• Good day, Stranger! — Are you new to our forums?

    Have I seen you here before? To participate in or to create forum discussions, you will need your own forum account. Register your account here!

Squad Size Upgrades

Lelanya

Mentor
Every time the subject of Squad Size Upgrades is mentioned, I always point out that they are really not so bad, and every time I do, I get shouted down. "Oh no, Lel, it's a bad idea, it makes tourney too expensive." Never mind that I have gamed with top ranked players who've done all the optional ones right up until folks decided that skipping them had to be the strategy, and I know for a fact that those players manage top tourney scores.

Am I surprised that we have to do them now? No, I am not. Why am I not surprised, you ask?

Because the Forum mods ALWAYS say, squad size upgrade it important, and they never advocated skipping any.

How did I know it would be soon? Well, I have a balanced number of provinces scouted/solved, as the game designers recommend, and I do not have any more blue level difficulty. And by the end of the Embassies chapter, I would have no green level difficulty. So? I was thinking I was going to have to research some optional squad size upgrades anyway, to keep my game balanced.

And then, guess what? Now the tournament has been restructured, AGAIN, and here we are, contemplating doing the very research that so many avoid. I've got most of them filled in, ready to go when the necessity arises, so no research kickbacks for me :)

Get filling those bars up folks.
 
Last edited:

Timneh

Artisan
Am I surprised that we have to do them now?

We still don't have to do them, they are still optional but i agree that when the new tourney hits live there seems to be no reason not to do them. The devs removing the need for guest race goods to research the ones players opted out of doing makes it easier to research them too.
 

Pauly7

Magus
Yeah, there's still no necessity to do them and doing so will not bring any benefit to tournament play. In fact, I think they will still be a slight detriment. People may decide to start filling them in, though, once the new tournament system hits. Better still, people may keep them aside as free researches to complete when an event quest asks for it.
 

FieryArien

Necromancer
but i agree that when the new tourney hits live there seems to be no reason not to do them.
There’s also not many reasons not to leave them be, if they are already skipped.
- If the player already skipped them, it means the hard part of the world map progress is already done. Starting at 5th/6th chapter the world provinces can be fought no matter if the player took the optional squad size upgrades or not.
- As long as the player’s Shrooms (which power depends on Armories) are enough for long training queue, the player doesn’t need Bulwark (which power depends on the squad size).
- The wonders that generate troops based on the squad size (and therefore they are stronger with bigger squad size) will have to be considered very carefully, because in the new tournament system each wonder level adds to the tournament cost. It does it not by simple addition to other factors, but by multiplying them! The player might need to be more selective with wonders.
- The one clear winner is the new troops instant. That’s based on the squad size and therefore it clearly adds more troops to player with all squad size upgrades.
- Is there something else derived from the squad size??
 

RainbowElvira

Sorcerer
Currently the upcoming calculation of the tournament squad size and difficulty is subject to change. Any information should be used cautiously. If things stay as they are right now, Squad Size impacts will be:
1) easier fights on the map
2) more output of the troop-producing wonders
3) troop-instants give more troops
I almost exclusively negotiate the map provinces. Having a few more troops is nice though, but nothing to go mad about.
 

DeletedUser8409

Guest
You have green provinces on world map? That's nice, I've been at Very Hard for a very, very, very long time now. Surely what difficulty you have depends upon not just your SS but how many provinces you've scouted. I skipped optional SS since Fairy when I figured out (nobody told me) that it was harmful.

Personally I've completed 656 provinces and have 19 more unlocked (saving for events) and 1 more scouting in progress so that's 676 . . . I'm not sure how much doing the optional SS's will reduce difficulty in the first place.

Until now I can cope with Very Hard world map as once every six days when my scout finishes I can afford to cater one province if I want to complete it. Not expensive to cater a province when its got a six day scout time and fighting the tournament.
 

Lelanya

Mentor
You have green provinces on world map? That's nice, I've been at Very Hard for a very, very, very long time now. Surely what difficulty you have depends upon not just your SS but how many provinces you've scouted. I skipped optional SS since Fairy when I figured out (nobody told me) that it was harmful.

Personally I've completed 656 provinces and have 19 more unlocked (saving for events) and 1 more scouting in progress so that's 676 . . . I'm not sure how much doing the optional SS's will reduce difficulty in the first place.

Until now I can cope with Very Hard world map as once every six days when my scout finishes I can afford to cater one province if I want to complete it. Not expensive to cater a province when its got a six day scout time and fighting the tournament.
Yes, it absolutely does. I have a few more provinces solved than is required for the chapter, and I'm always scouting. I solve for a space every Fellowship Adventure, or when I am close to one, whichever comes first. So I am not forced to collect diamonds for space, that is optional to me.
 

DeletedUser7526

Guest
Yes, it absolutely does. I have a few more provinces solved than is required for the chapter, and I'm always scouting. I solve for a space every Fellowship Adventure, or when I am close to one, whichever comes first. So I am not forced to collect diamonds for space, that is optional to me.
You are totally off your numbers. Rand blade is talking about scout numbers which is way beyond where it gives space.
 

AstralSoul

Illusionist
And then, guess what? Now the tournament has been restructured, AGAIN, and here we are, contemplating doing the very research that so many avoid. I've got most of them filled in, ready to go when the necessity arises, so no research kickbacks for me :)

Get filling those bars up folks.

I ended up skipping some, it was hard for my OCD, and I had a similar thought as you. However, I rank an average of 7-9K in Wyn every week (more in steel, of course, haha), so I did start to worry about those. I also complete the spire every week, adding more concern and reasons to skip them. While I did not research a few of them (woodelven and S&D's), I did fill up all the KP to them (they are yellow), did it as "just in case", and I have the settlement resources too (although INNO is nice and bailed everybody with that.)

336/280 provinces in my tech tree. I am stalling with Halfling's scouts finished, but not researched (yellow, and still in S&Ds), and I plan to keep on scouting more for a while before progress... I also want the space.
 
Last edited:

Gargon667

Mentor
Every time the subject of Squad Size Upgrades is mentioned, I always point out that they are really not so bad, and every time I do, I get shouted down. "Oh no, Lel, it's a bad idea, it makes tourney too expensive." Never mind that I have gamed with top ranked players who've done all the optional ones right up until folks decided that skipping them had to be the strategy, and I know for a fact that those players manage top tourney scores.

Same old argument... But to put it simple: Yes top scores are possible also with higher SS, but it is much more difficult to do so. Meaning those very same people would be doing even better scores if they had not taken the SS upgrades, without having to put in any extra effort.

unless of course they have hit the wall of doing all of their available provinces for 6 rounds every week, which is in the old system of tourneys rather easy to achieve. In that case SS really becomes less of an issue (lower SS means only more timeboosts in the inventory). However SS upgrades sure as heck are never helpful for any high achieving tourney player. All the possible benefits are unimportant to such a player.

Anyway one of the good things about the new tourney system, will be to get rid of this silly discussion. Everybody can do with the SS upgrades as they want, because they simply have no more significant importance for the game :) Do them if you like or skip them everybody is happy :)
 

DeletedUser8532

Guest
i just did all mine as i went along :) while im not a top scorer,i average 3k points every week,my f/s always gets 10 chests and thats more important to me than a few extra ranking points :)
 
Top