After debuting for the first time 6 weeks ago and after deciding to suddenly ban the use of all projectiles of any kind across the whole of Praetoria last week, the Battle Mage Secrets Weekly Challenge is back and this time it encourages the use of bows and crossbow from any position in the line-up. Yeah, you heard that correctly - ANY position. Yeah, I know you've already read the title but even if you haven't, it has become glaringly obvious that the Challenge this week is to showcase a battle involving the Close Range ruleset.
Let us see what this ruleset does before we get into the nitty-gritty of the line-up and the battle itself.
The Close Range ruleset is pretty straight-forward - Ranged attacks may be used in the first position in battles. I don't think any additional explanation is needed.
Now that we've got a good idea of what the Close Range ruleset practically does, let's see now how it can be effectively utilized.
There are two options to approach this ruleset as far as I'm concerned:
- Option 1 - 1st row of the picture above - depending on the rest of the rulesets you get for the battle, it is often a good idea to counter the potential heavier use of Ranged Monsters by opponent. Of course, it is always a gamble and might not be effective but if you get lucky, it will spell huge trouble for your opponent for sure.
- Option 2 - 2nd row of the picture above - this one is pretty straight-forward as well. Using beefier Ranged Monsters who would otherwise be totally worthless in the first spot for anything else but a meat shield, can now be stacked more heavily and that can actually be very beneficial for your whole line-up, and also (potentially) surprise the opponent. Of course, as with option 1, you are potentially limited by other rulesets as well, so you need to be mindful of those.
Now that we have a decent understanding of the featured Ruleset and its potential advantages and disadvantages, let us have a look at the battle I have chosen to showcase.
<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>BATTLE<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>
- The line-up of the Battle and the Ruleset:
The rulesets for this battle are Close Range, Little League (only Monsters & Summoners that cost 4 Mana or less may be used in battles) and Counterspell (all Monsters have the Magic Reflect ability). The mana budget is 57 which is great, however, I cannot take advantage of it since Little League does not really allow you to use more than 24 Mana. The available Splinters are: All but Earth and Death. I will go with Dragon and use the Water Splinter as a secondary one.
First in the line-up I have one of my favorite tanks for low-mana battles and Little League - the Xenith Monk. At level 8 for 4 mana I get 2 attack, 8 health and a total of 3 abilities - Heal (restores a portion of the Monster's health each round), Void (reduced damage from Magic attacks) and Magic Reflect (when hit with Magic damage, does reduced Magic damage back to the attacker). Even though this battle will probably not involve any Magic Monsters in the enemy line-up due to the rulesets, Heal is still enough of a reason to include the Xenith Monk in my team.
The 2nd place in the line-up goes to the Twilight Basilisk. It is a very good Monster to use as an off-tank in low-mana battles, as well as Little League, of course. In addition to its Reach (melee attack Monsters with the Reach ability may attack from the second position on the team) ability, it also has Stun (when a Monster with Stun hits a target, it has a chance to stun the target causing it to skip its next turn) which could often determine the outcome of the whole battle if it procs at the right time.
The 3rd spot in the line-up is for the Angelic Mandarin. I've got it in this spot due to the fact that we do have the Close Range ruleset active and it does have a good amount of health - 7 - for Little League. It also has Triage (heals the friendly back-line Monster that has taken the most damage) and Silence (reduces the Magic Attack of all enemy Monsters). Triage could be huge for healing the backline, and Silence is also great whenever you expect you opponent to play Magic attackers. I don't expect it this battle due to the Counterspell ruleset though.
The 4th spot is reserved for the Pelacor Bandit. I've put it here since it has a decent amount of speed so it can dodge a hit or two if the enemy has decided to go through the "backdoor" and gets to it. Generally it's a Flying (has an increased chance of evading Melee or Ranged attacks from Monsters who do not have the Flying ability) Monster with a high amount of speed. It is also a Sneak Monster so it can often be a pain in the enemy backline.
The 5th spot goes to the Dhampir Infiltrator. It is actually a pretty good Sneak Monster at max level. In addition to Sneak it has Double Strike (Monster attacks twice each round), Cripple (each time an enemy is hit by a Monster with Cripple it loses one max health) and Affliction (when a Monster with Affliction hits a target, it has a chance of applying Affliction on the target causing it to be unable to be healed). It can definitely cause a lot of damage to the enemy backline, especially if it has other Sneak Monsters to work together with.
Last, and probably but not least, is the Merdhampir. I have it in the back since it also has a good amount of health for a Ranged Attacker in Little League but most importantly, if given the opportunity it can get a lot of additional health through its Life Leech (Monster's health increases each time it damages an enemy Monster's health in proportion to the damage dealt) ability. In addition to that it also has Cripple and Snare (when attacking enemies with Flying, removes the Flying ability and cannot miss), which could also be useful.
It is time for a quick round by round analysis:
- The Summoner I am going with for the battle is Quix. He is my favorite Dragon Summoner, and thankfully he can also be used in Little League battles due to the fact that he is the only Chaos Legion Legendary Summoner who costs 4 mana. As you probably recall he is also a great counter to the Close Range ruleset, to this is a two birds with one stone type of deal. My opponent has also decided to go with the Dragon splinter and Water as the secondary one, however, his Summoner does not have any abilities, which is a trade-off for his low mana cost. Despite this fact, his Monsters are all max level as well, so let's see how this goes.
- After 1 round I have taken down his Main Tank as well as his Merdhampir. I have not lost any Monsters yet so it's looking good so far.
- Round 3 - a lot of stuff happened in this round, which is normal for Little League battles as Monsters generally have low health and are easy to kill, so the battles are a lot faster. As you can see there are only 2 enemy Monsters left on the battlefield, while I still have 4. I think the outcome is clear at this point.
- Round 4 - all that is left for my Monsters is to finish off the enemy Pelacor Bandit. A pretty easy victory for my team.
- My victory seemed really, really easy, but let's see what Splintertools.io has to say about that. I actually had a 90% chance to win so I could have lost this battle. I actually lose battles with 90%+ chance for a victory in my favor more often than not.
Well this was definitely a fast but fun battle, and an entertaining way to showcase the Close Range ruleset. See you next week with another exciting post related to the brand new Battle Mage Secrets Weekly Challenge!
Over and Out,
