Catering / Negotiating in Tourney & Spire

[Arkadia]

I battle most of the tourneys and all of the Spire, so I'm wondering....
What kind of setup one needs in their city to cater / negotiate ONLY.

I'm looking to hear from players who do not fight at all and have cities that are in chapter 15+
How do you manage your goods? do you use a lot of cross-tier trades?
Do you participate in both the tourneys and Spire?
What's your weekly score in the tourney?
Can you manage your score weekly or do you need to skip weeks to replenish goods?
How many provinces and rounds in each you do?
How much you use in the Spire?
Do you reach the top of the Spire every week?

In other words, I'm curious if a city in higher chapters can be self-sufficient (or what it requires to be self-sufficient) to top the Spire and and score weekly in the tourneys by USING GOODS ONLY, no battling at all.

Thanx for sharing your strategy

.

 

[iamthouth]

@Arkadia I'm currently doing the final research on Ch19, and do top of spire every week and about 4K tourney or just under average.
I cater all of spire, and cater page 2 of tournament provinces, but mostly fight page 1 (without boosts or fighting wonders).

I have been keeping score on spire diamond use. Since June, I have bought extra rounds at 25 diamonds as such per week;
13, 17, 14, 15, 8, 16, 15, 21, 7, 6, 12, 12, 12, 9, 10, 7, 13, 7, 11 last week, for 225 total/19 weeks=11.8~12 per week, thus using 12x25=300 diamonds which is one more than the 275 you get if the fellowship goes to gold, but I also win diamonds from the Genies I win in spire, from daily gifts on phone logins, and various smaller diamond prizes as I climb the spire, as well as from Magic Academy and Goddess of Wishes. I grow diamonds by 313 average per week, on top of what I use.

I could choose to retry rounds instead, thus using more resources, to save even more diamonds, but resources might then get tight for tournament.

I do have high levels on Golden Abyss (32), Mountain Hall (32), Timewarp (32) and Vortex of Storage (30) which helps with production of Gold and resources. I also have high mana and seeds production, and decent for Orcs (which depends on chapter requirements). BTG (31) is also now helping with resource purchases if I get excess supplies, though I only recently placed and levelled the BTG.

From page 3 onwards in tourney it does get very expensive, so I don't think I could go as deep as fighting players could, I'd run out of resources. But an alliance of 4k tournament avg will still open 15 chests.

 

[StarLoad]

@Arkadia,
I am parked in chapter 16 at the start. I cater all six rounds of the first eight provinces and fight once the cost for T1 goods exceeds 25,000 in a single item, which is usually in provinces nine or ten Rounds two or three. I generally fight all the way to the top of the spire due to the high cost of goods. I have a TW at level 31 and Polar Bear at level 10, so there are zero cooldowns in the tourney. For goods, I have four T1 at level 31, five T2 at level 27, three full sets of Pilgrims Manors, two full sets of Winter Market, one Carnival set, two full Moonstone sets with lots of additional mana and gum trees, two Drawven Citidels sets, and most every Evolving building (30) and for some two of them and all at level 10 save for five, and four Lucious Cakes. All produce goods that help to cater/negotiate. Could I cater and negotiate both? Sure, but not for long I used to do that but once I get to sentient goods I could not afford the costs and had to remake my city into one that is battle ready.

I have an alt city that is at the end of chapter 11 and there I can cater to province 25 all 6 rounds but generally do 15-20 for all 6. I can climb the spire using just goods to the top. This is only due to the Chapter and once I get to chapter 10 the costs across the board. For that reason I have stayed in chapter 9 and am not sure if that city will progress up more.

I personally would think you can make a catering city but after sentient goods chapters the costs would far outstrip your production capabilities

Ed

 

[crackie]

I personally would think you can make a catering city but after sentient goods chapters the costs would far outstrip your production capabilities

I don’t have a catering city but I find a really high level wonder upgrade is what will deplete my goods stash. So juggling that into a cater only model (depending on how much tourney one does) would seem difficult as it’s a very sudden huge spike in goods usage. You obviously wouldn’t be leveling like a lvl 30 wonder every week or something like that but that would prob ruin my budget if I were catering only too.

 

[StarLoad]

Just looking at the tourney rounds today at province 9 round 3 I passed the 25K threshold for T1 goods( in fact it asked for 26K each in Marble and Steel) and at province 18 round 4 it passed 50K in T1 and I think 70k in Mana. This is my Chap 16 city

Correction it was 80K in Mana
Ed

Adding that at Province 24 it was 68K in T1 and 110K in mana 15K in orcs, now I will do my alt city and see what it is there

 

[StarLoad]

OK alt city 24 provinces all catered and here are the goods used

210,000 in T1 goods
130,000 in T2 goods
70,000 in T3 goods
6,800 Orcs
37,000 Mana

I forgot to log the Coin and supplies for round 1 but will for round 2

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I might have missed the comment in another post, but just remember that the same formula that determines squad sizes for Spire and tournament, also determines the amounts of goods needed. So if you have lots of Wonder levels and lots of expansions, your catering costs will be higher than someone in the same chapter with fewer than you.

 

[StarLoad]

I might have missed the comment in another post, but just remember that the same formula that determines squad sizes for Spire and tournament, also determines the amounts of goods needed. So if you have lots of Wonder levels and lots of expansions, your catering costs will be higher than someone in the same chapter with fewer than you.

While very true I am just attempting to show what the costs are based on my city, and given the request of the OP

Ed

 

[ajqtrz]

End of chapter 18 here and I cater the entire Spire every week. Most of the time I spend about 6x25 diamonds as I go up, 3 on the bosses and 3 when I just get lazy. In any case, I usually have 4 T1 Boosted, 2 T2 Boosted, and 2 T3 boosted running under MM spells each morning. Right now though, I have 15 T1 boosted steel going and no t2, or t3. I trade my steel for everything I need and find that my goods have been mounting. The "key" to this strategy is to collect multiple times per day. I usually get 3-4 3 hr collections (@8k each) and 1 9 hour collection at 14k. That adds up to...120K + 210, 330k per day. That appears to be plenty for catering the Spire. Of course this doesn't account for the Event and AW's good I get too.

As for the sentient I run 1 Glowing Planks, and 2 Core Cracking Gems, all under MM spells each morning. Again, I collect 3-4 3 hour runs a day and one 9 hour. My planks gives me about 60k a day, (which, along with my huge moonstone library adding 50-60k, is 120K), and the core cracking gems gives me 120k also.

Now, as I mentioned, these are not my only sources. My moonstone farm garners me about 60k silk, 60k gum and so on. I trade what I get at a discount of at least 5% and engage in all sorts of cross-tier, 3 star trades. Never have a problem getting my trades taken, because I hate to wait (an intangible that changes my view of the value of my goods).

Now I don't know which takes more, the Spire or the Tournament. If the baseline of the Spire is about 80% of what I take in, you could compute the goods needed from this description if you knew what the ratio of goods needed between the Spire and the Tournament. If they are even then doubling what I need for the Spire would be about what you'd need.

In any case, maybe somebody knows the answer to the ratio between the Spire and the Tournament at X provinces vs going to the top of the Spire?

AJ

 

[LisaMV]

Well, I probably should not be responding yet, as I am only at the end of chapter 12 in all my 4 cities... I am a full-on pacifist, never had/have any intention of fighting, ever. I was told quite early on that this was impossible, so I got smart, fast, and plan ahead.

I use high culture for my coins & tools boost, enchanting my top 8-10 culture buildings when spire starts. I lean heavily on tools and coins for my negotiating as well, to spare my goods.
AW's= level 30+ GA, MH, BTG & ETC, then CL, DA for mana, ST for seeds. WR & PT as well, but not as fast.
My Wholesaler is at 0%, very nice during my off-spire days where I am topping off most of the time (Thur-Sun). I have 8 T1's, 6 T2's, 3 T3's, and abhor cross-trading (lol!). I check my levels every morning, and generally enchant 3-5 of my factories, which last 25hrs+ from my ETC, so I have regular sparklers .
I am a gold spire addict, and average close to 5k in tourney. I figured out a good plan for tourneying so I get maximum runes without going completely broke.
I started keeping track of my Diamonds, to see how many paid guesses I could manage. I net 1400-1600 diamonds every week.

 

[iamthouth]

@LisaMV thank you, you have convinced me I need to build the ETC, it should mean I go further in tournament.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Well, I probably should not be responding yet, as I am only at the end of chapter 12 in all my 4 cities... I am a full-on pacifist, never had/have any intention of fighting, ever. I was told quite early on that this was impossible, so I got smart, fast, and plan ahead.

Better be prepared, then, for the tier 1 sentients to be added to what you need to cater the Spire as soon as you are in chapter 13.

 

[LisaMV]

@Enevhar Aldarion = no kidding! I am standing at the edge of that cliff, practicing in the trader and have built my S2 factories already.

 

[Talaedraiia]

I’m just about ready to finish chapter 16 and I cater to the top of the spire each week and fight in the tourney for 30 to 31 provinces for 6 rounds each week. I have 4 t1, 4 t2 and 3 t3 factories which i occasionally sparkle. very seldom do I cross trade except for sentient goods where I have 1 S1, 1S2 and 2S3 that I also sparkle as needed for techs or upgrades. I have 10 MR and 9 MW with a very small MW that I keep so I will have 10 to satisfy a 3 hour badge for events. I sparkle 3 WS every morning and visit all my neighbors so I collect a lot of extra supplies and coins every day which I use to buy a lot goods from the trader thanks to my level 23 Blooming Trader. I don’t have any problem topping the spire, but I do struggle replenishing my troops each week and have to use brown bear and time instants more than I want. I could cut back on provinces, but I don’t do it so my FS can get at least one or two extra chests each week.

 

[StarLoad]

Round 2 complete to 24 provinces
T1 cost 205,000
T2 cost 127,000
T3 cost 122,000
Mana 4,360
Orcs 0
Coins 3,240,000
supplies 252,150

 

[StarLoad]

Round 3 completed to 24 provinces and at prov 24 it was still below 20,000 for T1 goods.
T1 cost 227,000
T2 cost 120,000
T3 cost 89,000
Mana 106,800
Orcs 1,290
Coins 3,710,000
Supplies 370,000

 

[LisaMV]

@ed1960 wow, thank you so much for doing this on our behalf.

I have noticed a sudden and extreme imbalance between coins & supplies happening in the past weeks. After doing tourney and spire, I am now chronically coin depleted but strangely still topping off on tools. It's been odd, still trying to figure what to do long-term.
But now I can see (YIKES!) the extreme imbalance that exists, just in tourney!

 

[StarLoad]

@ed1960 wow, thank you so much for doing this on our behalf.
...
But now I can see (YIKES!) the extreme imbalance that exists, just in tourney!

Yes, it can get very costly coin-wise, I am still smacking myself for not getting the round 1 coin and supply costs.
Round 4 will be in 12 hours thanks to my Polar bear. I still have 22 provinces to scout and clear to enter chap 12 and not sure if I will hold off or not.

Ed

 

[StarLoad]

Round 4 complete to 24 rounds

T1 Cost 132,000
T2 Cost 163,000
T3 Cost 87,000

Mana Cost 69,000
Orcs Cost 5,470

Coins 2,970,000
Supplies 533,900

So far, thru 4 rounds, 3,744 in tourney points; here are the subtotals*

T1 744,000
T2 540,000
T3 368,000

Mana 217,160
Orcs 13,560

Coins 9,920,000
Supplies 1,156,050

*NOTE for Coin and supplies round 1 was omitted in error

 

[StarLoad]

Round 5 completed to 24 provinces 5040 points

T1 Costs 198,000
T2 Costs 134,000
T3 Costs 170,000

Mana 51,700
Orcs 4,500

Coins 2,170,000
Supplies 446,000