Thanks for the replies - interesting reading! - and more would of course be much appreciated, too, as I'm still gathering as much data as I can.
No need for images this week, although the latest Planks Tourney was ALSO very strange for me. I'm Planks-boosted, and I've always found it quite a difficult Tournament - both before and after the 2020 Tourney changes. But THIS week it was laughably easy - the easiest Planks I can remember, in fact - to the extent that I was comfortably able to go up to 3* level in Province 30+, as I rarely attempt in any post-2020 Tourney.
Firstly, the Maps were easy (and, again, some were definitely new to me) - few obstacles, and no 'funnel-type' blocked Maps at all. This would normally be problematic where MistWalkers, Enemy Mages, and/or Hellhounds are present (especially if with difficult counter-Units), but when populated by the Enemy Squad types and combos I mostly saw, the open Maps were mainly in my favour, so this factor was very helpful.
Secondly, the Enemy Squad combos themselves were also very easy. Normally the presence of MistWalkers combined with other Enemy Unit types can make Planks rather a pain, but this week I saw very little Enemy variance, with around 80% of Enemy Squads being Light Ranged - and including far fewer MistWalkers than usual, too, even though they're usually prevalent in Planks weeks.
Light Melee and/or Heavy Ranged was the next most common Enemy Squad type (although there were few Squads of either in most combos) - so using 5 x Orc Strategists/Golems resulted in very easy and low-loss wins - to the extent that I was able to Auto-fight most Provinces, even up into the late 20s in Rounds 3-5 (another almost unheard-of difference, for me - I'm in Ch.XII Elementals, so still quite Barracks Troops-reliant).
Heavy Melee was the next most common counter-Unit, although very few indeed of those appeared. Perhaps somewhat tricky if they'd been Swamp Monsters or Knights, but most of those I saw were Orc Warriors, which can - especially in Manual Combat - readily be countered [in low numbers] with (again) Orc Strats or Golems. But Knights were almost absent, and where one or two Squads of Swamp Monsters did appear, mainly alongside LR, I was able to use some spare Dryads with a lot of success - even using Auto-fight - and this, too, isn't very common for me, because my Dryads are still only at 2* (thus no debuff), so Archers would usually be my choice. Quite a saving on Barracks Troops there.
Finally, I saw very few Mages - and where they did appear, it was often in combos with LR alone - and therefore an easy win for 5 x Cerberus. Like Dryads, not a Unit I often find of much use outside my now Very Easy World Map battles - so I have quite a few of those to spare, too.
I did once see 5 x MistWalkers, for [? IIRC] the first time ever... and it was FUN watching Orc Strats flattening ~30K of them within two rounds!
All in all - a very atypical Planks Tourney indeed, for me - it was just as easy, although with different Enemy combos, as I'd expect to see during a Steel Tourney (or Marble - although for me, that's always been less easy than Steel; perhaps because I much prefer to use LR where I can, so I'm accustomed to where and how to move them without much thought - and also because I play as Elf, so no Priests, with my still-2* Blossoms not yet being a good enough substitute - and also because Elf Archers are amongst the best of the Barracks Units, too).
A Planks Tourney is normally quite expensive for me in lost Troops, but this week I lost barely 20 Squads of LM and HR - very unusual! - and when compared with last week's Marble, which should have been cheaper and easier than Planks (but was exactly the opposite), it's becoming apparent to me that I may well have ended up in an Inno A/B test of some kind.
Of course, now I'm wondering : if I'm right - WHAT are Inno up to...? Hmmm
Many thanks again for the replies - very much appreciated - and I'm wondering now what the next 'triple-set' of Tourneys (T2 Goods) will bring!
