Island Avalon

Hidden Cities - 1
Treasures - 3

This map is the origin of the Roshfallian religion. The Dark Prince Gares was sent to terrorize this region into opposing your forces, and you'll have to whoop his arse before you gain the support of the people here. Gares committed many atrocities in this region, and the people will be praying for your victory. Also, the "Holy Mother" of the religion is hidden in this area, and if she joins your cause you've got the support of the Church.

By now you should have at least three strong units and a high-ALI, fast-moving scout. Send a strong unit along the western road, then north, across the bridge and into the city of Gal Yasa. Send another unit along the east road, liberate Gontak (the city right next to your base) and Man'g (the city across the river), and if you have time press even further east to Taljin. Send the third unit into Man'g if you took Taljin, and station it in Gontak if you didn't.

The enemies here include Undead. As before, give units without Clerics some weapons with White Magic (by now you should have a minimum of two). The three most common ones are the Mystic Mace, the Rune Axe and the Sword Karanborg. You'll encounter some fliers, some Angels (killing whom slashes your ALI) and some Mermaids with Octopi, who are annoying to beat but not too difficult when on land. By now your Clerics should be Shamans (who can recruit Angels, by the way), your Wizards should be Mages and your specialized attackers should be Masters of their class. Your Knights should be pretty close to being Paladins, as well.

Stand and wait for the first wave or two of enemies so you can get a feel for where they're coming from. Their three main avenues of advance are west through Gal Yasa, south through Taljin and south again through Man'g. Occasionally, they come southwest through the Temple just north of your base, so have a backup unit ready to handle this. Should your base get attacked by Mermaids, your Lord's unit, weak as it is, should be more than enough to handle them.

Between waves, occupy Taljin and send whoever is in Man'g north through the mountains. Near the center of the map, surrounded by four volcanoes, is a hidden Roshfallian Temple. If your reputation is high enough, Aisha the Shaman will join you. She has high ALI, making her good for liberating towns. I'm not sure if you have to liberate the Temple with your Lord for her to join or not, so try it both ways.

Make sure you don't have too many units for Aisha to join! Always check how many units you have before each mission and erase all the unnecessary Hellhounds, Octopi, Faeries and other worthless or overly low-level units to make room for better recruits.

Anyways, with the Temple occupied, most of the enemies from the enemy base will flock to that location, so consider the problem of telling where they're going nearly solved. Send your flying scout around the map to find three more cities: Jisshian, the easternmost city on the map, Rajin, the northernmost, and Gelze, the one north of Gal Yasa. Also find the treasure while you're at it (refer to Maps section).

Now send whoever is in Taljin north to Tomayang, the city just southeast of the enemy base. Between waves of enemies, send the unit defending the center Temple to the Temple right next to Tomayang, and from there storm the enemy base at your leisure.

Boss: Gares
HP: 162 | STR: 124 | AGI: 111 | INT: 104 | CHA: 59 | ALI: 46 | LUK: 57
P: 54 | F: 46 | I: 40 | E: 39 | B: 55 | W: 36

This is only the first encounter with the Dark Prince Gares, and it's not easy. Do try to have Mages by now, and turn all of your specialized units (like Ninjas or Dollmages) into Masters. This will net you powerful back-row attacks that focus directly on the enemy leader and can be used more than once during the battle.

Gares will open up with a very strong Dark attack. He is weak against White magic, however you probably don't have Angels (who have a White back-row magic attack). If you want some, they can be found as Neutral characters in the deep sea regions of the map.

Gares' high HP and defense will probably cause you to lose the first bout. In the first bout, just use your area-attack magic and lose. Gares and company will begin to recover their HP but if you quickly heal and attack again they won't have anywhere near full health. If you just can't do it, a Judgement card should prove very, very effective against him.