Could this be the first set we've seen in a couple years without land trading finishes? Looks promising so far! My guess is a techer wins it this set.

well when all the big netting allience are warring i would expect to see the lower teir players with good finishes

anybody want to trade? ;p

Uh, pretty sure the winner last reset wasn't intending to land trade but was just making a retal.

I will win with my 2 m nw country!

LCN, Omega, Monsters and Rival have more than their share of Tier 1 players, just because it isn't as cut throat competitive as most other resets doesn't mean its lower tier guys.

One could argue that since there's been no trading, true skill factor will be higher than its been in years

#1 and #2 last reset were non-traders. Just saying.

Unfortunately, suiciders are out in force, hampering a good number of resets. Such is life. It will be interesting to see how things shake up.

lol yeah because land trading isn't a skill...

Frankly the problem I have with Earth is it rewards those who have oodles of time to bottomfeed and landtrade, not those who play their set precisely despite their lack of time.

Oh, and one suicider can ruin your set. Pfft.

I'd say I was here for the people but all my friends lurk and I hate everyone on AT.

What part of landtrading takes oodles of time? And why should someone who puts more time in not have a better finish?

I agree on suiciders.

"What part of landtrading takes oodles of time?"

Read the original phrase, which was "oodles of time to bottomfeed AND landtrade".

"And why should someone who puts more time in not have a better finish?"

I never said they shouldn't. I said I have a problem with it being a test of time and not of skill. Not that grabbing well doesn't take skill, but it takes time. Many of us are older and have multiple commitments that preclude that style of gameplay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGxwbhkDjZM

lol@ NW. thats now how you win the game. ya'all play funny.

landtrading sucks

CORRECT!

counting is a skill.. not fluffting the bed in diplomacy is a skill. anything else, i think, is having a thumb or index finger.

What game that one can play 24/7 doesn't favor those with time and skills?

Totally wrong beyond words. You likely need brain surgery to fix whatever happened to you.

We should have a server war every set you guys!

What skills? Bottomfeeding, landtrading, the whole shebang is a joke. Let's stop pretending there's any skill in it other than idiot's math and just come clean and admit the fact that anyone who's doing it is doing it because they have the time to invest.

As someone who successfully bottomfed this reset, I'll mostly agree with Rook. Anyone can landgrab if they're willing to put the time in, but there are definitely some who are more skilled than others at minimizing the number of turns spent gaining land.

not me. i went demo. totes foolish for grabbing :(

Thew new formulas also put more skill into it.

99% of people here are using their alliance website or some sort of excel spreadsheet or other tool to gain on the fly accuracy that saves them time and minimizes bounces. New formulas don't matter.

Iccyh is a disciplined and efficient bottomfeeder and I agree with him when he says that there is some skill in maximizing returns for turns spent. It's probably unfair for me to characterize it as an any-monkey-can-do-it endeavor. Rather any monkey can do it and be 75% as effective as a skilled bottomfeeder.

You havnt looked at the new formulas. I doubt many sites if any have ones that will tell you how much to send for max gains and minimum losses etc. The formulas have mattered.

I dont think they are even 75% as efficient either. Hanlong used to be lightyears ahead of the rest when he did it.

The bottomfeeding I see looks highly dubious and generates some or all of the suiciding that is complained of.

I have nil experience of play with the numbers currently playing but I doubt this type of bottomfeeding would prosper with larger numbers.

Land trading I have no experience of either. Is this clan mates exchanging hits with each other in order to gain ghost acres? Seems something of an exploit if so.

The whole point of bottomfeeding back in the day was that it was supposed to be a way to landgrab that was workable for every single member in a large alliance, as having too many midfeeders was a FA disaster waiting to happen.

Things have obviously changed since the days of bots and 20k countries, but even with the formula changes bottomfeeding is still fairly similar to how it used to be: you pick a target that isn't too far into DRs and hope for the best. In many ways, it is even easier now with the reduced number of countries as the limited number of targets makes it much more likely someone has already got a spy op on the target you're looking at.

There are definitely players out there who can get more from less and save themselves turns while gaining land, but the biggest difference between a good landgrabber and a bad one is almost invariably the amount of time they're willing to spend waiting for targets and paying attention to the news.

10 acres grab is better than 6 acres explore. - said by some laffer looooooong ago