December 4 2018 Crystal tourney

[kctanzen]

Several of my fellowship mates noticed very similar results as I did --

The strength / difficulty level of enemies in this crystal tourney was much higher, much earlier than I recall other tourneys being in the past.
From province 1, round 1 I was seeing 2 star enemies.
I was getting 3 star enemies mixed in on province 7+, round 1.

Multiple combinations and slotting for my support troops didn't seem to matter -- any time there were enemy casters, the support troops were getting absolutely hammered, though treants were fairly stout as usual.

Has anyone else noticed something -- or are there some tactical changes I should have been making and haven't kept up to date?

Thanks very much for advice.

 

[HJK84]

I realized that the stronger troops did arrive earlier than usual.
For me the replacement/stronger units came after Province 8. This time, before 8, I saw them.

Although wasn't a big difference in losses for me.

 

[DeletedUser9601]

No, but its so hard to say. So much happens in the 9 weeks from tourney to tourney. For me, I upgraded my Martial Monastery and several of my "military production" AWs.
Did you advance a chapter, or research a squad size in the past 9 weeks?

 

[kctanzen]

I haven't changed squad size, chapter, Monastery level, or attack boost for a while now -- almost ready for another required squad tech in the progression though, as I'm nearing the end of S & D -- those 3 required squad techs at the back end of research tree make me a sad panda.

What surprised me was seeing 2 star enemies so early in round 1 and the horrible attrition my support troops were taking, especially when 2+ enemy casters were up against me.

 

[HJK84]

I haven't changed squad size, chapter, Monastery level, or attack boost for a while now -- almost ready for another required squad tech in the progression though, as I'm nearing the end of S & D -- those 3 required squad techs at the back end of research tree make me a sad panda.

Since last Crystal, my Monastery did go up. But no SS.

What surprised me was seeing 2 star enemies so early in round 1 and the horrible attrition my support troops were taking, especially when 2+ enemy casters were up against me.[/QUOTE]

As for fighting in this Tournament.
Auto-Fights;
If enemy has 2 Mages Round 1-2, you should be able to get by. You should add 1 Squad of Light Range (I use them) or Blossom Mage or Banshee, depends on their levels and of course the AW's you have. For me the Light Range works best. They die, but they inflict enough damage to the Mage(s) that the fight is a win.
Or, you can Cater. Every fight that has more than 1 Mage should be a Cater. Mixed with Heavies of course, if enemy is 90% Mages, you can counter easily.
Another thing to note is, the layout of the Map/Fight, the terrain can be tricky. I advise checking the terrain to place your "support" squad accordingly, or else there's no way to win, specially past Round 3. Even with 1 Mage, the terrain sometimes is 1 lane, and Heavy Melee can't get to her.

If Manual;
You should be doing much better.
But here also, check terrain with 1 squad of Light Range, then surrender and place all squads accordingly.

Crystals is fairly a easy Tournament. Specially with some nice AW levels.

Hope this helps

 

[DeletedUser9601]

Well, I'm not sure what's causing this experience, honestly.
I haven't noticed much of a change in my crystal experience. I will say a few things though:

1. Sometimes when other tournaments get easier (e.g., Scrolls after I built and levelled Victory Springs), the following tournaments feel harder. Not because they're actually harder, but because relatively they're harder.
2. I find that tournament "difficulty" needs to be determined at the end. The enemy mix, as far as I can tell, is random. So if you get a lot of "bad matchups" (e.g. 4 dogs and 4 sorcs) on Tues/Weds (instead of a few each day), it can feel like the tournament is harder.
3. Crystal is actually a sneaky-hard tournament. Scrolls gets all the press as "brutal," but I find Crystal to be tough just because there's such variety across the enemy units, and you really need to be careful picking troops (especially in autofight). Like 5 treants vs 4 dogs/1sorc is very different than 5 treants vs 5 dogs/2sorcs or 5 treants vs 3 dogs/3 mortars/1 sorc (squad sizes being equal).
Inno gives us zero tools to track your tournament performance, of course (other than final score). So its always going to be more of a gut feeling than a science.

 

[kctanzen]

Round 2 battles seemed to be much more in line with my typical expectations and round 3 was actually fewer losses than I average -- basing this on the squads left after finishing my usual set of provinces completed.

I'm going to chalk the early bits up to a) a few 'smarter' enemy caster units showing up earlier than I remember and b) really bad luck with terrain and mix of enemy troops facing me.

Thanks very much!