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    Your Elvenar Team

A brief note on the different Tourney series

Gkyr

Chef
First I would like to open by reproducing the succinct new Tourney opposing troop probabilities originally offered by @samidodamage (thank you, samidodamage):

The higher probability enemy units by tourney now are:
Marble: Heavy Melee
Steel: Mage
Planks: Light Range
Crystal: Mage & Heavy Ranged
Scroll: Light Ranged & Heavy Ranged
Silk: Light Melee & Heavy Melee
Elixir: Light Range, Light Melee & Heavy Melee
Magic Dust: Light Melee, Mage & Heavy Ranged
Gems: Light Melee, Heavy Ranged & Heavy Melee

Got it? The three Basic goods Tournies are probability-dominated by one troop type, the three Refined goods Tournies by two troop types, and Precious Tournies have a probability dominated by three troop types. To flesh this out, I would like to follow this with my brief Tourney battle notes. Disclaimer: I am an Elf and I Manual Fight (after the first eight Tourney provinces), YMMV.

Regarding expiring battle buildings: if one has been working the Magic Academy and has a supply of buff buildings, it is always good to build UUU and ELR, the first because it buffs all troops and the second because of our reliance on LR troops in all Tournies. That leaves MMM and Dwarven Armorer. Build MMM only if you use Mages, which I only use in Marble, Crystal, Dust and Gems but your preference may be different. DA can only be obtained from the Spire (at present) and is therefore less available. I use DA for the hardest Tournies only, which seem to be Scrolls and Dust for most of us.

Marble: All types of squads will appear, with an emphasis on HM. This will give your Blossoms a chance to shine. If you don’t have at least 2 star Blossoms, then Rangers. If you are not up to 2 star Rangers, the Archers will do well. Three star Golems plus Sorceresses make a lethal team, if you know how to use them. When Mist Walkers are added to the enemy mix, better use Archer/Rangers; the Blossoms are too 'squishy' (low defense) to survive. Similarly, an abundance of Mage-killing LR and LM troops demand a LR rather than Mage lineup.

Steel: these are simple enough that I wail through them using the advantaged troop types. We all love our LR and Mages fall to them easily. Rangers are buffed against Mages. If you run out of LR then 3 Golems & 2 Bud Sorcs are a good combo. I start making extra Rangers a week early.

Planks: The preponderance of LR, especially Mist Walkers, makes Orc Strats my main troop. They are a pain to train since Orcs are needed elsewhere for research and upgrades, especially in the higher chaps, but there is no better squad for this Tourney. I keep six seven Grounds of Orc Strats upgraded in my city and make them in the Training Grounds. I start increasing them one week before the Plank Tourney. Drones are also buffed against LR. The AM of my FS tried using Drones once but was disappointed at the results; I tried them and was also not impressed. You can save your OS by mixing in a Golem; the opposition will usually go after the Golem and spare your OS.

Crystal: The opposing Mages are weak against LR, but Inno makes sure that you use up a lot of your LR in this Tourney, thanks to the pairing with HR. When appropriate, my favorite pairing is banshees with LR. Blossoms (or priests) with LR is also effective. I go into this Tourney with extra LR. Folks don’t give Dryads much respect but they deliver 50% more damage than other LR. They are especially effective against HM but must be protected because their defense is weak. Rangers have extra attack buffs against Mages, so stock up but be prepared to go through a lot of them.

Scrolls: this is a tough Tourney. I like to use banshees against HR; Blossoms are too defenseless against LR. But I go through a lot of banshees. If I get tired of losing Banshees to the higher-initiative LR, I use Golems in place of Banshees when Banshees are in a position of receiving a first hit. Banshees are only even with HR, no advantage, but they are very easy for me to train in droves.

Silk: I have lately learned to use HM in this Tourney more often. In early provinces I use a lot of LR, HM and dogs. In later provs I often use Blossoms and HM. This is the Tourney where I use the 2BudSorc-3Golem strategy; probably better suited to MF than Auto-fight. BudSorcs strongly debuff the opposition, thereby doubling the effectiveness of the tank-like Golems. Expect the BudSorcs to die but even a squad whittled down to just 1 BudSorc can cast debilitating spells.

Elixir: Lots of all-Golem fights, lots of LR/Golem fights. I start upgrading my Temple of the Toads AW one week before the start of this Tourney. Seriously.

Dust:
Judging by the number of complaints in the forum, the Dust Tourney has got to be the most difficult. Many posters agree on this. This is because the ‘featured’ shady character squads are Heavy Ranged, Light Melee and Mage. Among these three, then, the opposition has a potential buff advantage over every squad that one might field. Since there is no way of knowing how these three will be apportioned by the RNG there is no way to prepare for the Tourney in the days before. The battlefields are consistently among the less obstructed and so the opposition light melee becomes just that more menacing. Each fight has to be approached uniquely, relying on experience.

Dust does not lend itself to positive advice. My notes merely tell me that I have no use for Orc Strats and I do not rely on Mages, so I don’t site MMM. (This allows me to double- or triple-site MMM for those Tourneys where Mages are Key. For me, these are only three tournies: Marble, Crystal and Gems).

Gems: This Tourney is always rich in terrain obstructions in addition to three categories of opponents. As such it is tough for unscouted auto-fights to win but it is often presents an advantage to manual fighters who can use the obstructions to their advantage. Range army has an advantage over melee troops unless there is a preponderance of LM and LR to contend with. Auto-fighters should really take time to scout and adjust their troops and starting line accordingly in this Tourney. The obstructions can also be an advantage to auto-fighters by keeping the Light and Heavy Melee squads away from them for the first round or two.
 
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crackie

Chef, Scroll-Keeper, Buddy's #1 Fan
BTW, @Mykan also updated his tourney chart graphics to reflect 2020 changes.

Great job, @Gkyr! It's a pretty thorough guide. My only comments to add are...

Marble: All types of squads will appear, with an emphasis on HM. This will give your Blossoms a chance to shine. If you don’t have at least 2 star Blossoms, then Rangers. If you are not up to 2 star Rangers, the Archers will do well. Three star Golems plus Sorceresses make a lethal team, if you know how to use them.
I think Blossoms are fine no matter what level they are. She'll still be effective at Level 1 because Heavy Melee can't reach her and her attack bonus is against Heavy Melee. It's a pretty hefty bonus (+80%) too. She's also the only unit the Knight can't retaliate on, as he can still reach Light Range if they're not behind obstacles. I would also flip using Archers over Rangers on Heavy Melee, or maybe even Dryads if there are not other enemy Light Range around. Archers have a +60% to +70% attack bonus on Heavy Melee depending on their promotion, but Rangers only have +40%. Besides being Mist Walker bait, Dryads perform best against Heavy Range since that's her only attack bonus and she does hold pretty well against other LR, although they get to shoot at her first.

Crystal: The opposing Mages are weak against LR, but Inno makes sure that you use up a lot of your LR in this Tourney, thanks to the pairing with HR.
This is usually the tourneys where people come on the forum to cry that they've changed the formula, but it's more that they've just wrapped up the easier T1 tournaments the previous week and Crystal starts the T2 rounds with focus on 2 types of predominant enemy types instead of just 1.

Dust: perhaps the toughest Tourney. Each fight has to be approached uniquely, relying on experience. The only notes I can make are that I do not need Orc Strats and that the battlefields from low province to high province are relatively wide open with fewer obstructions than with other Tourney types.
This one is usually the bloodiest due to the enemy combo. It's bloody even if you manual fight. The Mage/Light Melee/Heavy Range enemy combo makes it hard to cover the spread and walk away unscathed. Death, death, and more death!

Gems: This Tourney is always rich in terrain obstructions in addition to three categories of opponents. As such it is tough for unscouted auto-fights to win but it is often presents an advantage to manual fighters who can use the obstructions to their advantage. Range army has an advantage over melee troops unless there is a preponderance of LM and LR to contend with. Auto-fighters should really take time to scout and adjust their troops and starting line accordingly in this Tourney. The obstructions can also be an advantage to auto-fighters by keeping the Light and Heavy Melee squads away from them for the first round or two.
I don't find Gems is any more or less random in its obstacle offerings. It's a very mage friendly tournament though. I find it the easiest of the T3 tourneys for sure.
 

Enevhar Aldarion

Oh Wise One
First I would like to open by reproducing the succinct new Tourney opposing troop probabilities originally offered by @MaidenFair (thank you, MaidenFair):

The higher probability enemy units by tourney now are:
Marble: Heavy Melee
Steel: Mage
Planks: Light Range
Crystal: Mage & Heavy Ranged
Scroll: Light Ranged & Heavy Ranged
Silk: Light Melee & Heavy Melee
Elixir: Light Range, Light Melee & Heavy Melee
Magic Dust: Light Melee, Mage & Heavy Ranged
Gems: Light Melee, Heavy Ranged & Heavy Melee

This is not new and has been true for probably five years now, or more. The changes to the tournament a couple of years ago actually decreased the chances of seeing the main enemies and made it a bit more random. That change also introduced us to the "fun" of the enemy having one squad of each troop type in a fight.
 

MaidenFair

Chef - Head Philologist
First I would like to open by reproducing the succinct new Tourney opposing troop probabilities originally offered by @MaidenFair (thank you, MaidenFair):
I wish I could take the credit but I don't remember posting anything about troop types...It might have come up in a thread I was involved in, but the list is definitely not mine. :)

Thanks for posting it, though! It's interesting info, and as a mostly non-fighter, I don't begin to pay enough attention to the few tourney provinces I autofight to notice patterns like this.
 

Raccon

Well-Known Member
I think Blossoms are fine no matter what level they are. She'll still be effective at Level 1 because Heavy Melee can't reach her and her attack bonus is against Heavy Melee. It's a pretty hefty bonus (+80%) too. She's also the only unit the Knight can't retaliate on, as he can still reach Light Range if they're not behind obstacles. I would also flip using Archers over Rangers on Heavy Melee, or maybe even Dryads if there are not other enemy Light Range around. Archers have a +60% to +70% attack bonus on Heavy Melee depending on their promotion, but Rangers only have +40%. Besides being Mist Walker bait, Dryads perform best against Heavy Range since that's her only attack bonus and she does hold pretty well against other LR, although they get to shoot at her first.
Agreed %100. I used Daryads 3 out of 4 encounters this past marble tourney, Blossoms came second when there were Heavy range i.e LR killers involved.
I lined Blossoms across the HMs and priests across HRs (I know %90 play elf) in the same lineup because I auto fight and I can't risk 4 range walking +3 range shooting Banshees when I'm not sure about terrain. Therefore I use Priests as they have better debuff against HRs than Blossoms.
 
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