[...] In both my city had a DA, UUU, LR, MM deployed and fire chicken has been fed.
[...] Now however some of my fellows and member here in the forum are not doing well at all!!
I would guess not all of them have Fire-Phoenix + DA + UUU + LR + MM in their setup.
From my observation, without anything, you hit the first wall around province 12.
The Fire-Phoenix may get you up to around province 18.
A Dwarven Armory may boost that up for another 6 provinces.
Any other boosts like UUU, LR, MM may also squeeze out like 2 provinces each if combined with DA / Fire-Phoenix.
*EDIT: The above numbers are depending on the tourney-type. In crystalls i get ~2 provinces less far with the same setup as i did in planks. That may be even 4 less in scrolls, if scrolls will be still the hardest within the new tourney-mechanic.
But that is in no way sustainable on a weekly basis. I rarely get any booster out of the MA on the 2 cities i play. Maybe 1, at best 2 a week. I'm already happy if i get 2-3 pet-foods out of the MA each week. Except you spend diamonds into the MA, but with spire-bronze or even silver (like your FS) this is far from sustainable.
But even with the above setup of yours, i would guess you have to feed the brown-bear + time-boost your training, as 1 lost match will already kill a whole days (or more) troops production.
Looking at my fellowship, less advanced players have less problems with the tourney as i do. Reports are "it's easier as ever", while i can't confirm that in any way. I was the top-scorer in the past at every tourney, now i'm close to the middle-field, while already playing the tourney in a near unsustainable way. The ppl above me are less advanced players and tell me they have no issues at all.
I'm a bit baffled that you have such an easy time, as there are not that big differences between us, besides 2 chapters difference (14 vs 16) and you have 9 less expansions and 14 less AW-levels.
But even if it's possible to reach 30 provinces with like 5 booster-buildings + fire-phoenix + brown-bear + time instants... it's not even closely worth it. The investment to gain only some more KP, Enchantments, Relics and Runes is simply not worth it.
Yet alone i have to go further within the spire to barely gain the needed amount of time-boosters for training, costs a furtune of goods, mana, seeds and other stuff, only to invest another load of the same stuff into the tourney anyway, as even with all of the above, there are provinces you simply won't win and those are asking for a whole days production of x or even more.
There may come a point where i have to decide if i want to do the spire, the tourney, research or if i want to upgrade my buildings. That wasn't the case in the past, as thx to the old tourney, it was worth it to invest into the tourney and make profit out of it. I could reduce my workshops, as i gained a good amount of enchantments. Same with factories. Now my stock of enchantments will deplete with each week.. unless i invest more into the tourney as i could ever get back from its rewards.
The relation between investment <-> reward, in my eyes, is broken now.
The fights may be more intense, as there is some more diversity, that's something i can accept and i may even like it, but it's a big downside for auto-fighers/mobile players. But the losses you have, make it no fun, but only frustrating.