My BATTLE MAGE SECRET Weekly Challenge! Heavy Hitters

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Hello there, this is my entry to the new "Battle Mage Secret Weekly Challenge!". If you want to participate or know more about the challenge, click here. This week we have to formulate a strategy with the Heavy Hitters ruleset.

RULESET: Heavy Hitters

With the Heavy Hitters ruleset, all the monsters gain the "Knock Out" Ability.

The 'Heavy Hitters' ruleset is very easy to understand as all the monsters will get the 'Knock Out' ability which will deal double damage when attacking a stunned enemy. So, using monsters with the 'Stun' ability is a good plan.

Let's see how this ruleset affects my lineup and how I strategies for the following battle. But first, let's focus on my lineup.

My Lineup

This is my lineup for the battle

Position	Summoner/Monsters
Summoner	Keyla Frendul
Position 1	Diemonshark
Position 2	Wave Runner
Position 3	Vineri Wavesmith
Position 4	Scavo Hireling
Position 5	Merdhampir
Position 6	Ice Pixie

This was only a 31-mana cap battle and it had two rulesets:

• Rise of the Commons - Only common and rare monsters may be used in battles.

• Heavy Hitters - All monsters have the 'Knock out' ability.

Only water and Death elements were active during this battle. I went with the Water element and used the Keyla Frendul as my summoner which granted all my units +1 shield and +1 speed which are going to be vital during this combination of rulesets.

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I used the Diemonshark in the first position. That was no surprise as it is one of the best tanks in the entire game and not just for soaking damage it deals a lot of damage as well, especially with its 'Enrage' and 'Trample' abilities it becomes a game-changer in battles. A strong tank at the front of the lineup allowed me to use some weaker but attacking units at the middle and end of the lineup. Also, I didn't have a lot of options for a heavy tank during this battle because of the ruleset.

Wave Runner was placed in the second position which is an underrated unit. It costs just 5 mana and deals heavy melee attack damage with good speed. Because of its 'reach' ability, I could use it in the second position easily.

Next on my lineup was Vineri Wavesmith, an incredibly useful mage that deals with 2 magic attacks and costs just 4 mana. But the best part is its 'protect' ability which grants all the friendly monsters +2 armor this alone is worth so much, especially against melee and ranged attackers and I was expecting them to use them during this battle.

In the fourth position, I placed Scavo Hireling which costs only 3 mana, however, it has no attacks but its 'repair' ability is nice and if paired with a strong tank (with good armour), this unit will be a nuisance for my opponent. All that extra armour needs repairing...yes?

Merdhampir was placed in the next position in my lineup. It was the only ranged attacker, costing just 4 mana and coming with a 'life leech' ability is very useful. If given extra protection this unit can become a real thorn in the eyes of your enemy team.

Last but not least was Ice Pixie, a very cost-efficient mage costing just 2 mana but performing well in battles. It has the 'flying' ability which helps it to dodge more attacks from melee and ranged attackers. A unit that comes in handy when you have less mana to spare.

Now that my lineup was set let's talk about my strategy for this game.

My Strategy

Since this was only a 31 mana cap battle and had just water and Dragon elements active with the 'Rise of Commons' ruleset as well, all these made it super restrictive but I still have enough good units to use.

I used the Keyla Frendul as my summoner as I wanted to improve my defence a little more.

Using a strong tank at the front of the lineup was a crucial part of my strategy. I wanted to make the front line as solid as I could. So, I used the Diemonshark as my tank and to make it last longer I used a unit with a 'repair' ability which should repair the shield at the end of each round and make it last even longer.

While Diemonshark stands firm at the stand of the lineup, all other monsters attack my opponent with good strength.

To support and strengthen my weaken units I used the Venari Wavesmith which gave two more shields as armour.

I will share my battle here, which I have uploaded to YouTube. Battle Link

My opponent used a similar strategy and even used the Diemonshark as their tank. So, it was going to be a long-drawn battle.

Round 1 was just both teams trying to take down the other's tank but both of them failed as the tank had too much protection.

Only at the end of Round 2, we saw the demise of my opponent's tank as he couldn't take much. I had used a couple of mages which ignored the shield and overall my attacking strength was more than theirs.

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After their strongest unit got eliminated, it was much easier as they had weaker units placed that were much easier to target and kill. Also, they used an excessive no. of ranged attackers which came in the first position quite early in the game and that messed up the entire harmony of their lineup and their attack as well as defense fell off.

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They still tried to survive for longer but it was one-way traffic and they had too less firepower left in their lineup. They were unable to take down my tank and the 'repair' ability played a good role along with the extra shield given by both summoner and my Venari Wavesmith.

The battle got dragged into round 6 but it was a very easy win for me which looked like it from the end of round 2 onwards.

Conclusion

Heavy Hitter is an interesting ruleset, monsters with a 'stun' ability are very useful during this ruleset but don't go too far from your fundamentals in order to artificially fit a monster with a stunning ability. If a monster fits the role in your battle and it also has the stun ability then definitely go and use it.

I resort to the fundamentals of the game if I don't have many options with the 'stun' ability. I use a strong tank and maybe a secondary tank as well to make the frontline as strong as possible and attack from the middle and end of the lineup as much as you like. Also, sometimes securing the end of your lineup is useful to counter those 'sneaky' monsters, especially in the higher mana cap battles.

Let me know if this ruleset bothers you or if you just ignore it and go back to the fundamentals and don't do anything special.

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