I am having a hard time understanding the point of land grabbing people when your at 1500 acres. It seems that it would be more beneficial to batch explore up to 5-6k and then start land grabbing.
The returns are very low at this point in the game. I could batch explore from 1800 acres to 5k-6k with 80-100 turns. Also, this would eliminate pissing people off this early in the set. (or in their words ruining their set.) Discuss please.

It depends on the strat you're playing.

For a techer its about efficiency. For other strats 1.5k might be too early

hmmm. explore for 80 ar ( 2 turns ) - or grab for 150 - 250 inc. ghost ar ( 2 turns ) sounds good to me.

Yea I could see a techer needing to do it that way.

Techer is the only strat I've ever played (except in express) and grabbing is much more efficient at building up land, however there is a counter point which, until last set in tourney I hadn't contemplated.

When grabbing you have to buy and maintain a decent number of jets and replace those lost in battle. Also you have to create enough spies to be able to efficiently select your targets. I found it (almost) as efficient to stock earlier when bushels and oil were cheaper.

In all I'd say the best time to start grabbing is when you're reaching around 3-4k acres. This could vary depending on just how fat other countries are.

Agreed. Maintaining the extra forces is costly. You also have to build oil rigs or buy the oil.

lol, batch exploring at 1800 acres would only yield you 1800 acres at most therefore there is no way to batch explore from 1800 acres to 5-6k

2 batches sorry :)

Haha...grabbing>>exploreing. How do you not understand how sending 10k jets on a PS netting 250-300 acres is better than 80 acres with the same turns? More acres, more turns to build, higher production while playing turns and more turns for CS. Now, with no d allies grabbing is even better. No need to over send. I do love allxers. Seeing half built, low defense countries with no means to retal. Keep not understanding =)

Oh, 100k PSs now for 400+ acres vs like 50 per 2 turns exboring, actually I got 1100+ acres in 6 turns for minimal jet loss. 15k ish oil? was able to build it all and build 40cs. Compared to saving the days turns for mass x.

That depends on what part of the set your speaking of. Beginning of set, zero possibility of gaining 1100 acres, just sayin. At least one batch explore near the beginning, will get you more land quicker than attacking 14 targets for 40 acres a piece. Yes, later when people get more land, it is a better idea to attack prolly. But say your not an indy, so your not producing fluff. So you go to the market and try and buy jets/oil....and they are not in the quantities you need or over priced as hell. Then you have to wait or spend more resources building something. (rigs) And at the beginning of the set, there is not an over abundance of jets, troops, oil, and tech. And they usually hella expensive. And yes I understand that ghost acres bump the total you will get. You also run the risk of grabbing someone who might not like it, and then they ruin your set. So basically what I am getting at, is that in my first post, change batch exploring to 3000-3500 acres instead of 5k-6k. I also never run a low defense half built country. Nice of you to round all exploring types into one category. I also run high spal. :P See, I don't buy or build jets, so I can use my vast resources for other things. :P

Youre full of fluff. I gained over 1000 acres the last 2 days ,under 6k acres. Zero possibility my ass. After you spend all your turns exploring, do you magically have it built? No, its half built.

Youre last post is all poo, written from a losers perspective. Ok elite uberplayer. Ill remember that farmers,cashers and oilers dont produce anything while grabbing.

I'm doing batch explore from 1800 - 3.6K
batch explore again 3.6K - 6K

start grab till 10K

Mazooka: You gained all your land in the last two days, when people are already above 5k land. Did you misunderstand what I said? You wouldn't get that land at the BEGINNING of the set. (you know that part of the set when people are slightly above 1000 acres?) The farmers, cashers, and oilers make a ton of product at the BEGINNING of the set. (sarcasm) The poster after you, understand what I was talking about. Btw, since I'm not a rainbow strat person, I usually don't have farms...unless playing farmer. The unused land that I choose to not build, helps towards my food. I think that you have a weird outlook on what players do. I have very high bpt and cash, so I build the next day. 1400 acres....100 bpt....14 turns. Wow, I just shot my days worth of turns there. lmao (it's called a strategy for a reason)

Mazooka,

Your stats show you have been killed 5 times in tourney play. Needlessly grabbing before you have to can have negative consequences.

Chadius- Youre making fluff up again, I was under 5k acres at the start of both days. You said there was no chance to do it. You are wrong. You have a 100 bpt @ 1400 acres in tourney?

Brink-and now alliance players arent randomly killing countries I might not get killed. Cause getting killed warchat style by countries you havent hit is ALWAYS BECAUSE OF NEEDLESS GRABBING.

You grabbing others at the beginning of the set. Not what you acres are at. Read, comprehend, etc. Your not attacking yourself, so your acres doesn't matter. Theo man, nuff said. I leave protection with bpt really high and then finish it shortly after.

discuss please is what you asked. i then replied=

"Haha...grabbing>>exploreing. How do you not understand how sending 10k jets on a PS netting 250-300 acres is better than 80 acres with the same turns? More acres, more turns to build, higher production while playing turns and more turns for CS. Now, with no d allies grabbing is even better. No need to over send. I do love allxers. Seeing half built, low defense countries with no means to retal. Keep not understanding =)"

then these gems from you,

"That depends on what part of the set your speaking of. Beginning of set, zero possibility of gaining 1100 acres, just sayin."

"Mazooka: You gained all your land in the last two days, when people are already above 5k land. Did you misunderstand what I said?"

Follow closely now, you are WRONG on both. FACT: we are speaking of beginning of set. i began grabbing @ aprox. 2k acres. statement one you made is wrong. FACT: at the time of my grabbing examples, get ready now, NO ONE GRABBED WAS OVER 5K, NOR WAS I.

every assertion you made was wrong. get it?

"You grabbing others at the beginning of the set. Not what you acres are at. Read, comprehend, etc. Your not attacking yourself, so your acres doesn't matter."

That doesnt make any sense at all.

"Theo man, nuff said. I leave protection with bpt really high and then finish it shortly after."

so what? you started a thread about grabbing vs batch exploring early game. And what do you consider "bpt really high"? i came oop with 78CS.

i asked if you had a 100bpt like you said.

"1400 acres....100 bpt....14 turns. Wow, I just shot my days worth of turns there. lmao (it's called a strategy for a reason) "

again you started a thread about batch exploring early vs grabbing. i think youre full of fluff in you "examples".

i didnt misunderstand anything you said, its just youre wrong about most of it =/

costs are at the lowest to grab early. oop you can usually get 100j blind PSs and 10k breaks. its playing style, risk vs reward.
I just have to keep stating the fact that, yes i did get that land early, im not the only one who did. you are just wrong man.

Agree to disagree. Your apparently lucky on your "blind ps's". If you would of attack me, you would have failed, point blank. So you attack get acres, I batch explore. We're at the same level. Except: I didn't buy oil or build rigs. I didn't pay upkeep for jets. I didn't piss people off. I didn't become an ass hat of a target. I didn't lose any military. And I made an amazing amount of military, cash, and net while I batch explored. I hope your in game A. Cuz, if you attacked me, and I somehow figured it was you....I would enjoy the next 3 weeks.

Haha...you made fluff up and now you mad? You want to have fun with my country over a thread you made to open up discussion? Youre an asshat.

You keep failing to see that the two arent equal. An allx and a grabbing country will not be the same.

Ima teach ya somthin, divide a countrys nw by its land. If that number is low send 100j PS, if they have defense the attack wont go through and no turns spent.Thats oop blind grabbing. fluffing noob.

I know oop grabbing. I said you wouldn't be able to grab me because I don't fall under your half built low protection sarcasm you spit out in an earlier post. READ FOR GOD SAKE. STOP PARAPHRASING AND SUPPLEMENTING SARCASM AND fluff TO MAKE YOU SOUND COOL. YOU CAN"T SAY I MADE UP fluff AND THEN GIVE A SH@TTY EXAMPLE. Douche.

Grabbing at 1.5k acres in tourney can be very efficient. You need to know how to do it right though - 30k jets can get you 300-400 acres. There are of course downsides of grabbing early - the increased risk of being suicided on.

So what I hear from everyone, is that it can be efficient, but dangerous. Basically take your chances, but double tapping will get you got someday. lol Thanks everyone. Mazooka, sorry I got heated. My apologies.

Chadius, I am in your court on this. Players start grabbing days before it makes sense to me. I've only been back a few sets after sitting out a decade, so what do I know, but I generally track some of the more aggressive guys, certainly the ones that try to hit me.

By the end of the set, they are destroyed, or under the cut off and go down to the minor leagues, and they certainly aren't anywhere around when I look at who is ranked by me at the end.

I am not anti-grabbing, I carry jets, and lots of Tanks, but they are mostly used as a deterrent or as pay back. I get missile tech as well, Nukes hurt more in a short tourney game.

Sadly, I can get exploring to 17 million net, no worries. I think I can get to 20 million without my CONSTANT boneheaded mistakes. I don't believe you can win as an explorer.

Well, maybe as a techer......

True. The only issue I have with tourney and primary right now, is the crappy prices on everything. I think an all xplore could win with prices not sucking. (and of course almost no mistakes and not being grabbed all the time) I have close to 2m turrets on 6k land, with weapons tech. This guy still tries to grab me last set, around this time. lol Some people ;) sheesh. lmao Sadly, I'm so used to alliance type long sets, I'm still getting used to the shortness of this. Been a long time since I played tourney. Back when the letters went higher. :P

All-x can, and has, won tourney.
Like Brink said, the more aggressive grabbers usually don't finish that well. I think that in order to win, as a grabber, you must do so with discretion.

The upkeep for jets is a WHOLE lot less than that for turrets. An all-x with lots of turrets carries a lot of expenses.



Most everyone that has won, grabbed.

Case closed.

Not that much less... you're talking about $0.04/units/turn.

If you have 150k turrets (expenses 27k/turn) and your grabber wants to attack you then the grabber needs 110k jets PS (expenses 15.4k/turn) or 165k jets SS (expenses $23.1k/turn) to be sure of the grab.

Just how many turrets are you going to keep? Which is the more attractive target?

Reviving dead threads is not a good thing.

I grab OOP almost always. Keeps the game interesting. Though I haven't tried tourney in EE, I'd assume it'd be efficient there too =P Only problem would be residual enemies as you're using the same country set after set

crest23 ... I wasn't saying you couldn't win by grabbing, just that I have won without grabbing. There have been a couple of other all-x wins too.

trep ... check the player page for you on the wiki ... shows your accomplishments but links to my profile.

? I don't quite understand what you just said.

I'm sure all-x can do well, just for me the excitement in the game is actually grabbing. I'm also pretty sure I do much better than most all-x with grabbing OOP or before 6k - with minimal consequences (usually).

Ok trep ... This is your "player page" on the wiki http://wiki.earthempires.com/index.php/Trep
On the right hand side of the page, in the box under your name is a link for "profile". When I clicked that link it took me to my own profile instead of yours which is here http://www.earthempires.com/gameprofile?id=717
But just now when I checked it out I realized what the problem was ... the profile link on the wiki has no id# so nvm

lol I didn't even know I had a wiki entry =) yea didn't know what you were talking about hehe

Damn i missed the first half of the movie

*runs and grabs popcorn

I thought my old thread was dead. :)