Negotiating the Spire

From sdcowboy:

Most of you probably already know this, but for those that don't, there is a little trick to negotiating in the spire.  When you hit the negotiate button, the required list of goods appears.  In the lower parts of the spire, these are usually five items.  The number increases as you climb.  I will go into this more, later.  Ok, you have hit the button and know what is required.  First and foremost, make sure that you have enough of the required goods and supplies to cover the negotiation.  I know, this sounds simple enough, but I have (and still occasionally do) enter the negotiations without sufficient goods and/or supplies.  If you don't have what is necessary, you will lose all that you have posted for negotiation. DUH.  

OK, now you know and have the goods.  Start by offering one of each good and don't offer in the order that they are listed, mix them up.  The trick is to offer each of the goods/supplies in the first negotiation try.  You will always satisfy at least one character, usually two.  The goods list will dwindle at this point by one or two items.  Us deduction to determine what is wanted by the remaining characters.  That easy with five items and five characters.  With more than five items for five characters, it is a little more complicated.  But the trick is still to offer at least one of every item, but this time it will take two rounds (unless you are very lucky).  

Remember, offering each item at least once will reduce the total number of items asked for with each round.  And use deduction (what has already been offered and refused versus what items can still be offered as per each character) and you will end up not requiring many diamonds for more than three tries.

Troop Production

Troop Production

If you use a hybrid fight/cater strategy, increasing your inventory of squads of troops is at least as important as increasing your inventory of goods.

Overall, troops are cheaper to make than goods. 

1) Make sure the troop building is making troops 24/7. Having one slot not yet completed when coming on to reset is the goal.

2) Upgrading the training building decreases the training time. Upgrading/adding an armory increases the training time. The amount of time is calculated on a 'per unit' basis, so the more troops in one slot, the longer it takes for that slot to finish. Chapters usually rotate between barracks and armory upgrade techs. If this chapter has a barracks upgrade, the armory upgrade comes in the next chapter. Take it slower on bringing the barracks up to max level to avoid reducing the time too much and all slots finishing when away from the game. 

AW Effects on Production

These are the AW's that decrease production time in the regular training buildings:

Needles of the Tempest: Speeds up Barracks production time(Tech Ch 3)
   Bonus effect:  Increases attack power of all light range troops

Flying Academy: Speeds up Mercenary Camp production time(Tech Ch 9)

Bonus effect:  Increases attack power of all light range troops

Flying Academy: Speeds up Mercenary Camp production time(Tech Ch 9)
  Bonus effect:  Produces Barracks Mage troops

Victory Springs: Speeds up Training Grounds production time(Tech Ch12)
  Bonus effect:  Increases attack power of all light melee troops

These are the AW's that increase production time; they impact all 3 training bldgs:

Dwarven Bulwark: Increases training size (time) based on your Squad Size(Tech Ch 6)
  Bonus effect:  Produces Barracks Light Melee troops

Shrine of the Shrewdy Shrooms: Increases training size (time) based on # Armory levels(Tech Ch 8)
  Bonus effect:  Produces Barracks Light Range troops

Alternating placing/upgrading these 2 types of military AW's will help maintain training times within a window acceptable for your time in-game. 

The biggest issue is with the Training Grounds since you don't get the 'speed-up' AW until the end of Ch12. As you upgrade your DB and SSS, the training times for the Training Grounds can be double that of the barracks. 

Indirect effect on production:

Martial Monastery/Sanctuary:  Increases the health of all troops (Tech Ch4)
  Bonus effect: Culture (really good culture! higher culture bonus increases supply production needed for troop production)

Since more troops survive battles, you need to train fewer to replace lost troops.  

Building a Tournament City

For anyone looking for information to update their city for a Tournament build. Check out this article in this link in the Elvenar Forum:  Building a Tournament city.

Pauly makes some good suggestions. If you want to have more balance I'd stick to the first set of Miltary AWs mentions. Check out the AW Comparison Guides in Elven Gems to review the different AWs. Some make more sense in early chapters than later. 

With the new rules having multiple Troop Buildings, Barracks, Training Grounds and Mercenary Camp is more useful because you can Train in all three simultaneously now. Training Troops uses Supplies so you will need to increase the number of and/or upgrade your Workshops to meet the increased demand. 

As always, you need to have enough Space, Population/Coins, Supplies and Goods. Using Spells and Instants frequently a sign of imbalance and that you have a shortage of the item(s) you are using them for. 

Comments with additional suggestions are welcome.