@mark
"complete upgrade of last two hospitals"

I'm on Netherlands and all hospital upgrades have been maxxed and mercenary camps used.

Army production is 286k/sec.

I guess 100 more properties to conquer and they all average 1.5 billion each so.... it's slow going right now.

Unicorn, I complete hospitals to level 4. At level 5, the cost per army is far higher than merc costs. Also, max out merc discount tech and get the 50% cache boost in techs before grabbing all the mercs and army caches. I only collect army caches early if they are needed to get markets (sometimes markets are tied to bonuses of territories so you need to capture all the territories, including any army caches therein). And I only collect mercs as needed to capture markets and hospitals until I max out merc discount tech. Also, remember to get those 10% added hospital saves techs. You usually have to mine and smelt a few items to get those techs. The markets don't sell everything. I NEVER run out of mercs at the end of a level by following this strategy.

The last two hospital upgrades in Hard China cost $300B+ each and I only had $200B so I had to mine for the needed money. BTW, don't rely on army camps so much. Hard China has 3.9T armies and I only got 8B from army camps. The rest came from caches, mercs, drafts and hospitals. I only upgrade army camps to $1B and advance the left most column of techs (army camp production) to get the first draft bonus (20%). Money is better spent on mercs. My merc production is about 100x my army camp production.

Mark is wise in the ways of science.

Thanks, Throg.

Unicorn, I was wondering how you ran out of mercs. Did you capture lots of territories with mercs before you maxed out your hospital upgrades? In the market strategy, you capture 2 hospitals as fast as you can and then a market. Use the money from trading alloys for cash to upgrade hospitals and only buy mercs to get to the next hospital and market.

For the rest of the territories, other than merc camps (as needed), wait for your hospital upgrades to save all your troops. (This is absolutely critical.)

This way you keep as many armies as possible to make a fast dash to reach the next hospital and market. Armies saved in the middle of the game will help you clear the map at the end of the game. Don't worry about missing out on drafts. They will work out to the same number (roughly) at the end. Also, don't forget about using free caches for extra armies (after you get the 50% cache tech). Always supercharge an army camp when collecting FCs and use superpower to get 10 caches for the price of 5. There are exceptions, based on some situations (like grabbing a cheap army camp), but conserving armies early on will pay off. Note, you will have idle times while waiting for hospital upgrades.

Yes, out of mercs. I go for army camps and hospitals upgrading both along the way so hospitals get maxxed pretty early. Generally I don't call upon Mercs until after the tech discounts to buy them is max reduction.

I always run out of armies and end-up playing the last properties slowly. My Additional Mercenarys under advancements is only 62.5%.

China is the next Level.

Well that's your issue, you need additional mercs much higher than that.

They say go for AV and discounted mercs if you run out of money, sure, if you lack the mercs to finish, it's quicker to get mercs buy selling alloys and sometimes items [do the math] than to have the army camps do the work.

I find SAC Free Cache and clam request is great for starting a level but at the end game won't do much to speed you up, if you only have 5 SAC and 15 army camps the effect is reduced.

As for the rest, usually I get all the markets and hospitals with a minimal amount of mercs and army caches used, then upgrade all the hospitals, wait two hours, go out, pet a cat, look at some trees, disgrace my ancestors on the computer, then get the free lands, and repeat. If you got stats at a high enough level you can level data and figure out how many lands you got left. Cost of hospital upgrade divided by [territories left times armies saved difference in the next hospital level] compare that to how much mercs cost. If you are swimming in cash get it anyway, but if you are not, get hospitals till they cost more than mercs.

Sometimes I say frig it, and don't push my hospitals are far as is economically feasable and I got boned.

I think in some maps, higher hospital levels cost more than mercs and again if it's a cash rich level, get everything. Don't forget if you bought up discounted mercs consider that is figuring out price assuming you are using the level data web page

I do need more mercs.

Right now my drafts are pulling 1.6x billion per draft but I've got at least 100 properties so this will be awhile. If I don't recruit the drafts they don't increase above the 1.6x so.... this sucks but I'm used to it.

Throg, Fully agree. Mow the lawn, rake leaves or anything to get off the sofa.

Unicorn, we've all been there. I remember using time warps one at a time to update drafts. In phase 4 (not there yet but there's a spread sheet on the internet showing all the advancements), you can turn on auto draft.

BTW, I just repeated Hard China in 2 days, 22 hrs. Not at 6 hours yet but far better than 4 days.

One last tip about getting to hospitals and markets. JS is a great feature but ignore it when rushing to a hospital or market. Your armies are too valuable early in the map to waste them taking territories you can later grab for free. Just take the shortest, cheapest path. I only worry about JS if I have to take a territory above 1B since my hospital saves rarely get that high. I do, however, take extra territories early to complete bonuses if the extra money allows me to upgrade army camps faster before getting to the first market.

o: if you PLAN for days, then the maps will also TAKE you days

m: Planning for the next few months tells me to upgrade QS. Planning for next year says upgrade AV Guess which one I'll do first.

If you plan that your first super ascension takes months, it will take months

Setting yourself slow will set your SA bonuses for forced extra slots (sunk cost). AP doesn't rely on dig time.

Just finished Netherlands.

Congratulations! You won!
For completing the level in less than 12 days 13 hours, you get a permanent 30% boost to Dysprosium production!
Money:
￦46.5347B
Money per second:
￦1.4125M
Total money earned:
￦6.7164T
Total money from territories:
￦155.3701B
Total money from bonuses:
￦210.7738B
Total money from selling ore:
￦203.8637B
Total money from selling alloys:
￦5.5912T
Total money from selling items:
￦86.1768B
Total money from caches:
￦469.005B
Armies:
₳24.182B
Armies per second:
₳403.9799K
Total armies earned:
₳743.4301B
Total armies from army camps:
₳147.4617B
Total mercenaries purchased:
₳318.6861B
Total armies from caches:
₳157.4951B
Total armies from drafting (fixed portion):
₳8.756B
Total armies from drafting (sliding portion):
₳111.0312B
Total armies saved with Joint Strike:
₳125.2192B
Total armies saved from hospitals:
₳503.8201B
Started this level:
8 days 7 hours ago
Earned 672.21 AP from this win!
Can earn 470.54 AP from defeating this level again

Noice


Someone IIRC said in this thread, don't joint strike, just head straight for your target.

Yes, but there is an exception I don't know if mentioned.
If there is a big honking territory in your way [like with a cache, merc camp etc] it might be worth taking smaller one next door to set up the joint strike.
If there is a 10 mil in your way, you take the 1 mill next to it, it only costs you 7.5 mill, combined 8 mill cost, cheaper than 10.

If the exception was mentioned, mi sucsi.

Throg, Absolutely correct. The real idea is to use the overall smallest number of armies, including the ones you are left with after capturing the hospital or market. I also sometimes grab an army camp or money cache along the way if the added money will upgrade my 20x army camp during my 2 hour SAC (epic).

Unicorn, well done. When I completed Hard China I had received 28B from army camps, 800B from JS and 1.2T from hospitals. Don't remember the drafts but they were over 8x army camp production. My only point here is that spending too much money or AP on army camp production is not the best way to progress.

Otto, I never said I wouldn't upgrade AV to legendary It's SECOND on my current list. My goal is to complete maps ASAP. Same as yours. Doubling AV does not double $ from markets since techs also contribute a major amount. Doubling TS and QS (slightly) more than doubles armies received from use.

Super ascension? Who cares about that NOW? I'm still in phase 3 and have only ascended once so far. To me, your thoughts are too far up in the clouds. I'm worried about the path up the next few mountains.

Doubling AV would give you much *more* than double money from markets

This is the entire reason it’s the best artifact in the game

Leon, Maybe. I'll do the math... and maybe change my mind. Thanks.

Simplified example below:

The base purchase rate at a market is $40 and the base sales rate is $60. You get $20 for the first item, $19 for the second, $18 for the third, etc, etc, for a total of $210.

Now we double AV so the base purchase rate is still $40 and the base sales rate is now $120. You get $80 for the first item, $79 for the second, $78 for the third, etc, etc, for a total of $3240… over 15x as much.

Mark is wise in the ways of science, but not math :)

I'm just bustin gonads, but yeah the math checks out. I don't know about double, but the gain is more than the simple math.

Edited 10/12/2023 22:01:55

Actually, Throg, its not simple math. You have to integrate the rate equation and vary the upper limit of the integral (final price) since the profit equals final price minus initial price. I haven't used calculus in over 20 years but it all came back easily enough. Of course, my PhD in Physics was a big help so, yes, I'm actually pretty good in math and science. The bottom line is that legendary AV is much better so it just.moved up to FIRST. In fact, I may sacrifice epic QS to upgrade AV sooner. Thanks Leon for making me think about actually solving the problem instead of just basing my opinion on the % gain of the artifact.