team server is good for all-x to get high finish, even me crappy netter got 17th position long ago and my 1st and last commy was in top 50 quite long ago and last set my 5m restart was 60th.

Okay. I want to say that everyone so far is really tolerant here, and I appreciate everyone's comments and advice. That said, my main question the answer to which will determine whether or not I continue with this game is this:

Is it really feasible to get ahead in this game by land-grabbing against only those countries which are bigger in both acreage and net worth? The answer must be a definitive yes. This is quintessential because its the only way I want to play. If necessarily the only way to get ahead in this game is to farm countries smaller in net worth than myself, then I don't want to play.

In addition, I want to team up and tag with a group of similar-minded players, and form a clan that abides by a code of game-play whereby we all work together and coordinate attacks only against countries which are larger in NW and acreage. That's the only sort of clan I would want to join.

Now, on another note (and even though this makes me out to be a hipocrite). If people would, could someone explain the following:

I hunt around for a target to do a land grab. Although it makes me feel like crap, I browse lower on the score-sheet than higher. I find someone who has fewer forces than I do jets and more acres than me to boot. Seems like a perfect, easy target.

I do a planned strike with jets. But I only get a really small amount of acres. A tenth of what I had gotten on a similar-sized target before. Why such small amount of acres?

Look, the game I have been scouring the net for years is this:

It's a game where the cards are stacked against the vets / bigger players, where the only way to get and stay fat is to run around frantically fending off coordinated attacks from hordes of noobish, smaller players; where vets are always griping and grieving on their forums with complaints like "Man alive! Where'd all these @#%ing noobs come all of a sudden? WTF this is like death from a thousand cuts!@! I can't deal with this !@#! Mods! You've got to re-balance this game. This is no fun for vets! I'm fighting claw tooth and nail to hold on to any acreage here from all these #@%@ing n00bs. Mods, developers, please do something?" To which mods and developers reply with an unambiguous and definitive, "Ummm....No."

Instead, what I see on forum are vets complaining about how boring it is to farm smaller players.

The game I'm looking for seems to be the opposite of what I am seeing here. Please let's be honest so I can stop wasting my time here. Is this the sort of game I'm looking for?

depends what you are looking for. want to play with others or play w/o caring what others do, both are possible.

this game ain't anywhere near same as its ancestor was 10 years ago (~1/10 of players today etc) and nobody knows if there'll be players in this game 10 years from now.

land is key in this game since it is needed (to be on top needs high nw and more land has its easier to get that high nw) but there isn't that much of it available (alliances don't want to lose land so if they net then they pact all and have 1-2 landtrade pacts for those who want to grab land) so players must get it somewhere since after certain point exploring just doesn't give it enuf (explore 126 turns (166 on team) and get ~800 acres) so then eyes turn to untaggeds and 1 player tags (3+ grabs (or 30+ attacks with min returns) and results could be better than spending all turns on exploring and then can use rest turns (after build up) to get money or teching (if is techer), some players have said that grabbed 10 acres is better than explored 6 and of course it is if farms some untagged 20 times vs exploring those 20-40 turns.

this game is easy timewaster (once gets hang of this) and amount of time you spend and when is you to be decided (mostly) but 1st you need to learn to play and that happens by asking help from experienced players and joining on some alliance and getting advices on countrybuilds and when has learned how to play proper country can try wings on other servers, other option is to learn by trial and error (on solo servers) and not to give up when gets grabbed daily (some learn things quickly and some need several sets and some might not learn never and give up and vanish).

if you want to test strats then play on ffa and make yourself a tag and request dnhs (do not hit) from other alliances (those are given quite freely).

Xeno what you are describing is called "top feeding" and yes it can be an effective strat. You will be retalled, but choose your targets right and you will come out ahead. It will be easy to find four people who want to play like that on Team. May I suggest you message player #10, and advise him that the big fat commie he went nuts on over one land grab recommended it. Also maybe tell him that I will raze all his buildings to the ground if he keeps trying to pop kill me.

The reason you got less land is "diminishing returns." This is a game mechanic to discourage land farming. You weren't the only one who noticed that guy was fat, and he had been hit a bit already. Check your targets news before attacking.

Oh, and the posts from Cerberus - he is kind of a unique character here, and actually espouses gameplay like you qr talking about "always grabbing from score list" etc., he was likely mocking that style of play (bottom feeding).

Also, any game that only caters to n00bs won't have vets.

I have been mulling over what you said some more Xeno, and I have another thought to add. People don't stick around for the actual game. That has been clear for a long time. There is a great sense of "watching out for your own" here.

An example of what I am talking about: some years ago, probably 08 or 09, my alliance Netters Anonymous (now defunct) was at war. We had the most players on the server at the time, and it. Was a huge war with many clans, so we had tons of people in joint chat rooms coordinating and just bsing. I was afk for a while, and when I came back the room was talking about me. Some of the folks in the other alliance were asking how to take me, and a player from my alliance - who I only sort of knew at that point, although we would become better friends - was sticking up for me like I was family. "Rattle is a good clan mate," he said, "knows the game and stands by his friends, does good at war." In the context of the game I can't imagine much higher praise. I was pretty flattered. All this time later I still remember. I came back not because I want to get landfat and win resets - I have done that. I came back to spend more time bullfluffting with my friends llaar and grimjoww and paolo and mrford. To yell at my "enemies." To see dagga get everyone all twisted up on alliance talk. To chat with Santa Claws and Lemon Chiffon (rip dudes). The game is fun, but frankly no fun at all without friends to play it with.

Oh yeah, I also came back to post as "not me" and be a funny ass, and carry that persona on some servers and mess with people.

This isn't news to the vets. We want more friends to waste time online with, not less. That's why you will find that many of us are very helpful to n00bs.

For those who remember him, the NA member who had nice things to say about me was jaabaa. Is he still around?

As I said at the beginning, this game clearly has a lot of potential for fun. I'll stick around and give it an honest shot, trying to figure out how not to have to bottom feed to get land.

you can be all-x and get top 50-100 finishes (on alliance-server) but if you want to be in top 20 or higher you need to grab land and there aren't that many options for that, grab untaggeds or small tags which no1 likes (like wildbunch) or grab unpacted tags (1 grab per 24 hrs) or landtrade with other tags (if pacts allow it) or even with some countries until ghost acre dr makes trading useless.

as early as you can get land the better finish you'll have.

Yeah, you can win in tourney as all-x if things break right on the market.

Xeno if you too feed me I will be buying up and making you my fluff FYI

I don't know what you

?

/me confused

He is saying that is you top feed him he will retaliate harshly.

i have been playing the game since 97.. it has its fun moments.. want real fun? join a war clan on the free for all server.

in a sense, possibly, i suppose. if i'm at 30k acres, bigger than you and better at the game than you at 4k acres, your turns worth of attacking me will net you far greater returns that I will get in retals with the same amount of hits back at you. There is, however, the entire concept of diplomacy, and doing this, as vic told you is topfeeding, is.. well, diplomatic [suicide].

there is slightly more to the game than the turn every however many minutes. the fun is in learning it and meeting.. well, us.. but honestly i can't imagine either are very much fun :P

Xeno, the way you want to play will most likely just get you killed. In my opinion, you are wasting your time.

/me humps braden

Thanks Vamps

I might try that. I don't suppose there is a clan that only 'top feeds'?

players on FFA-server grab mostly their own countries (saves turns since no need to do spyops and saves time since no need to do break calculations and saves money and military since breaks aren't that high) and there is no topfeed on FFA-server (usually).

top feeding is generally frowned upon... and almost always ends badly apart from self farming in ffa..

The thing is, it is pretty tough to be"non-retallable," and if you'd like proof I can show you my news feeds from this very set.

people will break their countries in order to prove their land isnt worth trying to take lol

here's how I remember landgrabbing working

- pacted alliance 2 retals for 1 hit (if the returns of the retals are equal or more than initial hit, otherwise land trade, if not kill the offender, if that is frowned upon by the offender's alliance -> alliance War
-non pacted alliance - scratch the 1st part (2 on 1)
- enemy alliance - go to last 2 steps
- if untagged hits tagged player, usually it's 2 on 1 or until the land is taken back. If ROR (retal on retal) then kill

that's how this works and it's been like this for atleast 10 years


PS: If untagged is bot runner ( I remember a few but not going to name them :P ) then the whole shananigan ends with the initially attacked alliance getting tag killed for resets in a row, people quitting etc. This kinda stopped after the game's remake

*waves @ RD

Close enough, but there is no more RD. I think.

we realized that if we had no tag they couldn't mass delete it! ;)

guess i joined up in the server this set

lol ell yea