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Tournament Tournament tips

helya

Beloved Ex-Team Member
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You can find Scrolls of Tournament Knowledge in this thread. If you have a link or guide you'd like added, please let the Battle Scroll Keeper know!

Direct link to the Elvenar Wiki Tournaments page
 
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crackie

Chef, Scroll-Keeper, Buddy's #1 Fan
Tourney Tips Banner.png
Table of Contents
Appendix
 
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crackie

Chef, Scroll-Keeper, Buddy's #1 Fan
Tournament Changes
Related Links: October 2020 Changes, Sept 2021 Changes

Tournaments have undergone two major changes since its inception, one in October of 2020 and another in September of 2021. Therefore, some older tutorials floating around the web may be obsolete. Make note of the tutorial's publication date to know if they are affected!

OCT 2020 CHANGES (Official Announcement)

This one was a doozy.
  • 4 Encounters per province reduced to 1
  • Difficulty no longer determined solely by Squad Size (optional Squad Size research no longer increase difficulty)
  • Difficulty progressively increase with increase level and province (increasing provinces and rounds completed)
  • Catering costs lowered and required goods are no longer tied to Tournament type
  • Tournament Bonus Chests added
  • Units from Mercenary Camp no longer show up as potential enemies

SEPT 2021 CHANGES (Official Announcement)
This one was not as dramatic in comparison.

  • Addition of Tournament Trophies in fellowship description page
  • All relic types are obtainable in individual rewards and are no longer tied to tournament type. Team rewards still offer only relics from tournament type.
  • Knowledge Points in individual rewards were redistributed. Certain rounds gained KPs while other rounds lost KPs. Doing the same amount of tournament will still net you same amount of KPs.
  • Cost of crafting enchantments were re-balanced
New rewards distribution
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crackie

Chef, Scroll-Keeper, Buddy's #1 Fan
City Advancement
Related Links: MinMaxGamer's City Advancement Level (2020)
(The following information was independently developed by MinMaxGamer using crowdsourced data. It's not completely accurate, but pretty darn close. I will attempt to explain it in layman's terms)

HOW DOES THE GAME KNOW HOW FAR ALONG YOUR CITY HAS PROGRESSED?
Suppose there's an index to track this progression and let's call it the City Advancement Level (CAL).
Using data crowdsourced by the community, MinMaxGamer has developed a formula that determines how much the elements in a city that influences the progression. These factors include:
  • Maximum unlocked boost percentage for T1/T2/T3 goods
    - Based on relics
    - For most players, this is maxed out at 700
  • Total number of unlocked mandatory research items
    - Optional research items in the tech tree do not count (Researching optional Research Explansion does not count, but placing the plot will)
  • Total number of Ancient Wonder levels (including currently upgrading)
    - Probably the lowest influencing factor for most players
  • Number of placed non-premium expansions (includes the initial 6)
  • Number of placed premium expansions
    - Affects your progression less than regular expansions
The game will consider your city advancing more as it continues to accrue more points in the above progression factors. This CAL index number is then used as the base for calculating other game components, most notably the cost of catering and size of troops used in Spire and Tournament encounters. For an in-depth dive into the math behind calculating CAL, visit MinMaxGamer's City Advancement Level page.

 
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crackie

Chef, Scroll-Keeper, Buddy's #1 Fan
Tournament Progression (2020)
Related Links:
MinMaxGamer's Tournament Progression Model (2020)
(The following information was independently developed by MinMaxGamer using crowdsourced data. It's not completely accurate, but pretty darn close. I will attempt to explain it in layman's terms.)

ENEMY TROOP PROMOTIONS
The tournament province number determines whether one will face an enemy unit with no promotions or a 3* enemy armed with Special Abilities to buff/debuff. (thanks @Lady Dastardly)
Enemy LevelProvince Number
1*​
1-5​
2*​
6-10​
3*​
11+​


HOW ARE THE CATERING COSTS AND TROOP LEVELS OF THE TOURNAMENT PROVINCES DETERMINED?
The game takes the index number that encapsulates your city's advancement (CAL) and combines it with a multiplier to calculate what MinMaxGamer calls tournament base quad size (TSSo). The TSSo then becomes the base for calculating the catering costs and troop levels of the first encounter of the first province. Since TSSo is directly related to CAL, any changes made to the variables that influence CAL will subsequently change the cost of catering and the size of the squad taken to battle. However, once the tournament starts, any changes to CAL will not kick in until the next tournament.

TSSo* = 0.1159 x CAL

* The numerical multiplier may have changed since original introduction in 2020

The size of the enemy at any given province is set to be a ratio of your own squad size. While your squad size increases linearly at a steady pace as you progress with each successive province, the enemy's ratio will progress at different rates though. From one province to the next, some will experience a larger jump in enemy troops than others, depending on where you are in the tournament. However, since the enemy's squad size is set to be a ratio of your own troop size and this ratio is set by the province number, that means no matter what chapter you are in (mandatory techs unlocked), what your max relic boost is, how many wonders you have built, or how many plots you have plonked down (stuff that changes CAL), everyone experiences the same troop to enemy ratio at the same province!

Example: The ratio of your troops to enemy troops at Province 25 is set to 1.7. An earlier chapter player whose TSSo is 100 will then face an enemy size of 170 at Province 25. A late chapter player whose TSSo is 10,000 will face an enemy size of 17,000 at Province 25. The sizes are scaled up, but they maintain the same ratio! However, the bigger the stack of troops you bring into battle, the higher number of dead soldiers you will have and need to replace.

Catering costs for each province is also set to a ratio based on your squad size for that encounter as well. Two things of note about catering:
1. Since catering costs is pegged to the same multiplier for each province, it is a steady linear progression since your own squad size increases in a linear fashion, which strays from the fighting model.​
2. The cost of catering in tournament is 3.33x higher than that of the Spire.​

CATERING COST MULTIPLIERS*
Coins​
Supplies​
T1​
T2​
T3​
Orcs​
Mana​
258.1​
25.81​
3.247​
2.461​
1.618​
0.653​
5.168​

* The numerical multiplier may have changed since original introduction in 2020

CATERING COST EXAMPLE
If your squad size for an encounter is 1,000, then to find the cost of each good required to cater, multiply your squad size (1,000) by the multiplier factor listed in the above table. The game rounds these numbers in a particular way.

Coins​
Supplies​
T1​
T2​
T3​
Orcs​
Mana​
260,000
(1000 x 258.1 = 258,100)
2600
(1000 x 25.81 = 2581)
3,300
(1000 x 3.247 = 3,247)
2,500
(1000 x 2.461 = 2,461)
1,600
(1000 x 1.618 = 1,618)
6,500
(1000 x 0.653 = 6,530)
5,200
(1000 x 5.168 = 5,168)

GOODS REQUIRED FOR CATERING BY CHAPTER
Coins​
Supplies​
T1​
T2​
T3​
Orcs​
Mana​
1+​
1+​
2+​
3+​
5+​
9+ (Woodelves)​
10+ (S&D)​

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
  • Q: Yo, I hate math (maths for some)! Ain't nobody got time to solve math equations while playing elf games. Is there an easier way?
    A: YES! MinMaxGamer spoils us by also creating a spreadsheet template to calculate the Tournament Progression up to 50 provinces for you! (The Spreadsheet does not account for the new tech tree accommodating new Chap 2-5 changes as of October 19, 2022.) Just punch in your CAL variable numbers. You can play around to see what adding an extra plot or upgrading 3 wonders might do to your CAL and your tournament troop size/catering costs. Use it as a guide to project guestimates. Actual numbers seem lower now as the formula seems to have changed slightly.
  • Q: That can't be right. If the ratio of my troops to enemy troops is permanently set, why does it feel harder as I continue to chapter up?
    A: The ratio of your troops to enemy troops describes one aspect of "difficulty". However, even if the math stays the same, other factors such as enemy troop type combination and enemy troop promotion levels will influence "difficulty". For example, Scroll and Dust Tournaments are known to be more difficult due to the enemy combinations faced. Tougher enemy combos results in higher troop loss and the need to replace more dead troops. Dead bodies piling up would make a battle feel more difficult as troop loss is measurable. Enemies with 3* promotions also will be throwing buffs and debuffs on every hit, which weakens your troop's attacks or increase the damage they receive, all of which leads to making the battle more "difficult". Adding 3* Mist Walkers into the mix automatically makes everything messier.

 
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crackie

Chef, Scroll-Keeper, Buddy's #1 Fan
Maximizing Tournament Points
Related Links:
Elvengems Tournament Calculator, MinMaxGamer's Tournament Progression Model (2020), October 2020 Tournament Change Announcement

Completing a tournament encounter earns you tourney points. The more rounds you complete within the same Province encounter, the more points you are awarded. This means there are numerous combinations of how many Provinces to differing rounds of completion a player can finish to derive at the same total points number. For example, in a full fellowship of 25 players, each player would need to complete 1600 pts to contribute their "fair share" of points to help the fellowship complete 10-chests for a Blueprint reward. There are many ways to get to 1600 pts. A player can do 54 Provinces to 1* or 6 Provinces to 6*s. Fear not, the Tournament Calculator from Elvengems is a great tool for crunching this for you.

Tournament Points Distribution Table
1*​
2*​
3*​
4*​
5*​
6*​
30pts​
36pts​
42pts​
48pts​
54pts​
60pts​

HOW DO YOU GET THE MOST POINTS OUT OF LIMITED RESOURCES?
A common mistake a lot of players make is mistakenly thinking the cost increase is linear as Province number increases, meaning players tend to think the increase in costs from one province to another is constant. As a result, they might think it's easier to do 15 provinces to 2* and be done in 2 rounds than doing 5 provinces to 5* for approximately the same amount of points. However, the rate of cost increase can differ at various points in the tournament.

Here are the Province Progression tables as provided by both Inno in the Tournament Change Announcement as well as MinMaxGamer. They are very similar and tell the same story. The first 5 Provinces of every tournament is very easy for everyone! Specifically, you will always fight these first several provinces outnumbering the enemy. It doesn't matter what Chapter you are in (techs unlocked), how many wonder levels you have, how many plots you've placed, or what your relic boost is. You will enter the fight with an advantage in numbers.

Province Progression Tables
Inno​
MinMaxGamer​
TournamentDifficultyNew.png
TournamentProvinceFactors.20200929.png

Looking at these charts, especially MinMaxGamer's chart with detailed numbers, you will see the first big jump in troop size and rate change happens around Province #8, with another significant jump at Province #10. From Province #9 upwards, you are starting to fight the enemy underhanded. The further you progress in tournament from this point forward, the bigger that gap widens. By Province #20, the ratio is 1.5x and things are starting to look pretty ugly.

Going back to the earlier example of trying to obtain 1600 total points, the Province Progression table from Inno clearly shows that you will complete more easy encounters (green boxes) doing 6 Provinces to 6* than 54 Provinces to 1*! You can easily see how many more difficult encounters (red boxes) you'll face traversing the table downwards than across. Therefore, to maximize both your resources and tournament points, it is better to do less provinces to more rounds than more provinces to less rounds.

It is also more economical to do as many provinces as you can each week as you can rather than doing the occasional big surge. The rewards for provinces 10+ are the same, but it is a scale of diminishing returns since each province you ascend will cost more resources and troops for the same prize.

 
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crackie

Chef, Scroll-Keeper, Buddy's #1 Fan
Tools of the Trade: Managing Cooldown
Related Links:
D111-a "Timewarp" Wiki, Polar Bear on Elvengems

(Military Ancient Wonders and other buildings for strengthening and training troops are covered in Battle Knowledge section.)

Between each round of tournament is a 16 hour cooldown period before you can start the next round. This cooldown period can be reduced via two buildings—the D111-a "Timewarp" wonder or Polar Bear. Having a greatly reduced cooldown will allow you to do tournament rounds at your own schedule and makes it drastically easier to get all 6 rounds in each week.

POLAR BEAR
Polar Bear was originally part of the Autumn Zodiac event, but the base can now be crafted in the Magic Academy. Evolves can also be obtained in the Magic Academy, but will cost 3 Blueprints (or 300 diamonds for each blueprint you don't have) and a hefty amount of 10k spell fragments. Polar Bear is one of the few buildings that are worth the real estate even when not highly evolved. Unlike most other evolve buildings, Polar Bear's benefits are loaded up front at level 1. When fed, his level 1 bonus will reduce cooldown by 10% (1hr 36mins). Each subsequent evolve will further reduce cooldown, but at only 1% each level. At level 10, Polar Bear will reduce cooldown by 20% (3hrs 12mins). His feed effect is good for 5 days.
polar-bear10.png

D111-a "TIMEWARP" WONDER
Timewarp is unlocked at the end of Constructs (chapter 14) and is very similar to Polar Bear, except in wonder form. Unlike Polar Bear however, only later chapter players will have access to this wonder, but no Pet Food is required to benefit from reduced tournament cooldown. At level 1, Timewarp reduces cooldown by 12%. When maxed out at level 30, it reduces cooldown by 80%. Besides shortening the wait time between tournament rounds, Timewarp also increases the production boosts for your sentient goods.
Construct_AW1_main.png

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

If you have a fully evolved Polar Bear and Timewarp, you can eliminate the wait time between tournament rounds completely (Polar Bear's 20% + Timewarp's 80% = 100% reduction), which allows you to complete tournament rounds one after another without any cooldown. If you are a fighter, you can take advantage of knowing the same terrain for all 6 rounds of a province. Being able to shorten cooldown will also greatly reduce the amount of Pet Food used each week as well as stretch expiring military boost buildings such as Unleashed Unit Upgrades, Magnificent Mage Multipliers, Enlightened Light Range, and Dwarven Armorers for two weeks to cover two tournaments. Like the Polar Bear's feed time, the military buildings last for 5 days before they expire. If you place them at the end of one tournament, like on Friday before Spire ends, then they will expire near the start of the second tournament around Wednesday, which gives you just enough time to sprint through the second week of tournaments. Prepare to spend Time Instants to sprint the Spire though. The Timewarp + Polar Bear combo will save you on both Pet Food and military boost buildings to help you weather dry spells in the Magic Academy.

 
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crackie

Chef, Scroll-Keeper, Buddy's #1 Fan
Know Your Tournaments
Related Links: Mykan's Fighting Guide

The question of what troops to train for each tournament is a question that is frequently asked. It's difficult to give a cookie cutter boilerplate recipe for all players to follow since everyone's cities are unique and built differently, with emphasis on different wonders and playing styles. However, @Mykan has created a super useful chart of the most prominent and likely enemy combo type for each tournament, as well as breaking down down what troop types from each military building he recommends that you train in the "Player army" section. It's super compact and easy to read at-a-glance, and it accounts for both elf and human players. Of course, these are general guidelines based on his opinions and preferences. Your personal preferences might differ from his (or mine), and that's all good! For example, despite being Bud Sorceress's BFF, I would probably be training Archers instead of Sorceresses in my Barracks during the Marble :marble: tournament. I recommend players look up the enemy troop type in the "Likely" row for a particular tournament in question, and then build whatever troops you prefer to handle those enemy combos, or defer to his recommendations if you don't want to think about! @Gkyr also has a thread discussing tournament types if you want to ask questions and discuss. - crackie

The following content is re-posted with permission from the original author, @Mykan. If you find this post helpful, don't forget to visit his original post for more information and throw him some thanks and Likes!

TOURNAMENT 2020 ONWARDS (Mykan's content)
Tournaments still favor certain troops but not exclusively. The below chart shows you the most common enemy units for a given tournament week but you will still have random combinations. Having a most common enemy does mean you can prepare a most common unit to attack with.
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