Any tips about team positioning on the battlefield ?

[Overkill Syndrome]

I'm new to the series and I've been reading and watching guides and they explain things well especially for things like Item World etc. But except for specific dungeons and farming things I didn't have any luck finding advice about positioning in battle and the likes to face enemies.

I just do stuff like putting my most resistant units on the front line of course, leaving long-range type classes as far away from the battle as they can while still being in range to attack and clerics really far behind and making injured units walk to the cleric while another unit takes their place in battle or something like that.
However I have a strong feeling that it's inefficient and that there's some better strategies out there that I'm not aware of, I also have trouble facing enemies with AOEs that can easily bypass the frontline and attack weaker units.

Any advice for that or guides concerning this topic that I might've missed ?

[Z3n]

In a game where all units of a side take their turn all at once, the best defense is a good offense, and the most effective tactic is to kill the enemies before they can even retaliate, or at the very least killing those right next to you, because often their friends aren't too far.

Use combos and team attacks to your advantage. To do a combo, plan several attacks that target at least one target of the previous attack, then execute. The higher the combo count, the stronger the attacks become, so put your strongest attacks at the end of the combo. You can use AoE attacks to link your combo to other enemies. To do a team attack, put several melee units next to a melee attacker, and execute. The chance of the units joining the team attack depends on several stuff, like their class, their weapon, if they share a master/student bond, etc. After the team attack is done, you can cancel the movement of the support units and do something else with them.

The more you use magic, the better it becomes, in range, power, and AoE. Staff proficiency also adds range as well. In the late game, magic is hands down the best ranged option. Always have at least one damage dealer using magic.

Several stages have annoying geosymbols, you may choose to target them in priority. Use lift/throw to travel long distances in one turn (note: you can lift someone already lifting and make a tower).

Leveling up Clerics can be a pain. To make it easier, teach them elemental magic via the master/student system. Give your Cleric a staff, create a Mage with your Cleric, put them next to each other in battle (on the training map for example), the Cleric will be able to cast the spells of the mage. Cast a spell with your Cleric till you reach lvl 1 to learn the spell. You can learn any spell you want that way. You can do this with Flonne, too.

If you haven't done it yet, raise a male brawler, a female brawler, a male fighter, a female fighter, and a mage to lvl 10+, this will unlock several additional classes. Samurai has a high atk aptitude and has an S aptitude in sword, spear and axe. Ninja has decent stats and high speed, mov and throw, and an S aptitude in fists. Strider is handy to have in the Item World because of his skills Geochange and Dark Cannon. Thief can steal items more easily than any other class, with a cap at 99% instead of 50%, but it's kinda hard to level one up.

On that note, on top of the level difference, the steal chance also depends on the hit of the hand, and some hands may have Marksman specialists boosting the hit, so keep that in mind when buying hands.

Regarding specialists, subduing a specialist in the Item World doubles the bonus provided and allows you to move him to another item by asking the Item World Guide at the castle. Ideally, kill them on turn 1, because they tend to die very fast. Don't worry if you don't succeed in killing one, you will still be able to encounter him later and try again. The most useful specialists are Statisticians (+1% exp gain per unit, max 300) and Armsmaster (+1% weapon mastery gain, max 1900). Broker (+1% HL gain per unit, max 300) and Manager (+1% mana gain per unit, max 300) can help on the side, before you reach the end game. Firefighter, Aeronaut, Cryophile boost your elemental affinity in fire, wind, and ice respectively (+1% per unit, max 100), and that means both offense and defense with that element, so they are very useful for mages and other units using elemental attacks. Stat-boosting specialists, on top of their effect, also increase the stat boost you get when killing an Item General in the Item World, so fill your item with those beforehand (Tutor for staff, Marksman for gun/bow, Coach for fists, Gladiator for the rest).

[jabberwok]

Wow, I did not realize you could cancel movement after a team attack. That seems handy. Does assisting in a team attack use up that characters attack or make them unable to assist again that turn? Not totally clear on that...

[Overkill Syndrome]

Originally posted by Z3n:

Use combos and team attacks to your advantage. To do a combo, plan several attacks that target at least one target of the previous attack, then execute. The higher the combo count, the stronger the attacks become, so put your strongest attacks at the end of the combo. You can use AoE attacks to link your combo to other enemies. To do a team attack, put several melee units next to a melee attacker, and execute. The chance of the units joining the team attack depends on several stuff, like their class, their weapon, if they share a master/student bond, etc. After the team attack is done, you can cancel the movement of the support units and do something else with them.

I actually did not know that, so for example I could make a couple units take a team attack formation, attack an enemy unit, then afterwards cancel the other units' movement that helped during the team attack and reposition them in order to either finish off the target or attack another enemy unit ? That's pretty sweet.
I kinda gave up on team attacks because I figured it would be better to just position my units to attack the enemy unit directly instead of positioning them for a team attack only to rely on chance, but knowing that it actually makes a big difference.

[Helrato]

Originally posted by Overkill Syndrome:

Originally posted by Z3n:

Use combos and team attacks to your advantage. To do a combo, plan several attacks that target at least one target of the previous attack, then execute. The higher the combo count, the stronger the attacks become, so put your strongest attacks at the end of the combo. You can use AoE attacks to link your combo to other enemies. To do a team attack, put several melee units next to a melee attacker, and execute. The chance of the units joining the team attack depends on several stuff, like their class, their weapon, if they share a master/student bond, etc. After the team attack is done, you can cancel the movement of the support units and do something else with them.

I actually did not know that, so for example I could make a couple units take a team attack formation, attack an enemy unit, then afterwards cancel the other units' movement that helped during the team attack and reposition them in order to either finish off the target or attack another enemy unit ? That's pretty sweet.
I kinda gave up on team attacks because I figured it would be better to just position my units to attack the enemy unit directly instead of positioning them for a team attack only to rely on chance, but knowing that it actually makes a big difference.

Yes, you initiate an attack with one character with supporting characters adjacent to them, once the combo is done, cancel the actions/movements of the other characters and then make new moves.
Comboing allows you to distribute exp across more characters. Keep in mind that if the initial combo didn't kill the enemy, a counter can happen and if the enemy dies during the counter, only the person who initiated/participated in the counter gets the exp. So only combo if you know they're capable of killing the enemy unit.

If you want to increase the team attack chance, mentors and pupils by default have better chances. If mentor and pupil have fists equipped however, the bonus is increased by a LOT.

Also remember to position your attack from the enemy side or back as it does more damage too.

[Overkill Syndrome]

Yeah I was thinking about using team attacks to finish off an enemy unit for the distribution of EXP which would make things a lot easier. Plus a team attack would guarantee that an enemy would die after the team attack rather than be left at one HP from a regular one (which is really annoying).

[Z3n]

Originally posted by Helrato:

Also remember to position your attack from the enemy side or back as it does more damage too.

More damage and accuracy, yeah. On that note, you can change the orientation of one of your unit by holding J and pressing a direction.