Resources strategy

I thought it would be a good idea to have a public discussion about last set and an introduction of the new Resources strategy.

I had two members in my nation playing resources as netter, both were netting for the first time and I think they did very well with it. I think it can be a powerful netting strategy too. Will try it out next set ;)

Previously I made a point about keeping tech as a separate strategy, after this set I completely retract this. As a nation we were able to request tech at any given time, and did not have to rely on Black Market, as was the case previously.

There wasnt a problem with shortage of food and oil as well.

Overall I think it is a great introduction to the game, and helped to fill in some holes which we had before.

Would did you guys think?

There wasn't a shortage of oil and food for you :P

I spent most of the set buying from bm lol

yeah i was buying alot from the BM, espically the last week or so. but i agree about the techer start staying as part of the resource strat. was originally against it but i think it works really well.

So I went the resources strategy.
Aug '14 was my 3rd set (2nd full set).

The massive advantage I found over farmer was the fact that I didn't have to worry about the other resource, oil.
To boot strap the set I focused on tech, then switched to 50/50 food/oil, then went food, then went back to food/oil in the last third of the set.

This strat enables one to fill up their bank account pretty quickly.
If I could be bothered to time grabs and buy army after spending turns and doing all those things I might have been able to place higher than 7th.

Things I liked about this strat: something to do once each day; easily able to be the spy guy (got to burn those turns on something to gen the food/oil); able to make progress and want to stay in the game (positive reinforcement loop for engagement); master of your destiny (no issues with food/oil/tech); able to fill the bank up rather quickly!
Things I didn't like: being a n00b still and doing stupid shit that dropped my networth 2-3mil multiple times (if someone else pumps oil, then your oil sits in the queue longer, so focus on food, buy army, forget to check percentages then red turn multiple times...) - in other words resources is pretty fantastic.

As this was a peaceful set except for the randoms being random, be interesting to see how it goes in war times.
Perhaps nations wont target the food/oil people in the start cause that will directly impact their ability to access food/oil from the pm??

It felt like a n00b strat, in that it allowed me to figure out some of more niche aspects of the game, as I didn't have to worry about food/oil so much.
Though like a lot of n00b things, in the hands of experienced players could be quite powerful I suspect.

Fun times :D

I love the new strat. I think it works perfect as is. I don't think it is too powerful and even though it is easy to use, you still have to pay attention. I mostly expanded all set as time was short for me and I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the markets. I never had to sell my goods less than max price though, which is a HUGE thing.

If someone takes the time and gets good grabs, watches the market, pays attention to the market trends (analysis) you could be a contender for the top spot. Even though I have played as long as I have, I still red turned about 3 times. If you decide to change production levels, make sure you leave enough not to run out of one lol.. I have always been a casher fan. My number on strat is now Resource Strat.

The markets did dry up towards the end. I couldn't produce enough, fast enough.

I do have 1 suggestion, due to the lack of usual indies and resource strat, maybe you could implement a screen with 75% resource or indy boost? You have it for casher and science, but not other strats. When I ran science I was the biggest in the game and had major delays for growing as I had to wait for the indies to catch up to me. Science isn't too strong, it is the lack of more goods on the market due to specific strats get more per day. I highly recommend a resource/indy boost to keep up. Make it more of a strategy game than bottom feeding as you can literally run out of targets like I did in the last 5+ days left of the reset. The switching of production from the "tax and production" from farmer to oiler, vice versa, or a combination of food/oil and science was a very nice add-on feature. However, with that stated i couldnt catch MM93 at the end of the reset as I couldnt produce enough from farming/oiling to be able to hit him back for land even though I was kind of close a few times.

@Andy You should of communicated more with our guys :p, but I agree there was a slight shortage, but it is just the way set was, was a shortage of everything.

@Nathan before set ended, I looked at ur state and Andys state....and with ur difference of Land and NW u both had about 60-70mil profit per turns, that was IF Andy cashed his turns and you played normal.

@Mike, I agree with you reg this strat being able to compete for the top, will try it my self next set :)

is this basically mixed strat gone kosher?

its a combination of our weakest strats. you are able to change food, science and oil production values, like indy can with military goods. All while only having one building.