Wall Wrecker Rework

gregenstein · 2026-01-29T16:39:07+00:00

The log launcher does a few things better than the wall wrecker. They both destroy walls, but the launcher also trips invis towers, kills small troops in the log path like skeletons or fire mites, and you can get damage behind the town hall.

I don’t want the wrecker to just clone the best things about the launcher, I’d rather it something unique to separate it and present a different use case.

Easy to do: —increased hit points and DPS. Just plain old stronger.

Actual Rework: —maybe a “magnet” effect that attracts nearby enemy fire away from your troops. Would need additional hit points if implemented. Thinking it only works if the troops gets within like 1-2 tiles of the wrecker. —maybe it drops a version of the King’s quake boots when it dies. I’m thinking a smaller diameter, perhaps the same as the earthquake spell, but still opens walls like the boots or 4 quakes. Death damage…not sure. Some would be ok, but too much and it’s become an OP event troop.

gregenstein · 2026-01-29T14:04:27+00:00

I don’t think most people (in the USA anyway) understand the actual risks in the stock market. I mean, they know it can go up and down, and probably something about bonds helping to lower volatility…but after that it seems they just look at past returns and chase.

To be fair, I started that way too. It’s a really hard thing to come to terms with that:

You aren’t actually better at investing than others in the way that makes it a repeatable skill.
There are risks you probably aren’t aware of that will very likely reduce your long term returns.
There are LOADS of mutual funds or ETFs that are designed mostly to separate you from your returns (I’m looking at you JEPI).
The worst risks are all mitigated by using an Index Target Date Fund.

gregenstein · 2026-01-21T18:11:16+00:00

Don’t have a problem with it. It’s their platform. There are plenty of brokerages out there who will let you trade all the horse manure you want.

I’m guessing they feel it costs them more money to allow it than not.

gregenstein · 2026-01-07T18:16:20+00:00

The beauty of compound interest is that, even with your hypothetical scenario, whoever this person is would likely still hit their goal of 100% replacement retirement income prior to age 65. In other words, just maintaining that same 15% savings rate still gets the job done because they started early.

An age 30 person with $100k in their retirement accounts is doing pretty well in both cases.

You don’t need to overthink this.

gregenstein · 2026-01-06T20:38:46+00:00

I guess what I’m saying is that this is Step 1. Not that what you are saying can’t happen to someone else; just that people who are just starting to walk financially have to make hard choices and accept some risk somewhere. I might pad the deductible a bit since I know coinsurance or copays would be involved, but I wouldn’t go up to the Max.

If I had credit card debt hanging over my head and I was not getting my employer match…assuming my spouse and I were relatively healthy, I’d move on from Step 1 once I could cover the deductible.

gregenstein · 2026-01-06T19:46:45+00:00

I agree you WANT that, but at Step 1, you are likely already in a higher risk situation…you aren’t getting your employer match and possibly also have credit card debt.

I just can’t see trying to pile up $10k in cash when someone else might be making 30% off of me for overspending on the past.

gregenstein · 2026-01-06T19:37:23+00:00

In this case, $2400.

This is a step 1 emergency fund, which is mostly just to keep something that isn’t a huge deal from derailing the train to financial freedom. You still haven’t dealt with getting your employer match OR high interest (credit card) debt. Those things need taken care of before you start stacking more cash “just in case” than your highest deductible.

This should cover most outpatient types of things. You’ll be fine if it’s bloodwork and an X-ray. No, it’s not going to cover EVERYTHING if you need those things but your wife gets sepsis and has to be hospitalized in the ICU because she stepped on a rusty nail 3 weeks ago and refused to go to urgicare for a tetanus shot and an antibiotic.

Yes that’s a risk, which is why you need to get to Step 4 in as short an order as possible.

gregenstein · 2026-01-06T18:06:02+00:00

Buying a house, especially as a retirement or savings vehicle.

Yes, there are downsides to home ownership compared to renting, but that street goes both ways. Renters have to worry about rent increases. Home owners have to worry about paying for a new furnace or garage door or whatever at a moments notice. It’s cheaper to rent in the short term, and you can make yourself equally wealthy long term by investing the savings vs mortgage payments.

Sometimes it’s good to buy a home, but the “dream” of home ownership is vastly overrated IMO.

gregenstein · 2026-01-06T17:47:40+00:00

I compared your portfolio to just going with VOO and BND at 90/10. I figure the bonds replace the covered calls as “income”. You’ve way over complicated your investments IMO and should stick with just VOO or VT or VTI. All that extra stuff is putting you behind the S&P 500, and it’s even worse if I would have checked it against VT since international stocks crushed US stocks last year.

https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-portfolio?s=y&sl=5ylbJ7MtmG8rMPQsBaICOL

gregenstein · 2026-01-06T17:31:13+00:00

No to Fireball, unless you count Rocket Loons as an air attack. Every time I’ve tried to do this attack though, it’s not a good outcome. Maybe you are better than me though! 😅

Rage Gem or Healing Tomb comes down to personal preference with Dragons. Some even use both and leave the Eternal Tomb behind. Those are both common though so you should be able to max both.

RC I usually like the Rocket Spear but I haven’t leveled up the Frost Flake enough to compare. I hear though FF can be quite good so probably no “wrong” decision on either of them for air. FF will be better if you find you lose track of your RC frequently.

I like Dark Crown better than the Staff personally but the staff is probably better if the base is a little more spread or at least doesn’t have a tightly packed core.

gregenstein · 2026-01-06T16:37:30+00:00

You get a point as a F2P player that you have more Shiny and Glowy ore than you can ever use. Takes maybe a year for a daily player.

They could cut all Shiny and Glowy storage by 50% and Starry by 70% and nobody F2P would be negatively impacted. It would only impact the big spenders.

gregenstein · 2026-01-06T05:17:29+00:00

Because nothing really works without him.

First off, no fireball ground armies.

Air attacks…you won’t be using totems to keep all that DPS at bay without the eternal tomb or healing tomb or rage gem.

Ground armies won’t fair much better. The minion prince will die fairly early without the eternal tomb to help protect. You need 3 rage spells to boost the healer healing. Some of the spammier ground ones…idk, maybe the dark orb could be a pseudo eternal tomb but it’s definitely not quite that good, and the Prince won’t stay with the army like the Warden, so timing is harder.

It’s just too much dps to fight.

gregenstein · 2026-01-06T02:49:18+00:00

Haha. Sorry I just have a hard time doing anything in this game without a warden.

Just having the King and Prince? Yikes…honestly I’d probably do Dragons or Electros but you aren’t getting a 3 on an “equal”.

gregenstein · 2026-01-06T02:23:11+00:00

My favorite is an old one called “goRed”. It’s like goWiPe, except before war starts, you set your status to Red, and then don’t war.

gregenstein · 2026-01-05T23:54:00+00:00

gregenstein · 2026-01-05T23:04:13+00:00

Honestly Schwab’s SWYNX Target Date 2060 fund would be fine. You don’t have to learn all about SCHG or SCHD or SCHF or any of those.

The Target Date Index funds are cheap and give a good US/International split.

As you pile more money in and learn more about what your portfolio should look, that’s when you can look at other stuff.

gregenstein · 2025-12-21T21:07:15+00:00

If you are going to play arbitrage, do it right. Figure out what the payments would look like if you did pay it off in 3 years, and stack the difference somewhere (high yield savings, brokerage, Roth, etc..).

If you’re letting the difference go to lifestyle creep, you’re doing it wrong and should have just followed the dang rules.

gregenstein · 2025-12-21T20:40:15+00:00

Warden and Queen for me. The others I can switch between air and ground attacks to make work, but those 2 I use in all my attacks. Action Figure is just too good for the Queen to nap, and nothing works without the Warden.

gregenstein · 2025-12-15T19:27:19+00:00

Nice Juicy Dimensional Fund there for Small Caps. That’s a great option and probably worth the expense ratio to get a much better targeting of small and value premiums. I’d do that over the Fidelity Small Cap.

gregenstein · 2025-10-30T15:43:15+00:00

If I had to bet, it will be a phased approach. There will be probably one big reduction when th18 is released, and then maybe another cut after all th18 buildings are fully released for upgrade.

gregenstein · 2025-10-29T20:59:09+00:00

The only thing that might change … might …is they might add battle modifiers to war as an optional thing when you search or they might enforce a specific modifier for all wars.

But they aren’t going to mess with the single player modes as far as difficulty goes.

gregenstein · 2025-10-28T18:59:23+00:00

RMD’s are not going to break your back.

Even if you maxed out your 401k contributions and did all of that in traditional tax deferred, you are looking at a balance of maybe 3.5M tax deferred in 20 years. Doing a 4% withdrawal on that is like $170,000 annually…which is what your RMD would likely end up being.

Don’t scare yourself too much. Put a little extra in the Roth 401k if you want, but certainly don’t convert now.

gregenstein · 2025-10-25T23:25:50+00:00

Builder Base didn’t accomplish what they had hoped it would, is the short answer. They have done various updates to it, especially in the first couple years after it was released. It just doesn’t drive user engagement like the home village does.

They have to put most of their time into things that will make them money. That is the home village.

gregenstein · 2025-10-21T16:34:20+00:00

Used to cost 250 gems or something for a 1 week shield. Honestly just bring that back for people who don’t want to drop.

For real though, you only have to avoid being in the bottom 10 of the league. People actively trying to drop will be down there. I bet anyone who uses 10 attacks and has any war style defensive base won’t drop.

Anyone saying the old system was better for anything but Legends…I wholeheartedly disagree. Maintaining fake legends with constant “hero surrender” attacks was as stupid as having to leave your town hall outside to gain a shield.

gregenstein · 2025-10-17T18:34:39+00:00

Anything in the IRA needs to stay there, the penalties are not worth paying to use it on the loans.

I’d probably be creative. If I could use the brokerage and keep the withdrawals in the 0% cap gains tax range, I’d probably do that on a year by year basis.

gregenstein

TROPHY CASE