I’m going to split this blog into two posts; one will be my current experience and thoughts behind the latest Hammerman event called the Imitation Game and another on my progress on both my accounts for the game.
Imitation Game is pretty much your big upgrade day. Of all the events, I probably get the bulk of my resources for my major upgrades on Fridays due to this event. At HQ19 and HQ18, I can down a Stage 6 most of the time. It really depends on how much Ice are on the base and the types of prototypes. This week, the bases weren’t too difficult. With Stage 6 I was able to nuke down with maybe 3 attacks max, where the biggest issue was the Grappler. But to ensure that I could take the base down with ease, I used my max attacks and went a little overboard in boosting on my main. In the end, with all the resources gained, I was able to start a 5th Landing Craft along with the last Flare level on my HQ19 and start an Armory level 18 on my HQ18, so I consider these efforts quite successful and am quite content.
Of course, there are many who find the Imitation Game lacking a true challenge. Most are max level players seeking new thrills. While the event has been great for non-max players, I can see the frustration for those people. However, people need to understand that Supercell has to cater to a variety of players. On the previous week’s Imitation Game, another member in my TF could not beat Stage 6, despite having one level higher than my HQ 19 (which I blame on him not having enough GBE and GBE statues, but that’s a separate story). Also, not every single player knows the high end meta of going offensive, which greatly improves their odds against the Imitation Game.
I argue that the max level players complain too much in general, which makes new players potentially suffer considering that the player base in most cases are casual. Because of that, the bar has to be lowered enough where the base game is enticing enough to draw in the masses. It’s not like this game is a super hardcore game in the first place. I mean, some people don’t even realize you can have multiple attacks against the Imitation Game. So the fact that some people lack even that knowledge means that Supercell still needs to keep a low enough barrier to prevent complete frustration. Heck, I see some people calling War Factory easy but I only took it down for the first time this week, expending the entire 5 attacks.
Of course, the real issue again is that there isn’t enough high end content. Most of the game is simply a grindfest to maximize your base. The journey is far more important than the end. And the end game pretty much is the leaderboard grab, which isn’t for everyone. That means that there’s an area where Supercell needs to examine between the base grindfest and the leaderboards.
I think the Imitation Game as it stands is fine. If it were to be more challenging for maxed out players, the way I would handle it is to use the HQ level, VP and experience points (maybe even just flat experience points), have a formula where if the total exceeds a threshold, then start boosting the base’s damage and hit points. Either that or match more bases around the person’s XP or VP levels if they’re HQ 22.
Obviously, this isn’t an easy thing to implement. I feel that there’s probably some level of curating on Supercell’s part to ensure that a base isn’t over or undertuned. The problem partly as well is that all the bases are the same for everyone, similar to Doctor T and War Factory. But I do think once you’re high enough, all of those events become trivial to some degree.
Either way, I hope that they don’t change the basic Imitation Game. It’s fine for now as the primary target seems to be aimed at non-maxed out players. And again I must emphasize that this is a good thing as it ought to entice players to play more often and get upgrades a little easier throughout the week as other things like War Factory and high end Doctor Ts might be out of reach for the vast majority of people.
Now, I did mention I wanted to talk a bit about my personal progression. So for my HQ 19, I hit level 49 a few days ago, maximizing my Zookas for my Armory level and am now pushing the last of my Flare upgrades. The idea here is to start working on Smokey Zookas as a strategy for the future. Before, I was a little skeptical with my Flare’s level being a bit behind. So for long walks, I did not have the confidence to pull off that type of strategy. Once I’m complete, I’m going to try for more Smokey Zooka attacks in the future.
Originally, I was going to start upgrading my Heavies but decided that Flare was far more important. It would cost too much to maximize my Heavies especially in time. I do hope to return to Heavies to have another troop loadout. Of course, I’d like to push my Riflemen and Scorchers as well. But I think Heavies might be more fitting in the short term. I might be forced to switch back over to Hooka once I hit HQ20 since it’ll be a while before I can get all my Landing Craft to level 20 as well as pushing the 8th Landing Craft.
With my 5th Landing Craft hitting level 19 tomorrow, that means I just have three more levels to before having all level 19s. I will say that this grind was awful and monotonous. However, my other TF member just hit level 50 and his Landing Craft are horribly low for his HQ level. I told him that he’s going to be spending a very long time upgrading. Some person on Reddit advised doing all your Landing Craft prior to hitting HQ 20 just because you’ll be prepared for the final levels. Now, I totally see the light.
Once I finish those off, I’m planning to push my Gunboat to level 20. I could’ve done it today as well but the Landing Craft are things that just cannot wait. It’s so painful and I want to get it done. The extra 2 GBE is pretty meh and I figured I can always come back to it. I still won’t be level 50 by the time I get to my Gunboat so it’s not a huge deal.
Now, in between those big upgrades, I’m looking at smaller defense upgrades too. Right now, I’m just getting my mortars to level 12. It’s not great but they’re relatively cheap compared to the big upgrades and I prefer having something being upgraded rather than nothing. Probably, before I hit level 50, I might just do a bunch of small, even upgrades like Sniper Towers or Cannons. The idea is to do things quickly and easy while adding a little more hit points to lower end defenses. Sure, they’re not as great as an epic Boom Cannon or Shock Launcher but it’s more a case of cost vs time. I am looking forward to that though since it’s getting horribly boring leveling all these Landing Craft.
What about Radar? My feeling is that Radar just competes too heavily for gold against my Armory. Honestly, I much prefer having my troops upgraded rather than opening up more areas at the moment. Also, I don’t want to push my VP too high and opening up more areas does just that.
On my HQ18 account, getting the Armory to level 18 was HUGE for me. I just got max barrage and artillery for level 17 and felt I need another level for each. The upgraded levels are things I can notice a very tangible difference. Still, my Medics and Grenadiers are lagging behind a bit. The level 12 tanks will certainly help but those are going to take a while just because of the gold cost. My plan currently is to upgrade my last gold storage to level 10 then start focusing on my landing craft. I’ve got a bottom row of level 14 landing craft which shouldn’t be hard to upgrade. By the time I hit HQ 19, I’d like to have them all be at least level 16.
Beyond all this, I’m really hoping that we get another Mega Crab event for Christmas. I’m not counting on it but Supercell really needs a nice Christmas event or update. Heck, I wouldn’t even mind a massively discount Diamonds since I feel that I’ll be HQ20 on my main by then. Would be great to get a few level 20 Landing Craft and maxed out Sculptor the moment I hit HQ 20. The idea of a few more tanks and grenadiers make me salivate pretty heavily.
Final thoughts of the day. Supercell really needs to fix that damn Imitation Game resource bug. That’s partly my hope in getting a Christmas Mega Crab event as they have stated that it won’t go out until the next major update. So I’m really hoping that we see that update by Christmas along with a Mega Crab event. Add a discount to Diamonds for a week/weekend and I’ll be super happy.