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Chapter 13: Bern's Trainee Squad Strikes Back
Chapter 13 is probably the biggest sticking point of Eirika's route. Compared to the previous chapters, it's much more cramped, the reinforcements are more plentiful, and the boss is an absolute bitch and a half to kill if you want to sneak out early.
First and foremost, Amelia has taken the field once again, and she's even picked up a couple levels in the meantime (+3 HP, +1 Skl, +2 Luck, +2 Def since we last saw her). This is the last chance we get to recruit her, and more importantly, her speedwing. If she survives the chapter, that's icing on the cake, really.
Soldiers and cavaliers, still dicks.
Staff assholes, also still dicks.
Three of these fuckers surround Aias. They're capable of doubing a lot of my troops and hurt like hell, but at least they won't be one-rounding most of the team this time around.
Finally, the big man himself. Aias is a beast of a unit at this point in the game, with a truckload of HP and Def combined with pretty impressive Res. He's still equipped with all his usual stuff, so he can dish out the pain just as easily as he can take it. Bonuses are +5 HP, +4 Str, +4 Skill, +5 Speed, +6 Def, +4 Res.
The first plan of attack is to deal with his Ranger buddies. Innes hops in the forest with a Killer Bow to bait the first one.
Josh and Ewan are leading a charge south, as Tana, Forde, and Priscilla go north.
For the first few turns, the only thing the game will throw at you is this merc/fighter pair from the northwest fortresses. Gerik will be making his way up there to hold them off while the rest of the team makes progress toward Aias from the outside.
For what I hope are obvious reasons, the center group needs to stay out of Amelia's range. Unfortunately, that doesn't leave us in a very good position to kill the ranger, and the ranger kind of has to die this turn.
Or Innes could activate Silencer and not do the animation for it, that works too. 
Bah. At least it's more strength. 
Tana and Priscilla come down to help out Innes a bit, but he's still going to be a pincushion for the soldiers this turn to keep Amelia out of trouble.
Forde attracts a little attention from the cavaliers, but as long as he stays out of the ranger's attack range, he can shrug it off.
So now we have a slight problem. Amelia went north rather than west, so I have to pull back again to keep her stupid ass alive. Thanks for taking another one for the team, Innes. 
Gerik knocks out a merc and further cements himself as my main tank.
We recruit Amelia on Turn 4. Cormag is about to show up in the southwest corner, so we need to move toward Aias, preferably to the north.
Speed! 
...But not much else.
Amelia gets sniped with a ballista bolt, but she can take the hit.
Our Sleep buddy tries to put Neimi under, but she's not having any of his shit.
At the end of turn 4, the game starts spawning a full wave of cavaliers from the east fortresses. Also, our good buddy Cormag and his friends are here.
Cormag is basically Hard Mode Zeiss on steroids. Except for the 20 HP because the hacker changed Wyvern Rider's base HP to 8, but that can be easily remedied. We're far more interested in rest of his shit-wrecking abilities.
Cormag's going to head north, so Eirika gets in position and everyone else clears out.
In the meantime, Josh grabs his trusty Killing Edge and starts moving in. This will attract the attention of the south ranger and a bunch of cavs that (probably) aren't going to hit him.
Man, Fire Emblem AI is fuckin' weird. Every time you think you have everything set up perfectly to abuse the AI tendencies it just turns around and ignores Eirika to attack Gerik and do 1 damage.
Fighters have bullshit, I have bullshit, my bullshit wins.
Forde attracts the north ranger and pays dearly for it. He had ~40 HP before that for reference.
Josh has pretty good odds of taking this one down, but if he misses, he's probably fucked. Even if he survives another turn, there'll be another wave of cavs and the extra three attacks will more than likely do him in.
Gotta take the good with the bad, I suppose. 
Eirika brings Cormag around to our side, and his buddies are promptly disposed of.
I don't know if I've really expressed just how much of a pain in the ass these fuckers are to kill, but hopefully this serves as a sufficient demonstration. If even a single one of those attacks would have missed, Neimi would have had to land with her Steel Bow to get the kill, and she would be doubled and killed if her attack missed. Also bear in mind that this is all after Forde got a Javelin hit last turn. Were he at full HP, I would have to have all of these attacks land and risk Neimi's death to bring him down.
Oh, and naturally Forde is stuck with that 12 HP until next turn, so if he gets hit by those two cavs he's dead anyway and all that was for nothing.
Fortunately, with both rangers gone we can safely advance. I was hoping for a longshot crit/silencer, but no such luck. I think he's out of ammo anyway, so it really didn't matter.
Thanks Forde, you're really helping.
Come on, you can't even put Amelia to sleep? What kind of sorry-ass priest are you?
Alright, Turn 8. At the end of this turn, Pablo and friends are going to be charging in from the west, and I'm not in the mood to deal with their bullshit on top of this motherfucker. So Aias needs to die. You're probably asking if that's even possible, and the answer is yes. Barely. If I fuck it up, someone's probably going to die between getting hit by Aias (he starts with the Short Spear equipped, so he can counter at range) and all the cavaliers I'm completely ignoring to try and kill him.
Feel free to count the absurd number of ways this could go wrong. If Seth misses, the only way I can make up the damage if Josh crits at least once, and then both of Tana's hits and Josh's non-crit hit must land or Aias will survive.
Goddammit RNG! 
Next time: Amelia's turn in the Tower.
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Level 11 Wyvern Rider
Lances - C, Affinity - Fire
Equipment - Killer Lance, Steel Lance, Elysian Whip
HP: 30 (-10) (85%)
Strength: 14 (+5) (55%)
Skill: 9 (+5) (40%)
Speed: 10 (+5) (45%)
Luck: 4 (35%)
Defense: 12 (+5) (25%)
Resistance: 2 (+5) (15%)
Con: 11
There really is no better way to describe Cormag than "Hard Mode Zeiss 2.0". Aside from the inexplicable drop in HP, he has 9 levels to get 1 Str, 6 Skill, 5 Speed, and 3 Def, and he has great growths to get it done. If I really wanted to, I could promote him straight to Wyvern Lord and I'd probably get a bunch of that missing HP back, but there's no pressing need for it. Toss him a use or two of an Angelic Robe, and you probably have the best base-class unit in the game.