Post Task Force collapse has been less stressful in many ways which is great. I’m more on my own schedule so dealing with operations is much better overall even though I’m only doing easy stuff. But it doesn’t bother me that much since there’s just a lot less stress in general from having to succeed on a smaller scale.
The rewards really aren’t that much different at the end of the day. I rely on Imitation Game and Doctor T days for most of my resources. I can’t really use the resources to a huge degree from operations as I’m extremely focused on upgrading my Landing Craft, which means only one day a week I can really go ham and grab the stuff I need. In truth, the scheduling ends up working out better as I can save the vast majority of my powder for a single day then wreck most bases.
This last week I mostly went after upgrading my Cannons. They were moderately cheap in terms of the next group of items that I could upgrade every day. I don’t know how effective upgrading them on a daily basis really is but I’m of the mind set that having something upgraded is better than allowing someone else to pillage those same resources.
Today on my main account I managed to get my first Landing Craft level 20. I’m really looking forward to having that extra tank in my line up as my DPS surely will increase by a pretty large margin. Of course, that also means that my GBE requirements will increase by a slight amount. It shouldn’t be that game changing at this point in time. However, I realized that once I get two Landing Craft level 20 I will have the equivalent of my current line up (meaning 6 total tanks). I know one guy who swaps out the 3rd Landing Craft for Grank-Meds to Medics, essentially boosting his healing but a pretty good margin.
It’s a very appealing idea as I can stay within the boundary of my current GBE usage while increasing survivability. But I will lose some DPS once I get 3 Landing Craft to level 20 with this load out. I’ve heard that most people who go Grank-Med tend to use 3 boats of tanks, 3 boats of grenadiers and 2 boats of medics. In general, I’ll have to try both methods to see which I feel more comfortable with.
Also, I finally started to upgrade Barrage to level 16. Once it’s complete, it should make a HUGE difference with regards to some of the NPC bases that have been causing me issue. For instance, there’s one called Pierced which has an HQ that can be taken down purely by GBE. But once you hit roughly level 54-55+, you get on the borderline and require troops to finish it off. In my case, I use Grank-Med so I can deploy Grenadiers. Yet that combo has flaws where the Grenadiers may accidentally walk into range of the Cannons and get sniped. So I’m hoping that with my upgraded Artillery and Barrage, I’ll be able to continue to take those NPC bases down without deploying troops.
Once I finish with the Barrage upgrade, I can turn my attention back to troop upgrades. I finished Tank level 15 which means that my primary troop is done. I’ll probably go with Medics since they compliment a few troop combinations. After that Zookas might get the next big upgrade just because I’m close to maxing them out. However, I’m heavily eyeing Cryoneers just because they seem quite powerful.
I would love to upgrade Scorchers at some point too but they’re expensive and don’t feel as useful at this point. On the other hand, they are still cheaper than Cryoneers for a short period so I might go with that. The good thing on my main account is that my Landing Craft level permits for a nearly all Scorcher attack. Also, my statue lineup seems compatible (would be nice to get a little more GBE) so I could switch over in maybe a month after I get a few upgrades for them. The two keys I’ve heard for Scorchers are getting them to level 5 at minimum and if going Scorcher-Tank (Scank) to make sure you have three tanks per Landing Craft. The Scank combo will take at least another month or two just to get my Landing Craft to where they need to be. But I think it’ll be fun to launch all Scorchers on some NPC bases.
Going back to Cryoneers, they’re okay for now but they really feel like an end game type of thing. The cost just is prohibitive at this point in time and they still do pretty well for their current level. But they just compete against Grenadiers for value. I think just getting Scorchers up might be helpful in the short term. But I’m at a really weird stage where I’ve got an incredible amount of flexibility and can do a variety of combinations. And without the pressure of being in a small Task Force maximizing operations, I really don’t feel the need to push as hard in certain aspects, which gives me greater flexibility to experiment with troop combinations.
For my alt account, things are going well. I’m hoping that once I finish up Imitation Game later tonight that I’ll be able to upgrade my Tanks. Resource-wise, I’m kinda low in stone so I probably won’t be able to get something crazy. But if all goes well, I’d like to upgrade a Landing Craft to 17. Again, my plan on my alt account is to get all Landing Craft to 17. I might try upgrading Scorchers earlier on that account rather than Grenadiers once I finish upgrading my Tanks and Medics (which should be in the next two cycles). Other troops like Zookas are on my radar for that account. But without that pressure of higher level operations, I can relax a little.
I’m not sure when I’ll start War Factory though on that account. I feel that at this stage, it’s more of a nice-to-have. I do have my GBE abilities upgraded to the point where I probably can handle the first take down. But I think I might try being a little conservative, especially since I’ll only do Grank-Med initially.
At any rate, the main thing is that I’m happy with my main account and am looking forward to seeing how the latest upgrades will impact my game play. They might seem minor at the moment but all those little upgrades really add up over time.