General Guisan

The _most_ bad thing about the 8k jump is the increase in the buying costs of infra, you'll pay more than 2kk per 10 level of infra after the jump, I think the increase is around 40% The upkeep cost is only slightly higher, you might go even when getting a donation or two and 200 more infra... Different than any other jump before (maybe not 5k) is that the question you're asking yourself will be: More meat? A nation of 12k infra will have a military advantage over a 8k infra nation. If 12k infra nation loose 6k infra, it's still very much able to fight. If 8k infra looses 6k infra, it's seriously crippled. The other side of the medal is that the more infra, the higher the daily costs will be. But, and this is my personal oppinion, it does not matter very much if you've to pay 5, 6 or 7 millions per day on infra. If you want cheap bills, you better stay at 3999 or 4999 infra. If you go to 7999 infra, it's only logical you want to go higher as well.

Good changes... tech is still worth a bit, but less than before. There are enough reasons to keep buying tech, however for the NS-addicted fraction here, it might be a blow. Also, radiation is good as it helps the nations with bad ressources, especially lead. I'm off shopping some boarder walls.

Gone on the 25th So last time do use it will be the 24th

Boarder walls are an extremely tight thing. Usually you'll net around 100$ per pop, and one happy point is worth pretty much 1$ income. That means, having 2% less people but 2$ more will, yes, be exactly the same. Now you'll just have to check how much your income is exactly per pop (Taxes only) and how much worth 1point of happyness is for you. Income 110$, +Happy Point 1$: Don't buy it, you'll loose (exp. 100 pop, income 11000$ before, 10976$ afterwards) Income 90$, +Happy Point 1.1$: Buy it (exp. 100 pop, income 9000$ before, 9035.6$) As you can see, in both situations the win/loose factor isn't that big, and most nations tend to have a bigger income than 100$ and will be pretty much on 1$ per happy point, so it usually does not pay off. Now, why do a lot of nations still have boarder walls? Easy answer, as long as your environment is not yet 5 stars, boarder walls are worth it in almost all conditions. After you reached 5 stars, stop buying them. And even with your environment under 5 stars, buying everything else will be smarter. Just start buying boarder camps when you bought all other "good" improvments, and that includes stuff like Churches etc.

I do have fish&wheat, and while I've my trade slots full (not like the thread opener) I do get trade offers only rarely, mostly spam PMs, and never more than 2-3 a month... (And I'm in a rather big team colour...) I think the more rare the ressource combos/team combo is, the more offers you get.

If you're collecting daily, compared to collecting every 5-10 days, your chances will be much bigger to get an event, as it will be choosen randomly each time you collect taxes. You can increase the chance to get an event only by daily collecting.