You must also have to use supply instants to produce all those troops? Whenever I use time boosts to accelerate troop production I deplete my supplies that my workshops can't keep up.
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@MinMax Gamer )
Both supply-instants and time-reduction instants can be gained in pretty large numbers during the major events, and there are several of those each year. Apart from that, they both can be crafted, AND supplies can be greatly boosted by running the workshops on short runs, especially when using the PoP spells, which are easily gotten from the MA and the tourneys. The timereductions can also be gained from the Spire, even if one goes no further than the second gate.
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Edit As the feeding can be done at any moment you want, you can plan ahead. Have some workshops do a 24-hour production the day before you plan using the bear, cast a PoP before harvesting and then run short productions until you're done, that should create a very substantial amount of supplies to use already, without using anything else.)
By feeding the bear and using a combination of these instants/spells, I can create a huge amount of troops in just a few minutes. Especially for those like me in the end-game, if one also has the Simia up, because that bonus stacks with that of the bear. Everything that is harvested in the time the feeding effect is active after that is pure bonus to me, but that adds up as well.
Also, it has great synergy with the Needles/FA/VS because those reduce training time and thus one can harvest more often.
As a trick, one might want to use one of the teleport buildings instants on an armory or two, reducing the amount of troops trained in 1 batch if you find time to stay logged in constantly to make the most of the harvests, but I am content to just let it run, set a timer for myself and harvest again about a half-hour before the feeding effect ends, then see if I can use a small time-reduction to finish one more batch.
Is it sustainable to keep it running all the time? That would depend on the amount of pet-food one crafts, but probably not. I chose the brown bear because I see it as an excellent way of creating a LOT of troops almost instantly. I'll probably end up actually feeding it only once a month or so, but that's fine. At 3x3 it provides a decent amount of pop, culture and every 48 hours it provides a decent amount of free troops as well.
The one time each month I will be activating it, I will probably end up creating 60-80 hours worth of troops, + the 50% bonus is 90-120 hours worth of troops. That's quite a bit. (Especially for me, since I my Simia gets me another 18% each time I harvest).
@bippiebop
The bonus troops provided by the feeding effect do count towards the quests to train x-amount of troops. The bear doesn't train them, the bear provides a bonus amount to the amount trained in barracks, training ground and mercenary camp, so they still are harvested from those.
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@mucksterme
Yes, that would be a space issue. The Polar bear only works when fed, so it means one needs to create extra pet-food for that effect.
The Timewarp is larger, but it still is one of the smaller AWs. It also provides a substantial bonus to the amount of sentient goods produced though. And since it is an AW, the levels will count for the trader's collection bonus on seeds as well.
Considering the huge need for sentient goods -and thus seeds to produce them- in chapter 15 the Timewarp is by far the better choice (in my opinion that is).
But if one is not as far advanced yet, but is an avid tourney player it can be a very good choice as it can make the difference between being able to do 5 or 6 rounds.