My last Splinterlands' post, Hooked on SPLINTERLANDS: The Journey Continues - [steem] [blockchain] [games], explained the whole point of battling, leveling up into the higher leagues and ultimately waiting for those amazing end of season rewards. Today it is back to basic battle strategy and the benefits of the SPEED trait in your battle monsters. Each Monster has different values of Mana, which rates the overall Strength or power of the Monster. The Mana total is made up of all the battle stats for per monster.

Battles stats include, Attack strength, Speed, Toughness and health/life. Each stat has its importance and depending on the battle rules, your opponent's Splinter Levels, their propensity for certain battle tactics and the battle rules, will you then decide which Monsters to include in the battle based on their particular stats. Some monsters have more attack strength stats, while others might have a different type of attack strength and attack style (magic, melee, or ranged) and yet others have more life while others have more toughness or speed.

With over 2140 battles now under my belt, I now have a decent understanding of how to prepare for a SteemMonsters/Splinterlands battle. When I originally started I just dove in and figured that I would learn through experience. I have since learned quite a bit about how battling works and what stats to pay attention to when choosing my battle lineup. Yet, even though now I have a basic grasp on battling, one question still persisted.

How does the games decide which attackers strikes first?

The question persisted like an unreachable itch, only remedied by the salve of knowledge. That knowledge came when reading about sharing our Splinterlands' Battles. This is a weekly contest held by @splinterlands among several others that they also host. I was fortunate enough to catch @welshstacker's post, Can you beat my monkey? He might be little, but he packs a punch! If you play SteemMonsters/Splinterlands, it is a recommended read. In their article they answered that gnawing question I had about how it is decided who attacks first.

In my two and a half months of playing SPLINTERLANDS, and after learning the basics to battling, I held the trait of SPEED as the lowest in priority. Attack Strength, Toughness, and Health/Life held a higher esteem (hehehe I got the word steem in) in my mind when choosing my Monster to take to battle. After reading that article, I immediately put my new found knowledge to the test. Although I did not use the Brownie Splinter as per @welshstacker's post, I did actually now choose with a much better understanding of what I wanted. What I wanted was to be able to attack first, and then I considered the rest of the Splinter stats.

In my first battle after gaining the profound knowledge about the importance of SPEED, I was put up against a much more experienced player with all higher leveled cards than mine. Although the account is very new, created this month with 337 battles compared to my 2141 battles, looking at the fact they have a 14 win streak and a 57% win ration, this opponent is definitely a very good player and probably someones secondary account. My opponent had a Level 4 Summoner compared to my Level 2 Summoner. My opponent's battle Monsters/Splinters were 2 - Level 4's, 3 - Level 3's, 1 - Level 2 and 1 - Level 1. I had 1 - Level 3, 4 - Level 2 and 1 - Level 1 Splinter. I was definitely out gunned, luckily the battle also had two rules, which immediately narrowed down my choices and also helped tremendously.

The Battle Log showing my win using Speed against Speedwinning

Using my newly gained knownledge about SPEED, but based on the rules, the Brownie Splinterland was unfortunately immediately removed from my choices. I next based my choice of Splinters on Speed in order to insure First Strike, then I looked at the other stats for my Splinters. This new understanding about SPEED is what allowed me to beat this much better player. Here is a link to that Battle for anyone interested.

Now you too have gained that knowledge, Will I See You on the Splinterlands' Battlefield?

Full Steem Ahead into the SPLINTERLANDS!

+++ @streetstyle

img srcs:

splinterlands.io