I think this is where your understanding of the game is falling short. The eventual winners of this set is already in the top 10 and massively turn delayed.

You're generally looking at 40k acres at turn 1100 with 400+ cs. You can be anywhere from 50-75k acres by turn 1500, with 400+ cs. That's what a good finish looks like. I agree not many people can do this, but we do see quite a number of countries around 50k acres, and these are the ones that consume a lot of oil.

I'm not sure what "5mil net by turn 550 w/ 200+ CS" really entails, since nw is not important until the final minutes of the game. In fact, you'd want have as low nw as possible in order to nw match the bots you are grabbing. And 200+ cs is really not a winning bpt unless you are a techer.

This is at turn 1550. Roughly 450 turns left in set.

You're assuming people aren't playing turn delayed.. I'm guessing most of the bigger players have 1k turns left.
(I have 1k turns left. 500 grabbing turns, 500 stocking turns.)

I have 1k rigs of production, and net of that I've already bought 2m barrels of oil, and have 500 turns of grabbing/building ahead of me where the breaks are 2-3m+.

Lotsa oil needed!

Well now with no wait time between sets, you can try it out again right away. (:

Don't think any of these things have changed in the past decade (public selling price limited to 3x private, time to market is up to 40min, being able to select length of time it stays on market, ability to recall etc.). The price of bushels on the PM has changed but that's it.

You can actually get details on time to market, market clearing prices for stuff like tech in https://www.earthempires.com/express/serverdetails. (Details are different for each server.)

Change #2 is likely going to be universally appreciated - no one loves the dead start!

#3 change would be bad for reasons that Hessman mentioned - I'd just end up farming the small fries (I'm probably already the most prolific bottom feeder on this server) to no recourse. They may be able to retal with nukes, but paired with the #4 SDI change where you'll want to maximize SDI, you can 5-tap the small fry 'til they self-delete. Slagpit's suggestion on removal of humanitarian for Spy Ops only is a good middle ground.

For #4, I welcome any game play changes that would change up strategy. Right now, techer doesn't seem particularly competitive on this server, so making some techs more valuable may help increase demand.

I'm not totally sure how to fix the new player experience - the skill gap on the server is huge (2 sets ago, only 14/74 countries broke 20m nw - winner at 98m nw; last set 19/69 broke 20m nw - winner at 85m nw). The one thing to prevent snowballing is probably to neuter the ability for any country to farm another one indiscriminately (I'm guessing this is your impetus for change #4), yet if we reduce everything to the point where people stop taking risks and just not break GDI, it wouldn't take long to 1-tap the entire server, making for a fairly boring player experience. lol

There were 94 countries in the Express server.

Rank Country Land Networth Special
1 fafolol (#30) Game profile 49,932 $56,204,157 HG
2 My Eyes Open VVide (#84) Game profile 33,447 $49,363,153 HG
3 Blow Stock to Retal (#52) Game profile 39,799 $44,152,593 CG
4 y (#51) Game profile 17,604 $40,948,819 DG
5 Superfly (#47) Game profile 41,841 $40,375,620 CG
6 Family Health Team (#10) Game profile 26,547 $39,384,462 HG
7 BroilKing (#71) Game profile 36,154 $36,115,233 HG
8 The Forgotten (#14) Game profile 21,299 $36,067,227 HG
9 ediVV nepO seyE yM (#87) Game profile 28,192 $34,940,889 HG
10 Vlad the Impaler (#8) Game profile 38,140 $33,484,675 TG

Congrats Zolag!

You've been winning a lot!

This is a gross understatement again. Just looking at eestats, every set you see so many countries make 200 attacks.

And also the breaks are 2.5-4m on sat/sun, so easily 150m jets per grabbing session. 2 grab sessions on the weekend is 300m jets worth of oil.

Right now, as a small techer, I've already bought 4m oil so far. lol (And no, not everyone is playing techer)

And also, there is DR in the in-game search that's accurate.

Lastly, none of the nw records you see in the sticky is a result of any coordination, or market manipulation, or bot abuse.

All the major strats are viable (farmer, indy, casher, techer). You don't need to cheat to win.

(Except me, of course, I use cheat codes all the time.)

Well my last oiler (the first and only I played), played poorly, got top 10, and would have been top 10 last set too!

If you're looking for oiler to finish over 80m nw, then no, that's not happening. If you're thinking top 10 (>20m nw), then yes, an oiler can be top 10 every set. If you wanted to run FFO, then yes, that's a winning strat on Express, and the most straight forward in fact. Not all "strats" need to be viable. You can't win with an straight up MBR on any server now.

The real problem with the oil market in express, is most players don't know how to price their oil, or keep it on market. Every set you'll see a lot of oil on market for $400, which is more expensive than everyone's PM. Or it's just empty. And then out of nowhere, you see super cheap oil going on market. lol

All oil sold on public this set so far.
Time start Time end Min sold price Max sold price Avg price Total volume
Jun 11, 14:00 Jun 12, 14:00 $249 $249 $249.00 94,400
Jun 12, 14:00 Jun 13, 14:00 $249 $375 $285.59 3,048,471

My buys
Time start Time end Avg market price Your avg price Your spending
Jun 11, 14:00 Jun 12, 14:00 $249.00 N/A $0
Jun 12, 14:00 Jun 13, 14:00 $285.59 $299.00 $394,927,572

I've bought 33% of this market myself. lol (And that's only the oil I bought on public)

So I had to buy oil from private all set so far, except this latest grabbing session that I completed.

Jun 13, 12:00 Jun 13, 13:00 $299.00 $299.00 $329,147,572

And then the market ran outta oil, and I had to stop. lol

I had to buy oil on private later in the set because somehow when I logged in the public market was empty. lol

I mean even right now, the oil market is empty, and I bought on private to grab!

This is a good change. xD

Easier to destock on Tuesday night, than from the bougie rooftop bar on Sunday.

Thank you thank you! 4 countries above 50m nw!

maj1 and amj2...

Who are clearly not the same person. Clearly. xD

Even when I build 3k rigs as a fascist really early on, I still need to buy at least 4m barrels off the market on sat/sun. lol

Yes, this would easily be the case. when grabbing sat/sun.

The breaks are around ~2m, sometimes 3m+ per attack. Could do 50 or more easily.

I also tend to get more land than most in Express, so I get that people don't send as many jets as I do each set. xD

Well, a win is a win, and a loss is a loss! I didn't win, Cat did!

I'd say I can usually consume 3-4m easily in a grab session by sat/sun.

I forgot to login after my last 30 hour logout. LOL
Could've give you a run for your money!

Congrats!

We are only 60% through the express set, and the server has already consumed 19m barrels of oil...

Did 7 actually get everyone but Samson? Haha

Yea, had 2 out of the 11 countries in A take potshots at me this set. Popular!

I wonder who's so out to get me.. xD

Thanks all!

I play CI and FF similarly in terms of CS goals and land benchmarks; CI just requires a lot more effort cos you gotta sell military in order to run turns, and sell as often as you can, at pretty ridiculous prices for most of the express set.

Just in case you misunderstand the idea - you'd still need to bait Ratski and his "neighbor" (if he didn't hit you first), but this time, instead of Ratski being able to retal, he can FS you.

This just prevents the baiting behavior, so the next time Ratski single taps you, you can kill him immediately without needing to "bait" him. (And maybe this is what you mean.)

Congrats Hessman! And the rest of the top 10!

There were 98 countries in the Express server.

Rank Country Land Networth Special
1 Maverick (#4) Game profile 27,877 $79,162,194 HG
2 Bumblebee (#48) Game profile 46,012 $46,534,927 HG
3 The Forgotten (#10) Game profile 34,408 $44,476,943 HG
4 GIR (#55) Game profile 38,558 $44,337,370 HG
5 Jacques de Molay (#30) Game profile 40,377 $41,288,880 HG
6 Enami Asa (#87) Game profile 33,544 $40,667,335 C
7 Commie Casher LOL (#1) Game profile 32,723 $40,223,817 C
8 Vicnic (#72) Game profile 26,118 $32,994,218 H
9 Link (#20) Game profile 46,964 $31,735,423 CG
10 Aquamarine XisD (#34) Game profile 18,637 $26,258,469 RG

Congrats Skol! Great finish!

In US time zone: Tech is expensive Tuesday night, cheap Wednesday night, spikes on Thursday/Friday, crashes Saturday afternoon.

Down for either option - though leaning option 1!

Thank you! I did make a huge fumble and forgot to login to sell tech early enough, so that was another 5-6m nw I threw away. Hopefully that 100m nw finish happens soon. lol

Well after this year, 2025 becomes the past! It's basically a WW2 sim!

Take good care, Galleri!

Congrats Skol!

Good finish, and you managed to escape the express antics! That's true skill haha xD

Oh is this the fight between 6 and 19? :popcorn:

I've KRed the countries that have topfed me in the past, sometimes having to kill 2-3 in a single set in express, but there seems to be a never ending line of folks who are ready to play that game. lol And also, the same people never learn no matter how many times they get killed.

There is no such thing as "enough defence" on a server where turns are 360(360), and there are so many all-jetters ready to fire 10m jet PSes, only for the all-jetter to abandon country after grabbing the land!

Ok I'll farm!

Are we still lacking farmers on this server lol

Also looking for 1 more def/intel ally!

I fired most of my missiles at others, rather than you. I just had a lot of them all set as a demo! I even had 30 of my missiles sabotaged at one go early in the set by a smaller guy I was farming! xD As is clear, the set ended for the 2 people farming me (and myself, needless to say), but such is the wild west of primary. On to the next set!

Congrats to the top!

Congrats Kingme on RECORD NW!

Congrats skol on the win!

Well, the oil hoarder needs to sell it cheaper so I can buy it - I'm a big consumer of oil!

I think the main reason why food is like that is because...

I got farmed into smithereens and I was the biggest farmer in the game.

LOL

It's been shown that these griefers don't care about being killed after they hit. In fact, so many times now, they just hit and don't ever log back in. lol

There were 99 countries in the Express server.

Rank Country Land Networth Special
1 Holy Roller cWE0sSZ9yLc (#47) Game profile 47,973 $68,192,684 CG
2 s i n g l e s i n f e r n o (#84) Game profile 30,169 $44,533,632 H
3 ToHotToHandle (#2) Game profile 44,677 $43,321,718 HG
4 delete and tune (#69) Game profile 38,202 $43,033,632 HG
5 Playing Earth in 2025 (#35) Game profile 24,842 $42,870,968 HG
6 More Dead Than Alive in 25 (#86) Game profile 41,471 $37,321,472 TG
7 Link (#88) Game profile 50,154 $35,682,500 HG
8 The Forgotten (#10) Game profile 20,370 $28,612,489 HG
9 Big Bang (#5) Game profile 28,062 $24,840,711 FG
10 I R Bot Farmer Who Retals (#13) Game profile 37,096 $23,669,087 T

Congrats Kingme on a convincing win!

wink wink

Congrats Andrew - that's great finish given the conditions!

And yes, barely crept in given the daily onslaught of spy ops and missiles from start of set. lol

Thank you!

I share this victory with you, Yoda/Link!