I'm going to shotgun some GE advice based on numerous questions or comments posted earlier that I haven't addressed. I've edited several quotes to shorten them while trying to maintain essence of the questions or comments
what about the Guild Expedition? I have previously completed level 3 every week, using a lot of goods in the process. With my SMB and LoA at their current levels, I won't quite be able to manage one UBQ per production quest ... A back of the envelope guesstimate suggests I'll need to drop level 3 GE ... and not think about level 4 until I accumulate more land.
GE can be great to do, but if you try to negotiate through it, it will be a heavy goods drain, and uses a lot of previous age goods that HQS won't produce (GE used to give more goods, including the needed previous age goods, so negotiating was more viable). You really need to be able to battle much of GE to make the personal profit worth it (depending on guild attitude, it might be worth it for guild benefits).
In a nutshell, GE is both a resource drain and a gamble. In the end, a player gambles one of two ways in GE:
- Gamble a bunch of units to win a bunch of goods
- Gamble a bunch of goods to win a bunch of unattached units
No matter which way we choose to gamble our way through GE encounters, either approach has the same % chance to score the other types of GE prizes that are not goods and are also not unattached units. Sometimes the 1st approach is more advantageous and other times the 2nd approach is. This is going to depend on several factors that I will separate into two branches:
- How many goods can we produce everyday? In HQS terms, we can restate this question as: how many total quests can our city complete per day and what level is our Chateau Frontenac?
- Do we have all 5 militarily technologies for our current time period unlocked and does our city have all of these things: An Alcatraz, Rogue Hideouts, at least 1 barracks for all 5 militarily units, and a high enough total combat bonus to permit us to fight two-wave battles against units who also have substantial combat bonus themselves?
It is actually easier (reads that as cheaper) to address GE through Branch 1 than Branch 2. Just build a good HQS city.
My non-recommended buildings are: CoA, Zeus, ToR, ToB, Obs, Terrace farm, Rogue Hideout, Checkmate Square, HoF, wishing well, full Cherry Garden, Garden Ruins set. I do not have a CF, SMB = 4; LoA = 7. No Hagia Sophia; one church. (Inclined to go straight to Traz and skip the Hagia.) 6 SoKs. I plan to finish current level of CoA, then focus on raising the SMB, while gathering CF blueprints. The question is basically just whether to do that in HMA or in CA - though other suggestions would be gratefully received.
You do not own an HQS city. And actually I do recommend a few Rogue Hideouts (no more than 3) and the Checkmate Square, CF, HS, StM, LoA. The 6 SoKs are also good to have, but they are starting to erode your population density and you could really use an Innovation Tower (not the ToB). The SoZ is tiny so it doesn't waste too much land. The rest of your city is actually costing you lost game progress. If we don't own at least a level 5 CF, then
we are not actually Heavy Questing yet; rather we are still in transition from the more conventional FoE strategy to the HQS, which is actually a very rough place to exist.
Mr. Miyagi said:
Danielsan, walk on road, hm? Walk left side, safe. Walk right side, safe. Walk middle, sooner or later...get squish just like grape"
We can't play FoE both ways in the early ages like HMA or lower. There simply is not enough: land, population, offsetting happiness, nor FPs to swap around to level up every GB in the game at the same time to level them all up to the point where each GB actually becomes useful and no longer a waste of land. The HQS isn't just about looping quests, it is about setting gaming objective priorities in an optimized order that eventually does allow us to play the game both ways (HQS + fight as much as we want) which occurs about halfway through our long stay over in the Colonial Age.
How does this work out with people starting HQS from the beginning? Is it even efficient to do GE at all?
If I reach players before they try to play: "Construct every GB and special building the game" and "Try to unlock every tech and conquer the entire C Map yesterday already dammit!", then things are challenging but quite manageable. In my guild we currently have about 10 Noob Minions all doing HQS in HMA. And by the end of this weekend, every single one of them will own a CF in his or her city.
Our guild requires that all members complete GE level II weekly, or they might subject to dismissal for repeat offensese of lack of participation. Negotiating about 1/3rd of the encounters in GE level I will only cost coins and supplies and not any goods at all. I actually recommend that Noob Minions negotiate these cheap encounters when they don't yet own an Alcatraz, so that they can save their attached units for the encounters that do cost significant goods to negotiate. This permits players to take advantage of more attempts on their attempt bar, while maintaining fewer barracks in their city. Wounded units cannot be used to fight the next encounter battle and a player without an Alcatraz or a field of barracks really must manage the health of their army units very carefully.
In the total analysis, once a player actually does have an HQS city up and running, with the correct GBs (CF, HS, CdM, Stm, and LoA) all leveled up to about level 5, and they don't waste land on a bunch of crap special buildings, or GBs that really are not going to help their city snowball in the production of goods, medals, or FPs, then not only can these players afford to negotiate all 4 levels of GE, but they can also stockpile more goods while doing it.
Can I reasonably expect to recover from this bad start in HMA, or would I be better off sprinting for CA and starting my HQ experiments there? (I expect to be forced out of HMA the next time there's an event requiring research that has rewards I care about.)
Sprinting to HMA costs a boat load of FPs (like 1,400 or so depending on where you are in HMA) and 100s of each good between Iron Age and LMA, plus a few CA goods. If you are having issues with goods now, then you cannot
sprint to CA you can only
crawl to CA. Fix the issues as best you can in HMA.
Dispite what Cosmic Raven says, I don't think Heavy Questing is optimal for generating LOTS of goods.
Let me be very frank here. I've posted a roughly 50% complete guide at this point to a strategy that at least 50 different players have PROVEN to work. So I'm not asking for anyone's confirmation that HQS works. It not only works, it works better than any other strategy, but only if you follow the advice. It cannot work if you don't follow the advice.
The problem that some players have is really in buying into transitioning fully to HQS, because they stay married to the conventional ways of planning a city and then they wonder later why their results are inferior to what is advertised. If you want HQS results, then you must fully buy into and adopt the HQS way of planning a city and working the game.
Star Wars said:
Yoda: Many of the truths that we cling to depend on our point of view. You must unlearn what you have learned.
Luke Skywalker: I can’t believe it!
Yoda: That, is why you fail.
Luke Skywalker: All right, I'll give it a try...
Yoda: Do or do not. There is no try.
It [HQS] looks like it will generate enough goods to allow you to progress, but not enormous surpluses if you have other good expenses. It also only generates current age goods and you need to rely on stockpiling earlier age goods or trading down, which can run into market limits.
I think the change to having neighbours be only from one's own age - rather than similar point range - had some unexpected side effects, and lots of common wisdom may not have caught up. Trading down was much easier when I had neighbours who couldn't make goods from my age, and desperately wanted them to build some GB or race through their continent.
We must always be trading our current age goods both up and down. I coach noob minions to always have all possible 25 trade combinations posted in both directions (both up and down) at all times using trade ratios like these:
- Trading Down: Have 20 <some HMA Good> : Need 40 <some EMA good>
- Trading Up: Have 50 <some HMA Good> : Need 25 <some LMA good>
Immediately re-post any trades that are picked up so that all 50 trades are always posted, every day you park in an age. One key to success is not waiting until you actually need the goods to trade for the goods. You always need the goods!
Another key to success here is how we manage our Friends list. I recommend that our Friends list is 80 players we invited that are all well above our current time period, or who have many more GB levels in later-era GBs than we have (as later era as possible in either case). So if we started with an empty Friends List and we are in HMA, the 1st 80 players we invite should all be players who are PE and later. The remaining 60 players on our friends list are noobs from our current period or lower, where we accepted their friend invitation. Not only does this help with trading our goods both up and down, but it gives us more chances to score BPs for later-era GBs and also gives us chances to score Free FP donations on our GBs from the noobs below us who might be avid BP hunters, since our GBs should leveling up faster than all of the conventional players on that noob's 3 player lists.
As for GE, I'm currently gathering some statistics intended to help people determine cost effectiveness for their particular situation. It's given me a lot of troops over time, and a fair number of FP, even after the big nerf (of levels I-III) when extra turns and motivation kits replaced more useful rewards. But goods have been a problem for me since that time, and not just in the one city I have which regularly does level IV.
It is only more valuable to complete all 4 GE levels , and by extension to also construct and level up a ToR after our city has reached all of the various GB milestones that I have listed
here, and it is also more valuable in the later eras (PME and later) than in ME and below.
A proper HQS city in either HMA or CA is never going to use these things we can score from GE:
- Terrace Farms, Tribal Squares—We will score more of these in the later eras when we get there so there is no reason to keep any that are age locked below PME.
- Premium Decorations or Cultural Buildings, Face of the Ancient, Gate of the Sun God — We won't actually need these buildings until PE or later and we can score more of them later that are age-locked to that era. However, keep these in inventory to use on the "Gain N Happiness" side quest that every time period has.
- Premium Supply Production Buildings — We won't use buildings like these until AFE or later, and we will score more of them later that are age-locked to that era.
- Sacred Skywatch — we will never use more than 1 SSW at-a-time in either HMA or CA, since these are the same size as Alchemists or Clockmakers. If we can fit two SSWs in our city, then we would actually get more value from placing 2 more Alchs/Clocks instead (don't forget that Alchs/Clocks give quest rewards + supplies production, which feeds into spamming more UBQs). So if we only have room for 1 3x2, then add 1 SSW; but if we have room for 2, then make it 2 more Alchs/Clocks.
A proper HQS city in either HMA or CA won't make use of these GE prizes until much later in the game. In other words, these prizes are mostly accumulating in our Inventory and will not translate them into more forward game progress at the time that we score them. However, accumulating such prizes for use later in the game is still valuable.
- Renovation Kit — we always want more of these
- 1-up Kit— we always want more of these
- Storage Kit— we always want more of these
- Fountain of Youth— Use them PME and later
- Ritual Flame— Use them only if we need defense and we can plop down a defense boost of of about 120%-200% at one time. Anything less won't stop the plunder, it will just make it a challenge to plunder us.
A proper HQS city in either HMA or CA can make use of these GE prizes when they are scored.
- Premium Residential Buildings — We can always use these in any time period. They strike a very good balance between: high population density, high coins production capacity, and high coins production efficiency.
- Diamonds — we always want more of these
- FPs— we always want more of these
- Goods — We always want more of these. However, by the time we have a true HQS city up and running in HMA or CA, we produce so many goods from CF-enchanced quest rewards that it is hard to get excited about the ones we score in GE. But the value of these GE-scored goods goes up each time period we advance later in the game. I get quite excited scoring 200 FE goods, which I can sell for 90 FPs.
- Medals— We always want more of these. However, by the time we have a true HQS city up and running in any time period, we can can produce so many medals from CF-enchanced quest rewards that we finally understand how paltry the medals packages in any other part of the game of FoE actually are. It is very hard to get excited about scoring medals in GE.
- Unattached Units, especially Rogues — we always want more of these
- Coins and Supplies — Yeah it kind of sucks scoring these; however we can actually use them to spam more UBQs so they aren't as bad as your 30th copy of Face of the Ancient.
- (Mass) Motivation Kits — Especially since we have large fields of buildings to motivate, and getting one supply building plundered will cost us 1 completed produce supplies quest, these can sometimes be valuable. Just be sure to use the kits before the productions complete, or you can no longer use them to motivate your building!
Some of those prizes above come by way of encounter rewards and some by way of ToR relics. Never construct ToR until you can reliably complete all 4 levels of GE on weekly basis no matter how you complete them. If you own a ToR you want to take advantage of all 64 chances to score a Relic. But I would not advise wasting land constructing the ToR until late Colonial Age or later. It is 100% a gamble. For every week I've scored a relic that paid 200 goods or 100 FPs, I have two weeks where I've only scored 4 worthless relics that I would never use. So over time it is very hard to justify the 6x6 plot of land and pile of FPs to level my ToR up to level 8 where it is now. I'm not saying the ToR is a terrible GB without any value. But I am saying that there are so many other GBs that offer a city much better value and much more consistent value-over-time than the ToR can and those GBs should all be level 10 before wasting land or FPs on ToR construction.
