My battle breakthrough - Giving armoured strike to an archer!

Sometimes we get some strange rules like this, which inspire some interesting thoughts. And inspired my battle field breackthrough. If you want to see the og splinterlands post here it is https://peakd.com/hive-13323/@splinterlands/splinterlands-community-engagement-challenge-battlefield-breakthroughs-t4lusn#@artofkylin/re-splinterlands-t4np5g

Yup reverse speed and need for speed. Everything but fire active.

There's a lot of choices of archon. I had considered Sheng for poision burst, or Kaylia for -1 magic and execute. However with the speed limitations a lot of options were not great and neither strategy really felt strong as I played with it. The 43 mana is decent so I had some space to play around but even with that nothing felt like it was going to win if my opponent played anything decent.

So here's the line up

Also if you just want to watch the fight you can catch it here.

https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_3fc66fa1b13037080def63e728fd8078

Tank - Giant alpine Skink. - The 4 damage is nice, 3 speed is as good as I can get with the reverse speed and need for speed combo. Shield will help him stay alive a little longer.

Position 2 - Holdr - He's got reach, he's got magic, he's got 3 speed. Why not?

position 3 - Surgeblade - One of my new additions from the reward set. They've got charge so they can hit the front line from anywhere. Also 3 speed.

Position 4 - Ariel Shieldmaiden. I gave her the piercing and armoured strike combo. With opportunity and 2 attack in addition to that I hoped they'd take out my opponents weaker units units fast. It also meant that if she ended up in the front, they could still attack since the armoured strike means they have a melee attack.

Position 5 - Meriput Magician. Tank healer, decent amount of health. What more reason do I need?

Position 6- Shock trooper. I debated this choice a lot. The 1 damage to everyone is quite the downside, but 4 magic damage in a rule set Where I'm expecting a lot of misses seemed worth the risk.

One of the things I really do love about Splinterlands is the sheer amount of variety in strategies you can try. My logic here was that the shield maiden was going to be doing the bulk of the damage, with the role of the folks in front being to absorb the damage while the shock Trooper and Shield maiden do the major damage.

When I saw my opponents load out I was pretty sure I was going to lose. The +1 to magic from Marlai Singariel is potent, and magic always hitting means the wierd rule set won't effect their hit rate as much.

Slade on the front line is always a solid choice, and they had a similar thought for their 2nd position. The arcane tracker in 3rd is an interesting choice, with their archon they'll 2 more damage. And 2 magic damage to whomever has the least health can mean taing someone out. I haven't actually seen their 5th position card, Great Porcupine before, and it's apparently legendary rebellion card. Which it seems underwhelming for that. And lastly they've got the shock trooper, which is made all the more powerful by their archon.

At this point I am expecting my two gambles, the shock trooper and giving shield maiden the tactic from Elaise to backfire. It wasn't one of my tried and true strategies. But lets see how it shakes out shall we? If you want to watch it for yourself check it out here -> https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_3fc66fa1b13037080def63e728fd8078

So when all the buffs and tactics are done, here's what it looks like.

Armour for everyone! Makes me feel a little better, but also those magic attacks is worrisome.

So my team got two attacks in on Slade, and the shield maiden took out their Holdr. Which is pretty sweet. Enemy that's down is one that can't do damage.

Then the Alpine Skink's shield makes their archer's attack do nothing.

The Skink then took two damage from the waterlogged wizard, and my holdr took two damage from the conclave tracker. Which isn't great since that means they only have one health left. Buuut, meriput is going to help the alpine skink stay up. And did a little damage to Commander Slade.

I'm feeling better about my tactics at this point. Slade, whose fierce and worried me is down 5 health, and their down a unit already. Then the two shock troopers go. Mine reduces slade to 1 health then knocks out holdr. Their's reduces my Alpine skink to 2 health, and knocks out my holdr.

Then Alpine skink and the new guy finish off the conclave tracker. This is going muuuuch better than I expected.

Then the shield maiden goes and it's awesome. So her first attack finishes off the porcupine, then the armoured strike takes out the waterlogged wizard.

Which means all that's left is the shock trooper. They manage to take out my Alpine skink(he did his job well) and was finished off by my shock trooper.

The take away from this, sneak and armoured strike is a potent combo and not always doing the same thing is great. Embrace the various things you can do with different combos and things will always be interesting.