All Hail Buddy!

[samidodamage]

**To join the Buddy fan club, post your allegiance in this thread and add an @Astram to have your title applied**

That title should attract crackie, don't you think? lol!
Seriously, though, rl issues have pushed me in the direction of auto-fighting Spire and tourneys on mobile to save time. As a long time manual fighter (elf), I've gotten in a habit of using Blossoms for the most part. While Rangers have their place, I've learned that Archers are more viable since I get so many of those free. I also get Buddy free, but since I don't usually use them the total number of squads is at least 2 times the number of squads of Blossoms. Auto-fighting has meant I'm hemorrhaging Blossoms since I lose the advantage of controlling movement. Yes, I can recover (because I'm a hoarder and we're talking starting out with 1000+squads and obsessively restoring those levels of inventory as well as 90+ pet food to keep the lvl 10 brown bear going in one city and 200+ in the other city), but now my pet food is below 75 in that first (parked at beginning of Ch18) city and my inner hoarder is having panic attacks . Late in the tourney there I decided to start trying out those 2000+squads of Sorceresses. It went pretty well. I hadn't started the tourney yet in the other city. I've a lvl 10 polar bear/lvl 30 Timewarp in both cities, so I do each province to 6 rounds, then the next. I decided to do all Sorceresses for the other city (parked at the beginning of Ch16) for as long as I could to see how far I'd get before needing to use the Blossoms. The answer to that >drum roll<
6 rounds of 25 provinces!
That's what I do every week there. No, I didn't do any tracking of losses for concrete comparison. But, I still have over 2K squads of Sorceresses. While that's fewer than what I started with (no, I don't know by how much either!), I haven't trained a Sorceress in years, so they're all FREE! Yes, there were some iffy situations in provinces above 20 including at least one outright defeat that I catered. IIRC, that wasn't unusual at those levels even when using Blossoms (the reason I'm moving to 30 provinces slower over there).
By utilizing Buddy more often, I can keep the inventory levels I prefer of Blossoms using less resources (pet food, time boosts to push through units trained, etc).
So thanks for continuing to come to my city even whilst I ignored you; ALL HAIL BUDDY!!

 

[crackie]

Inner monologue: “What’s this?” *clicks title*

YESSSS…*adds @samidodamage to list of Friends of Bud Sorceress Fan Club*

I don’t need to train her either. She likes to come over for popcorn and movies, sometimes arts and craft projects. In the situations I deploy her in (upper provinces against heavy range), she is really hard to kill so I don’t need to replace her often.

I have unlocked Buddy’s colleague the Banshee to 3-star promotion. Even though Banshee now has a debuff too, I still find Buddy more useful in upper provinces because Buddy’s debuff is good for 2 rounds and for 50%. This keeps the enemy stack (usually heavy range) holding nerf toys while Buddy magically trolls another stack of enemies. Also, in the really high provinces (30+), sometimes I can’t kill those pesky 3-star terminator Mist Walkers in the opening round, esp if there are more than one of them. I’ve gotten comfy bringing mages to battle with Mist Walkers around after the Roulette study, so sometimes after throwing the kitchen sink at her and she is still standing, I have to use mages against Misty, which is not ideal. In these cases, the Banshee’s debuff does nothing since Mist Walker acts before Banshee and the debuff seems to count for that current round. So when Mist Walker goes again, she hits you for full power, cleared of debuff. If Buddy hits her though, Misty has to use nerf toys next round, which is critical in saving mages as one shot from Misty can blow the whole stack. In the middle provinces, I will deploy Banshees since I know I can kill heavy range after one more round so I don’t need to debuff for two rounds.

 

[Dreamyn2]

Inner monologue: “What’s this?” *clicks title*

Haha! Got me too! @samidodamage welcome to the Club

 

[Darielle]

And here I thought I had a "big" horde of 48 pet food and 100 plus squads of each, lol. I bow to your numbers.

Then again, I always lose troops at higher rates than you did because I've never manual fought, always auto. But I get by, and I love my blossoms. They usually are the last to die in any fight where they're used to advantage. A combo of blossoms and frogs can destroy heavy and light melee without a single loss. But I don't have that combo too often, so yeah, autofight does lose a lot of troops.

 

[Henroo]

A combo of blossoms and frogs can destroy heavy and light melee without a single loss. But I don't have that combo too often, so yeah, autofight does lose a lot of troops.

Actually the long range mage units (Priests and Blossoms) can normally deal just fine with light melee units with no other unit types to help **as long as none of those light melee units are a dog**. If the enemy unit mix has 1 or 2 Thieves or Orcs as their light melee component I routinely will send 5 units of either Priest or Blossoms if mage units are a good matchup against the rest of the line-up. Mind you, I have Dragon Abbey, a L10 Fire Phoenix, and always have a Mage Multiplier building active when doing tournament/spire. So my mage units have a lot of firepower.

 

[crackie]

Haha! Got me too! @samidodamage welcome to the Club

As the Self-Appointed President of the Bud Sorceress Fan Club, I can only acknowledge you as an official Buddy of the Fan Club since we don't force anyone to join, but are you formally applying to become the very second, card-carrying member of the Bud Sorceress Fan Club???

And here I thought I had a "big" horde of 48 pet food and 100 plus squads of each, lol. I bow to your numbers.

Me too! I always thought I was doing well hoarding stuff until I read the forums. I used to think that Flower Goblin @Iyapo1 was the Master Hoarder of Them All, but I think that title belongs to @helya*.

* Unless it comes to Winter Lampions apparently

 

[Henroo]

Although it has not yet been released in the game, Elvenarchitect already has the stats for the 4 star Bud Sorceress. @crackie is going to lose his mind when the 4 star Buddies drop! Buddy will be getting roughly a 20% buff to both attack rating and health, plus additional defensive bonuses against both heavy melee and heavy range. For comparison's sake, it looks like most of the other units get roughly a 10% buff to attack rating and health when promoted to 4 star status...

 

[crackie]

@crackie is going to lose his mind when the 4 star Buddies drop!

Dudette. That's a little girl in a dress* hanging out with Buddy in my avatar!

For comparison's sake, it looks like most of the other units get roughly a 10% buff to attack rating and health when promoted to 4 star status...

YESSSS...she's going to be like the annoying 3-star Terminator Mist Walkers for the good guys! But...what are we talking here, Chapter 20 unit? I need binoculars to see that far...

* One that looks like the little girl in every horror movie ever made according to @Sprite1313.

 

[Henroo]

Dudette. That's a little girl in a dress* hanging out with Buddy in my avatar!

Oh, that is you. I get it now! I thought the pic was a Buddy and a Banshee. LOL

 

[crackie]

I thought the pic was a Buddy and a Banshee. LOL

The Banshee is not friendly!!! I mean, she screams at people to death for a living (and helya is threatening to hire her as a forum mod ). You don't need people like that on your day off while hanging out.

Buddy and I started out very wholesome and watching sunsets together on the meadow. Then those meanies said I was one of them children of the corn. When you're young and impressionable, labels stick so she went and got an ear of corn for the BBQ. I think Buddy was just sticking up for me from the bullies and decided to show everyone how popcorn is made if you're a sorceress. Then I graduated from friendship bracelets to make macrame owls with the free rope being given away around here, but Buddy's on a streak continuing to blow things up and torching everything. We did find cornfields a fun place to hang out after all, especially when you're running away from authorities.

Oh and she also kidnapped @Sprite1313's llama during the Buried City event.

 

[Henroo]

The Banshee is not friendly!!! I mean, she screams at people to death for a living

When you put it like that, there was a girl I knew way back when I was in college. And I think she might have been a banshee. Or if she was not full-blooded, she was at least a close cousin.

 

[crackie]

When you put it like that, there was a girl I knew way back when I was in college. And I think she might have been a banshee. Or if she was not full-blooded, she was at least a close cousin.

That's what I think is happening when I send Banshees into an encounter. Y'all Steinlings and Orc Deserters forgot to put the toilet seat down. Sorry, now you're all going to die.

 

[helya]

Me too! I always thought I was doing well hoarding stuff until I read the forums. I used to think that Flower Goblin @Iyapo1 was the Master Hoarder of Them All, but I think that title belongs to @helya*.

I'm not a hoarder, I'm just incredibly well prepared.

 

[Dreamyn2]

As the Self-Appointed President of the Bud Sorceress Fan Club, I can only acknowledge you as an official Buddy of the Fan Club since we don't force anyone to join, but are you formally applying to become the very second, card-carrying member of the Bud Sorceress Fan Club???

But of course!

 

[crackie]

But of course!

Did you see that, Buddy? We have an official formal application! Our membership has doubled! If there are more than one of us in the club now, we better make membership cards. Yay, we get to play with the laminator! All hail Buddy!

Btw, I'm glad they kept the name as Bud Sorceress II and didn't change it like Ghastly Banshee or whatever.

 

[Dreamyn2]

I wonder if @Sir Squirrel can make a sleeping Bud Sorceress…

 

[Raccon]

They usually are A combo of blossoms and frogs can destroy heavy and light melee without a single loss. But I don't have that combo too often

Isn't the auto fight algorithm work best with one troop type? I usually lose a couple of squads by using two different troop types!

 

[Raccon]

Actually the long range mage units (Priests and Blossoms) can normally deal just fine with light melee units with no other unit types to help **as long as none of those light melee units are a dog**

Dogs are becoming Mist Walkers lately. Whether it's Spire or turnament, I'm getting two of either one in each encounter providing top cover for their mage and heavies, so they make the use of my mage or archers irrelevant. That has forced me to rely on my dogs and heavies more than ever.

always have a Mage Multiplier building active when doing tournament/spire. So my mage units have a lot of firepower.

I haven't seen a mage boost in the MA for a loooong time. I've had better luck with other boost buildings at a rate of one every other week. So my mage units have been on their own for a long time already.

 

[Darielle]

Isn't the auto fight algorithm work best with one troop type? I usually lose a couple of squads by using two different troop types!

Good point. It works best with the fewest different types of troops, that's true. I will do two, though, when called for. Especially when the two are blossoms and frogs. They seem to work well.

 

[crackie]

Isn't the auto fight algorithm work best with one troop type? I usually lose a couple of squads by using two different troop types!

Yes and no. When talking about battles, I think we have to talk about how deep we are going in provinces versus painting with broad strokes. The first 10 provinces are nothing like the upper provinces and shouldn’t be fought the same way!

Picking same units in all 5 slots is effective for early provinces, but I don’t find it as effective at all in the upper provinces. I don’t use that strategy anymore and have abandoned it. Like @samidodamage, RL is getting in the way of elf gaming so now I autofight first 15-20 provinces and manual fight the rest to the 40s (and autofight my second city). As someone with manual fighting experience, I select my autofights based on how many rounds I have to kill them before they approach me, which is mostly based on a combo of initiative and movement numbers, or you can think of it as how long before it turns into a melee brawl. Remember, the AI’s main deficiency is its inability to put units in the right location. That means it disproportionately affects range units over melee units. It doesn’t know how to keep range units out of harm’s way while taking advantage of its range. It knows how to walk up to people to smack at them (melee) though. Therefore, once the enemies breach your front lines and it turns into a melee brawl, the AI isn’t going to be too bad at with melee troops. That means what happens on opening round makes a big difference and opening round is all about initiative and movement numbers. However many I can’t kill by opening round dictates how many short range and melee units I might add into the mix. Therefore, my autofight unit selection differs slightly from my manual fight selections. I do get much better autofight results that way.