No mercs

[Uiblis]

What do you guys think about this round?

Even just a few turns in I can see it's going to be very difficult.

For example, running out of cash could potentially force you to wait 48 hours until something sells on the market before you can run again. Unless you build markets, but then you would be forced to tear down some other structures and have a ton of desertations. Cluny's hut loan might not provide enough if you can only get rid of 25% of your troops to the market, then you'd pay your army through all the turns trying to get out of 0 resources.

Indys would burn through cash and food more quickly and be forced to depend on clans or leader players.

Also not being able to buy troops whenever will force the market to become more active...then everyone could sell things for exorbitant prices and people would still have to buy them. Like the above example, if you run out of food, you can't get more unless you build foragers or buy off market, either way would cost much more.

[Rakefur]

Even just a few turns in I can see it's going to be very difficult.

^^This^^

[Firetooth]

I see it as a great way to empower indies.

They have pretty much complete control over troop flow, and by extension, land flow. Solo and team indies alike will be having a blast. I think it will be a good round. :)

[Sharptooh]

Every round has its difficulties, that's what makes having different rounds fun  :)

You'll just have to be uber careful with Cash this round, utilize the market to it's full potential and make sure you use Cluny's hut a lot too.

[Pippin]

use a lizard and utilize land and camps, easy

[Sevah]

That's the thing with no mercs, camps are void. You can't sell troops on the mercs which means you can't finance an army with barracks or you'll end up nowhere with plenty of turns.
All camps would do is reduce costs but so will markets with tents and medium tax. Lizard can't sell food on the mercs to fund it's indying so getting good value on stoats to access land is a death trap.
The best way to start up in a no mercs situation is scout up your own land, do some cashing and foraging so you can use the last half the run doing missions or the last 150turns indying.
Building barracks early in the run will cripple everyone who tries it. Even dumping on a clan and using their cash to produce is gonna chew through stockpiles. Lands worth more than most rounds. Keep it locked

[Pippin]

aha didnt think about that :/

dam you no mercs round

[Shadow]

Curious: Shael, when stuff autosells, does it get base price or do camps matter (it should be base price)?

[Pippin]

i remember asking shael before, i think shael said that it sells at whatever the mercs are at at the time of sale

[Shadow]

oh, well then camps do work. Will probably remove that later, but for now, they do.

[Pippin]

its useful if you finish up on towers/camps which could give indys a small yet useful way to help fuel runs

early days yet but im surprised at the lack of wolfs considering it would just be a doss making food

i can see the lack of troops a problem though, so stoat looks good with its small troop production bonus, easy troops to break those other leaders with a few barracks

[Gen. Volkov]

That's the thing with no mercs, camps are void. You can't sell troops on the mercs which means you can't finance an army with barracks or you'll end up nowhere with plenty of turns.

Not entirely. They still reduce time to market, and raise autosell prices.

[Genevieve]

its useful if you finish up on towers/camps which could give indys a small yet useful way to help fuel runs

Err... Only if you plan on running every 2 days.

[Pippin]

err... they go in seperate packages so stick one on everyday and you should be getting on after the other

[Sevah]

I was convinced that the public market stole everything for the last 2 weeks of last round

Stoats the best race this round. Can espy the landholders to start with, Crazy attack so the aggressor doesn't need much for land access. A few barracks on T1 or T3 while in northlands breaks a solid lizard. The ability to either generate cash or food with buildings is great to start with but best of all you can last minute get leaders or run completely dependant on leaders. Great for stealing cities and cities which go hand in hand with the 10% cashing bonus, southsward advantage and academy.