Looking for Advice to Get Easy Provinces Again

[crackie]

And Dragon Abby? What is that about?

So I just got me a Timewarp and Simia. Currently flying through upgrades. My elders in the FS have warned me about the obnoxious amount of mana and seeds needed to upgrade them. Well, turns out they were right! And now I am stuck on seeds because I can mana on demand with Dragon Abbey and a handful of enchantments, but can't snap my fingers for more seeds.

 

[Tauriel Dragonwood]

When I first started playing Elvenar, many moons ago, battles were easy and you were able to gain many expansions. But then, the game devs changed the battle system. That slowed down many of us from battling on the World Map and gaining expansions. Battles became extremely difficult so you ended up negotiating, if you had the required goods. Then came the dreaded day when those of us who overscouted found ourselves lacking Orcs to trade when negotiating. For a long time I came to a screeching halt gaining any further expansions unless I unlocked the research for them.

When Elvenar started, I don’t remember seeing a very important hint in the Wiki. If I had seen it sooner, maybe I would not have scouted so much in Winyandor and Arendyll. Here’s the hint.

“Hint: It is advisable to scout only the amount of provinces needed for the next chapter in the research tree. The cost for fighting or trading to complete the province will increase with each newly scouted province. In later provinces you will need Orcs to trade.”

https://en.wiki.elvenar.com/index.php?title=World_Map

Trying to learn from my mistakes, I created a city in Felyndral. Completing Scouting Quests from previous years’ Events caused me to overscout. I stopped playing events for this reason. When I saw the quests in the Lucky Little Fin gave us an option to complete a quest, if we can’t scout, I came back to playing events.

Wish we could get more City Expansions in our research tree, and I wish we could rearrange our cities like we can in Forge of Empires by using the feature called “Reconstruction Mode,” which allows you to store buildings making rearranging your city easier.

Many of my buildings give me population. In Felyndral, my newer and smallest city, I need those buildings. Whenever I get a Teleport spell, (which isn’t often), I immediately store a building and either replace it with an upgraded one or leave the space empty. Eventually would like to move all my residences to the edge of the map because they get huge the more they’re upgraded.

We have very knowledgeable elves and humans in Elvenar. I very much appreciate everyone’s advice. So in Felyndral, I will make do with the land I have now and won’t scout anymore provinces until I reach Sorcerers and Dragons. Hope I can hold out that long.

In Winyandor, if I want battles to get easier, I will need to stop scouting until I reach the Constructs chapter. Then my completed provinces will be at 332/360 and I can scout 28 more times to reach the limit of 360.

Also in Arendyll, if I want battles to get easier, I will need to stop scouting until I reach the Constructs chapter. Then my completed provinces will be at 348/360 and I can scout 12 more times to reach the limit of 360.

Thank you everyone for your much-needed advice.

 

[crackie]

@Tauriel Dragonwood For the record, I also got hit by the Orc wall for overscouting. Some of it was the raw eagerness of being new and finding new plots easy to obtain via completing provinces without knowing the Orc wall existed. However, most of it was probably the result of a bad decision where I took a bet to stay in Fairies for 6 more months. What can I say? This is a slow game! Some of us entertain ourselves in the slower times with side bets and I'm not known to make the most sensical decision at times. I think my extended Fairy vacation won me prob something silly like 10k in silk. So yeah, you can definitely completely swing the pendulum the other way like I did and go from way overscouted to way underscouted. Now I am already at the end of the chapter, but need 30 more provinces and only have 5 scouted left. It takes 2 days+ to scout a new one so I am stuck here for awhile open to take more bets. Even though all my provinces are very easy, I still find myself clicking the cater button as a habit from when everything was very hard. My cities are built efficiently enough to do full Spire and a lot of tourney, but mostly, they are optimized to avoid having to move buildings as much as possible each chapter for maximum laziness.

 

[SuNaya Dark]

Wish we could get more City Expansions in our research tree, and I wish we could rearrange our cities like we can in Forge of Empires by using the feature called “Reconstruction Mode,” which allows you to store buildings making rearranging your city easier.

Reconstruct Mode would be AWESOME !! The times I've needed it...
As for extra expansions, I'm guessing they want you to spend Diamonds for that, which means you'll eventually run out and have to spend money on them. Every 'free' game does this. I've just learned to not spend diamonds on anything. That way I'll have them later in the game when I truly NEED them.

 

[SoulsSilhouette]

Speaking as someone who is over scouted in most of my cities, I can win some battles, some battles I lose. I have issues winning the battles in the spire because of this, same with the tourney. I needed the space. I have bought expansions because I love this game so much throwing a little fun money at it instead of some other pursuit is okay for me. Still, I need space and I would love to be able to have the reconstruct mode. It really helped me in FoE before I lost my city thanks to a lengthy offline time.

 

[Tauriel Dragonwood]

@crackie

Even though all my provinces are very easy, I still find myself clicking the cater button as a habit from when everything was very hard. My cities are built efficiently enough to do full Spire and a lot of tourney, but mostly, they are optimized to avoid having to move buildings as much as possible each chapter for maximum laziness.

I can't wait until I see Easy provinces again. Would love to take a peek at your city. Are you in Arendyll, Winyandor or Felyndral?

 

[Tauriel Dragonwood]

@SoulsSilhouette I spend diamonds, mostly in the Spire when I'm tryin' to charm the spirits to let me pass. But 25 diamonds is a wee bit too expensive. Most of the time when I have one spirit left to appease, I'll spend the diamonds but 9 out of 10 times, I end up wasting those diamonds and leave the spire befuddled.

 

[crackie]

@crackie

I can't wait until I see Easy provinces again. Would love to take a peek at your city. Are you in Arendyll, Winyandor or Felyndral?

Neither. Ceravyn.

 

[SoulsSilhouette]

I am currently getting killed in the spire in all my worlds, even the lone world that I'm not over-scouted in. Contrary to the theme... Diamonds are forever... they aren't, however Diamonds are this girls best friend in the Spire... LOL

 

[Ggal]

I found this thread very helpful but need one clarification: if I make a second city, do the two cities share all resources between them?

 

[crackie]

I found this thread very helpful but need one clarification: if I make a second city, do the two cities share all resources between them?

Diamonds, but not inventory goods if your second city stays in the US market with same username.

 

[Zoof]

I found this thread very helpful but need one clarification: if I make a second city, do the two cities share all resources between them?

Diamonds, but not inventory goods if your second city stays in the US market with same username.

It's fairly common to see (active) people work play multiple cities. Some of those people may even have goal to funnel most, if not all, the diamonds they earn in those cities into their main city. I ran a fun bit of math on the topic of free diamonds in service of purchasing land expansions for a city, though it initially started under the assumption that it was just one city doing the deed.

The long and short of that post was that if you perfectly played on all 8 available US servers, each in a Gold Spire Fellowship and purchased the expansions on the 20% off Black Friday Special, you could in about two years buy out all 43 premium expansions using nothing but free diamonds.

 

[Mirai]

Don't forget that you're going to need Orcs to negotiate provinces beyond 220. There is no way to get orcs until ch8.

But there is, from buildings! I am getting orcs already in ch. 5

 

[Zoof]

But there is, from buildings! I am getting orcs already in ch. 5

From what building?

When I checked back in January this year, every building at the time was designed such that any building that would put out orcs would always put out something else (usually supplies) until upgraded to chapter 8. Did something change?

 

[samidodamage]

I am getting orcs already in ch. 5

You can get Orc Warriors and Orc Strategists from some event/crafted bldgs prior to Ch8; those are the 'Orc' themed troops.
@Alram is referring to the little green orc heads that are produced in armories (after unlocking the upgrade in Ch8 and upgrading them to lvl 20) similar to how goods are produced in factories. Once Ch8 is unlocked, the crafting bldg 'Orc Nests' will produce them; prior to that those Nests produce (?cant remember: supplies/T3 goods depending on chapter) and some event buildings also produce them if they are won in Ch8 or above. They are used like goods/supplies/coins/etc in negotiating map province encounters, catering tourney encounters and convincing in the Spire. They are also needed for some building upgrades. I think the Spire holds off on requiring them until you unlock Ch9. I know it holds off on other resources introduced in higher chapters until the chapter after the one where they are introduced.

 

[SuNaya Dark]

But there is, from buildings! I am getting orcs already in ch. 5

I've been getting Orcs since nearly the end of Ch 2. I won a "Grounds of the Orc Strategist" as an Event Bldg. Planted it as soon as I had the expansion set up. It's a slow collection process, but I'm getting them. And using them in battles. They're pretty good for a low-chapter city. I hope to find enough Royal Restoration items to Upgrade this item. Same kind of luck happened with "Voice of the Prophet", same city.
(My Avatars are different, for specific reasons. One is "SuNaya Dark blue", the other is "SuNaya Dark pink" in my head. Pink didn't have the luck in Events, except for the Orc Strategists and Voice of Prophets. Blue has ALL THE EVENT THINGS (except Orcs and Prophets) and no place to put them...)

 

[crackie]

It's fairly common to see (active) people work play multiple cities. Some of those people may even have goal to funnel most, if not all, the diamonds they earn in those cities into their main city. I ran a fun bit of math on the topic of free diamonds in service of purchasing land expansions for a city, though it initially started under the assumption that it was just one city doing the deed.

The long and short of that post was that if you perfectly played on all 8 available US servers, each in a Gold Spire Fellowship and purchased the expansions on the 20% off Black Friday Special, you could in about two years buy out all 43 premium expansions using nothing but free diamonds.

It took me so long before I even learned this because my 2nd city is on EN so my diamonds never shared. It's equally as mind blowing as when I learned new cities don't have to start out in the desert. Both of my cities started out on the fringes of the world. I just assumed that was how it was supposed to be. I'm not starting a 3rd city so too late about the diamonds, but I kinda wish I didn't knew about the new city starting location thing. I would have just kept chugging along thinking it was normal instead of chugging along now slightly annoyed how much more disadvantaged my city was trying to get things done.

But there is, from buildings! I am getting orcs already in ch. 5

I've been getting Orcs since nearly the end of Ch 2. I won a "Grounds of the Orc Strategist" as an Event Bldg.

The military orcs (Orc Strategists and Orc Warriors) are for fighting. They can’t be used to unlock techs or cater. You need “untrained” orcs for those. You unlock ability to make them in chap 8. If you use free buildings like Orc Nests, they need to be chap 8+. If you train them yourself, you need to unlock Breeding Grounds/Armories tech in Chap 8 and then upgrade armories high enough to make them there. You can turn untrained orcs into fighting orcs at a 1:1 ratio if you unlock training abilities and upgrade Training Ground high enough.

 

[SuNaya Dark]

The military orcs (Orc Strategists and Orc Warriors) are for fighting. They can’t be used to unlock techs or cater. You need “untrained” orcs for those. You unlock ability to make them in chap 8. If you use free buildings like Orc Nests, they need to be chap 8+. If you train them yourself, you need to unlock Breeding Grounds/Armories tech in Chap 8 and then upgrade armories high enough to make them there. You can turn untrained orcs into fighting orcs at a 1:1 ratio if you unlock training abilities and upgrade Training Ground high enough.

Ok, thank you for clarifying, Crackie.
The Orcs I'll need for Negotiating/Convincing will need to be produced after I unlock them in Ch8.
So I can "blow through" the Orc Strategists without worry. That's good to know. Thanks.

 

[Mirai]

From what building?

When I checked back in January this year, every building at the time was designed such that any building that would put out orcs would always put out something else (usually supplies) until upgraded to chapter 8. Did something change?

I have a building putting out a few Orc Strategists a day: Grounds of the Orc Strategist. Let it run and let them pile up, am now just occasionally using them in Ch 5. Nice troops, they are.

Ch. 8 Orcs being different is good to know, thank you Crackie!

(Also, hi, neighbor SuNaya!)

 

[Tauriel Dragonwood]

@SoulsSilhouette I spend diamonds, mostly in the Spire when I'm tryin' to charm the spirits to let me pass. But 25 diamonds is a wee bit too expensive. Most of the time when I have one spirit left to appease, I'll spend the diamonds but 9 out of 10 times, I end up wasting those diamonds and leave the spire befuddled.

I used to do that too but now I'm down to only 30 diamonds. One of these days I'll be able to meet the Frog King. The best rewards I love are the Teleportation Spells and Combining Catalysts.