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 Stampede ruleset.
RULESET: Stampede
With the Stampede ruleset, 'Trample' will retrigger infinitely as long as the trampling unit keeps killing other units.
The 'Stampede' ruleset is interesting as it encourages the use of melee attackers that have the 'trample' abilities and using 'Possibilus the Wise' will be a good option as it grants each friendly unit with the trample ability. As this ruleset tends to give an advantage to melee attackers we can prepare in advance and use some anti-melee strategies as well.
Let's see how this ruleset affects my lineup and how I strategies for the following battle.
My Lineup
This is my lineup for the battle
This was a 38-mana battle and it had the following rulesets:
Stampede - The Trample ability can trigger multiple times per attack if the trampled monster is killed.
Lost Legendaries - Legendary monsters may not be used in battles.
Only 'Fire', 'Water and 'Dragon' elements were active during this battle. I could have gone with the summoner 'Possibilus the Wise' but went with the defensive strategy and used the Keyla Frendul as my summoner which increased speed and gave extra armour to all the friendly units. I was expecting heavy use of melee attackers from my opponent so I went with giving extra protection in the form of armour.
I placed Diemenshark as my tank in the first position. It had the 'trample' ability and could take advantage of the ruleset. Its stats are nice too, dealing 3 melee attack damage with 8 health points and 6 armour of its own. Its 'Enrage' ability also makes it a perfect candidate for my tank and all this came in by spending just 8 mana.
Next in my lineup was Venari Wavesmith, a mage which comes at a cost of 5 mana and deals 2 magic attack damage and it fits with my strategy of giving additional armour to all my units. Its 'protect' ability does exactly that and gives 2 extra armour in addition to all my units. This was done to ensure I didn't get crushed by the trample ability. The only downside is its low health.
Coral Wraith was another mage dealing 2 magic attack damage and costing just 4 mana. Its sneaky ability attacks the enemy lineup from the back and there are mostly weaker units placed there. It also had 4 health and that's why I gave them extra shield protection.
In the fourth position, I placed the Sea Stalker which is a powerful ranged attacker dealing a whooping 5 ranged attack damage. It has the 'camouflage' ability so it cannot be directly targeted unless it comes in the first position. Also, its 'snipe' ability sometimes surprises the enemy and takes down important units that are placed after strong tanks.
AxeMaster was another powerful striker that dealt 3 ranged attack damage and has the 'double strike' ability so it deals attacks twice each round. All this at only 7 mana felt like a discount so I used this in the second last position in my lineup.
Last but not least was a cheap unit called, Halfing Alchemist. It costs only 2 mana but comes with a unique ability called 'Halving' which can reduce the target's attack by half. It gets extremely effective against powerful tanks that have good attacking strength.
Now that my lineup is set let's talk about my strategy for this game.
My Strategy
Stampede ruleset provides the advantage to melee attackers that have the 'trample' ability so I used this to my advantage and prepared against a heavy melee attack. I used the summoner Keyla Frendul which gives extra armour to all the friendly units.
But just 1 extra armour didn't feel safe so I used the Venari Wavesmith which gave 2 extra armour because of its 'protect' ability so I had enough armour to not worry about the trample effect so much.
I used the Diemonshark as my tank which had the 'trample' ability and can take advantage of the Stampede ruleset. Apart from this I only focused on adding offensive capabilities and units with good attacking strength. Also, using Halfing Alchemist was a crucial part of the strategy which is very effective against strong tanks and deals a lot of damage.
As you will see, this strategy worked in my favour and gave me an easy win in the end.
I will share my battle here, which I have uploaded to YouTube. Battle Link
My opponent went with a completely different strategy and surprised me. They used Yodin Zaku as their summoner which gave the 'blast' ability along with some other buffs to their units. I was surprised to not see any units with 'trample' ability and they went with ranged attack damage. Well, I had enough armour to take on their attacks.
They had a weaker primary tank which didn't last longer and got eliminated in the middle of the first round.
Now they have a strong unit at the front, the Lava Launcher and they must have high hopes from it. But my attack was not just focused on their tank I used units with 'snipe' and 'sneak' ability and a powerful strike from my Sea Stalker ended the short stay of Blood Maker, which was a huge blow to my opponent's lineup.
They managed to take down my Venari Wavesmith in the later part of round 2 but it was too little too late for them as they were just about to get run over by my monsters.
The game ended with my Diemenshark utilising its trample ability and eliminating both the remaining units one after the other. What a perfect ending for a battle featuring the Stampede ruleset.
Conclusion
Stamped ruleset is an interesting one as on the one hand having melee attackers with Trample ability is advantageous as you saw in the above battle and on the other hand one can go one step ahead and prepare against it and use anti-melee strategies or just protect your lineup with extra armour.
So, there can be many strategies in this ruleset and that's what makes this ruleset an interesting one.
But the most important thing is to not forget the fundamentals of the game, having a tough tank at the front is still a good strategy and if you can support it with some heal and other units, that is a good bonus.
Let me know what's your strategy with this ruleset.
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