Sledge Marksman Defense

Guide by Apooche

Introduction

Marksman + Sledgehammer is a classic long-range composition. Opponents will use aggro to remove your range advantage, forcing you to defend with these units. Sledgehammers slow down the enemy push, buying time for the rest of your units, and setting up for late game pivots into appropriate counters to the enemy composition.

Tech Loadout

Sledgehammer

• Field Maintenance: The best defensive tech. Especially effective against wraith.

• Armor Enhancement: Shuts down enemy Mustangs and Fire Badgers.

• Mechanical Rage: Speeds up chaff-clear and gets Sledgehammers outside the fight involved faster. Usually a different unit clears chaff, so this tech is often not used.

• Range Enhancement: Rarely needed on defense. Sometimes used if the opponent switches to long ranged units.

Marksman

• Assault Mode: A critical tech that switches marksman into a powerful defender. Especially good vs Steel Balls and Hounds.

• Aerial Specialization: Gives targeting priority against air units like Wraith and Raiden. Do not hesitate to click this after Assault Mode.

• Doubleshot: Extra damage. This still won’t be enough damage to kill supertanks like Rhino, Sandworm, or Mountain. This tech helps against Ball Mechanical Division after Assault Mode.

• Range Enhancement: A critical tech for range vs range. Usually unused on defense, unless as a late game follow up to Assault Mode.

When To Play

Marksman + Sledgehammer is an early game composition. Marksman is a safe addition to any Sledgehammer opening pack. Early game Marksman unit drops are also a good opportunity to utilize this composition. It performs especially well into Ball + Hound and Ball + Wraith aggro.

How To Play

Rounds 1-4

This strategy works from any Sledgehammer starting pack. Start the game with the Sledgehammers inside of the towers and slightly forward. Add crawlers behind towers and on the back line. After seeing that the opponent is playing aggro, continue to deploy on the side they are attacking. Cut off the route to your tower and cover the flank with an outside sledgehammer. Determine whether or not to use the Assault Marksman tech: it is best into units like Steel Ball, Hound, and Typhoon. It should be avoided vs Sabertooth.

You can clear chaff in the early game with Sledgehammer, but should add a dedicated chaff-clear unit as the game progresses. This can be Arclight, Wraith, or Vulcan, or any other chaff-clear unit you are comfortable playing. Look to pick one of these up off of a unit drop if you didn’t start with arclights. Wraith is especially good versus enemy Wraith, to prevent them from protecting it with wasps.

Image: A round 3 board from Sledgehammer + Hound starting pack vs Ball + Hound. Turn 2 added 2 Marksmen with Assault Mode. Turn 3 added another Sledgehammer on the right and 2 more Marksmen, including one on the left to stop any surprise flank.

Rounds 5-7+

Continue to establish chaff-clear wherever you see your Marksmen spending too long shooting chaff. If your opponent continues to deploy units that the (assault) Marksmen perform well into, you can keep deploying more Marksmen and pick up additional techs. If the opponent adds tanks that Marksman aren’t enough to kill, use giant units like Fortress or Melting Point to deal with them. Utilize unit drops whenever possible. Since Marksman + Sledgehammer is an early game composition, typically you will stop investing in these units at some point and go into a late game carry. 

Image: Round 7 from the same game. Improved Wraith was used for chaff-clear. The rhino specialist Rhino made an attack on the weak side tower. No further investment into Sledgehammer or Marksman was made after the opponent went into Raiden. A round 6 Farseer drop was used to counter the Raiden. Wasps on turn 7 punish the opponent for using ground-only chaff-clear to end the game.

Cards & Items

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Sledgehammer

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Sledgehammer