I finished level 5. I had to negotiate the last two encounters, but that didn't seriously impact my supply of goods. I keep a surplus of 5k of current and previous goods on hand if I need them for things like negotiations, and didn't spend anywhere near that amount, so for now it may be sustainable. Even trying advanced units like Hover Tanks or Eels didn't help as I was still doing 1 damage on some hits, and there was no chance of benefitting from the AO. I might as well have used Strike Teams for stealth. I have a Virgo Project but that thing's a gamble. It might make a difference, if it attacks. I'm going to stick with my earlier comment that it's really the defense attack score that matters here.
As things stand now, I can complete the first 8-10 encounters without building fortifications, then everything up to the 14th encounter I can clear fighting. The last two will require negotiating. I think the balance isn't too bad here, but the last quarter should be toned down a bit. If diamonds needed to be reduced, well that sucks but it happens. However, the prizes on the lower levels really should be adjusted. ToR BPs need to be restored to the early encounters for the lower level players, and the extra attempts should go back to what they were, especially now that GE is 16 encounters longer. Those extra attempts help players clear things more quickly. The unlock costs for level 5 should be tweaked a bit too, there'd no good reason for them to jump like they do.
I already had the Basil in my city, so I'm going to continue leveling it. I've been working on the PvP Arena, so I wasn't neglecting defense. The Basil and Deal are a 30/30 to defense at level 10 and 65/65 at level 80, so a Basil with the TA is 50/50 at 10 and 120/120 at 80. All 3 is an 80/80 at 10 and 185/185 at level 80. Given the Deal's huge footprint -- equal to the CoA and CdM combined -- I'm still not sure the Deal is really worth rushing into a city. It's bonuses at level 10 probably would not have been enough for me to win the last two fights.
Four of our players cleared level 5 this week. One was an IA guy who was pissed about the GE changes. However since the other guild leader wants to collect the fragments from level 5, we will be opening it. If there are Jaims players looking for a level 5 GE guild, then Savage Intent is open for business.