Deneb's Garden

Hidden Cities - 1
Treasures - 2

This is much tougher than Lake Jannenia. It's not as open a map as it could be, but don't let that fool you. There are two conspicuous roads to your base however when I played I found that the enemy took the slow way and moved across the mountains in a straight line towards my base. This may be your first stage where your Lord sees some combat action, so hopefully he's not too pathetic. If he is, then help him out with Tarots. They, combined with the Lord's inherently good attacks, should hopefully provide enough firepower to win the battle and hold off the enemy until stronger units can arrive.

Send a strong unit southwest into Talka, the city right next to you. This will ensure that your Lord won't have to face the enemy without a single source of help. Now send another unit west along the road and liberate the Temple and the city (Roseanhe) there. The city has a shop in it. Send another unit south of your base along that road and liberate the two cities on it (Valparin and Peltmont).

The enemy should be coming now. Be extremely cautious. Their logical route would be through Roseanhe, but in my case they just went straight northeast from their base to mine. There's no Undead, but there are Faeries, which are quite useless. The most annoying enemy is the Cockatrice since it turns people to stone.

Note: since the map is big and you'll be doing a lot of traveling, you may find yourself in spontaneous fights that begin with a message saying that you were attacked by a Neutral character. In such fights, if you bring up the menu in the battle you'll get an extra option, Befriend. The higher your reputation is, the higher the odds that this will succeed. Success results in the monster joining you.

Use a flying unit to pick up the two treasures. One is in a clearing in the western mountains and the other is in a clearing in the central southern ones (at the bottom of the map). When you have done this, send your strongest unit across the mountains to the hidden city of Anquard (it's at the end of the road that leads out of the enemy base). Do this between waves of enemies, then sit until the next wave ends and march into the enemy base. Meet Deneb, an annoying witch who wears pink and talks like a Valley Girl.

Boss: Deneb
HP: 125 | STR: 74 | AGI: 94 | INT: 121 | CHA: 59 | ALI: 47 | LUK: 68
P: 25 | F: 30 | I: 28 | E: 31 | B: 48 | W: 50

Deneb is physically weak and she's in the front row. That's a good thing. She also comes with four Pumpkins. That is not a good thing. Pumpkins have only one attack, and it halves the HP of everyone in your party. Play a Fool card, and they're gone, making the fight extremely short. For the sadistic, use a Lovers to make them use their devastating attack on their leader.

Without either of those cards, it won't be a cakewalk. Use a card like Magician, Hermit or Tower to soften them up a little and hope that with your subsequent magic and physical attacks Deneb will be dead. After the fight, you'll get a choice between killing her and sparing her. Sparing her will allow you to later get the ability to recruit Pumpkins as well as Deneb herself, but don't. It will lower your reputation. Besides, Deneb is annoying as hell. Kill her and laugh. As for Pumpkins, if you want them so much then wander around the mountains in this stage and some neutral ones will attack you eventually.