D-Day (hard)
On the 4th of august 2015 I’ve posted my guide on how to beat D-day hard on the
forum. It was my 2nd guide and it has been read over 25.000 times. Of course, I’m very
proud of that. While I’m building this new website I’ve felt that it was time to rewrite it, update it and improve it.
A lot of players feel that the D-Day mission is still one of the toughest
mission to play. I think it’s tough but reasonable. Before the latest missions were introduced I’ve played this mission the most. Reason why? The rewards for finishing are the best. So if you’re
after getting cards of the basic set then this is still the mission to specialize yourself in. This (hard) mission is (at this moment) the only
mission which will provide you with a guaranteed epic (or higher) card if you beat it.
The costs and the benefits
The D-Day mission (hard) contains 4 battles. To play it you’ll have to pay 200 gold.
If you’re victorious on the 4th battle you’ll reward will be:
- 2 guaranteed cards (most of the time common and/or uncommon
card);
- possibly a third card (also most of the time a common and/or uncommon
card);
- a guaranteed card (rare or higher);
- a guaranteed Epic or Legendary card;
- something between 80 and 120 gold.
Life -and actionpoints
You will start the first battle with 100 life points, there is no way to gain extra lifepoints during all 4 battles. So it’s a race to the bottom. Your German opponent starts the 1st battle with 60 lifepoints, the 2nd with 75, the 3rd, with 90 and the last with 100 lifepoints.
During all 4 battles you’ll only have 3 actionpoints to spend on each of your turns. Your German opponent however will have 4 action points to spend on his turn during the first and the second battle. During the last 2 battles it’ll even have 5 actionpoints to spend on each of his turns.
It’ll be easily understood that the 3rd and the 4th battle will be the toughest you’re up against. During those (final 2) battles you’ll need your lifepoints very badly. You could also say that the 1st and the 2nd battle are all about saving up your lifepoints for it. To explain it (again) in other words: The first and second battle can be easily won, but if you’ve lost too many lifepoints during those first two battles you won’t have a chance to complete the entire mission.
The deck
This is one of the old historical missions. It has been
implemented before the introduction of crafting and/or diamonds to the game. This is why you won’t see such cards in your deck.
A good knowledge of your cards is essential to play mission properly. Below
I’ve shortly described every card in the deck you’ll be playing.
Hell's angels (legendary)
Only use this plane during your 3rd and final battle. It's a magnet of the wrath of what your opponent will have in store for you.
P-51 Mustang (epic)
Only use this plane during your 3rd and final battle, unless you have no other alternative. This plane has the "well equipped" ability: Both the bazooka and the precise map can be equipped on it for free.
M22 Locust (rare)
This is the only armored unit with the "brutality" ability you'll have at your disposal. It's a reasonable blocker. But unfortunately it's easily killed.
No.2 Commando (rare)
Forget about the "brutality" ability this unit has. The best ability this unit has to offer is its "sabotage" ability! Don't play this unit unless you can make use of its sabotage skills.
M26 Pershing (unicommon)
This is also a -key card-. It has a cheap 1st promotion and it's reinforced. It'll probabbly last. Remember that it's also slow! You don't want your life points reduced due to its slowliness. Play it with caution!
Bazooka (rare)
None of your units are tankdestroyers by themselves. This item will provide them with that skill. It also gives very nice extra stats. Very useful item!
F-S Fighting Knife (common)
This is the best item to improve the attacking stats of the unit you equip it on.
Code interception (uncommon)
Sometimes (practically only in battle 3 and 4) this order comes in handy to prevent enemy units from moving to the frontline. By doing so your planes (in your frontline) are better protected from being damaged and can deliver their damge.
101st Airborne (epic)
This unit comes into play protected by a flag. It's perfect for blocking the ground troops of your enemy.
1st Rangers (rare)
This unit will decrease the stats of an enemy unit when it enters play and could by doing so possibly kill it. The highter its rank the bigger the decrease.
It has a cheap 1st promotion.
Churchill IV (rare)
This is a -key card- during all 4 battles. It has good stats, it'll repair itself so it'll last! This is just what you need so you can spend your action points on other purposes.
Supermarine Spitfire (rare)
This plane comes with the "deploy" and "fast" ability. Don't play it in the first two battles unless you have no other alternatives.
29th Infantry (common)
This unit has the "deploy" ability. It might come in handy sometimes to have a ground unit which you can instantly play on the frontline. I rarely use it,...
Precise Map (common)
This item provides the unit you equip it on with the "fast" ability (you get to maneuver it). This is also a very useful item.
Better Equipment (epic)
This order is (only) useful to promote a unit to its second rank. Use it that way and it'll save you an action point.
Play Ball! (common)
This order will kill an enemy panzer for you. The higer the rank of the enemy panzer (you wish to destroy), the more action points it'll require. Always try (first) to fix problems with units before using this order.
Some specific cards further explained,..
I feel that some cards need a bit of better explanation than above. So, I’d like to grab the opportunity and do it here. I’ll describe the following cards:
- Churchill IV
- M26 Pershing[/u]
- 101st airborne infantry
-
Churchill IV
To me this is one of the key-cards in all 4 battles you play. You’ve got 2
of these British tanks in your deck. Due to its reasonable good stats, its reinforced and its repair ability this is a highly reliable tank that’s able to swallow up quite some combat damage and
is very hard to kill. In other words: It’ll last.
The best unit in (most of) this entire mission which you can have at your disposal is a rank 3 Churchill IV, equipped with a bazooka and a precise map.
M26 Pershing
This is also a key-card to my opinion, although slightly worse
than the Churchill IV. The good news about this American tank is that it has a cheap first promotion and it also has the reinforced ability. The bad news is that this tank is also crippled by its
slow ability. Fortunately there are ways to bypass the effect that this slow ability causes. To understand how to bypass this effect you’ll need to understand the slow ability
first.
Now when this unit (no matter what rank it has) comes into play, it’ll
trigger the slow ability. This will cause this unit to stay in the support line on your next turn as well. Another good thing to know is that you have to promote this unit to (at least) rank 2 to
unmake the slow ability: A M26 Pershing rank 1 will never move to the front if you don’t promote it to its next rank.
Last thing I’d wish to mention here is that, to unmake the slow ability, it doesn’t matter if you’d promote this unit to its second level on the turn that you’ve played it or on your next turn. So, it’s save to equip this unit with an item (if the situation allows it) and promote it on your next turn.
Now slow is a very nasty time-delaying ability. If this unit gets opposed by an enemy plane or an enemy blitzkrieg unit while it can’t move to the front line (due to this slow ability) then you know you’re up for taking damage. So to get this key-card safely into play?
1) If you put it into play facing an enemy unit which probably won’t kill it, and the M26 Pershing won’t kill that enemy unit either than you’re safe. Because on your next turn it’ll still face the same unit.
2) If you already have a unit in play equipped with the precise map which will probably survive your opponents next turn. In that case you can manoeuvre that unit to the position in front of the M26 Pershing. This is the best way!