I wonder if they fixed the bugs...

"• Final Tournament Test Thursday • 27 August 2008 Tournaments are almost ready but we need your help. Tomorrow Thursday August 28th between Noon and 4PM EST, the SAGA staff will be on the live servers playing in tournaments. Please join us in playing as many tournament games as you can. We want to have at least 5 tournaments running simultaneously. In order for this to work, we need everyone joining the tournaments to play at least 1 game. Please do NOT leave if you didn’t get good troops. If you want to concede, please do so after entering a game. There may be a little something for those who do well in tournaments, and coal in your stocking if you enter tournaments then drop before your first game, and by coal we mean ineligibility for any cool future promotions we have planned." - https://www.playsaga.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7514

Finally I can play paid tourneys and open those packs I've been saving.

Fixing the inbalance between attacking and defending.

The problem in tournaments is that the attacker is at a disadvantage.

You don't control a respawn point, so if the defender beats you, you basically are in big trouble.

My suggestions is to have a neutral keep in the middle of the board that an attacker can capture to provide a respawn point.

This would help tournament games become more fun, as currently there is alot of running away instead of attacking.

A lot of Tournament bugs still plaguing the system

Illian posted a good post on Tourney bugs:

https://www.playsaga.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7375

"1. Point system is horrible. Right now its whoever can kill the ENTIRE enemy
unit. - 5 pts per killing entire enemy unit (counts if the enemy retreats his
unit). However, having a healing unit or garrisionning will keep you from losing
the negative five points and this AGAIN favors the defender. I like to attack in
tournaments but right now.. the biggest advantage is to the defender in points,
dam from towers, and WAYY closer deployment zone. The point system needs to be
addressed greatly especially with how it calculates. For one, killing an entire
unit takes 5 poitns but a healing unit healing an entire can return anywherefrom
5-25 pts! The poitn system needs a major overhaul.

2. Healing bug still
there. They said this was fixed.. yea right.. it was like they said it as fixed
to shut us up because NOTHING about healing = massive point gain even after full
health units was not even addressed/fixed. Basically.. if the point system is
only focusing on units killed.. you just left it to whoever has the healer
becomes the advantaged defende that is most likely to win. Id rather had 3
faction units with a healer instead one with 8 faction units. And id probably
win...

3. The forfeit bug is still there despite me and my guildies
attempt at reporting it SEVERAL times. Then tournaments come back up with the
announcement that Saga believes it is bug free... there hasn even been any real
FIXES!!! The forfeit bug happens due to the fact that there is a leak in the
structure. If u forfeit or someone else does.. there is a hole where u can join
otehr tournaments u already forfeited and that battle can overlap the current
one. This can cause big problems for example. I forfeited my first tourney
today.. i made it ot the final on my second tournament and my enemy was suppose
to be pacfist. However, somehow i played this guy naed xenophobe (dunno if he
was from another match or my old one), but i beat him and it counted as my final
match up! i didnt even play pacifist and it said i beat him. "

This happened to me a couple times with the forfeit. I didn't like my cards after a win, so I forfeit, then it showed 3 tourney games up for me.

Also defending is VERY much stronger then attacking. I never attack now, it's game over if I lose without getting a tower.

Tournaments back up, but you can't play undead...

Free tourneys are back running, but the undead faction is not playable. There was a past build where you could play undead.

Everything looks pretty smooth now.

Give it a try if you haven't played alot of tourneys.

Saga wants your card ideas for main armies

Saga wants CARD IDEAS again for when the undead army releases.

It looks like each normal army will get 4 troops. Help them fix the tournament scene by putting in more good pvp troops.

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=21544022054&topic=5906

They are taking feedback in this facebook dicussion thread.

Tournament Strategies - Rushing

I've played only about 40 tournament games so far, so I'm no expert.

However I have done 2 good games with Illian, and fought 38 other people.

Here are some tricks I would recommend keeping in mind doing tournaments.

1. People tend to get cocky when they draw expensive troops in their army. I fought a guy that had a treant/longbow, and rushed right at my keep in the beginning with 5 troops. I kited him through the center of my side of the board and spawned a heavy cav troop that I used to pretty much wipe his army.
2. YOU CAN'T LOSE THE OPENING BATTLE WITHOUT TAKING A SPAWN POINT. This is a big rule. If you rush the opponent you had better win the overall damage number or gain a watchtower to spawn reenforcements at. If you WIPE on your assault and you are down in terms of points, then you HAVE to assault again. You can't go defensive, the opponent can just wait for the clock to tick out.
3. Save your big cards until the first battle has begun. Rush with commons. If you are going to push, bring your commons. You will need those big cards later. Just be afraid of AE troops.

These troops are some of the BEST to use early:

PIKEMAN - Slaughters any cav that attack your troops
HEAVY INFANTRY - Kills annoying machines
HUMAN JAVELINEERS - Kills cav
HUMAN XBOWS - Long range makes opponent have to fight you
HUMAN ARCHERS - Kills the dragons that come to AE you.

If you rush, use as big a pack as you can, you need to be able to sit on your watchtower and cap it. Target opponent that can counter cap your watchtower first. Ignore the ranged. You may want to fient to one watchtower and send a light cav to another for a cap. Sending 4 infantry to a watchtower and 1 to another is a good strategy.

Once you TAKE the watchtower set your spawn point and GARRISON all your hurt troops and bring out your factional troops. The opponent will have been trying to kill your commons, and now have to deal with fresh factionals.

Now pound him with your factionals.

Tournaments fun continues

I got my first win. Besides alot of crashs I did pretty well.

Had a couple EPIC battle I wish I could have fraps.

Sadly I had to play while at work.

Monday Tournaments 4PM EST

"TOURNAMENT TEST MONDAY •
11 August 2008
Tournaments will be turned on for further testing at 4PM EST or shortly after a mini patch scheduled for today to put in some additional tournament code. We expect the event to last 4 hours but may take it down early to fix any problems that arise."



More free tourneys.

Basic Tournament Strategies

After yesterdays test, it probably good to do a short article on how to WIN tournaments based on the new system.

Here are some of the strategies I liked for discussion:

1. 3 Offense 2 Defense: This is one of the best generic opening strategies. You send your 3 Maraders to take the opponents watchtower, and you have 2 troops on defense to stop them from taking one of yours.
2. 5 on Defense, run the clock out. This is a strategy used against me. It's VERY defensive, and personally I find it pretty boring to play against. Basically you run the clock out after beating back the assaulting force. The best way to beat this is to split your Offense into two forces. MAKE SURE you cap one of the watchtowers. After that you should be able to reenforce.
3. 4 on Offense, ignore your backcourt. This is a good opening strategy with a decent spell. Send 4 troops to assault their KEEP, burn the spell then disband it. When the opponent comes to take your towers use the last troop to countercap their caps. Illian used this well with using a battering ram to stop caps.

More Tournament Tests

"We are going to run another test on Monday or Tuesday, keep checking the news page for the announcement. This time the tournaments will be in trial mode. They will cost neither event tickets nor boosters to play, however no prizes will be given. Think of it as practice."

If you didn't get a chance to play, you should try it when it come up again. It's MASSIVE FUN.

Another Sample Tournament Video

Here is another look at the Tournament Beta this weekend. I think we are done after this, basically there were three tournaments.

Illian won the first and Kheldara the second.

Although with the server crashing, they disquald my second match. (I'm the horse).

Sample Tournament Video - Short

This shows the battle between me and Illian (he won) :)

Gives you an idea of the layout.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGTKe_as1rA - Direct Link

Tournament at Scratchplace

It looks like someone is holding a tournament for Saga right now:


https://www.playsaga.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7061


It's sponsered by http://www.sagaunits.com .

I logged in to see if any games have been played, it's looking pretty early in the competition.

If you are interested head over to www.ladder.scratchsplace.com .

Tourneyments Start Next week

"The tournaments should also be available next week." - Slava - Saga Games

https://www.playsaga.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6883&start=45

Tourneyments and going "Infinite" in Saga

https://www.playsaga.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6883

Tourneyments will cost $2 and 3 boosters. This is $11 in cost to win 4 boosters for first. Assuming a first place finishing, you can use your boosters to reenter in the next tourneyment. If you can trade one of the cards from your spare booster for 10 event tickets, you can run the next tourneyment for free.

This is called "going infinite" in games like Magic the Gathering Online. Where you win enough to play for free every tourneyment.

Can you go infinite? Most likely not in Saga. The prizes aren't high enough to allow you any losses without having to rebuy in.

(See the first comment to this. Sagaunits wants to buy your tourney cards to help you go infinite.)