Congrats Tmac! In a league of your own here.

Nope, I had to grab and got grabbed too. Haha wasn't a clean set!

2a feels a little bit like the wild west with all the grabbing, and with the player count increasing 50% (20->30) in the last few sets.

Thanks folks! Been a wee bit since I've won 2a. (:

Does it matter where we post for bonus?

I think it's 37m in this current changeset.

https://www.earthempires.com/express/598/ranks/10

Congrats! Happy to help upgrade the competition. (: Just ask away - as you can see, all the folks here are pretty helpful!

Kevro: The way you get the theo destock done is...

1) Spend all your cash on food so you have no cash on hand.
2) Put max of everything on the market (military, food, oil, tech), because stuff on market doesn't get hit the by gov switch penalty.
3) Switch to monarchy. You take a hit here.
4) Recall everything back. Sell your food at the monarchy private market prices (max 38 on this server).
5) Switch to theo. This should be free, cos going from monarchy to anything is free.
6) Buy military on PM, start with troops, then tanks, then jets, then turrets.

Enjoy!

Are 9 untags coordinating without a tag, really in the spirit of the 5-person team server here? Is this worth a purple?

Here's a specific all-explore strat to add more color to A-Rod's post above. This was written for Tournament to get a 21-22m nw finish (which would put you in the top 10 in game A), though you can adapt it for Express by following the phases A-Rod suggested, and grab the yellow bots instead of exploring. If you pick a strategy (casher, indy, farmer, techer), happy to give more specific advice!

------------
ALL X TTR
------------
Sell 100 troops and 100 Bushels.
Change tax rate to 35%.
Set production to 100% Turrets.
Government remains at Monarchy.

Build 20 CS (10 bpt)
Build 100 Farms
Explore whenever possible
Sell food on private market whenever possible
Build 20 CS (15 bpt)
Sell all food

Change Government to Theocracy (21 bpt)

Build 500 ICs
Explore when necessary.
Sell food whenever possible.

Note: If you can't build all 500, build CS 1 at a time and sell food every turn until you can build 1 full bpt of ICs. Stop at 500 ICs.

Build 140 CS (70bpt)
Explore and build ICs to 2k acres

Store turns
Batch explore to 3k acres
Build land as ICs

Store turns
Batch Explore to 6k acres
Build barren land as Labs
Convert the 3k ICs to labs 1 turn of building at a time

=Stockpiling=
At this point, its day 9 and you should now be a fully converted 6k acre techer. From now to day 24, tech all your turns. You can sell once or twice a day. If possible, remember to get the 3 turn bonus twice if you double sell. If not, just get the 6 turn bonus and sell once a day.

What to tech:
Bus/Res - Sells well, and gives you positive income
Agri/Indy - Sells for even higher, but has no effect on your country
Military - Sells the highest towards the end of the set.

On day 24, you should have teched a total of ~1,260,000 tech points. Sell as many tech points as you can but leave 60k military tech untouched. The 1.2m tech points would translate to ~4.2b cash. Since you can only hold 2b on hand at any one time, the rest of that stockpile has to be stored in bushels. So buy food while its price is still low.

=Conversion=
You should now start converting to full MBR. Destroy all your labs at one go, and rebuild them as Military Bases. This conversion will cost you ~$130m and take ~85 turns. You would thus be left with ~4b to destock with. Since you started conversion on the 24th, you should be done by the 25th.

=Destocking=
With 60k Mil tech, a 6k acres MBR would destock at $180/nw. On a 30 day set, you have 5 days of market replenishment left (from 26th-30th). Buyout your private market entirely, and logout with an empty private market. Login the next day and buyout the whole private market again. Remember to always logout with an empty private market to allow for maximum market replenishment. Just repeat this daily until the 30th. You should be able to spend 2.65b on your private market, which would translate to 14.7m nw. Since you started with ~4b, you still need to spend the remaining 1.35b on the public market. I suggest you spend this on day 26 while public market prices are still low.

As half of your stock is in bushels, remember to sell them so you login with 2b again the day after you blow your first 2b.

=Your finishing nw=
Start with 1-2m nw
Blowing 2.65b off private @$180/nw = 14.7m nw
Blowing 1.35b off public @$265/nw ($150 turrets) = 5.1m
Total finishing nw = ~21-22m nw

This strat was detailed without reselling. If you manage to make additional profits from reselling military on the last few days, you might end up with an additional 1-2m nw, giving you ~23m nw or possibly more.

That Fasc Farmer on top better be printing a new NW record with these food prices. xD

Given I'm not a paid player, I can't change my name in tourney, and if Jon Jones loses the defence, that would end my 2a reign as well.

On a side note, I was hoping for a more exciting fight, but he really obliterated Gane.

So you're saying if I name myself "UFC HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLDDDDDDD" I'll start winning 2a consistently?

I don't really understand - why were they reinstated?

I am going CI, please don't farm me. Let there be less CIs too.

Congrats Tmac! Great finish despite the end set shenanigans.

Well, the finishing nw gap between rank 10 and rank 1 over the last (many) sets is anywhere from 30-50m nw. lol

Congrats Andrew! Strong top 2 finishes!

.... I forgot to login at the end, so game B here I go.

Thank you, and congrats to all on the nice finishes!

WP to top 2 on close fight! I hope to be more competitive next set. xD

Going casher, and getting ready to be farmed!

Congrats Tmac on the win! And the rest of the top 10 on a finish in a set where land seemed difficult-ish.

That's a great reminder Rocky - I just blew all my turns, cash and food and then am reminded I do have bonus points I haven't spent. lol

Congrats folks! Wp! I forgot to login lol

Commie Indy this time.

Congrats Andrew for the win and rest of the top 10! Strong finishes, high cut off!

Congrats on triple crown! And nice 88m finish!

I think joining one of the clans (alliance/team) is a good way, but if you wanna stick to solo servers, there are plenty of helpful folks here in the forums. (: Fire away with your questions!

Congrats all - impressive finishes!

This is a terrible techer set so I hope some casher/farmer/indy takes it lol

There were 18 countries in game A the Tournament server.

Rank Country Land Networth Special
1 Ippon (#9) 18,736 $33,005,535 CG
2 GCS (#11) 16,374 $31,372,351 RG
3 p h i l t r e (#15) 15,149 $30,648,902 HG
4 Reise Reise (#8) 18,854 $27,452,403 CG
5 Yodal33t (#16) 17,610 $24,457,890 FG
6 Moshiach was here (#2) 17,275 $24,306,607 FG
7 ToR (#4) 15,372 $22,665,839 CG
8 The Aturan Empire (#1) 13,070 $19,272,973 DG
9 Swamp Guardians (#3) 12,479 $19,245,332 HG
10 A Rash on yOur Dong (#7) 7492 $19,014,625 HG

This was probably the highest top 10 cut off we've had in recent times. Congrats to winner!

I'd say Express without bots is more difficult than tourney because with 360(360) turns anyone can break you or retal at any point in time, and if you multitap you get KRed. In tourney, it's hard to close gaps between countries (if you get bottomfed).

I'm fine with 3 week bots 1 week not as well.

The all-x record in the latest express changeset is $37,040,255.

Looking at the last bot set:
There were 96 countries in the Express server.

Rank Country Land Networth Special
1 g a l a d r i e l (#80) Game profile 52,402 $54,126,946 HG
2 Apollyon The Destroyer (#8) Game profile 36,823 $47,112,126 HG
3 AngRy erOtic worlD (#5) Game profile 48,780 $44,617,572 HG
4 EARTH 2025 (#10) Game profile 16,167 $43,350,583 HG
5 moes tavern (#93) Game profile 44,762 $34,176,107 HG
6 Cashews (#59) Game profile 17,230 $33,639,720 HG
7 razzy dazzy (#89) Game profile 43,423 $33,426,694 TG
8 ASTRAL (#6) Game profile 12,168 $31,110,218 TG
9 Western Star (#4) Game profile 33,399 $28,510,479 FG
10 treelife (#23) Game profile 31,944 $24,583,981 RG

This would put the all-x in rank #5.

So yea, all-x is competitive. If you grab a little you'll prob get higher..

And looking at the set before that:

There were 93 countries in the Express server.

Rank Country Land Networth Special
1 o n e t w o t h r e e f o u r (#56) Game profile 52,407 $62,295,587 HG
2 Knights of Solomons Temple (#45) Game profile 35,860 $46,293,775 RG
3 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (#9) Game profile 13,174 $44,689,054 HG
4 AnotheR orOgy grinD (#4) Game profile 50,093 $39,769,869 HG
5 Western Star (#2) Game profile 30,013 $31,787,379 FG
6 Death to Smoochy (#89) Game profile 31,878 $29,272,397 FG
7 theres few but many between (#7) Game profile 10,750 $26,232,890 HG
8 Flashing Red Light (#3) Game profile 15,871 $24,459,669 HG
9 Wanera (#37) 6442 $23,815,083 D
10 v for Eric (#91) Game profile 28,343 $22,766,265 TG

You'll still get #5 as an all-x.

Celebrations are due!

Congrats AndrewMose! Very close one. Haha

I didn't know you used that name. I've only seen you use Better Run Through The Jungle and Large Igneous Province Siletzia. lol

I still have no idea which country is this. But given I've grabbed the entire server I hope you have already retaled and you let me off easy xD

(Not contesting that this first non-bot set in a while isn't fun - I've practically played the most aggressive country right out the gate this set, but if I had to play the same strat every week, it's gonna get stale very fast.)

This set is fun primarily because it presents a new strategy challenge as no one knows how a 30 country public market would play out, so it seems fresh. (Jury is still out on how this set will end, or if an end game is even possible.) The sheer amount of rainbows early on happened as a lot of people figured it would be a mostly empty public market.

The beauty of bots is that it makes all strats playable/competitive, which is really the changes Slagpit worked hard for early last year with all strats being playable now (vs previously demo techer winning every set).

Right now in this no bot set, it's already evident that many strats are non-competitive, like Rep Casher. Mid set now at these prices look like techers and CIs dominating everyone.

For me, I enjoy Express with bots a lot because all strats are competitive, whereas in the other 2 solo servers, Rep Casher really dominates primary by default (unless prices go crazy), and Tourney is too small a game in 2a (18 players), and farmer is non-competitive there (the other strats are). (I don't touch alliance and have only recently gone back to team, but it seems like FFO is the only competitive strat in 1a, and team is another weird one.)

I'd say I don't mind doing 1 non-bot reset per month, but likely not more than that.

I'm not sure when you both wanna begin the grabfest, because I feel really lonely and will likely be KRed at this point. lol

Well Ratski, I know we've been telling you to specialize, but this is the one set where a rainbow probably works better. lol

This is an interesting strategy challenge, given the public market for 30 players is gonna be very very shallow. RatZilla is gonna kill it this set!

So, is this gonna be an accelerated Primary set now? =P

Congrats Tmac on win! High top 10 cut off indeed!

Congrats Tmac on top country!

And congrats to Bad4u for total and avg nw!

Prices are low to start, then tend to spike Thurs/Fri, and crash Sat. By Sunday prices tend to go up again owing to lack of supply, but as a techer, you'd probably be selling at $1k to clear your tech ASAP.

Anecdotally I felt the tech market the previous set was worse than last set.

If you're returning after a while, you'll be glad to know most strats are playable in Express now. Easiest to finish high are Fasc Farmer and Commie Indy. Next is techer (Theo, Demo, Tyr), and it's set dependent. Theo Casher has also done well on this server (Rep to a lower extent, though our last winner was a rep cash!).

Those are probably the most popular.

In express, the oil destock isn't really great. Prob best to theo destock late, or demo destock off public early.

What wares are you selling?

There is always no agri tech on the market most times I log in. I would love to buy a lot more, and no one is filling my standing orders. =\

I'll trade you some beluga caviar for some agri tech, so I can produce even more beluga caviar for you.

How long more do I get to charge these prices for my white truffles, almas caviar, and goose foie gras?