Split damage is better than a single attack! - my reason to play Pelacor Arbalest in Splinterlands

Another week, and my next time to participate in Splinterlands' share-your-battle challenge.

This week it is again about a monster I really consider worthy of the 6 mana points it costs to play! But then again it is another unit that has its weaknesses. But in my opinion its advantages outweigh its flaws by far!

Last week's post got a bit too much of words, I think. So do not let me make too many words again and look straight at the Arbalest! As always my reports are on Silver league in particular. Here you encounter unleveled bcx1 monsters, for the most part.

What makes me think Arbalest is a good unit?
-Most of all and prevalent is Arbalest's ability of "Double Strike", in other words attacking twice each round.
-Arbalest's ability combined with a ranged base attack of 2 makes it even like it is dealing 4 damage each round. And it is even better than a single attack of 4 damage because it can a) split the damage on two targets and b) gain a bonus (like the +1 attack bonus provided by General Sloan) on each of its attacks.
-A cost of 6 mana for 4-6 damage per round is really good in my eyes and even gets better when you are able to split that damage on two separate attacks.
-It has 2 initiative, which is better (and sometimes crucial!) than a lot of other monsters with 2 damage, but only 1 initiative.
-There are several special combat rules that really strengthen the Arbalest, like Equalizer which "equalizes" the Arbalest's greatest weakness.

Which is: A health of 2 is in my eyes Arbalest's greatest weakness! In other words the Arbalest is definitely a unit you have to take care of a lot!

Now and out of context let us jump to one of my battles:
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_72a847864cb3b426665e793c301fde59&ref=jdike

My setup was in a way a bit of a gamble. Which it always is for me whenever I play the Arbalest. With its health of only 2 the Arbalest is rather a "takes one hit and it is death"-unit. When you look at the opponent's setup in this battle my strategy was rather successful. No sneak attack on the opponent's side so the Arbalest was positioned best. Why? -As the Arbalest has "only" ranged attack it will not attack from first position, so the later the Arbalest's position is the better it is!

Already in round 1 Arbalest fulfilled its role as my main damage dealer, taking the enemy's "expendable" unit off the field in round 1.

In round 1 I lost most of my tanks, so at the beginning of round 2 the battle was still open. However the opponent's main unit hasve lost some health.

In round 2 my Arbalest got another time to shine by taking down the opponent's Windeku.

However the battle was somewhat open until its end and even at the beginning of round 3 when looking at the screenshot you cannot tell whether would I win or lose.
Why? -Because it points out the Arbalest's other 'weakness', its ranged attack. If my opponent would have taken out my second unit he would have won, because Arbalest would not have fired again!

So whenever I want to play the Arbalest I have to enter a trade-off discussion in my head which goes like this: The Arbalest is a good unit and I want to use it. Clearly the Arbalest best belongs into last position, but on the other hand in very last position he is most vulnerable to all Sneak monsters. So is it in this given battle better to postion him in the very last position or should I position another "expendable" unit in last position instead?

To come to an end and to finally give you some general guidance: Whenever you want to use the Arbalest you should a) have a look at the battle's rule-set, perhaps it even favors the Arbalest? (e.g. by increasing its health) or b) have a look at the opponent's previous setups! (e.g. when oppponent used a lot of sneak monsters previously you should reconsider your use and/or positioning of the Arbalest)

This week I really wanted to avoid making a lot of words, but still I did. Sorry for that one!! ;)

As always you are very welcome to support my quest for a Legendary Gold Foil card, and more than welcome to use my sign-up link: https://splinterlands.com?ref=jdike

Hope to see you next week!