How do I end up in top 10 - Your advice - Please

I've been playing for a while but I don't know how to pull this off.

Have enough jets so that when people spy your country, you look capable of retaling them. Try 50:50 jets/turrets ratio. Be no worse than 50% of the rank 1 country's NW.

top of head stuff....

pick a set where the number of reps is less than the number of commies (judge this when you have 400+ turns available)

theo cash all the way, spend the first 460 turns with zero mil (but be damn quick about it... spend 99 turns, wait for 360 available before coming oop) then jump up to t10. the 'zero to hero' startup helps avoid bottom feeds

grab well and as xin says, retal well. when someone ROR's decide: take them down with you, or take the hit and move on. no point getting angry about it. weap tech helps more than you think, but so does cashing techs and so does military, so the balance you have to find for yourself. tech investment while not getting grabbed should be the aim... mil is just a means to an end early on

cash more turns than you think you should at the end, but don't store turns as a casher after you've stopped growing - hit your land goal (anything from 15k to 25k) and cash cash cash (so you max your land use before/in case you are grabbed or take a retal)

my credentials are not very recent for a full set theo casher so others may have better advices *looks for metgyl*
89 1 lackslustre (#81) 22,953 $31,507,043 HG

Best casher strat in express I think is republic casher.
The key to success is landgrab & buy tech. Maintain bus/res 150-160% for low tech price, 140-150% for high tech price. Military strat 110%, weapon 120%.
You could choose make early LG & wait for retal or let ppl LG & retal ppl :p

Some end game tips:

Set a land goal, know how much you'll make at that land amount (w/ tech maxed etc). Then calculate how much you'll have stored by the end of that set. Convert to net worth: if you are a theo, do $2bil per 9mil net. If you are Rep, do $2bil per 8mil net.

Use food to store or you can even use tech to store, just remember in your calculations you'll lose some income for the conversion costs.

Then make sure you final end net is >= the past top 10 cutoffs.


As a quick example (#s are not exact), lets say we are shooting for 20mil net. At 15k acres, you'll make ~8.5mil with at least 5mil net already. So you just need 15mil net more, which is roughly $4bil after conversion costs.

So, do 4bil/8.5mil ~ 471 turns. So stock for at least 500 turns. Store $2bil in food and keep the rest on hand. Then just remember to leave enough time at the end to sell food and for your PM to regenerate $4bil worth of goods and viola! you are top ten with 20mil net.

@ viva, rep probably has more potential, but is less straightforward to get to the t10, which was his question.

the theo bpt bonus and pop bonus make the startup more powerful, and destocking when you are already a theo is also more straightforward.

Agree with the advantage & disadvantage :p

thanks everyone

word

I want to try REp Cash in the next express so can someone tell me the correct building ratio (EZ and Res) and a good BPT to get too? I would also like to know what tax rate to run. I havent played in a few years and wanted to find a game like (or almost the same as) Earth 2025 and just like that i did. ;)

50:50 for ents and resses is fine, tax for casher is 35% usually, some run higher and some lower, as for bpt: less turns spent on building after batch explore is more turns left for cashing but 50-80 is enuf.

the most difficult part of a republic is not becoming am easy target. keep more turrets than you think you need.

Thanks. :)

and tanks not to get artillery barraged, otherwise your casher turns to farmer w/o farms.

So I did 80 CS last round and was doing 30 bpt. I think its 80 CS now and 25 bpt. Did they re-adjust CS? Or am I just mistaken?

Also as turns go on.. how often should I increase bpt? Or should I just go for a high bpt right away.. like 50+?

Also I think I got top 30 (which is fine since I haven't played in a while) but I'm not sure... do they email final rankings like the old game?

The BPT formula has not changed.

BPT = (CS / 4 + 5) * government bonus.

You should try for about 50 BPT, 25 is too little (aim for 20k land). As for whether to build CS as you go, or build everything upfront, it's more a playstyle choice.

Building CSes first upfront is more efficient turn-wise.
Building as you go is more efficient production-wise.

you get email on your finish if you have enabled it in options (dunno if it is by default on or off) and you can also see it on main page when clicking my game profile and then server you are playing (in this case express).

The EE email server stopped working about a year ago, so you will no longer receive any EE emails of any sort (including max turn reminders) until they fix it.

How big to go before I stop exploring?

When the math says that the

(extra production gained over the additional X built acres of land gained over the remainder turns in the reset) - (cost of building X land) - (cost to buy tech)

is smaller than

(spending the same turns to cash 20% extra cash instead).

---------------

An all-explorer can potentially reach 15k-18k on Express and finish in top 10.