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    Your Elvenar Team

Possible/Adviseable to Have Zero AWs?

Lemon Wren

Well-Known Member
I have four cities, across three accounts. They are all human. Three are built for fighting and one is strictly casual. My main city is in Wood Elves and has the usual complement of AWs - GA, Needles, Sanctuary, Mountain Halls, etc., including a BGT that I built strictly because I thought it was pretty.

My medium cities (one in Dwarves and one in Fairies) have fewer AWs and my baby city in Chapter IV still has zero AWs, simply because I can't decide if I need any or not.

My Wood Elves city is in a gold spire FS. I can complete the spire in my other cities, but I don't always complete the third map since the ROI isn't great if you aren't clearing gold with guildmates.

My question is: My baby city can get to the top of the spire just fine without any AWs, but will this ability eventually run out? Do you reach a point where you absolutely have to have some AWs (especially fighting AWs)?
 

ajqtrz

Chef - loquacious Old Dog
It all comes down to the space you need to produce what you need when you need it. AW's, in general, give you more things for the space when they give you goods. The Golden Abyss gives you a pop boost based upon your residences. At first it seems to take up more space than it's worth...and it does...but since you have to grow it and it never takes anymore space -- unlike your residences. Thus, at some point it gives you more population per square than the residences and at that point becomes worth it. It also gives you coins, though, to me, that's a minor consideration. The point is, AW's, in general, give you production that eventually often is better than other options.
On the down side, though, is that while they don't grow, they often start using a lot of space and you have to get them up to the level where their production is more than other options. A time consuming task.

If you are fighting you will need AW's, not for the troops they make (though that helps) but for the increase they give to your forces...making them stronger. But it's going to take some time.

One thing that can help is to work with a good fellowship. In ours we use several techniques to rapidly build up a new AW. We usually see it go to level 3-5 very rapidly, and that, sometimes, makes it work faster.

In the final analysis, you probably should consider any AW you build to be a long term investment. It will take time but most of them do pay off in the long run.

AJ
 

Lemon Wren

Well-Known Member
Ok thanks for the advice. Makes sense. Guess I'll plan out where to put the GA and Needles again in this city. My standard M.O., haha.
 

Enevhar Aldarion

Oh Wise One
Fighting cities need the fighting AWs. There are five that boost damage, one for each troop type, and one AW that boosts the health of all troops. Then there are the three AWs that speed up production time in the three training buildings, one for each. Plus a couple of other misc ones that can help. However, if you get lucky with crafting and can make a lot of the three temp military boost buildings, it is possible to just build the Needles and, when you get through chapter 10, the Dragon Abbey, for their damage boosts for light ranged and mage units, and the Monastery (can't remember the Elf version of this) for the health boost, and then just kill everything with light ranged and mages, even the enemies they are weak against.

For comparison, I have a lot less AWs in my Beta city than in my Live US city and I can fight almost as well in Beta as I do in Live, even though I did not build several of the military AWs there. It really comes down to the luck of crafting and if I have at least one of each temp building to put out each week. The real problem is not winning the fights, but running out of troops during the week, and if you do not have a Brown Bear to feed, quick troop replacement is a pain.
 

crackie

Chef, Scroll-Keeper, Buddy's #1 Fan
My question is: My baby city can get to the top of the spire just fine without any AWs, but will this ability eventually run out? Do you reach a point where you absolutely have to have some AWs (especially fighting AWs)?
The fuzzy math of it works like this…
Stuff you do in your city will increase size of stacks brought to battle. However, at the same point in the Spire and tourney, the ratio of your troops to enemy troops is the same for everyone, at least as of this post. Wonder level is one of the lowest factors in the equation in increasing costs. Therefore, I look at it this way…if I am facing 2:3 odds whether I have wonders or not for example, well then I will do better facing the same 2:3 odds with buffed up troops from Needles, Toads, Dragon Abbey, Victory Springs, and Hero’s Forge than I would without it. Making up numbers, that might be 200 of your troops vs 300 enemies without wonders and then 500 vs 750 with wonders. Bigger stacks, but same 2:3 ratio. Well the stronger my troops, the quicker they can end the encounter. The quicker the encounter ends, the more troops I prevent from death by not having to take another retaliation round.

Second, if progress in the game increases stack size, then wonders that speed up production of military buildings (Needles, Flying Academy, Victory Springs) will help you offset this increase. This affects your ability to recover week to week. Without marshall wonders, you are relying on upgrades of your barracks, merc camp, and training ground to offset the increase in troop deaths from increase stack sizes. However, you usually only get to upgrade one military building per chapter because the tech tree doesn’t have upgrades to unlock for all three buildings each chapter. You don’t get to Victory Springs until pretty late in the game, but Needles and Flying Academy gets you to speed up Barracks and Merc Camp early enough.

I have very high wonder levels for where I am. Most of them are for marshall wonders. I am a page 3 roster dweller in my FS, which means I am one of the smallest cities in the group, but my wonder levels is #11 overall. I know I will max out my military wonders so why not get them done and enjoy max benefits in chap 13 instead of when I am in chapter 17 or something.
 

Kadhrin

Well-Known Member
One AW that no one has mentioned is the Time Warp. The decrease of time between tourney rounds gives you more flexibility in -when- you fight those rounds. That lets you delay your tourney start by hours to days to build more troops if you need to.

Another AW that's useful is the Shrine of the Shrewdy Shrooms. That increases the power of your armories, meaning your individual stacks are larger. Once you get a few levels in the Needles, Flying Academy, and Victory Springs, you may be creating units so quickly that they finish and stay dormant for several hours overnight. The Shrooms enlarge the stack sizes so your Barracks et al are constantly producing.
 
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