Scouting on the World Map

I wanted to share a tip today about scouting on the world map.  Numerous times I have read on different forums and groups where players are complaining about being "stuck" once they get near the Orcs chapter.  It always has to do with the fact that the player feels like they can't ever fight and win encounters, and negotiating encounters now cost Orcs.  But the person isn't far enough in the research tree to produce Orcs yet.

Without a doubt, almost everyone of them have made the same mistake - they have scouted too far from their city too quickly.

How does that matter, you ask.  Well, to understand the issue, one must understand the interconnectedness of scouting, squad sizes, negotiating costs, and catering costs in tournaments.

So let me try and start at the beginning to unravel a giant ball of twine.

The basis of this problem is that squad size not only affects how many troops you have available per squad, it affects the size of armies you face in both the world map encounters and during tournaments, as well as the negotiation costs during tournaments.

Squad Size Upgrades in the research tree increase the size of each of the 5 squads that you fight with, allowing you to have bigger armies, and effectively fight against bigger foes.  That's a good thing, right?  Well, that depends.

The farther you go from your city, the larger the size of armies you will come across in the encounters while scouting.  That means if you choose to fight in those encounters instead of negotiating them, you will certainly need a bigger army.  So the farther you are from home, to effectively fight in the encounters, you will need to do most, if not all, of the Squad Size Upgrades in your research tree.

But, during tournaments, the squad size of your enemy and the Catering costs are based on your squad size.  So, if you are diligently doing every Squad Size Upgrade you come across, your squad size will be bigger, but therefore, so will your enemy.  And your catering costs during tournaments will cost more.  Ouch!

It is important to understand that not all of the Squad Size Upgrades in the research tree are required.  If you look at your research tree, you will see that some of them are "dead ends", and not required to advance to a new tech.  Others, however, are required.

"Ok, so I understand that doing all of the Squad Size Upgrades not only gives me a bigger army but increases my tournament costs.  How does that matter to scouting."  Good question.  When Elvenar first started, it was common practice to keep your scouts going 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Once you get out far enough, it's not uncommon for it to take days to scout one province.  So better to scout out quickly, and keep 'em going!  Right?

Not really any more.  The game has changed, and InnoGames has made it clear they don't want players scouting out too far.  And to "enforce" this, they now require Orcs as part of the negotiating costs once your army gets around 1250+.  Even if you are not yet in Orcs, or if you can't produce them yet.

So the farther you scout, the bigger the armies you face, and therefore the bigger the army you need.  But if you are not far enough in the research tree to have a big enough army, it only leaves negotiating encounters to unlock them.  Which becomes VERY expensive if you are really far out.  Leaving you very little resources to do anything but negotiate encounters, instead of participating in tournaments or trading.

And if you research all of your Squad Size Upgrades to have a bigger army to scout farther out, your Catering costs during tournaments will be much higher.  Meaning you will have to fight more during tournaments, using up more of your armies, and leaving less for fighting in scouted provinces.

Basically:
Scouting far away = larger army needed or higher negotiating costs
Larger squads = easier fights = higher catering costs in tournaments

So how do you fix it?  First, by deciding how you want to approach encounters while scouting, and tournaments.  Do you want to mostly fight during encounters, and cater during tournaments?  Or do you want to fight during tournaments and negotiate during encounters?  Second, by striking a balance in how you approach the game.  InnoGames has openly stated the best approach to scouting is to only scout enough provinces to unlock the next chapter.  A few extra shouldn't hurt, but anymore than that, and you will be out of balance and eventually find yourself "stuck".  Unable to effectively fight, and completely unable to negotiate.


How to apply this tip to your game:

• Only scout enough provinces to unlock the next chapter's chest.  Don't scout out much farther than that, otherwise you will get stuck
• Use a different approach for encounters and tournaments.  Choose one of the two and fight the majority of that type, and negotiate/cater the majority of the other
• Once you've decided your approach to world map encounters and to tournaments, only research the Squad Size Upgrades you need.  If you decide you don't need one now, you can always invest the KPs in it now and unlock it later when you feel you need it.  Just be careful higher you go, some upgrades will require chapter specific ingredients.  So be sure you've stored up enough before you leave that chapter