Changes

*: Iron Works: Although it does give you quite a lot of firepower for a reasonable price (3600 + 2 food for 2400), it is generally not worth adding to a lane, mainly because of the siege cannon, unless you have either incredible amounts of gold or want to rush.Deactivates for 400g 5.2% ec*: Magellan's expedition: This one is good, but adding a couple submarines fast to top lane is both cheaper and more effective.Deactivates for 400g 5.8% ec

: The main idea behind this strategy is to give your teammates and yourself a constant market lane while sometimes swinging the side lanes of the opponent. You will build the great wall on the hill closer to the opponents capitals on the middle lane, leaving them with only 1 node.: Why on the hill? Ranged units have a percentage chance to miss units that are on top of hills, if you set up your defence there you have quite the advantage, if you set it more forwards it would be easy to break, their units will reach faster your wall and stack easier, and if you decide to build the great wall in front of the middle node, you will be the one shooting uphill.: Start by activating everything you have on your middle lane, it is good if you overpower your opponent, but not completely necessary. You will sneak your workers past the fight of middle, and start building your great wall on the hill. If your enemy is smart he will have rushed with his workers to his hill as soon as he saw yours, he will try to get up a tower while you are building your wall to snipe your workers, this is why you should attempt to hide them and hope for the surprise element, if you have it, there is a good chance you wont need a tower to protect your workers, otherwhise dont start building the wonder right away but add a tower first instead.: Building the great wall costs a great deal of gold (if you build it with more workers more so, and the more damaged it gets the more it costs), so be prepared to lose your sides for quite a while, be careful with this, the enemy can try to outmarket you as he will have 6 nodes and you only 3, at least just after you finished the wall.: Remember to build hanging gardens as soon as you can, there is nothing more frustrating than your enemy stealing them when you have them 80% completed. This is actually a great counter to your great wall, steal hanging gardens, go bazaar and hold your sides, your enemy will have less income, gold, and no materials to market harder than you. But do not let him keep the entire middle lane for longer than 20 minutes, his wall will have paid off by then.: Another counter that works against some players is to do a delayed camp, one that goes first up to your boats and then below to middle lane, if you do it right your enemy will be holding 2 nodes instead of 3 every tick. This is really easy to counter though, so dont expect to steal 15 minutes of income with it.

: The concept of Opportunity costs simply means that depending on how you can use your resources, the costs of your choices will be different.: For example, it seems rather obvious that a materials market is relatively more expensive if you have to buy the materials needed to make it and relatively cheaper if the best thing you can do with your spare materials is sell them.: What I am getting at is even though the fixed costs of all the markets are the same, the real costs vary depending on the situation. If you are holding middle lane, got your medieval capital and killed your very first worker for extra food, the cheapest markets you can get right now are food markets, and then probably materials ones; since you have free food, and probably spare materials.: This is why I hardly ever make more than 1 top (or food), market early as a side, early on in the game 100 gold more or less on your lane has a lot of a bigger impact than later on, trade markets are more expensive relative to materials markets.: You actually use this concept all the time, if you have 1 materials market active and 1 trade inactive, but you are keeping top lane and have 15/15 food, you will swap, the opportunity cost of having a materials market active is that you cannot have your trade one active at the same time, and that is greater than its benefits.: Now, even though the most expensive markets in these terms are trade markets, they are also the most flexible, deactivating a food market only gets you 75% of the gold and materials you used, but not that granary you needed to build; and deactivating materials ones means you need to go through the 0.75 exchange rate of materials to gold to actually be able to retrieve their cost. Because of this, trade markets are possibly the only ones that pay to be deactivated (even if you do not use food) when you havent got top lane to fill your bank.: Markets pay more or less from 4 to 12 ticks, depending on the resources you used to build them, and assuming an average of 11-12 gold per tick. Trade markets deactivate for 112g 37m 1f > in gold terms 139g - 258g (depending on if you sell or use materials and use food for something else):* Food markets 37g 37m 2f > 64 - 264:* Mats markets 37g 97m 1f > 109g - 258g

For example: The cost of markets can be approximated to 300g, it seems rather obvious that a materials market is relatively more expensive if you have to buy the materials needed to make it and relatively cheaper if so in the best thing you can do with your spare materials is sell them.What I am getting at is even though the fixed costs of all the markets are the samecases, the real costs vary depending on the situation. If you are holding middle lane, got your medieval capital and killed your very first worker for extra food, the cheapest markets you can get right now are food markets, and then probably materials ones; since you have free food, and probably spare materials.This is why I hardly ever make more they pay off in less than 1 top 5 ticks (or foodat +18g/tick), market early as a side, early on in the game 100 gold more or less on your lane has a lot of a bigger impact than later on, trade markets are more expensive relative to materials markets.You actually that is if you use this concept all the time, if you have 1 materials market active and 1 trade inactive, but you are keeping top lane and have 15/15 food, you will swap, the opportunity cost of having a materials market active is that you cannot have your trade one active at the same time, and that is greater than its benefits.Now, even though the most expensive markets in these terms are trade markets, they are also the most flexible, deactivating a food market only gets give you 75% of the gold and materials you used, but not that granary you needed to build; and deactivating materials ones means you need to go through the 0.75 exchange rate of materials to gold to actually a more realistic estimate would be able to retrieve their cost. Because of this, trade markets are possibly the only ones that pay to be deactivated (even if you do not use food) when you havent got top lane to fill your bank.Markets pay more or less from 4 7 to 12 11 ticks, depending on the resources you used to build them, and assuming an average of 11-12 gold per tick.Trade markets deactivate for 112g 37m 1f > in gold terms 139g - 258g (depending on if you sell or use materials and use food for something else)Food markets 37g 37m 2f > 64 - 264Mats markets 37g 97m 1f > 109g - 258g

The : For a bank is much easier to work out:: 375 banking + 100 food + 500 bank + 1000 reserves = 1975 cost of markets , you can be approximated to 300gdeactivate it for 1000, so in the best of cases, they pay off in less than 5 1975 - 1000 = 975 real cost:: 975 / 100 = 9.75:: 10 ticks (at +18g/tick), that is payoff period if you use all keep above the materials and food they give you but a more realistic estimate would be from 7 to 11 ticks.1k mark

: For a bank is much easier to work outstock exchange375 banking :: 600 + 100 food + 500 bank 1000 + 1000 reserves 2000 = 1975 3700 cost, you can deactivate it for 1000, 1975 - 1000 = 975 1700 real cost975 :: 1700/ 100 250 = 96.75810 :: 7 ticks payoff period if you keep above the 1k mark

For a stock exchange600 + 100 + 1000 +2000 = 3700 cost, 1700 real cost1700/250 = 6.87 ticks : And both bank and stock exchange dont require your team to hold any nodes for the income, and you can have "half" of them deactivated, they are much more flexible than markets.So I should bank as soon as I can? No, no, no no and No, screw you. If you spend 1975 as soon as you can you will lose your lane and your team will be losing 3 times as much as what you make with your silly bank. but the same applies to marketting, do not make 50 markets just to lose your lane, first keep the lane, then market with your extra gold.