If I have damaged a territory with mortars or whatnot, but then I use triple strike against the damaged territory, will it give me the troops for the original or decreased value of troops? I have an insane triple strike. It should be the original if the game is fair.

It gives you a % of the current armies.

I'm not sure why you would even mortar if you have an insane TS, so I recommend you dont. Especially not with a TS good enough that you can profit from it :)

When in doubt, Idle will do the least advantageous thing for you. Here that means applying the TS on the damaged value, not the original. Similar examples can be seen with bonus stacking.

mr fancy pants, your logic is sound.

JK, good point w/" a TS good enough that you can profit from it".

Another example is as the game goes on once an Insane AV is had there's no more reason for Mercenary Discount.

Keeping in line w/getting armies or saving armies. Thoughts on the next best Insane after Army Cache Boost (A$B) for getting armies?

Another example is as the game goes on once an Insane AV is had there's no more reason for Mercenary Discount.

I disagree. In fact, I would probably take an Insane MD before an Insane AV. MD is generally more useful than AV for getting to the first market, and Legendary AV is enough for every level that matters.

Keeping in line w/getting armies or saving armies. Thoughts on the next best Insane after Army Cache Boost (A$B) for getting armies?

If you're SAing quickly and so you're thinking about a second Insane after 20-30 SAs or so, you probably want A^B, as you spend an increasingly large amount of each SA on the early terrible levels. It reduces your desire to waste AP on IACP and also lets you fire off a CRA much earlier on every level.

If you're going JK_3 speed and taking another Insane every SA, then I'm not sure.

The only other artifact that directly gives you more armies is CB, and I don't think that's a strong candidate for Insane #2. Definitely for #3 though. I don't count A^B in this category because army camps are too slow to be relevant. Technically there's also TS, QS and AC, but actives suck.

"If you're SAing quickly "

This is strategy to consider while getting deeper into the game as well.

Perhaps SAing as fast as possible and forgetting artifact distractions is the best strategy?

SAing faster is the fastest way to acquire artifact wealth by far, as you get two free Epics each time. You only need to run the numbers on how long that would take to dig and then take a peek at the SA leaderboard to see how fast people can SA. The crossover point is usually only a few SAs in and it continues to get better from there.

Put another way, AM is to IACP as SAing faster is to digging.

That said, I can say that if you need a bit of a break from SA after SA, earning enough AP to get 5 multilevels in phase 4, auto dig, and a large idle time (+ 20% digging times of course helps as does the clan bonus) does give a path to insanes.

Doesn't change insane artifact priority of course! I finally got an insane AV - well after an insane MD - and I agree it just makes some hardened levels just a little easier. Nothing more than that.