I’m in the home stretch with marching towards level 50 and doing a big push to get my HQ 20. Last night, I began upgrading my final landing craft to level 19 (for this level that is) and have a little over 100xp before reaching level 50. Originally, I was hoping to get my Gunboat to level 20 before pushing my HQ to 20, but I screwed up a few upgrades and pushed too fast. But I think in the scheme of things this isn’t a huge issue.
Last night, originally I was just planning to run my normal Doctor T and take out NPC bases for a small upgrade while leveling up my Smoke Screen. I had learned last week that not having your Smoke Screens fully upgraded could easily cost you after my War Factory attempts (I did win though). However, at the last moment after having a lousy operations run, I decided to do a full big boy boost on my statues as I had seen a few PVP bases with easy defenses. I was pretty much on the borderline of getting a new Landing Craft and felt that if I had waited until today, I would not have enough powder to do a similar boost. That gave me enough resources for to push my last Landing Craft to 19 for my HQ level and start work on my Heavies level 18.
At this point, I’m sure I’ll have enough XP to hit level 50 by Friday, which is Imitation Game day. If all goes well, I should have enough powder for another big boy boost on Friday so that I can start on my HQ 20 before Christmas. Then (unless I use Diamonds for an early completion) by the time Monday rolls around, I’ll be ready to start work on my 8th Landing Craft. I should easily have enough resources for a fair number of levels. Right now, I haven’t decided what my 8th Landing Craft troop will be; either grenadiers or medics. But I will continue pushing until at least level 16.
Depending on how things go next week, I might get that extra Builder for a month. I don’t want to be tied up upgrading the new Landing Craft while missing out on things like a Sculptor or Armory. Obviously, I’ve placed so much time into upgrading all these Landing Craft that I should upgrade them as well. However, looking ahead I’ve been debating between the level 20 Landing Craft, Sculptor or Armory. Truthfully, an extra Statue spot will only be used for this +12% Troop Health statue that’s been in my storage forever. I really feel that it won’t help me that much until I can find a much better Resource Reward statue at 42% and above. That way I can place down two Guardian Troop Health statues.
The Armory though has quite a few benefits with 2 more levels for tanks, the damage for Barrage and Artillery as well as levels for Grenadiers and Medics. I feel that alone ought to be the precedent as I begin accumulating more gold. 3-5 more tanks or 2 more grenadiers are going to equally boost my damage quite a bit. But I’m thinking that the health for the tanks and barrage/artillery damage boost will do more for me in the short term than anything. Besides, if I’m in bad need for extra tanks or grenadiers, I’ll have that extra landing craft which is cheaper.
Another thought would be to get that Landing Craft 20 and wait a bit on the Armory. Instead, I would focus on upgrading troops like Scorchers and Riflemen. The problem with that is that I don’t anticipate using either in the near future. They’re great for flexibility but the gold ought to be saved for pushing my main offensive upgrades first. The other problem with more tanks in general is just using more GBE faster. It might just be better early on to have more health and damage than expending GBE, at least until my barrage and artillery can receive another level.
That said, it’s a pretty great feeling of accomplishment. Most of my defenses now are pretty costly at around 400k stone. Stone pretty much is one of the most dire resources for me at my level so I tend to conserve as much as possible for the really important, costly upgrades. The only thing left below 400k in terms of defenses is one more Sniper Tower. And mostly I’m upgrading these lower level defenses just to avoid giving easy GBE to the enemy as well as getting quick upgrades for the XP.
On my secondary account, I’ve started to work on my Medics now that I have my Tanks at level 12. During Operations, my HQ18 Medics just get wiped out easily to massive Rocket Launcher attacks. I’m wondering how it’ll feel once I hit HQ20 on my main and get another boat of Medics. At any rate, I’m coming close to HQ19 on my secondary account, which means Critters and a stronger Armory. It also implies another Landing Craft grind, which I’m not thrilled at. But I have been slowly upgrading all my Landing Craft to level 16. I just started a level 15 today, which means just two more to go before all my Landing Craft on this account hit 16. With Imitation Game coming up on Friday, I might push a level 17 Landing Craft depending upon how many stages I can get through.
All that said, something that has come to my attention recently is that Operations feel harder. Maybe with the holiday season coming around, the people over at Supercell are working longer hours. I was joking on some guy’s Boom Beach video how the longer hours might contribute to a difficulty lever that the developers pull. I’m hoping that’s not the case but the game has felt more difficult lately. I can’t imagine grinding through the lower levels these days with the increased difficulty.
Anyway, this week ought to be interesting. At least one of my accounts will get another level by the end of this week with my other one closely following behind. I really can’t wait until I get that new Landing Craft along with Cryoneers and other upgrades for my main. I might start pushing hard for upgrades once this HQ19 nonsense is behind. Of course, I still have my secondary account but that’s not quite as important as my main. I just feel that it’s better to have one solid account and use the power from that one to feed into another.