Clash Royale

[Hendo]

This is quickly becoming my favourite game and certainly deserves a thread.

Yeah, it's a free to play game with timers and in-game currency to buy. But it's also one of the best designed, most fun and well balanced games you're likely to play.

In short, it's a real-time card battler that manifests as a tower defense game. However it's more like tower offense.

You throw in cards from your deck to deliver troops and towers that will hopefully get through to the opponent's bases and fuck them up.

 

There's a real stone-scissors-paper balance to how it all works and it is glorious when you devour the other side.

When you win you get chests that can be up to 8 hours to unlock (or spend gems) and out of those chests you can get new cards or more of the same you already have which means you can level up your units, which also costs you.

I've put a fair bit of time into it so far and haven't spent anything but I'm at the point where if it comes to it, I'll be quite happy throwing them a tenner for currency as I've spent far more on games that I didn't enjoy as much.

In that sense, it's free to play done right.

[Jimboxy]

I might have to give it another look.

[retroed]

It's really good. We're in a clan and everything.

[Craymen Edge]

I downloaded it on Android to check it out. I did the tutorial fights, then 5 or 6 matches. It's pretty fun, although it did seem to have a few connection problems. I got asked to log back in 4 times.

The length on some of those timers is pretty shitty. I have all 4 chest slots full now, is there much point in playing any more until they've unlocked?

[Hendo]

To gain stuff? Nope, that's the free-to-play model kicking in.

But if you're in a clan you can do friendly matches with others. Or do training or just play for fun.

This is where you get people maximising their time by setting the 8 hour chests off before they go to bed.

[Craymen Edge]

I'm probably going to be done with this pretty soon. I've gotten to lvl 5, and upgrading my cards costs a fucking fortune to the point where I can't actually afford to do it, so can't level any further.  (unless I buy gold with real money obviously). 

 

I'm not enjoying trying to build a deck for arena 3 at the moment, it's a struggle.  I just can't get a decent balance between offence, defence and elixir cost. It's not helped by the fact that I've been coming up against. opponents who have dropped down from a higher arena level recently and have units I just can't get right now. 

[Hendo]

I'm still playing loads every day, well, loads until the chests fill up and then do some training games while I wait for them to clear.

I've levelled up quite a few things and haven't spent a penny yet. I still might do.

It really benefits being in a clan, you can request non-epic cards from other clan members and they gain experience and I think some money for giving.

[Craymen Edge]

To get the money required to upgrade one of my most commonly used units works out to about 28-32 hours waiting time right now. 

 

Also: The crossbow can fuck right off. 

[Hendo]

Get yourself in a clan, easy way to get money and units. Also don't spend the gems, save up 60 and convert them to 1000 gold.

 

There's a few good tactics against the crossbow - I have 2 building cards with me, you can drop one of them to divert the crossbow. Bomb tower will get rid of it. The Baby Dragon or the skeleton horde is good also.

[retroed]

I've spent £3.99 on this free game. Currently happily sitting in my top three of 2016. Perfect to jump in and play a few games here and there.

 

I definitely recommend getting yourself in a clan. Hendo and I are in the ugvm clan, but that's mostly for rllmuk forumites I believe. 

[Whiskey_chaser]

Been pretty addicted to this - perfect mobile game. Could do with being in a clan though! Thing the ugvm would mind if I joined?

[Hendo]

Send a request, I'll mention you.

[Hendo]

I've been hot and cold on this for the past couple of weeks.

Did really well, got to arena 5 and then got knocked back down. My lowest point was either losing about 400 trophies in 24 hours or as a level 7 base (more health I think) getting beaten by a level 4.

I very nearly stopped playing altogether but instead I just waited for all my chests to unlock and then got back on the horse.

 

I'm doing ok again but really could do with my favourite cards being a higher level. It's not an issue of money - I have 6000 gold sitting there which could level up 3 different cards at my level - but more of getting the units to level up the cards.

It's not so much the FTP model at play here as there's no guarantee any amount of money thrown at the game will get what I want.

 

I've come to a level of acceptance that as it's a purely multiplayer game, I will never get to the top and I might have already peaked, but to enjoy the game's mechanics without worrying about making myself look a tit.

 

Still not put a penny in and unless you really have a bottomless bank account, I don't think it makes that much difference.

[Craymen Edge]

I've uninstalled it from my phone because the whole chest timer thing was becoming a bit dull, and I was coming up against the same deck builds again and again. 

 

I've heard there have been some balance fixes, and some new cards coming soon. I might come back to it at a later date and hopefully see some new stuff.  

[Hendo]

I haven't posted about this in ages but I've still been playing it every day since I started.

I've actually put money into it now. Only 4 quid, which I'm pretty comfortable with seeing how much I've played it for months. I could see me putting that in every month or so if I keep playing. I've certainly spent far more on games I've barely touched.

 

There's been a lot of up and down moments, some where I nearly uninstalled it after getting thrown down the arenas by people much lower ranked than me but I've come to a peaceful point at it. I'vefound my favourite cards and only spending in-game money on upgrading them.

[mmmark]

Started this today. I’m not sure what to make of it ? or really understand what to do. Sometimes I’ll win. Sometimes I’ll lose but I don’t know why. 

[Hendo]

There’s loads of reasons for winning and losing.

 

The most obvious answer you might think is someone has paid money to get higher cards but I’ve won people with higher level decks and lost to people with lower decks.

The two main reasons are card order and incompatible decks.

 

So you might have the perfect deck to fight your opponent but the card order you’ve been given at the start has screwed you over and you risk either just using what you have or burning cards when you don’t need them just to get to what you want. Managing elixir is key to victory so doing that leaves you open to getting smashed.

 

For example, someone sends a slow tank down towards you and you burn through a couple of cards just to get your tank smashing card, but in the meantime their elixir is back to full and they will be able to use all their counters against you.

 

The second reason (incompatible decks) is stuff like you have no counters to air and your opponent sends a load of air units your way and you’re screwed.

In my case for the deck I mainly use, it’s an elixir expensive deck and the meta is people flinging low cost fast stuff at you.

 

This is the bastard that created one of the most annoying decks going around and insanely difficult for me to counter.

 

 

The other reason for getting beat is you just simply got out played. Some people are just stupidly good at this game.

 

I don’t take it seriously and embrace getting smashed, but I am proud that I made my deck from scratch and am constantly in the top 3 of my clan. If you take to it and want in, there’s room in there for you.

[mmmark]

I didn’t want to go without saying thanks for the above @Hendo but ultimately it isn’t for me. In a surprise twist tho I discovered an official f1 card game that I’m enjoying. 

[mmmark]

 

@Blakey

[Hendo]

I mentioned this on the podcast, how the ladder changes have improved the game, and I still think they have.

In short, you now gain more points for winning than you drop for losing. Whereas it used to be just the difference between you and your opponent.

 

To see how this has actually affected my game (and many others), this graph shows how I’ve blown past my old personal best.

 

 

The sharp drops you see are when the season resets you back to a certain amount, so the above graph shows 5 seasons, the fifth current one just about to end. Not only have I got my best score, but also had a season with few dips.

 

For context, the pro players are somewhere between 6000-7000, so I’m doing alright for an old man with terrible timing and reaction speed.