Newbie question on fighter strength

[onebigscot]

Greetings,

I'm in chapter 1. I have Sword Dancers and Archers in my Barracks. All the fights I have facing me now are Hard to Very Hard and my 1 star warriors are cut to pieces. How do I raise the strength of my warriors?

Second question...
I'd negotiate my way out but I don't have enough planks. When I go to build a Planks Manufactory, I receive the following message, "only manufactories producing your boosted goods benefit from Relic production boost. Do you still wish to build an unboosted manufactory"

How do I get some planks?

 

[Deleted User - 849327848]

For your first question, the only way to increase squad size is a upgrade in the research tree called "Squad size". Since your in chapter 1, you have squad size 1, 2, and 3. It looks like a green cross if that helps. This is the only way to increase your squad size. Later in the game you get things called "Ancient wonders"(for reference https://elvengems.com/ancient-wonders/comparison-guide/ It doesn't increase squad size, but makes your units stronger, but does not increase squad size.) and temporary buildings(I forget the names) that increase a specific unit like light units, mage units, 5 for days, then the building is gone.

For your second question, you get goods that you need(Goods are things like planks, steel, and marble.) by trading with other players(You need the trader, you unlock it mid chapter 1. You click on the trader(It should have a icon at the bottom of your screen next to the world map icon) and you can filter what players are offering, for example planks. Your best bet is to join a thing called a fellowship, it's more or less a guild. This is how players get the goods they need, as it's very rare to encounter neighbors who are actively trading for the most part.

Edit: You also never, ever, ever, want to build goods that are not boosted. It costs to much population and space to be worth it. Click on your main hall, go to relics, and at the bottom you should see "Production boost standard goods" Those 3 goods are what you're boosted in. You never build non-boosted goods because its not worth it. I'm only in chapter 2, and I have 220% boost to planks. If I built a steel factory, I wouldn't get that boost. This is huge later on in the game because you're going to need thousands of goods, hundreds even. If you build non-boosted factories you'll never reach that.

 

[Gath Of Baal]

I'm in chapter 1. I have Sword Dancers and Archers in my Barracks. All the fights I have facing me now are Hard to Very Hard and my 1 star warriors are cut to pieces. How do I raise the strength of my warriors?

Later chapters will offer research to gain the 2nd and 3rd stars for your Archers and Sword Dancers, Squad size upgrades will also help your troops as you will be able to take bigger size squads into battle.. If you are Very Hard provinces levels already then it is probably wise to wait for your research to catch up before fighting anymore. If you have your magic academy built already you can also wait for certain buildings to pop up to craft like The Grounds Of The Orc Strategists or Valorian Valors will give you strong free troops every few hours that you would not be able to build otherwise until much later in the game

 

[Arcturis2]

For your first question, the only way to increase squad size is a upgrade in the research tree called "Squad size". Since your in chapter 1, you have squad size 1, 2, and 3. It looks like a green cross if that helps. This is the only way to increase your squad size. Later in the game you get things called "Ancient wonders"(for reference https://elvengems.com/ancient-wonders/comparison-guide/ It doesn't increase squad size, but makes your units stronger, but does not increase squad size.) and temporary buildings(I forget the names) that increase a specific unit like light units, mage units, 5 for days, then the building is gone.

For your second question, you get goods that you need(Goods are things like planks, steel, and marble.) by trading with other players(You need the trader, you unlock it mid chapter 1. You click on the trader(It should have a icon at the bottom of your screen next to the world map icon) and you can filter what players are offering, for example planks. Your best bet is to join a thing called a fellowship, it's more or less a guild. This is how players get the goods they need, as it's very rare to encounter neighbors who are actively trading for the most part.

Edit: You also never, ever, ever, want to build goods that are not boosted. It costs to much population and space to be worth it. Click on your main hall, go to relics, and at the bottom you should see "Production boost standard goods" Those 3 goods are what you're boosted in. You never build non-boosted goods because its not worth it. I'm only in chapter 2, and I have 220% boost to planks. If I built a steel factory, I wouldn't get that boost. This is huge later on in the game because you're going to need thousands of goods, hundreds even. If you build non-boosted factories you'll never reach that.

I'm having the same problem, but don't even know what boosted goods are or how to get them. How do you build a boosted factory? I'm in chapter 2 but I can't progress until I have space to build the Magic Academy so I need expansions. Should I get rid of some of the tools factories and put more goods factories?

 

[samidodamage]

Welcome to the game and the forums @onebigscot !
There's some really good recent discussion in the Battle Help sub-forum that were started by @Moho in the past few weeks. Like you, that player is new to the game and looking for how to approach fighting. The threads are mostly geared towards Human troops since that is what Moho plays as, but much of the info also applies to the elves' troops as well. You can find 2 of those threads here:
Beginner perspective on auto-fight
Very hard provinces
One of the issues (not acknowledged by the devs ) is the world map battles in the early game are skewed badly against players, even if they are conservative in the number of map provinces they've completed. Check the research tree for the number of provinces required to open the chest for the first tech in the next chapter (hover over it on browser; not sure how you check it on mobile). Try to stay close to that number of 'completed provinces' until you get there. It's so tempting to continue to complete map provinces in the early game to earn the expansions, but slowing down will allow you to 'catch up' to the level of your completed research techs. Somewhere around Ch4 battles will start to be a more even match. You'll get all 5 troop types in Ch3 and will get some 'promotions' to your fighter's strengths from the current 1 star to 2 star. You will also get 'squad size upgrades' that increase your squad sizes, bringing you more in line with enemy squad sizes and eventually surpassing them.
It's worth it to learn about combat early and try out various troop mixes because it is so much cheaper to produce troops than to produce goods.
Look through some of the Fighting Guides that are pinned to the top of the Battle Help section, too. Though much of the older info talks about tournament provinces, it doesn't apply to the current tourney structure. It does still apply to the map provinces, though and can be a help there.
One of the most important things you can do is join a Fellowship(FS). You'll get immediate access to all FS member trades as well as to the tournaments. Tournament battles are really easy in the early provinces & rounds and you can begin to get a feel for how battles work in there. They're not really the same as the world map since you outnumber the enemies in tourneys significantly, but at least you can get some experience. I recommend looking for an FS with a range of player chapters/scores. It's tempting when new to join one with all small city players, but it's really hard to help one another when you're all facing the same challenges. Many new players think they don't have anything to offer in an FS with larger cities, but they do! Don't get discouraged by the very top ranked FS's and their requirements. Those may not be a good fit for you, but there are many FS's in the top 50 who are happy to take on new cities and help them learn and grow. A range of different player progress is just very helpful. The larger cities will be able to help and the smaller ones will have current or at least recent experience in exactly the challenges you're facing. The very bottom section of the forum is devoted to FS's recruiting members and Members looking for an FS. It's divided by world, so you can look at the ones for the world where you are located.

 

[Deleted User - 849327848]

I'm having the same problem, but don't even know what boosted goods are or how to get them. How do you build a boosted factory? I'm in chapter 2 but I can't progress until I have space to build the Magic Academy so I need expansions. Should I get rid of some of the tools factories and put more goods factories?

Your boosted goods are something you start with, but the game doesn't really do a good job at explaining this to new players. Here's 2 ways you can check your 3 boosted goods(tier 1, 2, and 3.)

https://imgur.com/a/Z08dhnp

These 3 tiles around your map are your boosted goods.

https://imgur.com/a/9TZOnrt

A easier way is click on your main hall, go to relics, and you can see them here(Only build these 3 goods, nothing else. So in this case, my boosted goods are plank(tier 1) scrolls(tier 2) and gems(tier 3)

https://imgur.com/a/PdknBLK

You increase your goods % by completing provinces associated with them. If I want to get plank relics(After a certain amount of relics, your boosted goods % increases) I complete a plank province, each completed encounter grants me a relic. You can also get relics by participating in your fellowships tournament. Each week we get a tournament for a new good, right now, it is gems. Tournaments are the best way to get relics for your boosted goods. Other than that, in your magic academy you can also see 5 relics appear for certain goods at times. Those are the only ways I'm aware of.

How many boosted goods you have varies greatly. When I say boosted factory, I mean boosted manufactories like steel, plank, marble. Not the factories that produce supplies.

If you're confused or need more clarification, elvengems is a GREAT site for new players. Here's a link to their boosted goods guide https://elvengems.com/boosted-goods/

 

[Deleted User - 849327848]

Though much of the older info talks about tournament provinces, it doesn't apply to the current tourney structure. It does still apply to the map provinces, though and can be a help there.
One of the most important things you can do is join a Fellowship(FS). You'll get immediate access to all FS member trades as well as to the tournaments. Tournament battles are really easy in the early provinces & rounds and you can begin to get a feel for how battles work in there. They're not really the same as the world map since you outnumber the enemies in tourneys significantly, but at least you can get some experience. I

Is there some resources to learn how to manually fight? Or is that linked in the battle section of the forums like you mentioned? I've been away from the game since 2017 and got back into it this month. I've NEVER bothered with fighting, but I'm trying to be fighting city for the most part, and I've heard you can do manual fights for "very hard" battles and win if you play well enough, and with having wonders and other boosts to help win. And what do you mean about tournament structure? What changed if you don't mind me asking?(I genuinely don't know haha)

Thank you!

 

[Arcturis2]

Thanks

 

[samidodamage]

@MaiSakuta
I am primarily a manual fighter, so feel free to ask any questions you have and I'll try to answer what I can. There's very little info out there on manual fighting because so few players use it. It's really time-intensive (read: slow as molasses!). I found bits and pieces of info as I tried to learn it and have made a couple posts in the past few months explaining what I've learned. I've provided links to those posts below; the threads they are in have a lot of good discussion as well and are worth the read imo:
Manual Fighting Strategies
How the AI works
The tourney structure was changed on the live worlds early October 2020. Here's a link to the announcement with details about the changes:
Tourney Changes
At the end of that announcement is a link to the discussion thread about those changes. As you can imagine (people in general just don't do well with change, do we? lol!) there are a lot of comments in that thread, many negative. It is definitely different; whether that's better or not for your specific situation and FS tourney goals is a very individual matter. There is much talk about how game progression negatively impacts tourney performance. While this is true, there are still advantages to progressing. A player just needs to weigh the benefits vs the costs in their unique situation rather than just automatically unlocking research, placing or upgrading AW's, placing expansions, etc. The biggest impact is on higher chapter players who were able to consistently rank very high in the old tourneys but quickly found they were unable to do the same with the new structure. It also negatively impacts those who farmed kp (*raises hand*) by going 2 rounds of 50+ provinces for the kp in round 2 for provinces 10+. Personally, I have settled to doing 4 rounds of 20 (5 if I have the time late in the week) now where I used to do 2 rounds of however many I had (50-55) available and then 3-4 rounds of provinces 1-20 depending on my time. I am just not able to sustain replacing troop losses above around the 25th-30th province even in round 1. If I have a need to do more, I tend to cater everything 25+ now, but haven't gone above 30 in months.
Enemy troops are no longer identified by tourney type; you can find all enemy troops in all tourney province battles. They do have specific units that are more likely to be found by tourney type and those are detailed in one of my posts linked to above. Now, you will always find 5 sets of enemy squads where in past tourneys there could be either less than 5 (each one stronger than 5 with the same enemy squad size) or many more than 5 (each one weaker than 5 with the same enemy squad size).
That hits the high points of the changes; ask any questions you may have!

 

[onebigscot]

First off...thank you everyone for your responses. There's a lot of information to digest. When I go to my town hall, it appears that I only will be able to boost three things; steel (which is already boosted), crystals and relics.

I feel stuck. I can't expand, can't fight, can't negotiate without planks and no one is trying to trade for planks. I need the planks to negotiate.

 

[Silver Lady]

First one comment on:

Check the research tree for the number of provinces required to open the chest for the first tech in the next chapter (hover over it on browser; not sure how you check it on mobile). Try to stay close to that number of 'completed provinces' until you get there.

I would say not to scout more provinces than you need to complete a chapter. When you start a new chapter the first research give a reduction to the cost of scouting new provinces and their difficulty. However, this WILL NOT apply to any iuncompleted provinces already scouted.

Do you have the Trader? If you do you can post a trade offering say 100 steel for 100 planks. Or you can buy planks from the wholesalers tab on the trader. If worst comes to worse you could temporarily build a couple of plank manufacturers. Just ‘cause you get a warning doesnt mean you can’t build them.

I’ve sent you an invite to our FS and we’ll try to help you make some headway.

 

[samidodamage]

@onebigscot
Besides joining an FS, the next most important thing to do for trading is to place trades. Many new players make the mistake of looking in trader and if it's planks they need, seeing no planks offered and thinking there is no one who wants to trade for planks. Two things: if planks are in high demand in your trader, planks makers go into the trader and are able to balance their other goods by taking trades asking for planks. They never need to place a trade. 2nd: You can only trade without a fee (the trader adds 50% that the other player doesn't even get!) with FS members and 'discovered' neighbors (they'll be surrounded by green on the world map; undiscovered neighbors are brown). When you're small, your discovered neighbors are few. Large cities quite a ways away from you will have discovered you and will be able to take your trades without a fee, but if you see any of their trades, there will be a fee because you have not yet discovered them. So, don't wait for someone to offer planks, post trades offering steel and demanding planks.
If you're in a 'dead' neighborhood where many cities are abandoned, posting trades won't help you much, though. I was in one of those areas when I first started and it was really hard. The only thing that helps with that is joining a FS where you will have access to more trading partners without a fee.

 

[Deleted User - 849327848]

@MaiSakuta
I am primarily a manual fighter, so feel free to ask any questions you have and I'll try to answer what I can. There's very little info out there on manual fighting because so few players use it. It's really time-intensive (read: slow as molasses!). I found bits and pieces of info as I tried to learn it and have made a couple posts in the past few months explaining what I've learned. I've provided links to those posts below; the threads they are in have a lot of good discussion as well and are worth the read imo:
Manual Fighting Strategies
How the AI works
The tourney structure was changed on the live worlds early October 2020. Here's a link to the announcement with details about the changes:
Tourney Changes
At the end of that announcement is a link to the discussion thread about those changes. As you can imagine (people in general just don't do well with change, do we? lol!) there are a lot of comments in that thread, many negative. It is definitely different; whether that's better or not for your specific situation and FS tourney goals is a very individual matter. There is much talk about how game progression negatively impacts tourney performance. While this is true, there are still advantages to progressing. A player just needs to weigh the benefits vs the costs in their unique situation rather than just automatically unlocking research, placing or upgrading AW's, placing expansions, etc. The biggest impact is on higher chapter players who were able to consistently rank very high in the old tourneys but quickly found they were unable to do the same with the new structure. It also negatively impacts those who farmed kp (*raises hand*) by going 2 rounds of 50+ provinces for the kp in round 2 for provinces 10+. Personally, I have settled to doing 4 rounds of 20 (5 if I have the time late in the week) now where I used to do 2 rounds of however many I had (50-55) available and then 3-4 rounds of provinces 1-20 depending on my time. I am just not able to sustain replacing troop losses above around the 25th-30th province even in round 1. If I have a need to do more, I tend to cater everything 25+ now, but haven't gone above 30 in months.
Enemy troops are no longer identified by tourney type; you can find all enemy troops in all tourney province battles. They do have specific units that are more likely to be found by tourney type and those are detailed in one of my posts linked to above. Now, you will always find 5 sets of enemy squads where in past tourneys there could be either less than 5 (each one stronger than 5 with the same enemy squad size) or many more than 5 (each one weaker than 5 with the same enemy squad size).
That hits the high points of the changes; ask any questions you may have!

This is awesome info, but do you know of any videos showing this? As someone who hasn't used a lot of the units mentioned and being completely new to combat, it can be a bit overwhelming to try to put everything together to say, get into hands on instead of reading up on it

Also, what are your thoughts on training grounds? Is it worth it early?

 

[onebigscot]

@onebigscot
The only thing that helps with that is joining a FS where you will have access to more trading partners without a fee.

Thank you. I posted a trade offer earlier, planks for steel. Based on what I am seeing available in the trader, steel is bountiful as no one seems to want it. I've just joined a FS. So we'll see how that goes.

 

[samidodamage]

Elven Gems has some videos; They're based on the old tourney structure, but would still be relevant for map provinces. here's a link:
ElvenGems Battle Videos
This link will drop you onto the page for marble province videos. On the left are rectangular buttons; one of them is 'battle videos'. Click that and it expands to show all the different province types; there's a video for each one.
Also: One thing that helped me the most in the beginning was watching my own autofights:
Go to province (either map or tourney), choose fight, select troops, choose 'fight' again (not autofight). When you get to the battlefield, there will be a sword on the bottom left where you see the troop icons. If you hover there it will say 'finish battle automatically' (or something close to that, lol!). Click and you can watch the AI move your troops and the enemy troops and learn what happens. In the top middle of the screen will be a button 'Battle Results'; do not click that, lol! It ends the fight and you don't get to see troop movements, just the end results like you would for autofight.

Edit to add: when I started this game, I didn't even train troops for the first several chapters unless it was for a quest. I had never played a combat game in my life, either. It is extremely complicated under those conditions, but I eventually caught on and caught up my troop inventory; you can do this! I enjoy the manual fights now, just wish they weren't so time consuming.

 

[Silver Lady]

This is awesome info, but do you know of any videos showing this?

There are some videos out there. I watch them a fair while back. I think they were on YouTube and I think I searched for fighting in Elvenar. But maybe @samidodamage knows the link.

 

[Silver Lady]

Didn’t see that @samidodamage had already included the link in her post. Sorry about that.

 

[Henroo]

First off...thank you everyone for your responses. There's a lot of information to digest. When I go to my town hall, it appears that I only will be able to boost three things; steel (which is already boosted), crystals and relics.

I feel stuck. I can't expand, can't fight, can't negotiate without planks and no one is trying to trade for planks. I need the planks to negotiate.

Yes, there are 3 levels of goods. Each player gets 1 boost for each level. Most experienced players only make their boosted goods because production is so much more efficient. Then they trade for the non-boosted goods. I saw upthread where you where having trade issues. Did joining a fellowship help?

 

[onebigscot]

Yes, there are 3 levels of goods. Each player gets 1 boost for each level. Most experienced players only make their boosted goods because production is so much more efficient. Then they trade for the non-boosted goods. I saw upthread where you where having trade issues. Did joining a fellowship help?

Yes I did. I found someone who needs what I have boosted and I need what they have boosted. In the general trade area, I wasn't finding anyone who needed steel.

 

[onebigscot]

Edit to add: when I started this game, I didn't even train troops for the first several chapters unless it was for a quest. I had never played a combat game in my life, either. It is extremely complicated under those conditions, but I eventually caught on and caught up my troop inventory; you can do this! I enjoy the manual fights now, just wish they weren't so time consuming.

So were you just farming resources? Perhaps I'm too focused on fighting. thanks Sami!