can anyone explain to me what all this terminology is :/? casher, techer etc, what does it all mean :O, i kinda get that its specific builds that people are doing, but i dont get what each one builds

Here's a basic rundown:

Casher mainly builds enterprise zones and residences, while acquiring residential and business tech to increase population and income. Usually Republic for the extra PCI, but be prepared to enjoy the Explore screen due to the lessened military strength.

Techer mainly builds research labs and sells the tech they research on the market for income. Democracy is normally used for the added maximum tech effectiveness, but, again, the Explore screen may be used a bit more often (but not much), due to the extra turn needed per attack.

Farmer builds mainly farms, while acquiring agricultural tech to boost bushel production, and sells bushels on the market for income and/or stocks it. Could be Fascist for the extra food production or Tyranny/Dictatorship if going to war. Lord help you if you are ABed to a parkinglot while a Dictator.

Indy builds mainly industrial complexes, while acquiring industrial tech to boost industrial production, and sells the military units produced on the market for income. Mainly Communism for the additional industrial production.

Oiler--same as Farmer, except mainly build oil rigs and sell oil on the market for income. Also Fascist for the added oil production. Rarely used, due to the volatility of the oil market.


Note that the above is a very basic rundown of what the usual strategies employ to be run successfully. Most countries running these strategies may have other building types on hand--for example, spies can only be produced using industrial complexes, so just about all countries will have some of those built for protection against spy ops. Also, if the price of oil is very high on the market, non-oilers may build oil rigs to help keep their military's ability to hit other countries going.

Most builds will have

180 - 220 Construction Sites (CS)
- These are built early to gain the most benefit from Build Per Turn

CS count can go to 280-320
- If planning on getting a lot of land thru land grabs
-- likewise if planning on converting your build to all military base to destock.

200 - 400 industrial complexes (to produce spies exclusively)
-- unless going industrialist in which case most of your build will be Industrial Complexes

Most strategies will carry the following technologies for net gaining:

- Business and Residential to help with revenue and lower cash losses per turn

- Military tech to lower costs of carrying military and to buy military from their private market either when destocking or when prices are too high on the public market.

- Weapons tech, allows the country to have a smaller military foot print with the same offensive and defensive power as larger militaries with no weapons tech. useful in keeping expenses down.

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Casher:

Builds Enterprise Zones and Residence usually with a 1:1 ratio.
Income is affected by the percentage of land covered by each. -- -- The closer these are to 50% each, the more population you will have and the higher your per capita income will be.

Technologies to purchase are Business and Residential again with a 1:1 Ratio.

The strategy is to get to a high land goal usually by the half way point or just a little beyond that and then cash as many remaining turns as possible. Use the cash generated to buy bushels, and place them on the public market for sale at an extremely high price (i.e above $300), this is called stocking. Destocking is when you sell those bushels to buy military at the end of the reset.

keeping large amounts of cash on hand will cause corruption wherein you begin to lose a portion of your income on every turn taken. It may also make you a target, if the returns on an attack yields large amounts of cash.

Note Cashers consume large amounts of food and will need to buy food, military and technology with the cash they generate this is normal. Do not try to generate your own tech military or food.

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Techer:

Builds as close to 100% Research labs

Tech per turn is affected by the percentage of land covered by Research labs.

Techers make their money by selling technology points on the public market. You want to sell multiple times per day and as much of the tech you produced as possible. End of reset prices usually plummet so you want to get rid of as much of your tech as possible as early as possible, when prices are higher.

Techers also stock bushels with the cash they generate.

Techers are known to lose cash and food per turn. again this is normal. do not try to get a positive income, generate your own food or military. buy these items as needed from the market.

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Farmers

Farmers build mostly farms and sell food to buy the military and technology points they need.

main technology to buy is Agricultural tech

Farmers are known to have negative income, keep a portion of the sales proceeds available to take turns.

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Industrialist

Build mostly Industrial Complexes and sell military on the public market for cash to buy tech, food and have cash to take turns.

main technology to buy is Industrial tech.


you may also want to look at :

http://wiki.earthempires.com/index.php/Strategies

:O looks more complex than i thought it would be XD

while im at it, what is considered a lot of money, judging from you guys just said, it looks like everyone basically sells everything and buys military towards the end so as to get lots of networth, but how much money are we looking at? billions, or hundreds of millions?

could be billions, not on express server though

my top country in FFA server last set destocked 45 billion at the end and i suck :P

on express top 10 will probably be destocking 3-6 billion

on average a little over 2 billion corruption begins to kick in @ the 2 billion $ mark. 2 billion average is mainly because of various items needing to be purchased throughout the reset.

The main thing is to be patient and sell goods at higher price, versus panicking and undercutting what you see others selling at. Also be patient when having to buy items on the market,like food, military, or tech, you will always get the impatient ones who undercut current prices and sell in small batches :)

what you buy and sell @ has a huge impact on how well you will do in this game.

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easy to learn hard to master ;)

thanks guys, ive learned a lot today :P, what do you guys consider a good 1st run for someone? this is my first time playing so im wondering how badly im doing XD

Well this is my second go at Express and I'm sitting 65th. My 4th reset in primary and I'm at 32. Finished 128th my first go around so dont worry man you learn and get better. Dont be afraid to ask other people for advice. Everyone I've met has been helpful

oh, in that case i suppose im not doing very bad :)

an average finish for me and I'm not that good at this would be about 14 mil.

The #1 spot ranges between 28- 32 mil

The top 5 cutoff usually ranges somewhere between 18-20 mil.

The top 10 cutoff usually ranges somewhere between 16-20 mil.

The top 25 cutoff usually ranges somewhere between 14-18 mil.

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Anything above 5 mil for a first reset and you are doing really well.

we will see a record CI this set

Maybe... 25% chance id say

Only 25%? I was thinking like AzN was. Esp since all the goods are selling here at the end.

I took some missles and spy damage.. also alejandro's attack definitely stopped me short. He got like 4400 acres out of that retal

Almost made it

i ended up around the top 100, im not exactly sure where to check XD

You can check on eestats for historical finishes

last reset is here:
http://www.eestats.com/express/oldranks/367

Missile boat: This is a good time strat that fatty uses exclusively to wreck country in express who commit the sin of double tapping him.

Landfarm is my personal favorite strat on the Express server, for it is under that great strat that I achieved top 20.

the 300+ turns you start off with in express is only for your first time?

You started late that's why you had that many. You start at 0 turns and turns will be coming so fast you will soon not know what to do with them. Go to bed and wake and bam you've got quite a bit.

ah

As always, the wiki is a great read ;)

I would recommend a cashier strat the first couple rounds you play to understand the basics of EE and then move to Indy-commie to learn the market.

yeah thats basically what im doing now :B