[Spoiler] Ardal aep Dahy tactic

[Spice must flow]

Introduction

The most difficult thing about this battle is that Ardal automatically replaces a dead unit with a top card from his ridiculous 90 card deck. A lot of people figured it is easier to let him fill both rows, then overpower him with scythemen + alchemist + adept combo. Let's try a different thing, though: empty his deck and turn his ability against him.

The setup

(bold text for crucial, regular for optional/alternative)
Meve Flail - you get it from smugglers in chapter 2, if you decide to use the weaponry in post-battle dilemma;
Meve Warhammer - if you missed the flail, it's always nice to have more control over your deck;
Manticore trophy;
Muzzle - to seize that one important unit;
Decoy - my all time favourite: replay units with great deploy ability, get an extra turn, return high value units to hand to play them next round;
Royal Decree - extra cards;
Reinforcements - extra cards;
Pitfall trap 4x;
Stray bombers 4x;
Aretuza adept 5x - great synergy with muzzle;
Arnjolf the Patricide - you get him in chapter 4, if you've spared skaeligans back in chapter 1. A lot of offensive power with his ability, whcih does not decrease, due to Ardal's passive;
Blacksmith - we can play decoy once again and get an extra turn;
Drummer 5x - extra cards, grreat synergy with our blitz units;
Strays cavalry 5x - nice addition for extra offense each round;
Stray slingers 4-5x - very important if you don't have Meve with flail;
Reinforced ballista - in chapter 5, if you reconcile with Villem, then the old lady in the independent Rivian castle will award you with these. Each ballista has an order ability to deal 3, 2 and 1 damage to three different targets with 1 turn cooldown;

Note: it is implied, that your camps is maxed out, so you have all units in "+" form. Extra armour from palicade is always a welcoming addition.

The Fight

On first use muzzle on "Impera brigade". This unit gets +2 boost for every enemy appearing in the ranged row (so don't play your cards in ranged row, because Ardal has several of those in his deck). Hit the first row with flail - they will die in second row and new cards will be played in their place. Clone and boost impera brigade with your adept. Place 2 pitfall traps on ranged row and set it on fire with bombers. Send enemies to ranged row, using either Meve's falil or slingers. This will be a death on arrival for most enemy cards. Others will be killed by fire, stray cavalry mark, ballista and Arnjolf. Meanwhile, our Impera brigades keep getting stronger (100+, good times).
Try to kill as many cards as possible and force Ardal to play both of his commanders and bravehearts. The latter gold card gets boosted for each fallen ally and retaliates something vicious, so don't commit to much to this round. You can throw it, but play decoy on your stupidly boosted impera to return it to hand, before passong.
In round 2 keep doing the same. Ardal has already thrown away his trump cards, while yours keep getting stronger. In my case Ardal was left 3 cards and an empty deck in round 3.

[Quincy]

Note to others who might attempt this strategy, it is completely unviable if you missed the Manticore Trophy. You can't kill enemies quickly enough so they accumulate and Dahy passes on his early lead.

[Spice must flow]

Indeed, that's why I have tagged manticore trophy as crucial. I doubt, that someone will miss it though, because it's early in the game and you simply have to win the maticore fight. Flail for example, can be missed based on your post-battle decision.

[MonkiChowder]

With the updates, this plan is definitely not viable. The enemies spawn too quickly and Dahy will early pass on you within about 4-5 turns. You'll kill 3 assassins (9 points) and they'll be replaced by 3x 25-point cards (75 points).

You simply CANNOT WIN with this technique. I'm having a hard time finding ANY tactic to win.

[Spice must flow]

Sorry to hear that, it was fun while it worked.

[VioJaeger]

Originally posted by Spice must flow:

Indeed, that's why I have tagged manticore trophy as crucial. I doubt, that someone will miss it though, because it's early in the game and you simply have to win the maticore fight. Flail for example, can be missed based on your post-battle decision.

I didnt recruit eyk though, bcoz I hate him for competing Geralt.
nice tip btw, I beated Ardal by using Lyrian Calvary & Aretuza adapt

[Spice must flow]

Originally posted by MonkiChowder:

With the updates, this plan is definitely not viable. The enemies spawn too quickly and Dahy will early pass on you within about 4-5 turns. You'll kill 3 assassins (9 points) and they'll be replaced by 3x 25-point cards (75 points).

You simply CANNOT WIN with this technique. I'm having a hard time finding ANY tactic to win.

i wonder what has changed with the updates though...
2 pitfall traps plus manticore trophy should be 5-6 damage, which is death on arrival for most of enemy cards; and then you have periodic damage from fire and stray cavalrymen. The 25 point cards should be bravehearts, I assume? It's OK to lose first round - just lure out bravehaerts and kill as many cards as possible.

[Twoja stara najebana]

I just created a metric ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of that spies that steal right unit strenght since he tends to overbuff one guy with his passive. then I turned offf all his boosts dwimeri bomb or smth. always hilarious to use boss's strat against him.

[Zeban]

The fight was easy, did it in 3 tries (When I figured out his reinforcement bs)
Use the reinforce-weapon (remove 1, put out 2 from deck)

First round.
Adept(2x) (boost ballistas(x5) ), use reinforcement on ballista.
BOOM now U just weaken his units until he passes. Never kill anyone.
Keep filling up with strong units, or better yet, use spy+alchemist combo on his strongest.

Round 2.
pretty much the same except now use slinger+trap combo
Reinforcement again (adept) on slingers, (blacksmith) to reuse reinforcement trinket
when he use the darned (order-boost unit) try taking it out fast with dwarf hero and slinger/trap combo maybe arnjolf can help too
As before stop firing before units die. Use spy/achemist combo again and throw in gascon this time for good measure
Also reuse strategy card with blacksmith (the one which resets meve counter)

Well thats how I did it, if u are missing ballistas I cant help ya... :)
Sorry about not remembering the name of some cards....

[Sladi]

I beat this fight on the first try with the same deck I had been using for a while by that point in the game. When I hit pass in the second orund, the opponent had no chance of reaching my score. The score was 1473 to 211 when I had 9 card per row and was forced to pass because my hand was empty.

https://imgur.com/a/HFthwb6

My deck was:
- Meve Longsword
- Lyrian Banner
- Trinket +4 health to a row
- Trinket +2 health all allies / 2 damage to all enemies
- Trinket Reinforcements
- Trinket boost lowest ally health by power of highest
- Isbel
- Reynard
- 2 x Nilf archer you can get early in the game (they auto deploy at start of fights)
- 5 x Scythe
- 5 x Drummer
- 5 x Alchjemist
- 4x Dwarf Shield (the one that can make ally have same health as them with order ability)
- 5 x Spy

My basic strategy was to make sure to only have one scythe in my opening hand along with one adept and trying to get Reynard into the hand (and not play him until the second round). I would them play my scythe first, followed by reinforcements to get them all on the board. I would then use the longsword ability, which would boost the health on all of them and shoot with the two bowmen. I would then play the adept and choose the Nilf archer, which results in the being instantly places onto the board. This gives a big opening and usually results in a pass by the enemy within a few more cards (which happened on this fight for me).

For the second round, I just try to make sure I have at least one dwarf, spy, alchemist, and drummer (also Reynard if I wasn't able to get him into the hand in the first round). With Reynard reseting all orders every time I use the longsword ability it is easy to get the board filled up and use the cards to get an overwhelming score.

Ideally I place the dwarves after the spys get back to my side of the board then use the alchemist to transfer the high number to them and use their order to pass it to others. Sadly, I got my spys very late this time, so that wasn't an option but everything still worked out.

Earlier in the game before I had the reinforcements card, I had been using 5x Pikeman with the 2x Nilf archers and 2x Nilf pikes as the opening. At that time, my deck also had 5x calvary and the trinket that plays 2x blitz cards. I used the same basic concept of getting a large force onto the board with a very high score. I just made sure to have a single pikeman in my opening hand and played him first to get all 5 onto the board with the 2 nilf archers and 2 nilf pikes. That gave me nine units on my first play of the round. As my untits upgraded to the + varients and I got the reinforcement trinklet, I was able to slowly convert to my final deck.

[David]

Originally posted by Slade:

I beat this fight on the first try with the same deck I had been using for a while by that point in the game. When I hit pass in the second orund, the opponent had no chance of reaching my score. The score was 1473 to 211 when I had 9 card per row and was forced to pass because my hand was empty.

https://imgur.com/a/HFthwb6

My deck was:
- Meve Longsword
- Lyrian Banner
- Trinket +4 health to a row
- Trinket +2 health all allies / 2 damage to all enemies
- Trinket Reinforcements
- Trinket boost lowest ally health by power of highest
- Isbel
- Reynard
- 2 x Nilf archer you can get early in the game (they auto deploy at start of fights)
- 5 x Scythe
- 5 x Drummer
- 5 x Alchjemist
- 4x Dwarf Shield (the one that can make ally have same health as them with order ability)
- 5 x Spy

My basic strategy was to make sure to only have one scythe in my opening hand along with one adept and trying to get Reynard into the hand (and not play him until the second round). I would them play my scythe first, followed by reinforcements to get them all on the board. I would then use the longsword ability, which would boost the health on all of them and shoot with the two bowmen. I would then play the adept and choose the Nilf archer, which results in the being instantly places onto the board. This gives a big opening and usually results in a pass by the enemy within a few more cards (which happened on this fight for me).

For the second round, I just try to make sure I have at least one dwarf, spy, alchemist, and drummer (also Reynard if I wasn't able to get him into the hand in the first round). With Reynard reseting all orders every time I use the longsword ability it is easy to get the board filled up and use the cards to get an overwhelming score.

Ideally I place the dwarves after the spys get back to my side of the board then use the alchemist to transfer the high number to them and use their order to pass it to others. Sadly, I got my spys very late this time, so that wasn't an option but everything still worked out.

Earlier in the game before I had the reinforcements card, I had been using 5x Pikeman with the 2x Nilf archers and 2x Nilf pikes as the opening. At that time, my deck also had 5x calvary and the trinket that plays 2x blitz cards. I used the same basic concept of getting a large force onto the board with a very high score. I just made sure to have a single pikeman in my opening hand and played him first to get all 5 onto the board with the 2 nilf archers and 2 nilf pikes. That gave me nine units on my first play of the round. As my untits upgraded to the + varients and I got the reinforcement trinklet, I was able to slowly convert to my final deck.

Absolutely brilliant strategy - thank you so much for sharing it!

[Metals]

I completed this fight yesterday with the trash deck I had been using all game. It took me 6-7 tries though.

[darienfoks]

Originally posted by Slade:

I beat this fight on the first try with the same deck I had been using for a while by that point in the game. When I hit pass in the second orund, the opponent had no chance of reaching my score. The score was 1473 to 211 when I had 9 card per row and was forced to pass because my hand was empty.

https://imgur.com/a/HFthwb6

My deck was:
- Meve Longsword
- Lyrian Banner
- Trinket +4 health to a row
- Trinket +2 health all allies / 2 damage to all enemies
- Trinket Reinforcements
- Trinket boost lowest ally health by power of highest
- Isbel
- Reynard
- 2 x Nilf archer you can get early in the game (they auto deploy at start of fights)
- 5 x Scythe
- 5 x Drummer
- 5 x Alchjemist
- 4x Dwarf Shield (the one that can make ally have same health as them with order ability)
- 5 x Spy

My basic strategy was to make sure to only have one scythe in my opening hand along with one adept and trying to get Reynard into the hand (and not play him until the second round). I would them play my scythe first, followed by reinforcements to get them all on the board. I would then use the longsword ability, which would boost the health on all of them and shoot with the two bowmen. I would then play the adept and choose the Nilf archer, which results in the being instantly places onto the board. This gives a big opening and usually results in a pass by the enemy within a few more cards (which happened on this fight for me).

For the second round, I just try to make sure I have at least one dwarf, spy, alchemist, and drummer (also Reynard if I wasn't able to get him into the hand in the first round). With Reynard reseting all orders every time I use the longsword ability it is easy to get the board filled up and use the cards to get an overwhelming score.

Ideally I place the dwarves after the spys get back to my side of the board then use the alchemist to transfer the high number to them and use their order to pass it to others. Sadly, I got my spys very late this time, so that wasn't an option but everything still worked out.

Earlier in the game before I had the reinforcements card, I had been using 5x Pikeman with the 2x Nilf archers and 2x Nilf pikes as the opening. At that time, my deck also had 5x calvary and the trinket that plays 2x blitz cards. I used the same basic concept of getting a large force onto the board with a very high score. I just made sure to have a single pikeman in my opening hand and played him first to get all 5 onto the board with the 2 nilf archers and 2 nilf pikes. That gave me nine units on my first play of the round. As my untits upgraded to the + varients and I got the reinforcement trinklet, I was able to slowly convert to my final deck.

Thank you very much. just perfect strategy

[Bobywan]

Works great

[Sotnik]

Seizing units plus restoring power of his units plus copying the power of the seized units to your own ones works excellently. Ballistas for reducing Power without killing works as well.

[Lord Of Nothing]

Fun fact: The full kill everything strategy is still viable, even on current balance bonebreaker.
(It does require quite a specific draw, but:
Strays slingers, artezura adepts to make about 11 of them, reinforcements to play them all, reynard plus to keep reactivating them, flail and lyrian banner for cooldown.
Black Rayla to place five pit traps at once. You can do so much damage per turn this way that the main problem is not killing more units per turn than his ability can pull.
Then pathfinders, barnabus, decoy, wolfsbane, blacksmiths to re-play decoy, wolfsbane, etc, to get as many turns as possible. You can empty out his deck in round one, then you have loads more cards than him and can easily clear again with a full set of ballistas and a blacksmithed reinforcements in round two.)