Reunion At Dawn: Fire Emblem Three Houses' Worst Mission

Some Fire Emblem: Three Houses spoilers follow

 Some time ago, I posted an entry arguing why Crimson Flower is the best route in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. One reason is the only thing it does not have in common with the other three- you do not have to reclaim Garreg Mach from the bandits who are squatting in it. This mission is a necessary part of the story, but unfortunately ends up being a frustrating slog in which your tactical choices are unfairly limited.

The Story

First, some background. At the end of White Clouds, the first part of the game, Edelgard leads the Imperial army in an invasion of Garreg Mach. If you joined her in the Holy Tomb, you will be part of the attack, but otherwise, you will fight against her. The outcome also varies based on the route. If you fought with Edelgard, Rhea will transform into her dragon form, resulting in Byleth falling unconscious and disappearing for five years, but will ultimately retreat with her followers. If you fought with the Church, Rhea will transform into a dragon to try to save everyone else, but will be captured. Everyone else will flee and Byleth will fall into the river and go missing for five years.

Byleth will awaken five years after the battle, on the day of the monastery's 1,000th anniversary, as well as the day Byleth and the house you chose agreed to meet at the monastery.  If you chose to fight with Edelgard, then the Crimson Flower route will involve you reuniting with her and the others there, before planning your invasion of the Leicester Alliance. If, however, you chose not to fight with Edelgard(Silver Snow) or chose the Blue Lions(Azure Moon) or Golden Deer(Verdant Wind) at the start of the game, things are different. You will find the monastery abandoned, and occupied by a gang of thieves, will then set out with your house leader (or Seteth on Silver Snow), and take it back.

Gameplay

Yes, you read that correctly. You, with only Byleth and Seteth/Claude/Dimitri under your command, are up against a small army of thieves, with a few near striking distance of you at the start. Being outnumbered is par for the course in Fire Emblem, where part of the goal is to gradually whittle the enemy's forces down without biting off more than you can chew. That said, part of the strategy lies in having a diverse army. Byleth is most effective as a sword wielder with some offensive magic, while Seteth is a flier, Dimitri is a spear-wielding powerhouse and Claude is a flying archer. As you can see, Claude is probably the best tactical asset to complement Byleth's skill, but your group lacks archers and healers.

Luckily for you, reinforcements arrive over time- the rest of the students from your House (although Gilbert replaces Dedue for the Blue Lions, for story reasons). This prevents the battle from being completely hopeless, but there are a few problems with this.

First, as mentioned above, the reinforcements are only from your house. That means that if you recruited any students from other houses, Byleth's colleagues in the Garreg Mach faculty or the Knights of Seiros, you will be unable to use them here. It also means that if you neglected to level up one of the units from your House, that unit will end up as a liability in this mission. Players who chose the Azure Moon and Silver Snow routes will be especially inconvenienced. On the former, Dedue will be replaced by Gilbert, a unit with a similar specialty (best suited for the Armored Knight class) that is likely to be lower-level and less optimized than Dedue. In the latter, the player only gets seven units besides Byleth-Bernadetta, Caspar, Dorothea, Ferdinand, Linhardt, Petra and Seteth- rather than eight because Edelgard and Hubert are your enemies.

Second, the units come in at different corners of the map. For example, in Azure Moon, Dimitri and Byleth start in the west, Mercedes and Annette (both spellcasters) come from the southwest, Gilbert and Ashe(an armored knight and archer) come from the northwest, and Felix, Sylvain and Ingrid (a swordsman, a cavalry unit and a flier) come from the northeast. This makes it difficult to launch a concentrated offensive against the thieves, particularly if you've neglected training one of your units in a given front.

Third, the reinforcements aren't available at the start of the mission, and each group comes in after a certain number of turns. This not only means that you're unable to place them or do any pre-battle adjustments before the mission, but that you'll be fighting with two units for a few turns. It also means that unlike with Crimson Flower, there's no prep time to improve your units or obtain certifications for their Master classes. If you aren't adequately prepared, you may be unable to finish the mission, thus forcing you to load an earlier save or start over.

Once you overcome these initial problems, the mission becomes more manageable, but there is one last unpleasant surprise. After you defeat the bandit leader, he will be revealed as a decoy, whereupon the real leader will retreat to the edge of the map- if he gets there, you fail the mission. Chasing him down is easy if you have a flying unit(Claude, Seteth, Ingrid) standing by, and it's possible to use Divine Pulse to turn back time if he escapes, but this is one surprise many players found less than pleasant.

How To Fix It

The easiest method to fix the mission is to let it begin like every other mission-by allowing you to select your units and place them on the battlefield. This would eliminate the emotional impact of the students returning to fight alongside Byleth and their house leader, but it would make the mission significantly more manageable from a gameplay perspective.

Apart from that, it might have been nice to have the ability to manage your students prior to the mission, changing  their equipment, skills and classes as necessary. A base camp was provided for the time between Chapter 11 and 12 if you join Edelgard, so perhaps something similar could be provided for this mission.

In short, this mission serves an important purpose for the story, but is rather frustrating from a gameplay perspective. As such, there are ways to preserve its story significance while also making it more fun to play.