Noname I will take some of these tips and add them to the OP, but I will add some of my own for now.

If you're losing REALLY badly, then there might be a few things that don't make sense on a basic level, so I will try to address them:

Put out as many units as you can reasonably afford! You want all of your units to level more or less evenly, and more units means that you have more chances to turn back the enemy if one unit is knocked out!

if you don't know how to deploy units, then you press Y while on the level map, select "deploy unint", and select the name of the leader of the unit you want to deploy. You'll be able to confirm which unit it is before you deploy it.

You can build and take apart units in the "Edit Units" screen on either the world map or the level maps, but in levels you can only do it with units you haven't deployed yet.

Characters need to be at a certain level before they can become different classes: Amazons become Clerics at level 4, making them the earliest and easiest class for low-level Amazons to become.

Early on in the game, it's worth it to use characters like Dragons or Gryphons on the front line because they have really high defense.

Equip items that you find! They are potentially very powerful, and will make your life a lot easier. You can see what a given item does by pressing Select on the Use Item or Equip Item screen.s

Nice tips. You're right about the unit composition: the early units you start off with tend to have poor unit selection, and the units themselves are placed in weird places (NEVER put a pure melee unit in the rear! And witches do not belong in the front!).

So Procrastinato, chances are you're losing because you didn't shift your units around. I'd eliminate one or two groups entirely, using the method Khuutra outlined, then take the strongest units and assemble only five groups. Make sure to follow the rules I outlined earlier (melee=front, magic=back). I'm positive that will immediately shift the balance back in your favor.

You will gain more units as characters join your army, and some of them are actually quite workable!

Also, here's somehting I wish I had thought of for the first few missions:

Enemy units generally don't retreat unless they are heavily wounded with at least a few dead members, or if their leader is dead. With your battle strategy set to Strong, you increase your chances of wiping out enem units altogether, though it will take more battles to do so.

In case you don't know how, you can set your enemy Tactics, Retreat, or use Tarot cards (all of which are things noname outlined before) by pressing A during battle! You will hear a beeping sound if the press registered (if it doesn't, just keep pressing!) and then you will be able to select what you want to do. The battle freezes while you do this, so no rush.

Interesting fact:

If you select Strong as your strategy, you will both inflict and take less damage.

If you select Weak as your strategy, you will both inflict and take more damage.

Strong may be the best strategy to use early on, not only because it allows you to take down enemy units more decisively but also because it will make your own units survive for longer!

Note, though, that this is not the case for boss fights. In boss fights you should always set your strategy to Leader, because beating the enemy unit's leader in a boss fight will win the level!

Awesome guys, thanks. =) I will tell some battle success yarns, via the new strategies, tomorrow (although I am quite busy this week... it may be longer).

It is no problem! With noname's permission I will add these to the OP to make sure that they are easier to find from now on. If you need more advice, just tell us somehting you're having trouble with and we can share more tricks!

Do you remember what mission you are on?

will they ever realese a new game in this series a FFT sequel would be nice too

To the first: probably not.

To the second: you kind of already get those with all the Ivalice games.

i mean a true sequel to FFT i ahte the advance games

Hey, i got a magic ring too... those things are beastly. 

Aren't they just? I'm almost surprised by how powerful items can be in this game. He was doing almost 65 damage per shot at level 6 with that damn thing.