Battle at the Northern Checkpoint

The Battle at the Northern Checkpoint (北の関所突破, Kita no Sekisho Toppa) was a major battle of the Gate Rune War. It was fought between the Toran Liberation Army and the Scarlet Moon Imperial Army.

Fearful of possible Imperial spies with the Liberation Army, chief strategist Mathiu Silverberg disguised the excursion as a training mission, as many Liberation Army soldiers held no formal training. When at their designated manoeuvres point, however, Mathiu had instead made to immediately march on the Northern Checkpoint, hoping to take advantage of an Imperial spy in their ranks by feeding false information.

As it turns out, Mathiu was right and this allowed the Liberation Army to catch the Imperial Army at the Northern Checkpoint unawares. Griffith appeared to surrender but, in a bid to buy some time for reinforcements to arrive, asked for time to convince his small number of soldiers to surrender. This was rejected and Griffith ordered his soldiers to battle where they were heavily outnumbered and quickly defeated.

Trivia

 * If you maximise your recruits throughout the game, you can outnumber the Northern Checkpoint troops by over 4 to 1 in this battle, creating an impressive mismatch.