Why did I lose this fight?

[Iamaita]

So I just got completely wiped in a fight on the first round in my 9th tournament province. I’m a new player so this isn’t necessarily unexpected, especially since I play on mobile - auto fight only. But I am confused about exactly why. After I lost this one I plugged the numbers into the Elven Architect battle simulator to see if a different combination of troops would let me win or if I would be unable to fight that encounter. I was surprised to see that it predicted a win with my original troop lineup. So... what happened? Is it an invisible-to-me-on-mobile terrain issue? This is the first time I have used a battle simulator. Is this one accurate? I have seen some links to it in the forum. Trying to determine if I should attempt a manual fight before catering.

Enemy troops:
1x Poison dryad - 33
5x Forest warden - 65
1x Senior orc strategist - 33

Based on needles boost to light range (currently 110%), and the fact that my sword dancers are level two while my golems are still level 1, I sent in 5x sword dancers - 108 each. I’ve read that you have better results on autofight sending in five of a kind instead of trying to mix and match units, and this seems to match my own experience. (Let me know if anyone disagrees with this, because that will change my strategy completely.) The battle simulator predicted I would lose about 1.5 squads of sword dancers, which is acceptable for me at this point. That is not at all what happened.

Any tips or advice on ways to win this one would be awesome.

 

[Fayeanne]

If you lost with Sword Dancers, I'm betting the issue was terrain. There was probably a bottleneck that funneled all the Sword Dancers, allowing the ranged attackers to deal a lot of hits without taking much damage in return. Add the fact that the orc would be dealing tremendous damage and the Sword Dancers would require probably a full round of all five of them attacking him just to take down that one unit (he'd get retaliations on them as well).

Personally I'd go Heavy Ranged in that line-up; they'd be less impacted by the terrain and they'd be able to take the hits from the orc better. But then I avoid using Light Melee in most circumstances.

 

[StarLoad]

Agreed, you should have used Golems

 

[Kekune]

Based on needles boost to light range (currently 110%), and the fact that my sword dancers are level two while my golems are still level 1, I sent in 5x sword dancers - 108 each.

Needles boosts light ranged, as you say - but sword dancers are light melee so aren't helped by that.

Like previous posters, I'd also have sent in heavy ranged troops here. Range troops tend to be superior to melee troops anyway because they can avoid taking hits and aren't as limited by terrain. That sometimes overrides matchups where melee troops are theoretically the "best" troop type.

 

[ajqtrz]

Exactly. Terrain does make a difference and if you auto-fight (as I do most battles) and lose, it's usually terrain. Which is why some of us have asked for a terrain preview. If you see your sword dancers are going to get bottled up you don't use them. None of the battle simulators that I know of, include analysis of the terrain, but maybe they can't as the method by which terrain is selected seems to be a mystery. (If it's not a mystery to someone do reveal the formula to us, please? LOL).

AJ

 

[Iamaita]

Is the terrain random each attempt or the same for a specific encounter every time? If the battle simulator says my level one golems will get wiped, doesn’t that mean that the higher level of the enemy offsets the troop advantage of using golems? The simulator predicted this match up is a loss. Ignore it?

Needles boosts light ranged, as you say - but sword dancers are light melee so aren't helped by that.

Like previous posters, I'd also have sent in heavy ranged troops here. Range troops tend to be superior to melee troops anyway because they can avoid taking hits and aren't as limited by terrain. That sometimes overrides matchups where melee troops are theoretically the "best" troop type.

Ha! What a huge face palm moment for me. I read it and even typed it and it still did not register correctly in my little brain. Somehow last night in my mind light ranged meant blue. I apparently need more sleep. So happy that I decided to share this little cognitive disconnect publicly. Lol

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.

 

[Kekune]

Is the terrain random each attempt or the same for a specific encounter every time? If the battle simulator says my level one golems will get wiped, doesn’t that mean that the higher level of the enemy offsets the troop advantage of using golems? The simulator predicted this match up is a loss. Ignore it?

The terrain will be the same each time. I'd be tempted to try even if the simulator says you'd lose - it was wrong about your attempt with melee units, after all. And if you can't win because your troops are outclassed, cater.