My BATTLE MAGE SECRET Weekly Challenge! Return Fire

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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 Return Fire ruleset.

RULESET: Explosive Weaponry

With the Return Fire ruleset, all units receive the 'Return Fire' ability at the start of the battle. Enemy units that attack with ranged attacks receive damage back.

Return Fire ability is easy to understand as damage returned is equal to the damage of the attacker divided by 2, rounded up.

We can protect our units with the returned damage by using units with the Reflection Shield ability which does not take damage from reflected magic attacks.

Also, the Amplify ability increases the damage.

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	Owster Rotwell
Position 1	Chain Golem
Position 2	Sand Worm
Position 3	Magi Necrosi
Position 4	Djinn Muirat
Position 5	Battering Ram
Position 6	Corpse Fiend

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This was a 37-mana cap battle and it had the following rulesets:

• Return Fire - All monsters have the Return Fire ability.

• Aimless - All monsters have the Scattershot ability.

Fire, Earth and Death elements were active during this battle. I went for the Death element because of its rich variety of mages.

I chose the Owster Rotwell as it granted the 'Magic Reflect' ability to all my friendly monsters.

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I used the Chain Golem as my tank. It costs 8 mana but comes with the 'Void' and 'Shield' abilities which were very useful during this battle as I was expecting magic attacks from my opponents as well. These two abilities make it one of the best tanks in the game. It dealt 3 melee attack damage as well. So, it was a good choice for this position.

Sand Worm came in the next position. It is another powerful attacker and an okay defender. I used it as a secondary tank in this lineup. But its attacking strength is incredible. It dealt a whooping 6 melee attack with good speed. It also came with the 'Sneak' ability which helped in adding a surprise element to my attack as it attacks from the last position rather than the front of the lineup.

In the next position, I placed a powerful mage called Magi of Necrose. It dealt 3 magic damage and came with good speed. Costing only 6 mana it came with 'Snipe' and 'Camouflage' abilities which were a good addition as it only had 5 health.

Djinn Muirat came in the next position. Although it would have been a great fit as a primary or secondary tank in a normal flow of battle. But since one of the rulesets was scattershot it didn't matter if I placed it in the second or fourth position. It has impressive stats and abilities. One of the most powerful units in my lineup.

The next one was a low costing unit called Battering Ram. It only costs 2 mana but came with great speed and an 'Opportunity' ability which helps in adding the surprise factor to my attack. However, it just had 2 health only.

Last but not least was Corpse Fiend. It is a zero mana cost unit so you can't expect much from this one. It still came with 3 speeds and 1 health. I placed it in the last position as the battle had scattershot and someone might hit it instead of my more valuable units, making it a good sacrificial unit.

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

My Strategy

As this was only a 37-mana cap battle, I had to utilize the mana very carefully. Because of the 'Return Fire' ruleset, I knew my opponent won't be using any ranged attackers. So, only magic and melee units were left and I wanted to eliminate one more attack time. That's why I used the Owster Rotwell and it gave the 'Magic reflect' ability to all the friendly units.

Now that both magic and ranged attackers should punish my opponent I made my lineup by using a strong tank at the front in the form of Chain Golem. I used a couple of heavy magic attackers as well. I didn't focus much on the placement of my units other than the first place. This is due to the 'Scattershot' ruleset.

In hindsight, I left my back line a little weaker, but I couldn't do much with 37 mana. But I was trusting in my attacking strength.

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

My opponent went with a heavy magic attack and I was happy to see that as I had the magic reflect abilities given by my summoner Owster Rotwell. At the same time, I was a little worried about the relatively lower health of my units.

The first round was busy and I saw the demise of a couple of units. While my units had little success and eliminated only the Goblin Psychic from the enemy camp. But the damage from the magic reflect lowered the health of a couple of units.

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My tank at the front stood firmly and not many attacked it. Also, my Djinn Muirat was very impressive during this battle. Both of them stood there for long without taking much damage.

Conclusion

Return Fire is a tough ruleset and it basically punishes players for using the ranged attackers. So, it equates to the ruleset where we can't use the ranged attackers. Even though there might be some units which can be used despite that, especially those which give a buff to the entire team.

I resort to the fundamentals of the game. I used a strong tank at the front of the lineup. Used the unit which further limits the no of monsters my opponents can use without getting punished. It is all about making your opponent's life miserable and limiting them to a very small number of good options.

Combining it with other rulesets sometimes you don't have enough to work with, especially with a limited number of active elements. I resort back to the fundamentals of the game. Using strong tanks, shielding my weaker units properly somewhere in the middle of the lineup. Using extra armour to protect them even more etc. Sometimes getting back to the basics is better. And this ruleset is one of those. Let me know how you deal with the Even Stevens ruleset.

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