I’ve told you before how the Swingmeter affects attack damage and this time I wanted to talk a bit about how to defend in Guardians of Gridvale. There are no timing mechanics and no random damage when it comes to your enemies attacks. Defense is mostly a matter of positioning even though there are some defensive skills and some equipment that’ll boost your chances of not getting your ass kicked.
Enemies telegraph their attacks
One of the main features of Guardians of Gridvale is that the enemies show who they will attack on their turn. This gives you a clear indication of what the threat level is for each of your heroes. Moving your heroes might however change your enemies plans so keep that in mind. If a hero that was previously unreachable get’s in closer an enemy within distance will update his intention to attack that hero. Checking how much damage your hero will receive is crucial to minimise damage and not get KO:ed.
Defensive bonuses:
There are plenty of different tiles that provide defense bonuses. Tree tiles will grant a defense bonus as will hills and houses for example. Roads on the other hand will provide defense penalties so keep that in mind before rushing in to attack. The other way of getting a defense bonus is by standing next to a companion. In other words, positioning really matters and can often be the difference between life and death.
Undo button
Guardians of Gridvale features an undo button and let’s you move your heroes around to check what positions are the most favourable for you. Put a hero in a position where they will be stomped by several enemies? Press Undo and choose a different position to see how that would play out. Note however that as soon as you perform any other action such as attacking or using any other type of skill, the chance to undo is gone and your current positions are locked until next turn.
Defense bonuses and positioning really add up:
Here’s a bit of math for you (everybody loves math right :D). If a hero with a defense of 0 gets attacked by 3 enemies that each does 5 damage, how much damage will that hero receive? That’s right, 15(!) damage. However, if the same hero instead stands on a forest tile (+1 def) that is next to a friend (+1 def) and puts himself in a position where 5 enemies can attack him, he receives the same amount of damage. Don’t underestimate how much of a difference those bonuses can make.
Defense in action
Here's a short little gif to show how this works:
