Lehran

I'm maintaining my navy at half size so the bills aren't too bad but at least I'll have a full navy with 3 days notice (nearly). I hate the upkeep though. I'm not sure there should be an upkeep while they're on standby, presumably in the drydock...I mean what are they costing to sit around every day? Not a million dollars...

In that case let me use my spies to find their hideouts. Or we should at least be able to find their missile bases and sabotage them. That's totally possible - have you not seen Alias?

I'd get the SDI before the MP - nukes beget nukes.

I seem to have access to a pot of one event: -$5 per citizen or -10% land. It plagues my standard and TE nations. I have had more positive events in TE though, I cannot remember the last time I had a good event in standard. Generally, a day before I collect an event shaves at least 3 happiness off my otherwise delighted citizens. Can't we have a wonder that negates events? Not sure what it would be...I'd pay very good money for one of those! Or what about a slightly geeky thing like a luck stat? A wonder that predisposes your nation to have better 'luck'...?

The difficulty is that on balance most resources are pretty good. Lead really helps with navy and nuke bills, Furs grows your nation 1.5 miles per day (handy when land start getting expensive). Perhaps we just need a few more bonus resources to account for your awkward resource combos - I don't think the success of a nation should be down to chance on day 1 when the player didn't know what he was doing... Having said that, the beauty of the 3BR is that it actually only requires 10 resources so you can add two rubbish ones in so that against the odds, they get the benefit too. Hard to get a 3BR with no wildcards these days though and then you have to talk everyone round cos they wanted fish and and uranium as the wildcards, etc. I've got a 3BR with fish and furs and my resources are Aluminum and Fish. If I didn't have the Aluminum, my nation would probably look very different...

Yeah I've set up about 10 3BR circles now and aluminum is generally the hardest to get, to the extent that I start with aluminum and work the rest around it. In fact any of the construction BR ingredients are hard to find. Also Pigs and wheat is oddly difficult to get... Kills me to see a 20 day old nation 20 days inactive with Aluminum and Iron...

It's a month before the end of the round isn't it?

I was discussing this with someone a week or so ago and I looked at the numbers - in terms of balance the 5BR is likely the ideal set-up for TE, or at least the best compromise. But you get a 3BR with fish on the go and 5 GCs and nobody is getting through... If you look in the top 10 there are a couple of 8BRs, one 5BR and the other 7 are basically 3BR type efforts - not all complete 3BRs due to resource restrictions and people not really caring as much about their TE nation - but definitely following the 3BR resource list theme. Having said that, it's not proof that the 3BR is better because the 3BR could be arbitrarily preferred by 70% of nations so it just could be a snapshot representation of the % as a whole really. I personally swear by a 3BR though. A 27-ish% pop boost is formidable, especially in the improvement race. For some reason I feel compelled to stand up for lead here. It get's such a hard time - 20% off your heavy military bills is great and it can give you access to scholars which in itself is just ok, but really helps to balance it out into a decent resource IMO.

Them be good resources you've got. Don't sell them for less than $3 mill.

pmed in game

Yeah I agree to be honest. It makes raiding redundant if everyone does this. And if raiding becomes redundant the game stagnates. Don't get me wrong, I am peaceful as can be in CN standard and I like that but TE is a chance to have a good fight. If everyone 0 soldiers then TE becomes a test to see who can establish the best economy...which is what peaceful nations do in standard. Someone suggested in another thread that there should be a minimum soldier count for firing cms and I agree with this. From a gaming angle, it means there is some point in attacking and it makes sense in terms of realism - I mean if a nation literally had 0 soldiers I think it's safe to say that nation is defeated and nobody is firing missiles...I think the same should be applied to the airforce too - who's flying the planes?

Ever so slightly off topic, but I like the idea of random scales of damage for attacks. I know we already have that, but what about if the SDI was revised slightly to give a damage restriction range between 10% and 100%. That way you always get some return on investment; ie; -10% damage, but there is a random chance for damage anywhere between 0% and 90% so the attacker still has some impact regardless? In this case your SDI wouldn't actually be stopping the nuke in it's tracks, it would be redirecting it. If a nuke lands 50km outside a city the damage would be relative. Perhaps the % effectiveness could be an attacking nation vs defending nation tech formula. And perhaps spies could be sent to further undermine this SDI.

I also log on briefly at work and I'm pretty sure there are no colleagues with nations. But to clarify one thing in my mind - if someone did happen to create a nation, would I safe so long $@! wee never interacted? Difficult to manage an office and discuss a 'No CN for anyone except me' policy...

Also if it really is perma-ZI, do the nations who are going to aid you know that...? Because they might find themselves on the wrong end of a blitz. Actually I noticed a ZI a day or two ago with a small nation (maybe with a couple of improvements) where an alliance was attacking a rogue under their AA....? You better find out if it's ZI or perma-ZI...

That IS a great idea.

Go us!

The key word in this debate for me is 'war chest'. The price of always being military ready outweights the price of a successful raid. If I get anarchised once every six months, it would still be more expensive to have a ludicrous military set-up eating my bills month in month out. Especially Guerrilla Camps. All you need is a big fat war-chest then there's not much to worry about. My warchest would allow me to pay my bills for a month at least and it's not like I'd be collecting in a war anyway so whether I'm in anarchy or not is irrelevant. Anarchy has an association of defeat, but so long as you can pay your bills and fight at 100% effectiveness, who cares. It takes 2 minutes to buy 5 Guerrilla Camps if war happens.

A happiness bonus celebration for your Standard nation? Cuz, y'know, the citizens are pretty pleased with you. Perhaps a +5 happiness 30 days after the round ends...?

Thanks for the revision Thaliak. And happy 7 days anniversary.

Ahh very handy thanks.

I've been trying to find this on wiki but it doesn't seem to be there. I'm coming up for my 6 months anniversary - does anyone know what the happiness boost will be? And while we're at it - does anyone have a full listing of all the key anniversaries and the happiness bonus they give? Thanks NeoGandalf

Despite arguing with myself in another thread, I'm going to buy the GT in a few days prior to collecting so the increase is backdated. That will make it more beneficial than the IS which would only be effective immediately, since I've already paid the bills over the saving period. Next one is IS since I probably won't be able to afford a wonder prior to collecting as I'll be maxing my navy next month (boooooo). I voted GT but I still think the IS should be considered as a main contender - but if you're buying a wonder every month take into account that it costs an extra $10 mill and that might negate the immediate superiority for heavy infra purchasers/maintainers when weighed against heavy income boosters.

I don't know about this...doesn't everyone have an equal chance to be that bigger nation? Surely there are tactic-based solutions like gaining your tech in an infra ratio that allows you to defend it effectively...or buying 50 cms to ward off raiders...or being more careful with defcon levels... I think the problem is that people go into TE and sit in defcon 5 with 30% soldiers and a bunch of banks and wonder why they keep getting hit... TE's meant to be dog-eat-dog aggressive...if we give people the ability to throw their tech overboard then the incentive to play is at risk.

I buy infra in bulk, so when I buy 1000 infra in a few days, the IS will save me around $11 million in purchases and it will save me $144K per day upkeep, only $100K less than the GT would add to my income. So for 30 days, the IS is worth $15.3 mill and the GT is worth $7.3 mill. But then the IS costs $10 million more...oh my, now I just don't know which to buy. I may have just confirmed that the GT is better...but I still think the IS should be given big cheers!

Pigs and lead (little early for a wild-card I know - but think of the scholars!). I have to remain black though...so it would nee to black team for it to work for me.