Team building tips

Building good teams is essential to progress quickly in Gems of War. Building a good team can be difficult - here are some general guidelines to follow.

Basics and common tips

1. Build for speed - if you have 3 Dwarven Gates on your Team, you're going to be in for VERY long Battles. The more Battles you complete, the more Rewards you receive!
2. Don't Mana block - order your Troops in your Team so you don't have Troops of the same color in front of others, or avoid multiple Troops of the same Mana color. This will stop your Troops powering up their quickly enough before they are killed.
3. Put your toughest Troop or your Hero in first position - Troops which have Traits that reduce Skull Damage, do a lot of Skull Damage themselves, receive extra Skill Points for being in the first position or give themselves a lot of Armor, Life or Attack are a good choice for the first Troop slot. These Troops are going to take the most damage and will protect other Troops on the team.
4. Use Mana generators - use at least 1 Troop which will allow you to fill your Mana fast. If you can cast more Spells than your opponent, you will probably win!
   • Example: Valkyrie, any type of Trolls or Nyx.
5. Use Exploders -  With the right Team combination Troops that Explode can leave your opponent in the dust with the extra Mana they generate from Exploded Gems, the extra Skull Damage they can do and the added chance to cascade lucky 4/5 Gem matches for extra turns. Exploders can be versatile as they do not depend on existing Gems on the board to create more Mana (i.e, some Trolls double the number of Gems)
6. Use Kingdom and Troop Type bonuses - if you can build a good Team of Troops that are all from the same Kingdom - or all have the same Troop Type (or both) - your Team will gain a lot of bonus Skills!
7. Choose your Banner carefully - Be aware of penalties on a Banner (ie. -1 Yellow Mana) and try to avoid penalties on colors that your Team uses. Also even if most of your Team are Green it may still be more effective to not choose the +2 Green Mana Woodlands Banner. In the Goblin Team example below, there are 3 Green Troops but Princess Fizzbang, who uses Purple/Blue, is very important to the strategy so the +1 Green +1 Purple Dark Elven Banner is chosen instead of +2 Green Woodland Banner.
8. Build Teams to achieve specific goals/defeat certain Team types - ie. Goblins with their extra turns are good for beating high damage, slow Mana generating teams. Freeze Teams stop Goblins earning extra turns, Troops with Impervious are Freeze proof. Fire Bomb Teams might be useless in PVP, but they are fast Explorers.
9. Use your Hero - The Hero is an often undervalued Troop. If you're finding it difficult to fill a certain slot on the team, try using the Hero: many weapons are versatile or can fill a gap that is needed. 

Build a Team that works well with your best Troop

One strategy is to find your highest Rarity Troop and base your Team on Troops that work well with it. This strategy works well even if you are new to the game and don't have many Troops yet.

For example: If you've been lucky enough to find The Dragon Soul, consider building a Dragon Team which doesn't clash with The Dragon Soul's colors.

You could consider:

• Using the Dragonguard Class for your Hero.
• Using a Mana generating Troop that generates Red/Purple Gems.
• Using only other Dragons in your Team to receive a Dragon Team Bonus.
• Using a Dragon Egg to summon more Dragons.
• As The Dragon Soul does a lot of damage and explodes Gems you could use a Dragon Troop which boosts Life, such as Celestasia to give your Team some more defense.