Der Langrisser (SFC JP) Playthrough --- Stage 4.1 (pre-Heal1 grinding)

The first real difficulty spike of the game when played normally IMO. You start getting a proper mix of units here, and Vargas himself is tough (though not really anything that couldn't be handled by some properly levelled teammates). Vargas also has two Elf units in case Cherie gets too close, but Rouga can make short work of them. Also on Turn 7, Zolm and Morgan appear behind you and they can pick off unaware units if they're caught with them, and you're (sort of) supposed to rush upwards to take out those two Assassin squads before they take out the watchtowers (though honestly I don't know how they intend to take out the two Fighters guarding them given how timid the enemy troops are there. Maybe the MD version was different? Or the Assassin might be waiting for the Fighters to make a mistake and get wounded taking out a weakened unit before pouncing?). Keeping the Watchtowers alive gives a suit of Dragon Scale armor, which is Plate Armor with extra magic defence tacked on and which can be worn by fliers. A turn after he appears, Morgan will try to flee, and defeating him kills him permanently. Letting Morgan go or killing him doesn't really have any consequences aside from (I think) him reappearing as an enemy commander and replacing one of the Mages in Stage 13 of the Light Route if he does successfully escape, but since it's solid Exp, might as well take him out anyway. The one Warlock Morgan brings with him though gives the game's first opportunity to really earn Exp repeatedly using Heal1 by surrounding her and then just casting Heal1 whenever she throws a Fireball at you, and this is where having Elwin slog through the first three stages of the game as a Fighter with Soldiers, and with Heal1 as part of his starting quiz answers, finally pays off. It's also much quicker here than doing so later in the game though when they have Meteor instead, because Meteor costs 8MP to cast and after the mage goes through all of her MP, it takes the mage 4 turns to recover before she can throw another. Fireball only costs 2MP and is therefore much faster to repeatedly throw, and therefore repeatedly heal with Heal1. This is also one of the stages where doing so repeatedly is viable given there's apparently no real turn limit. Unfortunately I needed to leave off for the night so I decided to just set things up and then do the actual grinding next video. Riana with a Cross and her innate +2 Defence Bonus to her Command Aura gives her Monks +8 Defence as a starting Sister. As long as she doesn't expose herself she's practically invulnerable, but she doesn't have any real attack power either so she really needs to rely on spamming Heal1 for extra Exp. Finally, don't forget to have Cherie grab the secret tile to boost her Defence a little, BEFORE she Class Changes to Silver Knight if you're going that route as only she (or Elwin if he still has it as his starting class) can grab it as a Hawk Knight.