Hearthpwn

This chess challenge is a ton of fun, and one of my favorite adventure matches. 

Differences Between Normal & Heroic Mode:
A key difference between the normal and heroic mode is your hero power.  Instead of discovering a card, your hero power is a repeatable 1-mana ability to move a friendly chess piece 1 space to the left.  An additional challenge is therefore presented to you because you may run out of cards and go into fatigue, whereas your opponent doesn't have that problem.  (Your opponent's hero power remains the same - destroy your left-most minion.)

Strategy:
Board control is essential - you'll lose if your opponent gains the upper hand and wipes your board.  Strategic positioning is therefore key in this chess game.  To gain an advantage over the AI, get that double damage every turn by ensuring the difference between the AI and your pieces is always odd when you attack.  Account for the death of their pieces if you kill a minion with your 4/3 charge minion.  Try to position your minions in such a way that it minimizes damage to your own forces while killing theirs off, piece by piece.  You win when you gain and maintain board control.

Make sure to position your weak, throwaway pieces to the left.  Your queen is your most important piece - guard her carefully!  Your hero power is invaluable in this regard.  Don't let the AI take her out. 

Just like in real chess, your chances of winning significantly improve if you think ahead to the next few turns.  Think about what the AI is likely to drop, and position your pieces for the win!

Took a few attempts, but nothing too bad.  Biggest lesson learned is to maximize the value of your bishops - I found it helpful to use bishop + pawn to block rooks on corners of the board, while Bishop + knight in my right corner maximizes my late game DPS by allowing other pieces to attack face while controlling pawns.  

My midgame board was something like:

Pawn-Pawn-Rook-Bishop-Knight

This pushes out 20 damage per turn, which is more than enough to outpace the rate he plays pieces.  Wait for him to drop his queen, then corner her between rook + queen to kill her off.  

Late game aiming for:

Pawn-Pawn-Bishop-Rook-Queen-Bishop-Knight.  

Trick is to look for combinations that add up to 6 damage per turn to break down his board!

Very easy fight. Except for the 7 mulligans I did it first try. Just mulligan for 3 pawns in the beginning and pray that the AI uses 1 pawn in 1st turn and coin +2nd pawn the 2nd turn. You put 1 pawn first turn then 2 pawns second and after just maintain the odd parity in your favor, so you always hit 2 pawns at a time. Then you just need to keep your queen to the right, to the right of the queen always a heal and next to the heal another rook - move your pieces so you can to maximum damage / turn but also heal the queen if needed. This is the perfect setup for not loosing not even 1 point of life. Control the board and easily win. Cheers forcemajeure for the guide !!!

Awesome tips and strategy, Taiji.  I like the mulligan idea too.  Glad you liked the guide!

Er... no, it's definitely not a "very easy fight". That's ridiculous. As with all heroic battles since Naxx, even if you play perfectly, due to the overwhelming odds you're still very likely to lose due to even a small bit of bad RNG.

One thing I can add is that there are times you need to switch from board control to pure face damage (exactly like Kibler said yesterday in the EU preliminaries stream), even by forgetting the odd minion number strategy that maximises your attacks. If you see that you have a chance for this, then go for it. The queen is your best bet, since she attacks for 4.

I must be missing something, as I'll have dominant board control and he fatigues me Everytime with the cheat power. Do you have to go crazy face? What am I missing? If I don't get enough face damage by turn 6-8 it's impossible as he plays one each turn and I keep losing pieces due to his hero power.

Repeated and did it again twice just to check my other post. It gets difficult/impossible to win if you don't mulligan enough times to get the perfect hand in the beginning - I lost too with bad cards.

This is the "only luck" you need, when you choose the cards and / or draw a 1 drop first turn. If you don't mulligan and you hope to win with whatever cards in your hand, then I can understand the frustration. The fight is very easy with the correct cards: just keep your lowest cost minions to the left and the best to the rigth. Heal your queen each turn so it can clear the enemy board without dying to the charge minion. Your rook to the right should always hit face in the end of the fight. You don't need any crazy combos, nothing. Just control the board while your rook always hits face. Won it always before fatigue. 

Won't play it again, coz it's really boring now. 

Bye all. If my post didn't help you, just ignore it and move on. Thanks.

I think Taiji thinks we're talking about normal mode chess XD

it is the damn hero power that tilts this in the AIs favor for me. getting annoying but thanks for the tips, will keep trying

Rook/Bishop and Queen must survive under all circumstances and a bit of luck with the RNG doesn't hurt either. Wasn't very enjoyable though, wouldn't do it again. 

Quote from Hooliganous >>

I must be missing something, as I'll have dominant board control and he fatigues me Everytime with the cheat power. Do you have to go crazy face? What am I missing? If I don't get enough face damage by turn 6-8 it's impossible as he plays one each turn and I keep losing pieces due to his hero power.

Thanks, I beat it yesterday on a fluke. I was able to keep dominant board control long enough to have my Queen damage straight to face for 3 turns, long enough to nail him. Not very fun, but I beat them all. It seemed to me it all depended on the AI RNG and how many and what cards he could play, rather than all being dependent on my RNG, like 70-30 or something.

Thanks!

Did it first try.  Won't say its easy because its not but if you're smart at all and use your queen properly then you're fine.

Hey m8 ! I don't play very much these days but I've sent you the friend request and if I catch you online at 11 AM Italy time, I'll help. Cya

Quote from benaito >>

I really can't seem to beat this boss no matter what I do so if someone can offer me some support in-game with the spectate mode I would really really be grateful. My battle tag is Benea#2224. Thanks in advance if for find some time to help a fella in need. 

To those still fighting the good fight, hang in there! This fight can become VERY frustrating.

Got it on my 5th attempt thanks to the tips from OP, Justinleona and Taiji.  

My biggest take away was its important to take out the Black King's high priority minions while making sure you are getting a healthy dose of face damage in each turn via Rook or Queen, otherwise you will just keep going into fatigue due to his cheat. 

Attempted this at least 20 times, no closer to progress. At best I can get board control but I have no idea how you keep your things alive while still trading with his board. 

Quote from Murky2Cute >>

 

My biggest take away was its important to take out the Black King's high priority minions while making sure you are getting a healthy dose of face damage in each turn via Rook or Queen, otherwise you will just keep going into fatigue due to his cheat. 

Quote from cubeofsoup >>

Quote from Murky2Cute >>

 

My biggest take away was its important to take out the Black King's high priority minions while making sure you are getting a healthy dose of face damage in each turn via Rook or Queen, otherwise you will just keep going into fatigue due to his cheat. 

 How does one take out his minions while also hitting his face with your highest damage pieces??

^That's true.  Try to focus on board stabilization and keeping your priority pieces alive.  Make sure you don't lose your queen (heals and positioning), or it's most likely game over.  Taiji's idea of mulliganing for 3 pawns for your starting hand also helps.