Additional Info - PvP - Decks and strategies | Additional Info BattleForge Guide
Last update: 11 May 2016
All tactics in BattleForge are based on similiar rules. What's most important is a quick expansioni, taking over of important spots before the enemy does it and trying to make enemy spend more Power than you do. In PvP, you don't build fortifications unless you are attacked - when fighting a more seasoned opponent, every (nearly) point of Power counts, so spending it on a turret that does nothing is strictly forbidden... by me :). The other important points of every tactic:
- the knowledge of your and enemy's cards, knowing how they work to use them properly.
- no lesser knowledge of the maps on which you play - this is a bit simplier since there are not so many and you can learn which spots are most important for the taking, by playing with a better opponent.
- a good eye, a fast hand and a good... mouse - all needed to deal with battles at multiple spots at the same time, casting spells in each of them and attacking the right units at the right moment.
Only after getting to know these basic rulse we can delve into particular strategies. Even though there are some testes deckbuilds, a real success is creating your own deck that will be as effective as original. Regardless of a suggested strategy, the most important thing is to quickly react to enemy's actions to counter their moves and don't let them surprise you.
Pure Frost - Tower
Sample cards in the deck:
- Ice Guardian,
- Frost Mage,
- Construction Hut,
- Defense Tower,
- Glacier Shell,
- Cannon Tower,
- Home Soil,
- White Rangers,
- Cannon Tower,
- Coldsnap,
- Skyelf Templar,
- Kobold Trick,
- Frost Crystal,
- Lyrish Knight,
- Tremor,
- Skyelf Sage,
- Shield Building,
- Kobold Engineer,
- Stronghold,
- Dreadnought
Description and tactics:
A deck based on towers and units that gain benefits when being close to structures. There's also a couple of creatures and spells that support your buildings, like all the cards with the word "Kobold" in their names and two Skyelves. When playing with this deck, your priority is to build a tower in the enemy's base - Coldsnap, which freezes enemies, will help you do that - and then keeping it using Kobold Trick, Glacier Shell, Skyelf Templar, and later on, Kobold Engineer. You can support units summoned near your structures with Home Soil, and still freeze enemies. As for towers, you should look most carefully at Cannon Tower, which, when quickly built in enemy's camp, will not only knock back small units but also deal significant damage to the larger ones. Supported by Kobold Trick and Glacier Shell it can create a true icey hell. A good defense deck as well - thanks to Construction Hut you can build cheaper and quicker, and the units and spells mentioned before will let you increase the damage and defense of your towers.
Pure Shadow
Sample cards in the deck:
- Forsaken,
- Nox Trooper,
- Dreadcharger,
- Motivate,
- Nasty Surprise,
- Life Weaving,
- Darkelf Assassins,
- Nightcrawler,
- Shadow Phoenix,
- Resource Booster,
- Shadow Mage,
- Unholy Power,
- Harvester,
- Aura of Corruption,
- Ashbone Pyro,
- Mutating Frenzy,
- Soulshatter,
- Blood Healing,
- Wrathgazer,
- Rifle Cultists/Shadow Worm/Overlord
Description and tactics:
A compilation of everything that's best in Shadow. A deck consisting of the most characteristic purple units and spells supporting them. You have cheap units that improve their attack at the cost of life points, spells dealing damage to both enemy and player's units, the Aure of Corruption for critical moments and Blood Healing to heal. When playing this deck you should use a unit with Swift at the beginning - most obviously Dreadcharger. Then, under the cover of cheap but useful units like Forsaken or Darkelf Assassins you can try to secretly gather Power to summon a Harvester, in which case a Resource Booster may come in handy. In a sudden need of destroying one of the enemy's structures you can use Nasty Surprise. Shadow Phoenix will get rid of the weaker units, additionally resurrecting when there are enough dead. At the 3rd Orb, the Wrathgazer is a very good if expensive counter, that will irritate the calmest of players. If you make it to the 4th Orb, each of the mentioned units can tear the opponent aparat.
Shadow - Frost
Sample cards in the deck:
- Forsaken,
- Nox Trooper,
- Glacier Shell,
- Dreadcharger,
- Home Soil,
- Nasty Surprise,
- Ice Barrier,
- Defenders,
- Kobold Trick,
- Shadow Phoenix,
- Nightcrawler,
- Lyrish Knight,
- Unholy Power,
- Coldsnap,
- Mountaineer,
- Soulshatter,
- Blood Healing,
- Tremor,
- Rifle Cultists/Overlord
Description and tactics: A deck quite smiliar to the previous one. You should put up Orbs in this order: Shadow-Frost-Shadow-either. At the second Orb, instead of the expensive Harvester you now have the twice less expensive Mountaineer, which, when used right, is a really big threat to your enemy, particularly their Orbs and Power Wells. You can use a combination of Ice Barrier + Lyrish Knight, allowing you to show a real strength to the knight. Home Soil will also help. Since we're using Frost here, there's Coldsnap, of course - the best control spell, preventing the enemy from attacking you, while you can do so without any limitations. There's also Glacier Shell, needed to defend Orbs and Power Wells at the moment of attack on your base. Defenders will help protecting the base. At the third Orb, you get Tremor with its ability, appreciated by players.
Nature - Frost
Sample cards in the deck:
- Swiftclaw,
- Shaman,
- Windweavers,
- Ensnaring Roots,
- Surge of Light,
- Ice Barrier,
- Home Soil,
- Defenders,
- Lyrish Knight,
- Curse of Oink,
- Coldsnap,
- Mountaineer,
- Kobold Trick,
- Cannon Tower,
- Glacier Shell,
- Burrower,
- Tremor,
- Swamp Drake,
- Fathom Lord,
- Grimvine
Description and tactics:
A mix of controlling abilities from both colors (Coldsnap, Ensnaring Roots, Curse of Oink), Nature's healing and repair abilities of Frost. Put up Orbs in this order: Nature-Frost-Nature-either. It's best to start a match with Swiftclaw to quickly get to an additional Power Well. Next, you can summon Windweavers and support them with Shaman. When you encounter an enemy, immobilize him with Ensnaring Roots and calmly watch their life bar dwindle. After reaching the second Orb, you can wait for Mountaineer - especially when playing against Fire or Shadow. Thanks to this powerful units you can easily do away with enemy's Orb and Power Wells, and when supported by Shamans, Mountaineer becomes very difficult to kill. It's good to build Cannon Tower in enemy's base, which can be made easier by Curse of Oink, under one condition: you can't attack the rooted enemies. You should guard your own Orbs and Power Wells with Kobold Trick and Glacier Shell. Burrower will be your solution for dealing with enemy units on walls. If you get to the third Orb, you gain Swamp Drake that can make enemies fall asleep and Fathom Lorda who can paralyze them - control rules!
Pure Fire
Sample cards in the deck:
- Sunstriders,
- Scavenger,
- Mine,
- Mortar Tower,
- Eruption,
- Sunderer,
- Makeshift Tower,
- Wallbreaker,
- Rocket Tower,
- Enforcer,
- Fire Stalker/Firedancer,
- Skyfire Drake,
- Scythe Fiends,
- Ravage,
- Lava Field,
- Juggernaut,
- Magma Spore,
- Magma Hurler,
- Virtuoso,
- Fire Dragon
Description and tactics:
A pure fire deck that uses many advantages of this color. You will find strong offensive spells here (Eruption, Lava Field), units with a long range to destroy buildings (Fire Stalker, Firedancer) as well as simply strong and useful creatures. For the more experienced there's also Mortar Tower - a risky building that needs to be placed with precision but can end the battle before it really begins. You can start a match with Sunderer or Scavenger - both have Swift, but the former allows you to quickly destroy enemy buildings, which can enable you to destroy an Orb or a Power Well that are still in construction. Thanks to Makeshift Tower you will make it really hard for small units to move, by knocking them around. When you gaint the second Orb, you can use Enforcera that charges into enemies and deals much damage. Skyfire Drake is great against ground units, and Firestalker/Firedancer to get rid of enemy's Orb or Power Well. Thanks to Ravage your creatures will live longer, Skyfire Drake gains a lot with this spell. With the 3rd Orb Juggernaut, Magma Hurler, Magma Spore and a great building destroyer - Virtuoso await you.
Nature - Fire
Sample cards in the deck:
- Sunstriders,
- Scavenger,
- Eruption,
- Ensnaring Roots,
- Sunderer,
- Makeshift Tower,
- Surge of Light,
- Fire Stalker,
- Skyfire Drake,
- Ternite Hill,
- Curse of Oink,
- Burrower,
- Ravage,
- Deepcoil Worm,
- Magma Hurler,
- Enlightenment,
- Fathom Lord,
- Revenge,
- Grimvine,
- Dreadnought
Description and tactics:
A deck that uses Fire's offensive potential and mixes it with control and healing spells from the green deck. Put up Orbs in this order: Fire-Nature-Nature-either. Like before, you can start with Sunderer or Scavenger, to quickly build a Power Well, defeat any enemy units with Eruption and quickly get another Orb. Then you gain an ability to heal - Surge of Light - and stopping the enemies - Ensnaring Roots, Curse of Oink. The latter two in combination with Termite Hill can destroy even two enemy's Power Wells and an Orba. Build a Termite Hill near the base and if enemies try to destroy it cast Ensnaring Roots/Curse of Oink and wait until the building is ready. Than, use the termites that will significantly damage the buildings in a target area. There's also Burrower for dealing with heavily manned walls or Ravage keeping our units longer alive. At the third Orb, as in the previous deck, use Magma Hurler and also Fathom Lord and Revenge that deals damage back to enemies. Enlightenment is interesting - it allows you to use any unit in 20 seconds time, regardless of its Orbs requirements. That's why Dreadnought is in the deck. If you get enough Power, you can use this trick.