The battle challenge ruleset this week is Fog of War. In this ruleset, all monsters lose the Sneak, Snipe, and Opportunity abilities. However, Scattershot and Taunt will still work in this ruleset. Since most of the time you will be attacked at the front, there is an obvious strategy to use in this ruleset. Place high health tanks in the front and high attack weak health monsters in the middle and rear of your lineup. The tanks will buy time for your monsters after them in your lineup to attack.
The battle I chose to showcase is a 50 mana Brawl battle with the ‘Fog of War’, ‘Unprotected’, and ‘Rise of the Commons’ rulesets. Fire, Earth, Life, and Dragon were the splinters available to play.
Here is a link to the battle:
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sm_KNhhLuXIUQwxhuQPZcIk&ref=ninjamike
With no armor allowed in the battle, I figured it was a good opportunity to use a strong Ranged attack against my opponent. So I chose the Life splinter which has plenty of good Ranged attack monsters as well as a summoner that increases ranged attacks by 1. I placed a couple Melee tanks at the front of my lineup. Then I placed a Magic attack monster in third position with the idea that it can still attack if it falls into first position. Last, I put three Ranged attack monsters at the end of the lineup. These are fairly low health, but they are pretty safe at the back of my lineup in this ruleset.
Start of Battle / Round 1
My opponent used a Kitty summoner which is one of the most powerful ones in the game. Luckily for me it is only at level one. They used a monster with Taunt so my attacks will target that monster before solely attacking the first position.
Round 2
After the first round, I have almost defeated my opponents monster with Taunt.
Round 3
During the second round, I defeated my opponents monster with Taunt as well as their first position monster. However, I also lost my tank in first position.
Round 4
In the third round, my ranged monster in last position was unexpectedly defeated as a result of Return Fire. But I am still in good shape because I have a Melee and Magic monster left and decent fire power behind them.
Round 5
After the fourth round, my opponent is down to just two monsters and one has only one health. Victory is near for me.
Round 6
During the fifth round, I had a couple misses.
Overall my strategy worked for this battle. Placing my Melee and Magic attack cards first gave my Ranged attack monsters behind them plenty of rounds to keep attacking. Placing the highest health cards first was also important. There is still some risk to having low health cards even in this ruleset. There is still Magic Reflect as well as Return Fire damage which I experienced in this match. There is also the chance that your opponent uses Scattershot against you and gets lucky shots against your low health monsters.
Fog of War is one of my favorite rulesets. There is a simplicity about it that I find refreshing. It is very rare for me to lose a battle in this ruleset. This ruleset has existed for a long time. So I have plenty of experience in fine tuning my strategy as well as choosing the right combination of monsters.
