I found this half finished guide in my GE notes from when I was doing Knight analysis on the old board. I decided to finish it up since I've been playing Brig of late.
Esgares in Brigandine Grand Edition: How *you* can take over Forsena with the might of the Ivan, Roecod , and Paradoll!
One of the biggest changes from normal Brig to Grand Edition was the expansion of the Esgares quest, giving it an actual story. It was one of the hardest countries in normal Brignadine in theory, but the overwhelming power of Zemeckis (He can OHKO Rune Knights before power in normal Brig) and no need to fight an endgame boss meant that the challenge wasn't any different from the rest of the game. Grand Edition changes this. Zemeckis has been badly nerfed- Power is a flat 50 point boost rather than 1.5x offense, and he no longer can move and attack at long range. You also lose four knights at 22 castles. (Enide, Meltorfas, Cador, Soleil), and only get one in return (Shred, who has 150 fucking rune at L20). The result is that you're going to be horribly short on Knights for the entire game, as you can only gain seven knights from the start of the game- Liguel, Miguel, Victoria, Daffy, Shred, Helrato, and Rod.* About half of Esgares's knights are terrible to boot, due to low level or bad rune or both. All this means is that Esgares in GE is much harder than every other country. The lack of quest knights means you don't have a Cortina or Hyude to level up, or someone like Aaron to slap on a border to replace one of your own knights. You also won't have much ability to quest, so forget about all those shiny promotion items or nice items. It's also a hell of a lot of fun to play, since nothing else Grand Edition does pushes you as hard as playing Esgares. This guide is going to focus on border defenses, where to attack, and making a good snakefighting team from what you have available.
*I've never tested to see if you can gain Rain and Carmaine, but that requires questing Mira and Millet for several months. They can gain them in theory, but you're daft if you are willing to give up two of your best knights for several months for a project and someone who would join at endgame anyway. Helrato's a bit of a crapshoot, since Layoneil has to join another country first and Helrato picks an opposing country at random.
Esgares does have some advantages. They are the only country in the game that can summon every monster from the start, so you you have flexiblity in how you want to build your army. They also start with several notable promoted monsters- Two Fenrirs, a Tiamat, and a Vampire Lord, all of which are extremely good. The sheer number of knights they possess at well means that they can opt for certain strategies (mage rush) that other countries can't pull off. They also start with the only Ninja in the game (Shiraha) and Gish/Esclados/Cador/Zemeckis are all a lot of fun to use due to level and class. They also win the game fast, so you have all the time you need to level and refine your snakefighting army near the end. You need to use all of those advantages in order to beat the game.
Esgares starts with five active borders with the four strongest countries in the game. This quickly expands to six borders whenever you go on the offensive and try to take out a country. You start with 18 knights, so that means you'll be using literally everyone within a month or two. You are going to have to reorganize your entire army and smartly team your knights up in order to hold on. The AI will not attack in the first attack cycle, so you can leave all your borders unguarded. I highly recommend gathering up all 18 knights and putting them in one castle. Fato (Rocs, Demons) or Cadbury (Dragons, Angels) are what I usually choose. Demons/Angels make excellent assassination units, and Rocs/Dragons are awesome L1 meatshields. Summon however many angels/demons/Rocs you can afford, and divvy up your army. Now comes the fun part- how in the hell do you defend all those borders? A lot of this is just figuring out which knights you like using and who you want to use on your attack team. Here is what I used on my last Esgares playthrough.
Cador (At Lidney, borders Norgard)
Enide
Meltorfas
Gish
Rainguinus
Irvin
Mira
Millet
Paradoll
Esclados
Soliel
Shiraha
Zemeckis (Snakefighting/attack team)
Castor
Esmeree
Roecod
Ivan
Fiel
No matter how you work it, that last attack team is going to suck and suck bad. I expanded south and knocked out Iscalio fast for Daffy/Miguel/Victoria. Roecod's group was total crap, but I stuck them on the border with Leonia when I expanded south and they held fine. The Gish team can replace Rainguinus with Ivan if need be. The entire idea of that formation is that three Geno spells a round will rip up any army fast. It's extremely effective at knocking out warrior heavy formations that NA and Norgard used, so I put them in Orkney. Lidney is the one castle you absolutely have to hold. (It's the one that borders Norgard only.) If you lose here, you get an extra two borders to defend which is going to result in a lot of shorthanded defenses and lost territory. I put Cador there for that reason. L29 Knight+Vampire lord means that the AI won't attack the map much. It's also one of the easist castles in the game to defend- the only way to reach it from the north by crossing bridges, which means the AI attack will only reach you in disjointed pieces.
Esgares has the added bonus of having no spare knights at all once it's attacks get going. Not only do you need to win most of your defenses, but you can't afford to get a single knight wounded. It's better to retreat from say Salisbury (Borders Caerleon and Iscalio) rather than getting say Mira and Castor wounded in a winning defense. No spare knights means that you have to pull back your attacking team for at least a month to reinforce your borders, which gets bloody frustrating. Because of this, you are going to want to attack a country that gives you a knight when you defeat them. If you're going to use Liguel on your attack team, I recommend smashing NA fast. If you're not using her, go to Iscalio. Iscalio has a lot to recommend it as a target- a soft border with Leonia, two to three knights join you when you beat them, and that Bahamut if you can pry it out of Dryst's mitts.
Other notes on defense: Assassinate, assassinate, assassinate. You're going to get the best of every country that attacks you. NA is going to send out Gerenit/Coel/Melegant after your ass with the Salamander in tow. Norgard is going to send Vaynard, Iscalio will send Dryst and Iria, etc. You can get attacked several times in a month (This sucks by the way), and you're going to be facing a large disadvantage in rune capacity most of the time. Focus on killing rune knights rather than smashing monsters and try and steal high level monsters. Caerleon is by far the hardest country for Esgares to fight off, since they have a lot of mages. Cai and Dinadain are a brutally effective team and are just about the only thing in the game can beat Zemeckis early on. Stick your absolute best team on defense on Salisbury if you're not attacking to the south, and hope the AI retreats when you wound Dinadain/Shast.
Attacking is relatively simple by comparsion. You're going to either take out Iscalio or NA first. Zemeckis is still awesome in GE even post nerf, so you shouldn't have any troubles on offense. He also hits L30 without any effort just from counter attacks, so you can focus your EXP on other units. If you're using Esmeree, dual her over to Enchanter. If you're using Castor, you can dual class him or just raise him as a Paladin/Avenger/Samurai Master, whichever. There's not a ton of twinking to do in Esgares, so just pick who you want and run with it.
Bulnoil/Snake of Chaos is the final two GE only fights. Bulnoil is intimidating on paper. He has a lot of good support, great magic himself, and a barrier which makes him hard to snipe. In practice, Bulnoil's support can be sniped (Bulnoil isn't a Rune Knight and thus has no monsters), meaning that you can kill Enide/Meltorfas off relatively quickly and just stomp him from there. The Snake is a literal run to the boss, and his support can hit back and front rows with ease. You also want evasive units as well, since he summons dopplegangers that turn into whoever they attack if they successfully hit. Low rune area knights struggle against the Snake, and mage leaders are vunerable to being sniped. All this means is that you are going to want a mobile, evasive army for the final fights.
Good units for the Snake of Chaos: Zemeckis, Esmeree, Mira, Millet, Liguel (if leveled), Shiraha. Castor and Rod work in a pinch as well. High Centuars, Lucifers, Liliths, and anything that can fly are generally good as well.
