Spire/Tournament City only

[InvincibleRailroad]

I am currently in chapter 16 but was not enjoying it at all. I decided to stop and concentrate on doing the Spire and tournaments only. Does any one else have a city designed for this? I am looking for suggestions and ideas. Any input will be greatly appreciated. Thank You

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

If you are looking for a military focused city, I am sure there are a lot of them out there. One big issue you may have is whether you have been researching all your optional Squad Size upgrades up to chapter 16, because that makes all your tournament and Spire fighting harder. Or not so much harder as it makes you use more troops. The fights themselves are the same, just your losses are higher because you have bigger squads.

Also, hopefully you have a maxed out Fire Phoenix and Brown Bear, as those make a big difference in damage done and in troop replacement. Those two are probably more important than the various military AWs, unless you have those Wonders at very high levels. Crafting the three temp military buildings, especially the UUU for boosting troop health, helps a lot, as does getting very lucky and winning Dwarven Armorers on a regular basis from the Spire, also for their health-boosting ability.

By the way, what about chapter 16 has got you down? I just got the second researches done for the two embassies and everything seems to be going smoothly so far for me.

 

[Deleted User - 3932582]

...researching all your optional Squad Size upgrades up to chapter 16, because that makes all your tournament and Spire fighting harder.

Optional SSUs do not impact the Spire.

 

[Gath Of Baal]

In my main city i have a plethora of Valorian Valor and Grounds Of The Orc Stratagist buildings to help augment my troops and i find that these help a great deal in high numbers.. I craft them every time i see them in the crafter and upgrade them with Royal Restorations each new chapter to keep them current.

 

[samidodamage]

I'll be watching this thread with interest since I've decided I'm not going to even open Ch 16 for awhile. That means I will be focusing mostly on tourneys and spire, too. I just don't see anything I want in Ch 16...
I'll finally get the Council Hall upgrade tech finished within the next day, so I can take out most of the settlement and finish with PP's. I'll use the space to put out more military bldgs (vallorian valors, grounds of the Orc, etc). I'll also use more lvl 15 armories to drive up my training size. I settled on that lvl due to size and I don't need more than the 5 max lvl I have for orcs; they're quick and cheap to build so I put them in and sell them off when I need the space. It's for their effect on Shrewdy Shrooms rather than their own contribution to training size.
I'm pretty well set up to use mostly combat for both tourney and spire but I don't necessarily think that's the best or most efficient set-up. Some of my FS members who mostly use combat for tourneys use diplomacy or a combo of diplomacy and combat in the spire. The ones who use a combo of cater/combat for tourneys also use the combo or straight diplomacy for the spire. While it makes sense that making use of more of the resources available to you would make it easier to get higher tourney scores and in the spire, I prefer combat. I've been completing the Spire weekly & have a 5K tourney average. Last week's dust tourney I decided to go all in to get my dust relics above 1k (got them to 1.2K) & broke my personal best with 7.4K while completing the Spire, so I'm pretty happy with my military setup. Still, I'll probably get bored and decide to learn the diplomacy just for a change of pace once I don't need Sentient goods for anything else...

 

[InvincibleRailroad]

Actually nothing in particular got me in chapter 16, I really decided I wanted a change of pace for a while and decided to improve my spire and tourney performance. A tourney example is the current one, my average score so far in tourneys is 1380, in the current gems I am knocking on 5000. That makes a huge difference in KP gained, which will be used to level my AW's. The Spire I am still trying to figure out and I will continue to better my tourney scores weekly ( I hope ) So I guess the reason is I just wanted a change.

 

[InvincibleRailroad]

My current city has 5 crystal, 6 marble and 6 gems, and are my boosts. I also have 3 scrolls, 2 elixir and 2 steel, which I will probably drop down to 1 each. I have 8 armories with 2 more growing. I think I will be good with that, and if not I have room to add more.
I would be interested to see, and hear, about other Spire/Tourney only cities if there are any, which I imagine there are, and hear how they are doing.

 

[AtaguS]

I'm not tournament/spire only...but have paused mid-chapter 14 to get my city up to the task of reaching the top of the spire each week while getting 3k or more in the tournament. It took about 3 weeks to really get things in place and it has been a ton of fun. It will be exactly the change of pace you are looking for I think. @Enevhar Aldarion covered most of what I'd have suggested...The really fun part is re-thinking priorities in my city to figure out the balance of it all...for example finding a happy balance between troop usage and Time Instant usage. For that my best advice is wait at the gates of the Spire for as long as possible...as tempting as it is to use that 5hr TI you just won in a Spire chest...you will miss it a few days later mid-tourney when you find your troops starting to deplete. I set a rule for myself that I'd only use TIs that I craft in my MA to bust through gates in the Spire. The rest I save for training troops.

The balance really took hold when I stopped convincing in the Spire and started fighting the whole way up. I'm playing with a lv 10 Fire Phoenix but no Bears...I place a Dwarven Armoror each Monday along with UUU and any other temp boosters I have in stock. Also come up with a strategic plan for when to place your temp boosters and polish your pets to get the most out of them for both. I found the endless excavation more helpful than ever before because I was using so many tools to retrain troops so quickly. The tool refill instants are good but they go quickly once you really start competing. And if you don't fight...you're still using a lot of them to convince. Tools, seeds and orcs are resources to consider other than military AWs when choosing where to upgrade.

Also fun to think about is the better you get at the Spire, the stronger your city is for tournaments so the more kp you get...so the better you get in the Spire...definitely a rewarding endeavor. Gotta say, getting Spire/Tournament ready has been the most fun I've had in the game in a long time. I'd love to hear what you ultimately come up with as a strategy for your city.

 

[InvincibleRailroad]

AtaguS, thank for your reply. Tool depletion is a problem even with 7 workshops, seeds I am not having a problem with (yet) with the 10 Festival merchants I have and no problems with Orcs so far as the 8, soon to be 10, armories run non-stop and the Heroes Forge kicks some in. I am still thinking this all through and will keep posting as I progress.

 

[InvincibleRailroad]

I did find out something, the hard way. I did not have enough troops built up to do both the Spire and do well in the tournaments. So I am taking a break to build up troops to a respectable amount until numbers 9 & 10 armories are fully leveled up. This will also allow the goods to build up for catering/convincing. Learning by mistake.

 

[AtaguS]

This is where some of the targeted troop boosters can help too. In a tournament heavy on using mages...put out the mage multiplier, or the light range one when those are needed most. It is remarkable how many troops those things save.

 

[DeletedUser5371]

My city is set up for combat production. And I have every squad size increase and every wonder. Has anyone looked at the fact that squad size plays a big role in passive troop production? I play the spire to a top finish almost every week (only didn't get to top once) and finish tourneys with 25- 35 provinces to lvl5 (i play for kps). My army camp is currently at 1906 squads of 5139sqdsze and steadily growing. I would love to get into a discussion about increasing troops and fighting. I use autofight until i lose and the go to manual. I only fight. I usually have my manufactures mothballed and have all space committed to VV and GOS producers. I use most of the 5hr instants to increase troop production. I am almost 80% through chapter 16. My city is hondamike on elcysandir. Give it a look.

 

[Deleted User - 3932582]

Has anyone looked at the fact that squad size plays a big role in passive troop production?

Big negative role, for sure The bigger your squad size is, the fewer squads you will recruit as all production is in number of units, not squads. And all fighting is done with squads.

 

[DeletedUser5371]

Big negative role, for sure The bigger your squad size is, the fewer squads you will recruit as all production is in number of units, not squads. And all fighting is done with squads.

isn't production based on time to produce each individual "soldier" in a troop times the squad size? So that means i will produce less numbers of squads, but the same number of troops. But most of the units produced by wonders are based on SS and you get more per production.

 

[Deleted User - 4646370]

What's the effect of researching optional SSUs ?

• For tournament :
  • Your barracks give the same number of units, which is less squads.
  • Wonders still give the same numbers of squads, as their production is proportional to your squad size.
  • So globally it makes things worse.
• For spire :
  • Your barracks give the same number of unit, which are the same number of squads as Spire SS is independent to optional SSU.
  • Wonders give the same number of base squads, which means more units (as your squad size is higher) so more Spire squads.
  • So researching them actually give a slight advantage for Spire.

 

[KarlD]

Having more armories only increases your troop production to the extent that it allows you to go longer before your training queue goes empty. If you frequently find yourself with an empty training queue then you need more armories. otherwise you don't really need more armories. Another advantage of having more armories and hence a larger training queue is that when your reaches 14 hours or more you can make best use of 14 hour time boosts. My queue is not that long so I mostly use 5 and 8 hour boosts. You really want to level up your Victory Springs, Needles, and Flying Academy to produce more troops because they increase your training speed. You might also want to level up other AWs that produce troops.

I get your lack of excitement for Chapter 16, but I figure I'll just keep on going through it. Building the settlement and plodding through doesn't prevent me from fighting the tournaments and Spire. I consistently complete the Spire and do 5+ rounds of 30-40 provinces. I almost exclusively fight in the Spire and tournaments. I'm fortunate enough to be in a fs that gets 10 tournament chests and gets the gold Spire trophy each week so that's a lot of nice prizes. The time boosts I get from the Spire along with my brown bear allow me to produce more than enough troops to accomplish the above. I also usually place a Dwarven Amorer or 2 UUU each week.

 

[Deleted User - 3932582]

Right, if we're talking about AW passive production then that would scale with SS. However, there are only so many units that can be produced there, and only Barracks-type (well, there are Drone Riders now). Maybe I just don't have these AWs leveled enough, but it would be pretty hard to do the Spire and meaningful tournaments with troops generated from those AWs only.

When talking about passive production, I was thinking VVs, GotOS etc (even passive Bears) - you can have multiples of these. But all these productions are in number of units, not squads.

 

[BeTheOne]

Having more armories only increases your troop production to the extent that it allows you to go longer before your training queue goes empty. If you frequently find yourself with an empty training queue then you need more armories. otherwise you don't really need more armories. Another advantage of having more armories and hence a larger training queue is that when your reaches 14 hours or more you can make best use of 14 hour time boosts. My queue is not that long so I mostly use 5 and 8 hour boosts. You really want to level up your Victory Springs, Needles, and Flying Academy to produce more troops because they increase your training speed. You might also want to level up other AWs that produce troops.

I get your lack of excitement for Chapter 16, but I figure I'll just keep on going through it. Building the settlement and plodding through doesn't prevent me from fighting the tournaments and Spire. I consistently complete the Spire and do 5+ rounds of 30-40 provinces. I almost exclusively fight in the Spire and tournaments. I'm fortunate enough to be in a fs that gets 10 tournament chests and gets the gold Spire trophy each week so that's a lot of nice prizes. The time boosts I get from the Spire along with my brown bear allow me to produce more than enough troops to accomplish the above. I also usually place a Dwarven Amorer or 2 UUU each week.

What's your FS, I would like to join. I'm a very active player, only play since March and already at the end of the level 5.

 

[ajqtrz]

I do the spire to the top every week and about 2500 tournament. I have 2 armories at lvl 33 and all the military AW except DB (believe it or not), FA, and D222-z. I cater the spire completely because I'm generating the resources to do so as I pause at the beginning of ch 15. I have lvl 10 Fire Phoenix and usually don't use anything but that and my military AW's. My troop queue's are around 5hr and thus I use the 5hr instants when I need to build them quick...one pet food for the brown bear and I'm good. I craft ELR, MMM and UUU's as they come up and save them for the occasional push to 5000+ I want to make if I'm short of the relics for that tournament. In addition I have the DA's I get from the spire.

As for supplies I have 8 workshops and a collection of instants if I need them. I have 2 workshops in storage and if I start running slow I pull one or both out while I amass a good deal of supply instants and/or my production goes up to balance things out.

Overall my city seems to be very well balanced for this level and if I had to "improve" it any I'd just add the third armory. And since my next goal is to start fighting the spire (starting at the bottom, fighting a few then convincing the rest and then adding another chest or two each week until I'm fighting all the way), but to do that I think I'll need to continue to upgrade my AW's. We'll see how much it takes as I continue to sit here at the beginning of ch 15.

AJ

 

[Beatleguise]

Well, I am fairly new, only been playing 6 months. But I am already at 125k and about to start Woodelves. I dont try to get to the top of the Spire
because my FS doesnt , so it would be pointless. But I typically go to the 2cd boss. And my Tournament average is 3200 plus. I have been told many times not to take the optional squad upgrades, but so far, every time I do, I get better at fighting. I started playing because I like the manual fighting system, but once you are hitting 3 pages of tents for the tournament, that is tedious. So I do more auto fighting now, and then it is becomes very important to pick the right combination of troops. I dont try to to all 6 rounds. I play for the maximum number of tents, because 30 tents on the first round is easier than 15 tents for two. Etc. Etc. At a 3200 plus average I typically hit 27 tents for two rounds, and then I play only the first 9 tents thru round 5.
The other thing I do, is when I reach the point I cant fight, I limit myself to catering 4 tents each time, so I can get the higher round tents for the KP and Runes. It works. My use of goods is a minimum, allowing me to use it for upgrades. I do well in the Spire and the Tourney, and my city is growing fast.