Farm Madness.

[Sun_Tzu1]

I was playing around against a computer player and played Landgrab & advanced farm as my first two cards.

With this combo, farms cost 120 wd to build, you get 80XP for building them (which is normal anyway), they have 5000 hp, & they build very quickly even with one settler.

Costing 120 wd and getting 80 XP back made me think. How much is XP worth in relation to wd?

XP Card
Shipment 1 300 Land Grab
Shipment 2 345 Advanced Farm
Shipment 3 397 ?
Shipment 4 456 ?
Shipment 5 525 ?
Shipment 6 603 ?
Shipment 7 694 ?
Shipment 8 798 ?
Shipment 9 918 ?
Shipment 10 1,055 ?

Right, once you're age 2, I reckon shipments can be worth as much as 600-700 wd.

So 397, 456, 525, 603 XP can transfer into 600-700 wd each time.

So, that 80XP is worth:
80 x 650/397 = 131 wd
80 x 650/456 = 114 wd
80 x 650/525 = 99 wd
80 x 650/603 = 86 wd

So, basically, if you ship LG & AF first, once you've collected your 800 fd to age, you can effectively build farms for free.

I'm starting to wonder if there might be a practical use for this as Aztecs! Mad I know. With 5000 hp and building so quickly, you can use farms as walls or just "stuff" to cause pathing issues for enemy units (and like I said, for a while they're free and quick to build). Plus, you have access to the farm/hunt/berry upgrades which is arguably as useful as the market. Plus, you have all the farms you need fatten herdables on. And building farms willy-nilly around your TC makes it particularly hard to have your settlers caught off guard.

And, this even begins to make the farm/plantation +10% poli look useful for your age 1 to age 2 poli choice. Which has vexed me for a while because that poli equals the age 2 chimpara card whereas all the others are only worth an age 1 shipment - and yet no-one plays it because it's not a viable poli because farms/plantations don't come into play until late age 2 or age 3.

It's a bit insane getting your head around the idea of building farms to get XP and then having all your useful stuff come in as shipments. But IDK.

What do you think?

It's totally mad I know, but if you can get your head around the gameplay and ride the beast I'm wondering if it's worth it. For sure, you won't have to worry about loosing the game because you got pushed off hunt. And, you'll have that landgrap card out of the way in age 1 instead of missing out on an age 3 shipment to play and age 1 card.

Tell me what you think, I'm expecting to get slated as it's a bit off the wall. But, please work the stats first. And weigh what you gain and what you loose.

I might try it out for a bit and post a recording later.

[36drew]

Farm don't function as walls though. You can walk over top of them....

You also are going to need that wood for a million other things -- like warhut and a house... for maces and coyotes...

[Sun_Tzu1]

Hey Drew,

If you look at a Farm carefully, you'll see it has a wall along the top edge and half way down the right hand side. That wall is a real wall. Units have to walk around it if they approach from that side. Therefore, you can use Farms as a wall. I'm not sure if there are joining issues or not but it's a wall.

I'd still build a W.H. on ageup, then do the farms after - unless there were herdables in which case I'd prob build 1 farm and then the WH next. In a sense, you're not wasting the wood on farms - as you're swapping it for XP and then shipping it back as stuff you'd have used the wood on.

[JKL4LiF3]

yeah. the back side is a wall-type thing. i raid through the sides so they cant get to their tc.

[Highlander999]

Yeah, but there is still a gap which would only cause pathing issues, not stop an army and if it is micro'd sensibly it should not struggle to get past it, unless you have spammed like 50 farms :p

[Sporting_Lisbon]

I'd try to use the farms as ''trash'' for him to kill, get it between his base and yours and then you can probably win some time.

[36drew]

BTW, why not just build walls for pathing issues and save 2 cards?

[Sporting_Lisbon]

This one makes you level your homecity faster, you're doing farm spam in normal games, plant spam is for noobs

[Sun_Tzu1]

Okay, I've tried walling with farms out...

Farms can totally block approaching units. I entirely circled my base with farms (and linking wall segments between them) and tried to move my WC from the outside to the inside and he couldn't find a path. So it's airtight.

Also, I put two farms immediately beside each other and again the WC couldn't get through them and had to go around.

I also noticed that on the farm that the farm wall goes across the farm two third of the way up it (farm on the bottom, herdable area on the top), and part of the way down both sides of it - not just on the right hand side as previously stated.

Whether you start as the player on the top half of the map or the bottom makes a huge difference. If you start on the top and use linked farms the farm part of the farm faces the enemy, if you're on the bottom, the herding side of the farm faces the enemy.

BTW, why not just build walls for pathing issues and save 2 cards?

You can. However...

(1) You can't farm on a wall.

(2) You can't fatten herdables on a wall.

(3) Walls don't give you access to the farm/hunt/berry upgrades.

(4) Farms build quicker than walls (in this scenario).

(5) Playing both cards effectively means you can build as many free farms as you want (as their cost is balanced by the XP they give for building them).

(6) Walls don't let you build plantations with 40% off and quickly.

If you don't think the above is worth two age 1 cards fine. However, that's what I'm asking people to evaluate. Walling off with farms was just a suggestion as to a use for farms given being able to build them for (arguably) nothing.

[Sun_Tzu1]

K, strats rubbish! I've decided. lol.

[I__CHAOS__I]

ok, maybe it's time you start thinking inside the box

[Sun_Tzu1]

lol, yes. At least I only wasted a day on that one.

2nd attempt I went up against a Leut-Col which is the highest ranked player I've been put against since I've been QSing (I chose the 15 rank option). I got off to a great start, I converted masses of excellent guardians, picked up treasures, and killed his explorer early. But, then this (now I know) unworkable strat handed him the game on a platter.

Anyway, now I know.

So back to three settlers as the first card for me! And hopefully, some ownage.