There are many things in Splinterlands that can make the difference between winning or losing a battle. We all have our strategy and some of us even have imprinted in their mind some formation that they play regardless of the opponent or whatever the next battle brings. But some other times paying attention to details and making the right choices will incline the victory odds in our favor. And one such factor that I have seen providing results times after times is taking the time to read the Rules of combat and using the best warriors suited to last the most and destroy the enemies. Playing like robots will not take you too far away in this game, so the hint that I am giving in this article is quite valuable and won me numerous battles and Splintershards (SPS) rewards along with that. Without speaking around it too much, let's take an example and I will explain my thinking on it. Probably I could have come up with an even better strategy, but for this battle it was enough.

![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/behiver/245cU8BrFVqJ1VpCTZreHVHM4gX7yVt8wzvgfWwFY5xfF8bmfjrrVQKrQZVM3jzCeeVA2.png)

## Earthquake
The Earthquake rule imposes that all nonflying and snared units will take 2 physical damage at the beginning of each round, starting round 2. Because of this and to avoid unnecessary damage, we should prioritize monsters with the Flying ability or those with high health to survive the environmental hazard.

## Lost Legendaries
Lost Legendaries assumes that you cannot summon Legendary monsters. This forces us to rely on Rare, Epic, and Common monsters, without the advantages of Legendaries which have much better stats in general.

## Heavy Hitters
Heavy Hitters translates into the fact that all units have Knock Out ability through which each monster deals double damage if the target is stunned. Using monsters with the Stun ability becomes crucial to maximize the damage output and secure victory.

## Max 23 mana cap
On top of previous rules of combat, the battle has a max mana cap of only 23. This makes it harder in picking the best formation as it restricts quite a bit what I can choose and mostly focus on little monsters. In the same time I need to try to coordinate this with the other rules in order to have a chance at victory.

## Battle video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF-DEd7ev9s

My strategy considering the above rules and restrictions got me to throw in the battle the following formation, which ultimately translated into a great Victory.
- Position 1 - Halfling Refugee - costs only 1 mana, does 3 damage and has 6 life; should go beyond first round
- Position 2 - Will-O-Wisp - has flying ability, thus immune to Earthquake while weakening all monsters and holding the line with 11 life points
- Position 3 - Gargoya Devil - has flying ability, thus immune to Earthquake while with its close range would be able to strike arrows from first position as well
- Position 4 - Skeleton Assassin - one of my favorite cards, sneak and poison damages hard the back lines of my enemies
- Position 5 - Uraeus - another favorite card which the same with sneak and poison damages hard the back lines of my enemies
- Position 6 - Furious Chicken - set the last to absorb at least one hit from any sneak enemy

https://images.hive.blog/0x0/https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/behiver/23tH1CQve2wBDLiEciMuJguRW7BAX6Vn1JVo5oQ1NqpvrMhtgCbFs1BteWrZCi9roRiSA.png

As the combat in Splinterlands is more and more complex, we need to get anything that we can on our side in order to increase our odds for victor. I've told this before and I will reiterate it with this battle as well - the rules of combat really make a difference. Don't be Speedy Gonzales when playing the game, take your time and move like in a chess game. Have fun with it, but put some thought and strategy and you will be hefty rewarded.

### Come join Splinterlands as well and fight the good fight: https://splinterlands.com?ref=sm-goldies

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