Battlegrounds Positioning & Combat Basics
Combat resolves automatically, so the only things you control are your board order and keyword placement. That's exactly why positioning separates good players from great ones. Here are the rules you need.
Who attacks, and who gets hit
- First attacker: the side with more minions attacks first (a coin flip if tied). Minion count matters.
- Attack order: each side's minions attack left-to-right, cycling.
- Targeting is random — with one big exception below.
The combat keywords that matter
- Taunt: must be attacked first. This is your main tool for controlling where enemy attacks land.
- Divine Shield: ignores the first instance of damage.
- Venomous: destroys the first enemy it damages (so a tiny Venomous minion can kill a giant).
- Reborn: when it dies, it returns with 1 health (and loses enchantments).
- Windfury: attacks twice.
- Cleave: hits the target and its neighbors.
Positioning principles
- Protect your scaling/key minions by not putting them where they'll trade early.
- Bait and soak: a sacrificial minion in the right slot can absorb a dangerous attacker or a Divine Shield pop.
- The cleave rule: against cleave boards, put your weakest Taunt on the far right so the splash damage hits as little value as possible.
- Divine Shield + big stats often wants to attack into the enemy early to pop safely and trade up.
Why minion count is sneaky-important
Because the side with more minions strikes first, an extra body can flip a close fight. Don't sell down to a smaller board right before combat without a reason.
Takeaway
You can't choose targets, but you choose the order and the keywords. Control first-attacker count, use Taunt to direct damage, place Venomous and Divine Shield deliberately, and beat cleave with a weak Taunt on the right. Small positioning edges decide close lobbies.