Dota Auto Chess: An in-depth guide to placing chess pieces

In this article, we will look at how to place pieces on the Dota Auto Chess board to give you an advantage.

Line up at the beginning of the game

The position at the beginning of the game is quite simple, you have two basic options depending on what your pieces are.

Line up:

If there are a lot of melee (melee) pieces, place them as close to the opponent as possible, so they can jump on the opponent immediately.

It doesn’t make sense to place melee troops in the back because they need more movement time and have less influence. Therefore, aligning 1 row (even, centered) is often the optimal choice.

This tactic also works on Assassins, but instead of placing them in front, you place the Assassins at the bottom of the board – this way, they’ll jump right behind your opponent:

The lineup clustered in the corner:

If you have high-damage ranged units (Shadow Fiend, Hunter, Mage, etc.) that need to be protected and forced to move, place them as far away from your opponent as possible.

Imagine your army is an onion. The buffalo minions are outside, dealing damage inside so that the damage heroes are the last to be attacked. However, placing the high damage pieces in the back with the sides exposed can cause them to be killed by the assassins.

Let’s place the buffalo hero as shown below.

Mid-late game lineup

In the mid-late game, we should not only think about heroes that are strong and deal high damage, but also have to keep an eye on heroes with effective AoE.

Avoid getting AoE:

The fact that the whole team eats Kunkka’s ultimate to drop the boat is really not great at all. The “Clumped” formation above is really weak against Kunkka, so this is when you need to consider separating the squad. There are many ways to do this.

• Keep the main piece in a corner, but split one or two heroes that can take a long time to attract the opposing heroes. With luck, one or two of these heroes can take one or two moves from the opponent.

• Split your troops into two separate groups. To do this, you need at least two high damage heroes and two strong enough heroes in each group. If one group is weaker than the other, we could be in trouble. You want the party to be free of the enemy’s AoE moves that can damage and help you defeat him.

Be the first to strike:

Throwing important AoE moves before your opponent can help you win the round. Tidehunter, Disruptor, Kunkka and Enigma are the heroes you need to make this happen. Lone Druid and Lycan, with the ability to summon monsters to support also need to be prioritized.

The key point here is that you want your troops to launch as soon as possible, while avoiding them being killed before the ultimate is released.

This means you need to consider how strong your pieces are. In general, extremely strong pieces (2-star or 3-star pieces with damage items) can be in the front. It’s hard for the enemy to kill them before these heroes use their ultimate.

However, 1-star pieces are a different matter. You have two options:

• Keep them in the second row, but close enough so that my hit heroes can get hit from the opponent’s AoE and ranged champions
• Keep them in row 1, but place them next to the other buffalo pieces. This arrangement will cause them to lose a bit of health, but does not mean more damage. This is a better option, but also riskier.

Place a 1v1 formation to win first place

Position is important in the early and mid game, but not as important as your combos and gold management. However, when winning the number 1 position in the game, the position is often the deciding factor.

At the same time, how to place positions at this stage depends a lot on the situation at that time and it is difficult to choose the optimal arrangement.

According to the picture above, Savjz arranged as follows

• First, the lineup is quite scattered on the chessboard. This reduces the chance of all pieces being hit by the same AoE.
• Medusa, Disruptor and Techies are located in Top. Savjz wants to make sure these pieces cast their ultimate as soon as possible and it doesn’t matter if they’re alive after using the ultimate.
• LIVE second row are Doom, Kunkka, and Tidehunter. These are tank heroes with important ultimates, and he wants them to come out after Medusa and Disruptor. You will see that the pieces in row 2 have some space in front of them. These are melee heroes, so this arrangement makes them easy to reach the opponent and ensure to withstand a few hits from the opponent.
• Batrider is in the back. This hero has no powerful moves but is 3-star – can deal high damage and take long hits when the first attack line has fallen.
• In the last row, Savjz places the Witch Doctor, Troll and Shadow Shaman. These are blood heroes that he wants to live as long as possible. Troll is the main damage hero, so the longer this piece lives, the better Savjz will be.
• If you pay attention, you will see Troll and Shadow Shaman located on the right edge of the squad. This increases the chance of dodging AoE if the opponent’s formation is in the left corner of the board. However, the Witch Doctor is in the left corner. This reduces the chance that all three pieces will be hit by an AoE. Meanwhile, if the opposing team is on the left side of the board, the Witch Doctor will have a chance to take a hit against the Troll, allowing the Witch Doctor to cast a stun and buy time for the Troll to attack.

Catch the opponent’s card

Catching your opponent’s cards requires you to look at your opponent’s table and move your cards properly to increase your chances of winning.

Avoid enemy heroes Tidehunter, Techies, Disruptor. See where your opponents put them, and place your main damage champions as far away from them as possible.

Leaving a few pieces as “bait” near the opponent’s AoE is the best way. Only 1/3 of your troops take strong AoE instead of the whole team which can change the whole game.

We can do the opposite: see where your opponent places his main champions, and make sure to place your important AoE heroes as close to them on the board as possible.

Cornering Case: Assassin (and Round 15)

If your opponent is using an Assassin formation, don’t put tanks in front and blood soldiers in the back. Assassin will jump to the back – so you need some tank heroes in the back to take the hit instead.

However, do not leave the front completely empty. Keep one or two tank heroes to keep the enemy busy ahead.

This method applies to round Wolves – round 15: Remember to put some strong health heroes behind.

According to dotahaven

Summary of the Dota Auto Chess manual