slightly further and can move again after attacking, which is quite helpful for hit and run tactics. Barnabas has quite advanced physical defense as well, so he’ll be able to safeguard his squad from most melee attackers.

Split left and right at this point to clear the map within the required 11 turns. On the left side you’ll face rogues, who can attack the back line once (when they initiate combat) and can ambush if attacking from rough terrain. It’s important to have multiple back liners in squads that face rogues or even armored units in the back as well as the front. This makes Barnabas a natural fit to face the rogues if your other units are too squishy in the back. Alternatively you can just defeat/severely weaken them on player phase before they have a chance to ambush or backstab your squads.

Seize all the objectives and bring your forces back together to face the boss. His squad has ranged attackers but not healers, so just grind him down while healing your own forces. Barnabas is a great choice to close with the boss first: he can attack and then retreat to avoid being attacked during enemy phase. Perma-death (if you enabled it) doesn’t apply to story characters, so even if the boss gets lucky and crits Barnabas, the other units should survive. You can further weaken him with Jules’s archer squad and then send in the infantry when ready, but with two archers and a samurai there is a chance one of your archers could die. Zelos’s squad with him in front is another good choice to close as he also can’t permanently die.

Interlude

Barnabas’s Knight Captain skill (-2 capacity for cavalry) encourages adding further cavalry units to his squad, but you could also consider a healer. Note that he will maintain cavalry movement as long as the majority of characters in his squad are mounted (and no dragons or cannons), so you could also add archers, mages and others if you wish. Archers are typically best in full archer squads, but sometimes you just need to fill in empty slots & can move them to more optimal squads later.

Barnabas also has the unique Mentor skill, which improves leadership growth. If you find a character that you want to make a leader, but their leadership doesn’t make the cut right now, consider putting them into Barnabas’s squad for him to mentor.

If you haven’t made a squad beyond the provided story squads, now is a good time to hire a mercenary with high leadership or promote someone to be that leader. If there’s not a mercenary you really like, I wouldn’t reach for it though. You’ll want some funds in reserve for recruiting during the next chapter.