Introduction

This week we have a deep dive into the Up Close and Personal rule set. Pretty simple ruleset you can only use melee units. so there are a few abilities that are necessary to be able to use some of the melee units.

Ruleset

Only units with melee attacks can be used.

Note: Units with 2 types of attacks (including melee) can be used.

Official ruleset information from splinterlands: List-of-In-Game-Rulesets

Abilities Synergies / Strategies

Demoralize - All melee will do 1 less damage. Note these demoralize units can be stack so when 3 demoralize units are played all you opponent melee units will do 3 less damage
Shield - When you have diminish the melee damage to 1 put an shield unit and you opponent will do no damage.
Reach/Opportunity/Sneak - Normal only the first melee unit can attack with these ability you able to attack from the second position with reach and with sneak and opportunity from any position so very important to be able to be attacking from multiple positions
Thorns - You know there will be melee unit so thorns is the optimal return damage ability.

Inspire - Instead of debuff your opponent an other strategy can be to boost you melee units with inspire but when the Up close and Persoanl ruleset is in the mix there not many units I can use.
For me this would only be:

Avoid

Magic reflect / Return fire - There will be no or very little chance on magic unit or ranged units so these abilities have become useless.
Headwinds - No range units so useless.
Void / Void Armor - Useless no magic units

Example battle

Strategy

High mana battle where summoners abilities are nuked. Perfect chance to go dragon / water combo.

Rulesets

Silenced Summoners:
Summoner buff and debuff are disabled. Simple pick you favorite splinter summoner with the least mana cost.

Up Close & Personal:
Rule set of the week. Only melee units may be selected.

Armored Up:
All unit will gain two extra armor. With melee units only this is useful. Scattershot will be useful but then again this ability is only on ranged and magic unit

The Lineup

Summoner

Card	Reason
	Simple because I want to use some strong dragon units. and it only cost 4 mana my lowest cost summoner.

Monsters Lineup

#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6

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Djinn Chwala (lvl 5)
First dragon unit with thorns in a melee only battle very useful. High health so it should stay alive for a while.

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Carnage Titan (lvl 3)
Second dragon unit its selected for the double strike/ reach and important shield.
Whenever this unit get in the front it will receive 1 less damage in combination with the two demoralize units it might get 0 damage. At least that is the plan.

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Disintegrator (lvl 8)
First demoralize unit. It cannot attack from this position but should weaken the opponent.

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Legionnaire Alvar (lvl 3)
Second demoralize unit. Also this unit cannot attack unit it gets in the front but that is oke / the plan.

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Deeplurker (lvl 8)
Strong unit with opportunity and the beloved poison. not the first target and it will do 5 damage.

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Kulu Mastermind (lvl 2)
Important unit in the back again with shied. Any sneak unit with 3 damage or less will do no damage because of the two demoralize units in combination with the shield

The Battle

Reference

Link to the battle:
Link to battle

Rounds

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Start :

Lets analyze the battle setup.
My opponent has chosen an similar bit different placing and i have chosen to also use dragon unit. IMO this will meaningful because of the double attack and shield of carnage titan.
Because you known there is melee only the extra damage done with thorns.
The Drybone Raider is an good choice of my opponent only the the melee attack cannot be used unit it is in the front.

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Round 1:

I landend my poison 50% change and luckily my opponent has not landed his poisen 🍀.
And the thorns helped a lot with taking down some shield.
Also when my Carnage Titan gets in the front Diemonshark and Flying Squid will do no damage because of the demoralize and the shield combo 👍.

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Round 2:

Some nice and important missed on my Djinn Chwala. This is not looking good for my opponent.

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Round 3:

Now his demoralize unit is killed this an extra bonus and it will go quicker not. At this point the game is over my opponent has not enough power anymore.

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Round 4:

The total 4 damage of the Drybone Raider is hurting but not enough one or two more round.

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Round 5:

One more unit left unfortunatly my opponent killed my Carnage Titan so the Drybone Raider will still do damage with the melee attack.

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Round 6:

Victory!

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Conclusion

With the up close and personal ruleset its important to weaken you opponent with demoralize and finished off with some extra shield unit and you opponent is not doing mucht damage.
Still you can also go with inspire unit to boost it.

Previous ruleset strategy posts

I think we are almost done with the current list a few more weeks and its complete for the rule set we currently know. What will be the next battle challenges all abilities?
The series continues, below you will find references to the other ruleset strategies / analysis posts.

Ruleset	Post
Briar patch	Ruleset post: Briar patch
Aim True	Ruleset post: True aim
Aimless	Ruleset post: Aimless
Armored Up	Ruleset post: Armored Up
Back to Basics	Ruleset post: Back to Basics
Broken Arrows	Ruleset post: Broken Arrows
Close Range	Ruleset post: Close Range
Counterspell	Ruleset post: Counterspell
Earthquake	Ruleset post: Earthquake
Equalizer	Ruleset post: Equalizer
Equal Opportunity	Ruleset post: Equal Opportunity
Even Stevens	Ruleset post: Even Stevens
Explosive Weaponry	Ruleset post: Explosive Weaponry
Fire & Regret	Ruleset post: Fire & Regret
Fog of War	Ruleset post: Fog of War
Ferocity	Ruleset post: Ferocity
Going the Distance	Ruleset post: Going the Distance
Healed Out	Ruleset post: Healed Out
Heavy Hitters	Ruleset post: Heavy Hitters
Holy Protection	Ruleset post: Holy Protection
Keep Your Distance	Ruleset post: Keep Your Distance
Little League	Ruleset post: Little League
Lost Legendaries	Ruleset post: Lost Legendaries
Lost Magic	Ruleset post: Lost Magic
Melee Mayhem	Ruleset post: Melee Mayhem
Noxious Fumes	Ruleset post: Noxious Fumes
Odd Ones Out	Ruleset post: Odd Ones Out
Reverse Speed	Ruleset post: Reverse Speed
Rise of the Commons	Ruleset post: Rise of the Commons
Silenced Summoners	Ruleset post: Silenced Summoners
Wands out	Ruleset post: Wands Out
What Doesn't Kill You	Ruleset post: What Doesn't Kill you
Stampede	Ruleset post: Stampede
Super Sneak	Ruleset post: Super Sneak
Taking Sides	Ruleset post: Taking Sides
Target Practice	Ruleset post: Target Practice
Unprotected	Ruleset post: Unprotected
Up Close and Personal

That's all for this week hope you enjoyed reading this ruleset strategy/analysis. See you all on the battlefield.

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