Simplest tip: upgrade Alloy Values artifact from Rare to Epic. You have way too many Rare level artifacts of dubious value. Burn the weakest for that upgrade. I would upgrade other mediocre Rares to Epic as well, to give you ones to burn in upgrading Alloy Values from Epic to Legendary.

That's when the Market Strategy really begins to sing. But even getting AV to Epic helps alot. Max AV values in Advancement points as well.

Maxing Mercs might be overkill in allocating your Advancement Points. Getting it to 100 - 105% is enough on most levels.

Markets give you the cash to upgrade hospitals and buy Mercs, and buy your way to the essential Techs. Alloy Values is the best way to exploit markets and raise serious money. It makes the income from Territory Money Boost and Bonus Money Boost look like loose change.

@Ozark Girl

Yes, that has been (still is, frankly) the biggest stumbling block for me in terms of efficiency -- I like to upgrade army camps even though I know full well it does not get me to completion any faster, and many times has slowed me down due to not having the associated resources (lacking money to efficiently exploit a market because I upgraded army camps, or resources wasted on the army parts of the tech tree (generated armies, cheaper camps)).

At least I'm past my mining obsession...

@mateop

JDB AZ makes a good point that I meant to mention -- maxing extra mercs is very much not a priority. I spent most of my later levels with only 60% in it. In retrospect this would have been nicer to have higher, but I don't really regret spending the AP on other things, either. More than 100% is probably overkill.

Edited 6/20/2023 00:23:12

I am at 150% AM and I can assure you it is overkill for most levels. Though I do have a Ep AChB, so that explains some of it :)
And it does make Kirovsky more OP.

Edited 6/20/2023 00:57:29

Hi guys. Recently I died, but have been reincarnated as something new. Please call me Twickytical or Tricktical. I have a serious phobia of being tickled, sometimes I wonder if an ancestor of mine was maybe tickled to death on a random forum?

Maxing additional mercenary is not just overkill, it has other benefit

Generally you buy from the cheapest mercenary camp first, more mercenary means you can buy more army from cheaper mercenary, thus saving money.

From middle to late idle levels, after you reach your first market, you have to buy mercenary to reach other markets and hospitals. Very often you have to follow a specific army camp sequence. More mercenary means the job can be done easier and faster without waiting for drafting army.

Really great input here, y'all. Thank you!

Looks like I have some new strategy to try!

I'm still in Europe Huge. I just came across a 421B property in Central (Russia).

In the Mercenary Camps I've counted and there's about 10B mercenaries available.

I'm pulling 70K a second in money.
Armies after upgrades are accumulating @ 621K per second.

One thing that I haven’t seen mentioned in this thread: some of the levels are just bad

Hardened Europe Huge (where the entire +50% cache tech tree requires crafting) is not worth playing unless you have multiple Legendary artifacts, heavy Phase 4 advancements, and a willingness to craft for ~8 hours

United States (where the +50% cache tech requires smelting Samarium) is not worth playing for anyone

Triskelion (where you can’t use Joint Strike on a significant percentage of the territories) is not even worth thinking about

The “advanced” strategies being mentioned in this thread are not an unlock to take on these more challenging levels. Those levels still suck. Instead, they are the trick to beating Hardened Scandinavian, Hardened Old Town, etc. in two hours instead of two days

HEH is well worth playing even without any legendary artifacts, I did many times before making my first (AV). Depending on how far you are with advancements, you may need a little Epic TS (from HCCC) and/or MR to afford all of the mercenaries. The faster crafters advancement (when maxed out) cuts your crafting time in half and isn't that expensive.

With one legendary artifact (AV) and solid L4 advancements, you can beat HEH while skipping the hospital and cache techs entirely, you will need an Epic TS and to wait for all of the autodrafts though.

Triskelion does suck though, there's just not enough money on that map.

@unicorn go straight to Kirovsky merc and IM it I guess
use your Ep TS on Puchevzksy
@colossus true, saves money on levels like EH with no money

@thegreatleon I'm farming hard scand hard Rome and it takes about a day each

Edited 6/21/2023 09:11:26

Someone might have said it alr, but max out Increased AV and make an Epic AV. You only have 20% and a rare AV which is why market strat isn't really working. The boost in money is way bigger then it seems since not only is the initial gap in price way bigger, but the amount you can buy for profit also increases. iirc with 100% AV adv and Leg AV you get more then 4x money then with 100%+Epic, even though AV only increases from 156% to 222% Stack CW rewards and tech boosts to make even more money

@3.1415926535

The Europe Huge map setup is bad.

Two major army caches are in Central and Russia. Central is within Russia. But in order to get Central and Russia we have to eat-up all the little properties for the drafts and cash.

In the end I'll take Russia, get the cache and the map ends so the cache is wasted.