The primary reason some Laf people have said they dislike landtrading is that it is stronger than all other grabbing techniques. I think it was Hanlong who always said it should be between some sort of aggressive grabbing(If Successful) and exploring.

That is an issue that could come up and while I am in favor of land-trading I'm not in favor of intra-alliance land trading. There is a slight but distinctive difference between the two. The sort of land-trading I'm in favor of, at least at this current moment in the game, is the cross alliance friendly trading but not so mapped out trading.

I'd like to also point out there is never an "infinite source of land" because of C:C DR that never expires for a set. While there may be a huge potential for land generation between two countries it is limited and isn't infinite in nature.

I'd also like to point out that anyone who grabs someone and knows they can retal is land trading whether or not they admit it. Why would you attack someone if you knew they could retal you back? Well to gain ghost acres: that's land trading in its most basic concept. So the art of "forced land trading" is a skill many still suck at, but its there you just got to look for it.

So what does that leave us with?
1. explore
2. bottom feed
3. mid/top feed
4. land trading

There are pro's and con's of each, but one thing is for sure as long as there is ghost acres in the game there will be land trading of some sort in this game.

I kind of disagree here. I have always assumed for as long as I've played that any grabs that were not bottom farming were likely to be retalled. Land trading is just a political euphemism for what used to be called midfeeding. When mehul was handing out ghost acres, I mid-fed. I was not all that great at it, but it was a lot more fun than bottom feeding.

The only difference between then and now, is that then it was expected that you would try to outrun the retal, whereas now you just take your lumps and accept it. In the long run, trying to carry enough defense to avoid retals made midfeeding pretty non-productive against anything but bots.

This new midfeeding (aka, landtrading) has made us all learn how to calculate and perform grabs again. I got creamed on a grab this set because I miscalculated his retal. Served me right, I also did the same thing to a couple of people that grabbed me this set. Don't think for a second that accepting the fact that you are going to get retalled somehow minimizes the adversarial nature of it. Many of the grabs back and forth between PDM and RD or NA or Sanct got ugly and people were buying up strat tech and raging on the retal boards.

It was fluffing awesome, reminded me of why I used to like this game.

Yeah but you just re-stated my point in a different way :p

My point is it's all land trading so embrace it!

That kind of trading hits causes headaches to FAs.

Midfeeding and outrunning retals(Techer style) isnt land trading :P And I suspect it is a lot more fun to do

If more than a few people were doing that Locket you'd prob war almost every set :p

more likely that we would see people crying about intag farming because alliances would have all jet tyr retallers.

Requiem -- the thing is....

you're right.

Just FYI, this is my country. You should actually check my news.

Of my 94 attacks this reset, 2 were against countries we were not pacted to that ask if I wanted to exchange hits prior to grabbing, 2 were against alliances we have grabbing pacts with, the other 90 attacks were either retals against unpacted alliances for hits on me, retals for other PDM members, or bottomfeeding in the beginning of the reset.

There are only 2 other countries in the top 10 land that have "land traded" less than I have.

I had the intention of stopping around 55-60k acres. However one of the risks you run with low defense and a lot of land is people with a lot less land grabbing you. As a result, I am at close to 90k acres.

As Silver pointed out, my challenge now is to get my techs up fast enough, double my D, and have a good finish.

I'm still perfecting my startup but give me another reset or two and I'll spend the whole reset doing nothing but bottomfeeding just to prove that I can compete with LaF on their turf if that would make you feel better?

Nah. They'll probably dropping some pacts to grab to compete with this kind of countries

grabbing pacts... now that is where it gets lame. Also you should define compete because you wont beat the top laf :P

I may be fluffy but I think you underestimate me. I took 7 years off so I'm a bit rusty and just getting back into the swing of things but I think I can personally compete on just about any level of this game.

Well I can wait and see but so far it appears that there are only a very small select group of people who compete with Laf for top spots. You can add yourself there anytime you finish there :P

Lol this has still ended up a measuring contest... Btw I'm pro grabbing and I like the way things are now... Everyone grabbing is doing so to improve their finish... And right now with the game dynamics it works best by not trying to outrun retals.

The top ranks will not likely be taken by land trading type countries this set... I don't believe it's over powered... I think the stop gaps that are in place now with the limited ghost gains make it more enjoyable.

You don't believe that if the current top ranks land traded they could destroy netowrth records?

Why don't YOU try it locket, you seem to be an expert on everything, you should be able to run the table any set you want to just by showing up.



Yet another example of you not understanding fluff. Its a uNap that says we're not going to fluff each other over if members want to land grab each other, because landgrabs should not be viewed as acts of war.

And for the record, Balin was able to compete at the top 10 level pretty consistantly as a netter. BigBen is better than Balin was. I have no doubt he'll be able to compete with Laf's best whether trading, bottom feeding, or hell even exploring.

I for one would LOVE to see Laf enter the landgrabbing pool and quit bottomfeeding. I would also hope that they would not be fluffs about it and try to exploit everybody and outrun retals and fluff everybody over.

Brotherhood of man locket, I'm not the only one.

:O

fluff just got real.

Hurry up and buy all my tech, your tech levels still suck.

Znap! Oh yes I did!

I haven't finished a netting reset since 2002 and never had a top 10 finish back then. I won't accept the better than Balin compliment until I get top 5.

If I'm not mistaken LaF has a TTR ring with one slightly behind the other 3. Pretty sure those 3 have the top 3 spots locked down this set. As for spots 4-10, I'm going to say 3 will be LaF, 1 RD, 1 Evo, 2 PDM. We'll see though.

Goku: Sell it for $1 and I'll buy all the tech you can churn out. Or wait 48 hours and my techs will be maxed.

Someone already did that twice for $37 tech, lucky people ;)

BAH!!!!!!!! I had my standing orders set at $36, I missed out.

Balin needs poked in the eye once in a while just to keep him on his toes.

You're free to try to challenge the netting records LaF players have set in primary and express.

And you're free to compare your alliance's all explore countries to LaF's all explore countries.

But, my explorer is going to compete with PDM's landtraders in networth, not with PDM's explorers. SO you probably don't want to do that.

Has anyone in PDM even made it to 100m networth in primary? Or 30m networth in express? Or if you suck at netting, you could do what I did in express, and go for the land record.

I am not one of the people I mentioned. I could do quite well land trading but I am not someone like Enshula who knows every formula known to man, or someone willing to put in the level of effort that our top players do.

Balin competed but I am pretty sure that was before the GA nerfs took place and trading seemed much more organized. He did well but he didn't take first(To my knowledge) despite that. You say how good Ben is but he says he never had a single top ten finish in old earth. Laf has people who won then and now.

You say how bad outrunning a retal is. Why? It is grabbing. Just because it does not benefit both people does not mean it shouldn't happen. Why should one person do worse than what they could be doing just so that someone else can do better? If an alliance of 20-40 can't retal that is their problem.

lol @ locket

weeeeeee

confirmed

locket is NOT one of LaF's best.

I'm LaF's great white hope, SG aint got nothin' on this!

And Rockmans all explore is going to beat a lot of land grabbers!

-_- So much respect for the most consistent netter in Laf who does as he does while putting in very little effort/time -_-

Requiem you can be the great white hope that saves Laf from all of it's calculator asians :P

pot stirred?

check

rockman making sputtering indignant claims of superiority?

check

locket making light of the fire he started?

check

Mission accomplished?

check

How many PDM countries are going to beat my explorer?

How many of the 700 slobs that still play this game give a fluff about your explorer? You're kinda thick headed for a genius Rocky.

Well, if Big Ben can compete with Laf's best, even when it comes to exploring, do you think he can match me in exploring? Or am I better than Laf's best? Or are you just talking smack talk that you cannot back up.

[quote poster=Rockman; 21300; 394019][Or are you just talking smack talk that you cannot back up. [/quote]

Yeah pretty much, only about 1% of the people that play this game care at all about the who's who of EE netting, the rest of us just really enjoy listening to you go on about how great your model train set is.

[quote poster=archaic; 21300; 394020][quote poster=Rockman; 21300; 394019][Or are you just talking smack talk that you cannot back up. [/quote]

Yeah pretty much, only about 1% of the people that play this game care at all about the who's who of EE netting, the rest of us just really enjoy listening to you go on about how great your model train set is. [/quote]

lol

1% care about it Archaic? Your stats must come from the same book that teaches PDM netting. "It's ok to finish last because no one cares...really.. no one." ;)

juicy..

I would say 4 PDM'ers will beat Rockman's all x. And you are right, there is only 1 PDM all x country that will be competitive this reset.

I don't claim to be one of the best in the game. I do think I can compete with them though. I hate all x since retals are just too juicy to pass up but I am not against playing it if you want to make a competition out of it.

I've never played Primary and don't feel like learning. I may give express a go to see how well I can do.

I'd just play your game and ignore the taunting :P If you havnt seen enough Evo and Laf threads then you wont know that you are better off on the outside... so stay there :P

locket i challenge you to a mediocre netting contest next set. do you accept?

Of course :P This needs clarification though.. where you finishing at this set? By mediocre competition I assume we still want to finish higher than the other while not exuding much effort? :P

im open for negotiations on the rules.

Hmm... I get one free grab on you each week? ;)

Well... I'm in a small Laf competition and the losers name their countries after the winner so we could do that for a bet?

As far as the mediocre competition we could just go with most anything fairly legit goes. I know I wont bother camping for targets or anything due to laziness :P No farming intag or shady deals or FA is simple enough...

On second thought, perhaps the winner picks the loser's country name? :P Something good humoured...

hmmm interesting

This thread needs to die a horrible death.

Thanks for topping it :p