Punch Down:
Citadel Edition
The loop holds up at level 30, but every Elven citadel has a dragon, and it keeps taking a bite out of my griffins on the way through. For a while I fixed that by bringing more griffins. What actually fixes it is a smaller citadel.
Drop to a level 20 Elven citadel. The dragon in there is the one thing that can really hurt your griffins, and a lower citadel packs a smaller one. Same army you already run, weaker citadel, and you still walk out with a Dragon Key.
This picks up where The Citadel Loop leaves off, so if you haven't broken a citadel yet, start there. Everything below assumes you're already sending griffins, catapults and melee, and you just want to stop losing so many of them.
Every monster gets one free swing
A citadel fight goes one for one. You hit, a monster hits, you hit, a monster hits. With five monsters in the garrison, they land about five hits on you in total, and you only ever steal the first one. Every other monster swings once before you can kill it, however strong you march.
The dragon and the Ent both go looking for flyers, so a chunk of those hits fall on your griffins. That's why the griffins bleed even though the walls can't touch them. The walls do nothing to a flying unit. The monsters behind the walls are another story.
So drop a level
You can't out-muscle those five hits, so the whole trick is to face weaker monsters. Drop to a level 20 and the dragon is a lower tier, which means less health and a softer punch. Your griffins wipe it in one swing instead of trading blows with it, and the few hits that do land barely leave a mark.
It's still an Elven citadel, so it still drops a Dragon Key. Just don't march on a Cursed one by mistake, which pays Master Coins instead. Elven is the green castle. And a level 20 still likes the same melee-and-griffins army, so nothing about your setup has to change.
Scout the dragon, not just the wall
Send a catapult with Brann and read the report. You want two numbers: how big the wall is, and how big the dragon is. Every Elven citadel we've seen packs a dragon, and it's the main thing that can hurt your griffins, so its size tells you how clean the run will be. The lower the level, the smaller that dragon.
What to bring
| Troop | Bring | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Griffins | all of them | Your no-loss engine. The walls can't touch them, and at level 20 they clean house. |
| Catapults | enough to one-shot the wall | They flatten it on turn one so it never swings back. Cheap to bring home. |
| Melee | all of it | Swordsmen and knights. They do the bulk of the damage and barely get scratched. |
| Mercs | the lot | Free extra damage. |
Bring all three captains too. Each one carries a bonus for a different part of the army, so nothing marches unbuffed:
The siege bonus. It's what makes your catapults hit hard enough to flatten the wall in one shot.
The infantry bonus. Powers the melee that does your bulk damage.
The flying bonus. Makes your griffins tougher and hit harder.
Level up Wu Zetian
Her flying bonus is what keeps your griffins alive, and it climbs with her level. If she's lagging behind your other captains, that's the cheapest upgrade you've got: a stronger flying bonus means tougher griffins that drop the dragon before it swings.
Did it work?
- Under a hundred griffins lost, and only a little silver to revive? That's your farm. Run it on repeat.
- Still bleeding? Drop to level 15 and scout again, but swap your swordsmen for horsemen down there. The citadel favors mounted at 15.
Run the whole loop during Ruthless Slaughter so you revive with silver instead of gold. A level 20 leaves you fewer to bring back in the first place, so the round costs next to nothing.
Same key at the end.
Just fewer funerals.