Twilight phoenix - the first poison pill in Elvenar...

[Gkyr]

Then you just don't do as much tournament as you could do? Or you don't have more provinces? If your time boosters are unlimited, then you don't need the bear or the phoenix - you could just use more boosters instead? 3k 1h time boosters are in my inventory, but I still wouldn't say I have unlimited access, just to lazy to do more tournament.^^

Then you know how it is.
I didnt come right out and say it, but I dont do as much as I could.
Tournies start out boring, so I do slide through the first 20-50 encounters with auto. Then patience and perseverance bring me to province 20. Then the boredom disappears and things start to get interesting (challenging) but then I just get tired of a series of 250 "mini-chess-games".
Anyway, our FS has a huge Tourney archive, so no one has to work hard and we always get 19 chests. I somehow always find myself in the first third of the FS. Those with pride of place get into the first three or so positions on the leaderboard for Harandar. I was #1, once but then only having 50 provinces keeps me below third place on the board, except during 'lazy weeks'. I've taken it about as far as I can, unless Inno comes up with more creative challanges, like a melee troop that can hit two adjacent opponents on one turn, or a minefield. Sometimes I wish for the old HoMM games.

 

[Ashrem]

Disclaimer: I manual fight. YMMV.
The desire that surrounds the supply of pet food is one of the manufactured anxieties in Elvenar. After awhile, it seems, it does not make a difference, really.
Case in point: very late in the last few Tournies, on a Saturday night, I was afflicted with a bout of boredom and decided to fight a few more encounters at the end of the time. Because of the limited time left it was not worth it to feed the firebird or the twilight bird. If the encounters became unwinnable I would just quit. I was in the high 30s provinces. Buff buildings had not expired, yet.

There is a caveat in most things Elvenar which involve combat, which is the troops involved. Fights you can do with light ranged are, quite simply, easier than fights you can't, regardless of the relative strength of troops, because they get the first move, and if there isn't terrain in the way, they may be able to avoid ever getting hit. The other part of that, is that manual fighting is hugely different from auto fighting because you can choose to not move on the first round, forcing them to come into range if it works out that way.

 

[Gkyr]

Well, we are in complete agreement here. I don't see an issue. I avoid auto-fight exactly for the reason you mentioned, as well as to avoid inappropriate cross-attacking and wrong-footing myself.

 

[Dhurrin]

For those of you with TONS of petfood in your inventory:
How did you get to the point of having that much as I would like to be in your situation one day. Was there a point in time where you just kept saving and did not use any until you had enough extra and felt safe too use 1 here and there? Just curious. I look up to you all lol.

I have between 80-100 petfood in my inventory, and I have been keeping that up for months. I also use about 6 a week and still keep the amount I have.
Basically, the trick is to use them in the most efficient way.
---
The Brown Bear is nice to feed as it generates a lot of troops, but that doesn't mean it needs to be fed all the time. I feed it maybe once a month, often only once every 2 months. For that purpose I save up a lot of time-instants and supply-windfalls. To make the most of it I slowed down a bit on the tourneys for a month or 2, doing less than usual to save my troops, bringing them to a level that I wouldn't have to worry every week about having enough, but have a reserve and then pick up again. So now when my reserves get low I will do maybe 800-1.000 hours worth of time-instants at once. One feeding generates a crap load of troops that way so my reserves are fine for the next couple of weeks again.
---
Keep an eye on the MA, don't miss the times petfood is shown and make sure to craft all of them,
---
Doing the Spire and events helps too; the events will often provide some petfood (and the savory bites which generates a bit of petfood before it expires) and some Sips of clarity to cycle through the MA a bit faster. Cycling through means you will see more petfood appear, or rather see it again faster.
The Spire also can provide some free diamonds (or occasionally genies which may provide diamonds). If not saving diamonds for other things, they can help cycle through the MA again.
---
Later in the game it will help to make use of the Polar bear and/or Timewarp. They reduce the time for the reset in the tourney, so you can do more rounds in the same time, which reduces the use of petfood for the Fire Phoenix. If you have only a small reduction in the time, you can easily do the first few rounds without feeding the bird and save that food for the later rounds where the squads are larger and thus losses are worse.
---
Look at the effect of the feeding on the different pets. Is the result really worth it, or is it convenience? If it is convenience, you can probably save it, or only use it when it really does make a difference. The Raccoon for instance has a 55 hour effect, so if you feed it just before harvesting you can get 2 more harvests out of it, but do you really NEED those extra KPs (or seeds, or whatever you chose it to supply) or not? If it is to finish something in a rush it may be so (I used it to get extra seeds a few times in chap 20) but it's not something I keep fed all the time. And most pet-buildings are like that; only used rarely.
---
If you mostly use the Firephoenix, and are a hardcore player and fighter, the best way to save petfood is to focus on getting the Polar Bear up and fully evolved, then invest in the Timewarp as soon as you can, as that combination will eventually lead to 0 time in between rounds of the tourney and thus be able to do 2 full tournaments with only 3 feedings; 1 Polar bear on Thursday evening, which will last 5 days. Maybe place military booster buildings, which also last 5 days, feed the bird and do, depending on the level of your Timewarp, all provinces for all rounds. Since the Polar bear will still be active Tuesday evening you can do that again with one more feeding. However, this strategy demands good timing and having a large stock of troops at the ready since all losses will be taken at once. But after that Tuesday you have time again until the Thursday of the next week to rebuild them again.
Getting the Brown Bear up and fully evolved will help regain troops. But everyone has to decide for themselves which effect is better for them. At least until you have both fully evolved of course, which is the best option, but that means crafting the artifacts for them, which usually requires other artifacts, or blueprints, and whether that sacrifice is worth it is something everyone will have to decide for themselves again.

 

[Yavimaya]

I have between 80-100 petfood in my inventory, and I have been keeping that up for months. I also use about 6 a week and still keep the amount I have.
Basically, the trick is to use them in the most efficient way.
---
The Brown Bear is nice to feed as it generates a lot of troops, but that doesn't mean it needs to be fed all the time. I feed it maybe once a month, often only once every 2 months. For that purpose I save up a lot of time-instants and supply-windfalls. To make the most of it I slowed down a bit on the tourneys for a month or 2, doing less than usual to save my troops, bringing them to a level that I wouldn't have to worry every week about having enough, but have a reserve and then pick up again. So now when my reserves get low I will do maybe 800-1.000 hours worth of time-instants at once. One feeding generates a crap load of troops that way so my reserves are fine for the next couple of weeks again.
---
Keep an eye on the MA, don't miss the times petfood is shown and make sure to craft all of them,
---
Doing the Spire and events helps too; the events will often provide some petfood (and the savory bites which generates a bit of petfood before it expires) and some Sips of clarity to cycle through the MA a bit faster. Cycling through means you will see more petfood appear, or rather see it again faster.
The Spire also can provide some free diamonds (or occasionally genies which may provide diamonds). If not saving diamonds for other things, they can help cycle through the MA again.
---
Later in the game it will help to make use of the Polar bear and/or Timewarp. They reduce the time for the reset in the tourney, so you can do more rounds in the same time, which reduces the use of petfood for the Fire Phoenix. If you have only a small reduction in the time, you can easily do the first few rounds without feeding the bird and save that food for the later rounds where the squads are larger and thus losses are worse.
---
Look at the effect of the feeding on the different pets. Is the result really worth it, or is it convenience? If it is convenience, you can probably save it, or only use it when it really does make a difference. The Raccoon for instance has a 55 hour effect, so if you feed it just before harvesting you can get 2 more harvests out of it, but do you really NEED those extra KPs (or seeds, or whatever you chose it to supply) or not? If it is to finish something in a rush it may be so (I used it to get extra seeds a few times in chap 20) but it's not something I keep fed all the time. And most pet-buildings are like that; only used rarely.
---
If you mostly use the Firephoenix, and are a hardcore player and fighter, the best way to save petfood is to focus on getting the Polar Bear up and fully evolved, then invest in the Timewarp as soon as you can, as that combination will eventually lead to 0 time in between rounds of the tourney and thus be able to do 2 full tournaments with only 3 feedings; 1 Polar bear on Thursday evening, which will last 5 days. Maybe place military booster buildings, which also last 5 days, feed the bird and do, depending on the level of your Timewarp, all provinces for all rounds. Since the Polar bear will still be active Tuesday evening you can do that again with one more feeding. However, this strategy demands good timing and having a large stock of troops at the ready since all losses will be taken at once. But after that Tuesday you have time again until the Thursday of the next week to rebuild them again.
Getting the Brown Bear up and fully evolved will help regain troops. But everyone has to decide for themselves which effect is better for them. At least until you have both fully evolved of course, which is the best option, but that means crafting the artifacts for them, which usually requires other artifacts, or blueprints, and whether that sacrifice is worth it is something everyone will have to decide for themselves again.

Thank you!

 

[SuNaya Dark]

The other part of that, is that manual fighting is hugely different from auto fighting because you can choose to not move on the first round, forcing them to come into range if it works out that way.

That is something I may need to try! I wasn't aware I could do this in manual fighting mode. I tend to AutoFight and see what happens.
Now I may be changing my tactics. (I'm currently parked at the end of Ch3 on both of my cities. I'm upgrading ALL the things to max before moving into Ch4. Just to see what happens.)

Thank you, Ashrem.
You have given me something to try out while still parked.
- SuNaya Dark

 

[Ashrem]

That is something I may need to try! I wasn't aware I could do this in manual fighting mode. I tend to AutoFight and see what happens.
Now I may be changing my tactics. (I'm currently parked at the end of Ch3 on both of my cities. I'm upgrading ALL the things to max before moving into Ch4. Just to see what happens.)

Thank you, Ashrem.
You have given me something to try out while still parked.
- SuNaya Dark

You can either click the end turn arrow above hte current troop, or just click on the hex your current champ is standing in and it passes the turn. More frequently, I do a move to the side and/or into the back rows to make sure I'm out of range when they move.

 

[MichaelMichael]

Arendyll, right? I count 10 in their city. I have no idea how much that must've cost.

Yes

 

[MichaelMichael]

I have reached Timewarp club in this time. It’s not maxed yet but I can get several rounds of tourney in per pet food so less feeds to Fire Phoenix and can now toss some to Twilight. I don’t think he is worth it for one round per feed, but much better deal with multiple rounds. I generally toss a pet food to Twilight on the end of Scroll and Dust tourney.

Me too. I still was a little short on troops in the 2nd tourney. I should finish chapter 20 soon which will free up resources

 

[MichaelMichael]

Then you just don't do as much tournament as you could do? Or you don't have more provinces? If your time boosters are unlimited, then you don't need the bear or the phoenix - you could just use more boosters instead? 3k 1h time boosters are in my inventory, but I still wouldn't say I have unlimited access, just to lazy to do more tournament.^^

@Yavimaya Don't missing many recept changes and having the slot free for it helps a lot. In some events you could get a decent amount of pet food, that's all that is coming to my mind.

I burn most of my time boosts every week but I also do 50 tourney provinces 4-6 times. If you work at the tourney, there is zero risk of accumulating time instants

 

[MichaelMichael]

I have between 80-100 petfood in my inventory, and I have been keeping that up for months. I also use about 6 a week and still keep the amount I have.
Basically, the trick is to use them in the most efficient way.
---
The Brown Bear is nice to feed as it generates a lot of troops, but that doesn't mean it needs to be fed all the time. I feed it maybe once a month, often only once every 2 months. For that purpose I save up a lot of time-instants and supply-windfalls. To make the most of it I slowed down a bit on the tourneys for a month or 2, doing less than usual to save my troops, bringing them to a level that I wouldn't have to worry every week about having enough, but have a reserve and then pick up again. So now when my reserves get low I will do maybe 800-1.000 hours worth of time-instants at once. One feeding generates a crap load of troops that way so my reserves are fine for the next couple of weeks again.
---
Keep an eye on the MA, don't miss the times petfood is shown and make sure to craft all of them,
---
Doing the Spire and events helps too; the events will often provide some petfood (and the savory bites which generates a bit of petfood before it expires) and some Sips of clarity to cycle through the MA a bit faster. Cycling through means you will see more petfood appear, or rather see it again faster.
The Spire also can provide some free diamonds (or occasionally genies which may provide diamonds). If not saving diamonds for other things, they can help cycle through the MA again.
---
Later in the game it will help to make use of the Polar bear and/or Timewarp. They reduce the time for the reset in the tourney, so you can do more rounds in the same time, which reduces the use of petfood for the Fire Phoenix. If you have only a small reduction in the time, you can easily do the first few rounds without feeding the bird and save that food for the later rounds where the squads are larger and thus losses are worse.
---
Look at the effect of the feeding on the different pets. Is the result really worth it, or is it convenience? If it is convenience, you can probably save it, or only use it when it really does make a difference. The Raccoon for instance has a 55 hour effect, so if you feed it just before harvesting you can get 2 more harvests out of it, but do you really NEED those extra KPs (or seeds, or whatever you chose it to supply) or not? If it is to finish something in a rush it may be so (I used it to get extra seeds a few times in chap 20) but it's not something I keep fed all the time. And most pet-buildings are like that; only used rarely.
---
If you mostly use the Firephoenix, and are a hardcore player and fighter, the best way to save petfood is to focus on getting the Polar Bear up and fully evolved, then invest in the Timewarp as soon as you can, as that combination will eventually lead to 0 time in between rounds of the tourney and thus be able to do 2 full tournaments with only 3 feedings; 1 Polar bear on Thursday evening, which will last 5 days. Maybe place military booster buildings, which also last 5 days, feed the bird and do, depending on the level of your Timewarp, all provinces for all rounds. Since the Polar bear will still be active Tuesday evening you can do that again with one more feeding. However, this strategy demands good timing and having a large stock of troops at the ready since all losses will be taken at once. But after that Tuesday you have time again until the Thursday of the next week to rebuild them again.
Getting the Brown Bear up and fully evolved will help regain troops. But everyone has to decide for themselves which effect is better for them. At least until you have both fully evolved of course, which is the best option, but that means crafting the artifacts for them, which usually requires other artifacts, or blueprints, and whether that sacrifice is worth it is something everyone will have to decide for themselves again.

I did your recommended strategy with 8 buildings for the first time but ran out of troops and goods the second week so I finished my tourney with goods slower, I got there but I also added the ashen Phoenix to the mix and the brown bear once so 2 bears and 2 phoenixes twice for 6 per food in two weeks of fighting plus 8 buildings. The pet food use is sustainable, 8 buildings may be a little high. That said, determining the range of the possible is always a challenge as more is better until it isn’t

 

[Killy-]

I burn most of my time boosts every week but I also do 50 tourney provinces 4-6 times. If you work at the tourney, there is zero risk of accumulating time instants

I do 50x6 (or a little bit more) in my 2 worlds and the time instants are still piling up (I don't mind).

 

[defiantoneks]

never bothered with the bird. as stated, duration of the enchantment is pitiful and the remaining goods it produces are minimal.

 

[ajqtrz]

@MichaelMichael If I wanted to follow your technique I'd first have to get to a sustainable 700% boost in coins and supplies. To do that I would need to raise my standard production of 160% by 540%. (700-160). To do that I'd need to keep 42 bonus cultural buildings continuously under EE spells. (540 / 13 which is 5% standard bonus + 8% Lighthouse of Good Neighbors I currently receive) That would take 1.5 EE spells per building each day since my EE spells last 16 hours. (24/16) Thus I would need about 63 EE spells a day to reach 540% (63=42 * 1.67). And this assumes each visit is to a cultural building which will give the 13% when under spell. But since some players choose to make their visit to the Main Hall or to buildings like the Fire Phoenix, which does not take EE spells and thus cannot provide the 13% boost, the actual number of visits per day would need to be about 60-70. So far, everything looks fine except the production of EE spells. To "fix" this problem I can increase the number of EE spells I make -- 24 from the MA + X from the tournament and other sources. Can I get 36 from the other sources? Probably about 4 per day from the tournament (28 total?) but that leaves a lot to get from other sources. What do you think?

Obviously, the formula you use depends on the Lighthouses being at a very high level. If you can raise each to lvl 30 you can get your EE bonus from the Lighthouse of Good Neighbors to 12%. Add this to the base 5% and you get 17% bonus for each cultural building visited and under EE spells. 540%/17% means you need 32 culture buildings under EE spells and since if you raise your Crystal Lighthouse to 30 you have to put them under the EE spell every 2 days, you will need between 16 and 20 EE spells a day....a very "doable" thing.

So this method is only applicable when you get to about level 20-25 for each of the two lighthouses. Lower than that and the need for EE spells makes it impossible to sustain. If I had all the numbers for these two I suppose I could figure out what the needed levels might be, but I don't so the approximation of 20-25 is probably right. Since I would currently need about 63 EE spells a day at my levels (14 for the CL and 11 for the LGN), your technique might be for players higher than me...or at least players willing to built to that level.

In addition, I do agree that you can do a lot more with the PoP and cultural bonus in general. I keep seeing cities of my size or larger with 20-30 residences (even magic ones) and 10 or so magic workshops. I have run my city on as few as 8 magic residences and 2 magic workshops. This, obviously, gives you a LOT more room. AND, it enables you to keep your workshops under PoP spells continuously and easily since it takes only 3 or so a day. So I can see that if I increase the magic residences and magic workshops I can take advantage of the wholesaler -- provided I get my BTG up to 300%.

So, what I conclude is that your technique works because you have invested a lot of KP in upgrading selected AW's. And anybody can do it provided they are around enough to get the AW's up to where they need to be.

AJ

 

[crackie]

never bothered with the bird. as stated, duration of the enchantment is pitiful and the remaining goods it produces are minimal.

But you are late chapter. No Timewarp? If you can get multiple rounds in, it’s not too bad.

 

[defiantoneks]

But you are late chapter. No Timewarp? If you can get multiple rounds in, it’s not too bad.

i have TW. just dont feel like the ROI is good enough for the bird.

 

[MichaelMichael]

So, what I conclude is that your technique works because you have invested a lot of KP in upgrading selected AW's. And anybody can do it provided they are around enough to get the AW's up to where they need to be.

Absolutely correct but the value starts much earlier than where I am at. It is not that hard to keep 5 of one's biggest cultural building with Ensorcelled Endowment at say +6% per building (level 1 lighthouse) to gain +30% cultural bonus.

It is very practical for a relatively low level player at that chapter could increase their culture bonus from say 125% to 180% by using a lighthouse and using EE on five big culture buildings. That effort would reduce the need for Workshops by a third which might allow a commensurate reduction in Residences as well for a very significant increase in available space. Of course once that is done, the path to where I am becomes clearer so long as the player and fellowship can generate sufficient KP for the associated AW expansion to extend the life and effectiveness of EE Spells. After a while, the option of using supplies for goods (via the wholesaler) becomes a more viable option. The solution is not immediate, but it becomes more compelling once the value of the Lighthouse of Good Neighborhood becomes apparent. I am at the ultimate result, but the path is there for everyone. Currently, I have 70 cultural buildings that are active with EE spells and available for cultural help - 70 is very extreme - 5 is relatively easy and has a clear ROI even without all the AWs that add to that value.

 

[Cronopiio]

Absolutely correct but the value starts much earlier than where I am at. It is not that hard to keep 5 of one's biggest cultural building with Ensorcelled Endowment at say +6% per building (level 1 lighthouse) to gain +30% cultural bonus.

It is very practical for a relatively low level player at that chapter could increase their culture bonus from say 125% to 180% by using a lighthouse and using EE on five big culture buildings. That effort would reduce the need for Workshops by a third which might allow a commensurate reduction in Residences as well for a very significant increase in available space. Of course once that is done, the path to where I am becomes clearer so long as the player and fellowship can generate sufficient KP for the associated AW expansion to extend the life and effectiveness of EE Spells. After a while, the option of using supplies for goods (via the wholesaler) becomes a more viable option. The solution is no immediate, but it becomes more compelling once the value of the Lighthouse of Good Neighborhood becomes apparent. I am at the ultimate result, but the path is there for everyone. Currently, I have 70 cultural buildings that are active with EE spells and available for cultural help - 70 is very extreme - 5 is relatively easy and has a clear ROI even without all the AWs that add to that value.

Hello, how many million products are obtained per week? I am interested in doing the technique to negotiate provinces 60 to 70 of the tournament... But I don't know if it is viable... I am at the beginning of chapter 17 and I would need at least 9 million of each of the products per week....it is approximately 15 daily purchases from the wholesaler of each product.

 

[MichaelMichael]

Hello, how many million products are obtained per week? I am interested in doing the technique to negotiate provinces 60 to 70 of the tournament... But I don't know if it is viable... I am at the beginning of chapter 17 and I would need at least 9 million of each of the products per week....it is approximately 15 daily purchases from the wholesaler of each product.

I do 8-15 rounds of Wholesaler per day (the higher end is using instants for Supplies and Coin. I can only do 50 tournament provinces per week with most of the last 15-30 done only 4 times. My main limitation is Mana and Orcs. The goods path is limited by those two "goods". Each round delivers 200k tier 1, 135k tier 2 and 89k tier 3. So 8 per day would be 56 per week, call it 60 so that is 12 Million Tier 1, 8.1 Million Tier 2, and 5.3 Million Tier 3. Those totals are for each of the two un-boosted goods so 2/3 (after trades at 1:1) are 8M of each unboosted Tier 1, 5.4 Million of each Tier 2 and 3.6 Million of each tier 3. That sort of fits with me doing the equivalent of say 45 provinces each week (6 times). I tend to fight most of the deals requiring Mana or Orcs. You also will burn through Supplies and Coins but instants provide those and I suppose I'd get more goods if I didn't use those for catering. On average I might be closer to 10 rounds than 8, so performance is perhaps 25% higher, but you won't get to 70 via this scheme. During FA, I have done 15 or more, but it burns more instants than I can obtain in steady state and I craft a whole lot of instants. I have just 3 Magic Workshops and 5 non-Magic. I suppose the optimum would have a lot more but I tend to do say 7 full rounds of Supply sales so the last round is 8M suppliesx6 = 48M and the next would be 54M. A 3 hour cycle for what I have is about 30M supplies so that next round would take 1 more Magic Workshop. I can gain about 30 x 7= 210 M supplies per day.

Ten (10) magic workshops would be 10 wksps x 5M x 7 cycles= 350M/day. Rounds of supplies start at 12 million (2M each) so 12+18+24+30+36+42+48=210k is what I do to get 10. 10 Magic would do that 210+54+60=324 to get 9 rounds using supplies. Coins generally do 3 rounds so that extra 2 rounds is pretty costly, So 12 rounds would be exactly 1.5x 8 so that gets you to 12/8/5.3 on each tier - still not enough to get to the 9 Million you want. 16 Magic Workshops get you to 560M supplies /day so so 324+66+72+78=580M so you'd get just short of another 3 rounds or another 20% = 14.4/9.6/6.4 which is close to what you desire.

So it can be done. But upgrading all your AWs and having say 17 Magic workshops is a lot to ask as is closing all those trades. I often find it hard to find a partner with enough of my boosted goods at my wholesaler level. You'd be trading to gain 14.4 Million of your boosted tier 1 goods or 600k traded every hour of every day. Practically, you'd need three players with complementary boosted goods in a fellowship all pursuing this strategy - but WOW if you did it. You'd totally blow out the Tourney every week even over the top guys that bought 10 twilight phoenixes. Three players with just this strategy plus a lot of Orc and Mana production could do a lot. The lighthouse basically doubles your Manna production so increasing Mana is less challenging than Orcs.

For reference, I have 8 and soon to 9 fully developed tier 1 manufacturies to compensate for the difficulties trading. On tier 2, my fellowship is adroit at manufacturing my boost so it is less critical (I have 6 manufacturies). The trading for Tier 3 is lighter so I don't worry about that too much (5 Manufacturies).

 

[Dhurrin]

I did your recommended strategy with 8 buildings for the first time but ran out of troops and goods the second week so I finished my tourney with goods slower, I got there but I also added the ashen Phoenix to the mix and the brown bear once so 2 bears and 2 phoenixes twice for 6 per food in two weeks of fighting plus 8 buildings. The pet food use is sustainable, 8 buildings may be a little high. That said, determining the range of the possible is always a challenge as more is better until it isn’t

8 buildings would be very high. I only use 3-4 every 2 weeks (1x MMM, 1x UUU, 1x ELR each time and sometimes either an additional UUU or DA, mostly during the T3 tourneys).
I do the first floor of the Spire spread out over Sunday/Monday.
I will feed the Polar Bear and place my boosterbuildings on either Thursday evening or Friday morning, then feed both my birds. At that point I will use time-boosters to run through the rest of the Spire, then get all my tourney done (Polar Bear+ lvl 30 TW means 0 waiting time).
Since I place my buildings and feed the Polar Bear that late in the week, they will still be active on Tuesday evening/Wednesday morning, so I can feed the birds and do 2 floors of Spire + the entire tourney again before they expire, so I have 2 complete tourneys and 2 complete Spire's out of 1 feeding of the Polar Bear and 1 set of boosterbuildings, plus 2 feedings of the firebird and 2 feedings of the twilight one. That makes 5 petfood/2 weeks for the tourney and Spire, so basically 2.5 petfood / week for that.
So 2.5/week for the fighting. Then I use another 2.5 / week to keep my Red Panda fed, making 5 petfood / week. The odd 6th one once in a while will be the Ashen Phoenix for events, or the Brown Bear once in a while to rebuild a lot of troops instantaneously.
Drawback is a LOT of troops needed in those 5 days. But then again, I have quite a bit of time to rebuild before I repeat the cycle.