My best guess is that if people are running out of money on any levels up to approx China, it's b/c they don't know where the hospitals, merc camps & markets are, and they're expending money buying mercs and exploring various areas of the map instead of pinpointing these 3 buildings.

If you're actually essentially just doing a regular playthrough of the level, then yea, you will likely run out of money. It's important to NOT clear any of the level that isn't on the way to getting all the hospitals, and any mercs or markets that are required in order to achieve that.

After that, get the 'good' Techs, upgrade hospitals, then you should be able to steamroll the level.

But you have to know where stuff is, else you're going to flail around looking for stuff, not find it as quickly as you need to, run out of mercs, drain your markets to buy more mercs, run out of money, then get stuck. And when you get stuck like that, it's not good - it means you haven't built up the level to be a normal playthrough (little to no income from smelting/crafting/etc), and have no more money to start any of that up nor any money to buy mercs with.

Thanks
About my game

i have :
+90 %camp production (+340 before reset AP for strategy market)
+90%mercenaries
6 mercenary camp visibility and 6 market
50% mercenary discount (max)
+60% alloy sell values
+15% item sell value but i think i wasted AP point with that

i have no good artifact for the market strategy. Not possible to find boost value alloy (may we prefer alloy or item?)

there are 134 territories left, 633 taken.

Hospitals save 29M everyewhere

money earned : 365B by the market, on total 384B l

Of course, I take hospitals and upgrade them and wait before to take lots of territories. I have many free territories for free like that.

edit edit

Edited 10/14/2021 19:34:30

lack of artifacts doesn't prevent using the market strategy.
You'll still get a great amout of money out of any market

@Lord Pal'horde.

> +90% mercenaries

This is a bit low, but it should not be a big issue if you draft. Otherwise, you need at least +120%.

> +60% alloy sell values

This is not near enough on revision 18 levels. By bringing it up to +100%, you would get almost double the money. By then, you would not have money issue anymore except possibly on the last a few levels. This should be your priority.

> +15% item sell value but i think i wasted AP point with that

There might be markets without alloys. That being said, get additional mercs before investing this.

> i have no good artifact for the market strategy. Not possible to find boost value alloy (may we prefer alloy or item?)

The total money a market provide is a quadratic function in modifiers. The artifact Alloy Values is better since it provides higher modifier at the same rarity and it is easier to get Increased Alloy Sell Values advancement.

> Hospitals save 29M everywhere

This is too low. Upgrade all hospitals to at least level 3 if possible and get the techs Medicine Refinement and Hire Actual Doctors. It would be even better to have a Hospital Boost artifact.

> money earned : 365B by the market, on total 384B l

I do not think this is the profit. The in-game stats do not consider the cost.

27B to upgrade the bigger hospital(+7M saved), i have to wait

i have calculted it was not profitable

I have medecine rafinement +10% but not hire actuel doctor (an no metal sheet to buy it, no in market)

i did not see the limit additional mercenary was +150%, i though +100%.
I'm will change that


About army :
9,6B mercenaries purchased
3,5B from caches
1,6 from camp
2,7B from drafting
4,2B saved with JS
7,1 saved from hospital

it stays 26 B to conquer 113 on visible territories (and a little bit more with14 fogged)

> 27B to upgrade the bigger hospital(+7M saved), i have to wait
>
> i have calculted it was not profitable

Ignore the cost. Always upgrade hospitals to level 3 until you have better artifacts and advancements. It is always infinitely profitable if you run out of mercs at the end.

> I have medecine rafinement +10% but not hire actuel doctor (an no metal sheet to buy it, no in market)

Then, craft it.

> 3,5B from caches

Get the tech "tell your workers that it's cash" before getting caches.

Agree w/everything Functor said. 1 thing I'll highlight: upgrade Alloy Sell Values & Additional Mercs, stop investing in Item Sell Values.

I brought AM to ~100% and ISV to 100% before touching ASV but this was when I was crafting like a madman before the market meta.

Now in the market meta, ISV is way over priced given the value ASV brings. I think every market has at least 1 alloy? And some are only alloys. But ASV is sooo much cheaper. AM is fairly easy to get to 100% and then to 150% takes a bit but is worth it, even necessary for some levels (to finish quickly).

Money Cache is another no brainer. Resource Cache as well. Fairly cheap but good ROI on levels. Army Caches too but that is phase 4 so comes much later.

But it all starts with ASV & AM. If you have a good ASV artifact as well, even better. I'm working on getting my Epic 56% to Leg 112% right now.

Saying Alloy Sell Value or Item Sell Value artifact isn’t necessary is a pretty terrible take tbh. You earn a LOT more from each market with these - not only do you increase the bid-ask spread of every single alloy purchased but you also extend the functional range to get more profitable volume from each market. This is easily proxied by the techs, these “only” give a 15% boost but the impact is significant.

No this isn’t necessary but it’s the single artifact that will help a player who is running-out-of-money the most.

I have not finish "reconquest 1065" : many days to wait.

I reset AP

I am trying "fort harbor" with market strategy

1 day and 7 hours, it is almost finished

Not enough mercenaries with +125%

It stays 3G army to conquer, i earn 0,15G by hours... (maybe 7GB when i finished mercenaries)
Draft helps well to finish.

i have all good tech and more
good hospitals


In french, we say "ne pas mettre tout ses oeufs dans le même panier". Do not put all eggs in the same basket.
With market strategy, we put all AP in this strategy. But i'm not sure it works for the moment



Well, here is the map but is is cheat for other players.

We can delete the link if the big chief want it.

https://ibb.co/mF7b1jk

complete africa
https://ibb.co/jrVskR7
(the other picture https://imgur-com.translate.goog/a/KkCLFY6?_x_tr_sl=en&_x_tr_tl=fr&_x_tr_hl=fr&_x_tr_pto=nui helps a little)

Edited 10/16/2021 09:46:53

@Lord Pal'horde.

Earlier levels are not necessarily easier to complete under this strategy. Actually, your choice, Fort Harbor, is one of the worst levels.

I would recommend you to try the levels in the following order, if you know the locations of markets and hospitals.
* Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire
* Australia
* Other early levels except Fort Harbor, Reconquest 1065
* Hardened Far Land
* Hardened Old Town
* Skip Netherlands
* China (could be skipped if you think you can handle Europe Huge)
* Skip Afro-Eurasia Gargantuan
* Skip Triskelion
* United States (could be skipped if you think you can handle Europe Huge)
* Europe Huge

Edit: Before entering Phase 4, we should not expect to finish Europe Huge very quickly. On Europe Huge, we will run out of mercs, we might run out of money, and we have to rely on crating, drafting and army camps.

Edit: Update my recommendation.

Edited 10/16/2021 10:57:07

Well, at the end i have these score for fort harbor :

https://ibb.co/NxrfL6P
I'm going to try hardener scandinavia to reach the "4th boy"
i did other hardener earlier levels (16 days for "old town", 8 days for "far land")

Problem : we don't know how manies army we need, and how many in mercenaries camp (in scandinavia and other).

In the first camp, Sør-Odal, i have 2,6M for 0,26 each.

@Lord Pal'horde.

If you have all of the following money related advancements:
* Increased Cache Money: 100%,
* Increased Cache Resources: 100%,
* Increased Alloy Sell Values: 100%,
* Mercernary Discount: 50%,
then you might have a shot at Hardened Scandinavia.

Thanks a much

i have +75% cache money and +40% caches ressources, and I have the rest

maybe it will take a little bit more time

hum, no. All territories are very expensive in this level.
hospitals are expensive, little and far, market are far

A couple notes from a newish (started May 30, 2021, though didn't play very seriously for the first month or so) player who ascended recently.

I think every market has at least 1 alloy?

There's a decent number of markets that do not have an alloy and these will provide some trouble. For example, Miscoutly in the Netherlands and Triskelion.

• Fog bust is by far the most important power for increasing clear times on your first ascension. You should re-beat earlier levels just to farm fog busts to ensure you are playing with full information and can pick optimal paths to your objectives. It is substantially more valuable than multi-level.
  
• You can complete levels multiple times per ascension - I highly recommend beating each non-hardened level at least twice before starting Afro-Eurasian Gargantuan and later levels.
  
• Many of the more senior players try to clear with minimal use of drafts. This is a good goal to work towards, but, on your first ascension, drafts are going to be an important source of extra armies while your increased merc percentage is still low. So, to save time (and personal annoyance) collecting the drafts, the IDS advancement is actually pretty cost effective. It also speeds up the portion of the level before capturing the first market considerably (due to the fixed component).
  
• As @functor noted, Increased Money and Resource Cache advancements are quite solid too to help you get enough money for the last levels.
  
• I don't think Triskelion is beatable in a reasonable amount of time without superpower IM.
  
• Crafting is a mediocre source of money when you don't have any source of increased item sell value and have maxed increased alloy sell value. Smelting will be more profitable.
  
• If you got the 400 coins that come with the super camp, consider spending 200 on increased AP for beating levels near the end and the other 200 on a second stack of fog busters for EH.
  
• Make sure you consider the opportunity cost of everything you buy from the market. E.g. if you buy an item, that money could have instead gone into an alloy that would be resold. The net result is that techs can be substantially more expensive than they appear on paper.
  

Here's the artifacts and advancements I used to beat EH on my first ascension (somewhere between 1-2 days real life time):

Advancements:
Not all are needed.

• +IACP: 120%
  
• +ICM: +90%
  
• JS: -25%
  
• Ore Sell: +100%
  
• Discounted Mines: -25%
  
• Increased Smelter Speed: -20%
  
• Additional Mercs: +90%
  
• Stats: 4
  
• Idle Time: +2.5hr
  
• Merc Discount: -50%
  
• Alloy Sell Value: +100%
  
• Increased Draft Sizes: +170%
  
• Increased Crafter Speed: -45%
  

Notable Artifacts:
Listed in rough order of importance.

• Triple Strike: Legendary
  
• HospitalBoost: Rare
  
• SpeedyCrafters: Rare
  
• IACP: Rare
  
• ArmyCacheBoost: Uncommon
  
• HospitalDiscount: Uncommon
  
• OreSellPrice: Uncommon
  
• MercDiscount: Uncommon
  

Edited 10/16/2021 19:13:34

If you got the 400 coins that come with the super camp, consider spending 200 on increased AP for beating levels near the end and the other 200 on a second stack of fog busters for EH.

no, just no. You can use muli's maps to find out where markets and hospitals are, so fogbust only helps a little. Instead of that, you should be using your coins with your multilevel powers.

At the end of multi leveling, you can Reset your AP with 150 coins to get +25% AP advancement, then finish the level and buy 30% with coins as well. Buying 30% on 5 levels as well as resetting to get 25% is WAY better than what he suggested up there. are you for real? buying powers?

muli's maps

What is that? Do you have a link?

@riskboy:

Knowledge of the locations of key objectives (notably, hospitals) is the key information that makes efficient strategies possible. I suspect this is why we don't have any "Hospital Visibility" advancements. So I suspect there are a number of players who would consider getting copies of level maps cheating or unsatisfying on some level. If you intend to get equivalent information from someone else, of course fog buster isn't a good use of (part of) your 400 coins, but I think you would be hard-pressed to find a better use if you must acquire this information on your own.

From a different perspective, keep in mind that AP gained after beating EH for the first time will likely provide significantly lower returns on time to reach new AP targets than AP gained before beating EH. This is because, after ascension, you have easy access to levels that can be beaten for 100s-1000s of AP per day. Thus, while doing a reset right before the end of the final levels might give you more total AP, that AP isn't particularly valuable - it will only move you ahead by a day or so. In contrast, ensuring you have proper information to beat levels on your first Ascension can reduce clear times from > 1 week to 1-2 days, which is a substantially larger improvement.

Edited 10/18/2021 02:17:30

What are muli's maps? A resource that has somehow escaped me to date? lol

If you got the 400 coins that come with the super camp, consider spending 200 on increased AP for beating levels near the end and the other 200 on a second stack of fog busters for EH.

no, just no. You can use muli's maps to find out where markets and hospitals are, so fogbust only helps a little. Instead of that, you should be using your coins with your multilevel powers.

Tend to agree with RB here. I won't deny the user of fogbusters & certainly won't fault anyone for wanting to "do it themselves" instead of getting the info from someone else (play however you like; I got all the info on my own as well, but after ascending, share information with others to help each other's notes). FBs are useful, and particularly on 1st playthrough as you stated, but don't think they're worth _buying_. There are enough of them on the levels already to provide what's necessary. Combine that with whatever you can get from daily rewards, wheel spins & (if you partake) raffles, you can get more than you need. And if you play the hard levels, you get further replenishments. Unless you feel you need the entire level fogbusted at level start time, in which case some of the larger levels need a lot of them, and then maybe you need a lot - but I'd advise against that, it's not a wise use of them. Explore a bit, capture easy stuff, reveal some more. You don't need the entire map revealed up front, and can probably use >50% less FBs if you use them wisely.

Tbh, is buying any power worth it? I'd personally put all my coins towards the 50 coins for +30% AP buff at the end of the level.

The john smith reset plan is the best way to use ap. just before finishing some multilevles, reset to get +25% AP, and buy +30% as well. better han just using 30% on 8 levels, as the multilevel levles are usually the largest levels