Troops positioning in auto fight - by Lc Oct 2021
Difference in AI approach in battle
The AI is designed for manual fight for best results but is very time consuming. With portable devices being more popular, esp playing multiple cities, auto fight becomes the norm. The modification for autofight in the AI is that certain abilities from the player are removed (eg troop retraction). Another factor that affects battle outcome is terrain, which is also out of reach in autofight. Therefore, these issues are just skipped in the following discussion. Recommendation is if lost an expected winnable battle, just cater to minimize further loss.
Cater vs fight
Another principle in Elvenar is that cater vs fight is not absolute. It very much depends on your city strategy, city size, buildings (including temporary aids like MMM, ELR, DA), AWs, and military aids like fire phoenix & brown bear. Also should be considered in the equation is your supplies including coins, hammers, goods and time boosts available. These are to be individualized consideration for your own city. The basic premise is that if battle is not worthy because of significant troop loss, negotiation may be more beneficial. Players adamant in only fight or negotiation may find themselves at the end in a less optimal position.
Preamble on troops
Troops are from 3 sources, Barracks, Training Ground (TG), and Mercenary Camp(MC). For early chapter players, not all are available and/or training speed in TG and MC is slow, and armies are not graced with max ability (3*). Without worrying the special attributes of troops from TG and MC (which are specialists particularly effective for one enemy type), we will just talk about troops in general, and Barrack troops are the best utilized until one is more advanced on the tech tree.
Regardless of the source, there are basically 5 troop types: Light Melee (Blue), Light Range (Green), Mage (Pink), Heavy Melee (Red), Heavy Range (Yellow). For ease of typing, I will just designate them as B, G, P, R, Y .
Regardless of the source, there are basically 5 troop types: Light Melee (Blue), Light Range (Green), Mage (Pink), Heavy Melee (Red), Heavy Range (Yellow). For ease of typing, I will just designate them as B, G, P, R, Y .
The fighting prowess is circular. Think of BGPRY in a circle. Each is good against the next 2 and is not much affected by the previous 2.
Eg P is good against R, Y
R is good against Y, B
Troop against its own type is neutral.
Eg P is not affected much by P, B, G
For inexplicable reasons, sometimes even perfect match would result in nominal loss of troops (guess just like in RL, any war would result in casualties, even for the superior force), and this is discounted and ignored, and the battle is considered a success.
Eg P is good against R, Y
R is good against Y, B
Troop against its own type is neutral.
Eg P is not affected much by P, B, G
For inexplicable reasons, sometimes even perfect match would result in nominal loss of troops (guess just like in RL, any war would result in casualties, even for the superior force), and this is discounted and ignored, and the battle is considered a success.
Troop positioning in autofight.
What I would like to present to you is a simple operational guide to extend your troops survival for better results in battle
Matching your troops against the enemies are paramount in minimizing loss.
The basic principle to be aware is that the enemy troops come in a specific order (representing the physical location on the battle ground in manual fight), then you match yours accordingly.
The basic principle to be aware is that the enemy troops come in a specific order (representing the physical location on the battle ground in manual fight), then you match yours accordingly.
When the battle panel comes up, there are 5 slots for you to place the troops. Let’s numbered them 1,2,3,4,5 for easy referencing.
The enemies come at your troops in the order of 1, 3,2,5,4
Your choice of troops should be matched with the best tactics against theirs. Ie your 1 against their 1
Your 2 against their 3, your 3 against their 2 etc
Your 2 against their 3, your 3 against their 2 etc
If done with skill, within reason, you can hide your vulnerable troops and use them to their max advantage (example below)
This approach is best illustrated in single battles like the tourney, but equally valid on the spire, with the exception that the decision making is more demanding on multi-battle fights.
It is also important to realize sometimes the enemy combination is such that no matter how good you are with troop placement, it is impossible to do well (either defeated or incurring big loss which is not worthy). Skip that battle or catering is recommended.
This approach of troop placement takes practice and pattern recognition. It involves, without a better term, an overlaid layer of neurooptical recognition to do it well
I personally find that this is one part of this game that is fun and challenging to play and to play it well, stimulating the intellect and mind of the player.
 |
| Photo courtesy of chama123 |
