MA QI for the Lazy Revision

With the second championship of Middle Ages Quantum Incursion, Inno has served us with some nerfs (unfortunate, but not unexpected).  In terms of economy progression, the only major one is your goods building now costs 200 Alloy.  The other nerfs are primarily to how many rewards you can get.  For further details, check out my last post.

Unfortunately that 200 Alloy is enough to throw a wrench in my earlier lazy progression plan, so I'm presenting a revision.  This still assumes you will play enough to make back at least 500 Shards a round for 3 expansions (actually a little more now because there might be additional impediment removals)

I am adding a recommendation for a bit of combat for the first day.  May as well use up those initial troops and save some resources.

The Play

We're starting with the same initial layout:

- 3 QS expansions, along one of the short sides, with impediments cleared

- 7x Estate House, 1x Mansion, 1x Multistorey House (480 Population)

- 6x Church (960 Euphoria)

- 6x Tannery, 6x Brewery (360 Population Demand)

- Fight using initial troops (it's 8 v 4 or 5, you should win without any boost but might lose some troops)

- Donate non-Rope Goods or Supplies if needed

Production:

- 330 Alloy Production

- 188,750 Coins ((3,750 * 7 + 7,500 + 12,500) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 7 + 0.1) + 50,000)

- 322,160 Supplies ((12,000 * 6 + 4,800 * 6) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 6))

On the 1st collection you'll have 330 Alloy.

- Sell 2 Churches

- Build 1 Printer + 1 Tannery

- Fight using initial troops

- Donate non-Rope Goods and Supplies.

Production:

- 345 Alloy Production

- 188,750 Coins ((3,750 * 7 + 7,500 + 12,500) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 7 + 0.1) + 50,000)

- 304,560 Supplies ((12,000 * 7 + 4,800 * 6) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 6))

By the 2nd collection you'll have 575 Alloy.

- Sell 4 Churches

- Build 1 Doctor

- Build 1 Tannery

- Build 3 Multistorey Houses

- Fight using initial troops

- Donate non-Rope Goods and Supplies

Production:

- 405 Alloy Production

- 301,250 Coins ((3,750 * 7 + 7,500 + 4 * 12,500) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 7 + 0.1) + 50,000)

- 386,960 Supplies ((12,000 * 8 + 4,800 * 6) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 6)) + 50,000)

On the 3rd collection you'll have 480 Alloy.

- Sell 2 Tanneries

- Rearrange buildings if needed to consolidate open space as a 4x6 Area.

- Build 1 Ropery

- Build 4 Multistorey Houses

- Fight using initial troops

- Donate non-Rope Goods and Supplies.  Make sure to save enough to make Rope for 2 expansions before 4th collection (257k Coin and 205.6k Supply if they're the 30 + 60 Goods Expansions and you have just the standard 20 starting Rope).

Before the 4th collection (can be while it's ready and waiting if you're careful not to collect): 

- Build 2 Expansions for 30 + 60 Rope along the other short side.  (requires making 70 Rope by default).  May require additional impediment removal but you should be able to afford it by now.  You can swap the side your Town Hall is on if it gives you additional impediment free expansion(s).

- Open most of a 6x6 area by moving Houses/Ropery to the new expansions (one house will remain behind)

- Build 3 Churches in opened area to get to full Euphoria before collection.  If you need Coins for them you can collect the Town Hall for 50k Coins - it is unaffected by your productivity.

Production:

- 435 Alloy Production

- 451,250 Coins ((3,750 * 7 + 7,500 + 8 * 12,500) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 7 + 0.1) + 50,000)

- 322,160 Supplies ((12,000 * 6 + 4,800 * 6) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 6)) + 50,000)

On the 4th collection, you'll now have 715 Alloy.

- Sell 3 Churches and 1 Multistorey House

- Build 1 Printer

- Build 1 Tannery and 2 Breweries

- Donate Goods (produce as needed) and Coins or Supplies

Production:

- 465 Alloy Production

- 451,250 Coins ((3,750 * 7 + 7,500 + 7 * 12,500) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 7 + 0.1) + 50,000)

- 429,440 Supplies ((12,000 * 7 + 4,800 * 8) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 8)) + 50,000)

On the 5th collection, you'll now have 1080 Alloy.

- Build a 3rd expansion for 90 Rope.

- Move 4 houses there.

- Sell 1 Multistorey House + 1 Mansion

- Rearrange your open space so that the Ropery and a house are the only things in a 6x6 area

- Build 1 Clapboard House and 2 Tanneries

- Donate Goods (produce as needed) and Coins or Supplies

Production:

- 465 Alloy Production

- 343,625 Coins ((3,750 * 7 + 6 * 12,500) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 7) + 50,000)

- 503,840 Supplies ((12,000 * 9 + 4,800 * 8) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 8)) + 50,000)

On the 6th collection, you'll now have 545 Alloy.

- Replace 6 Multistorey Houses with 6 Estate Houses

- Build a 4th expansion for 130 Rope.

- Move 2 Houses there.

- Build 2 Estate Houses

- Build 1 Brewery

- Donate Goods (produce as needed) and Coins or Supplies

Production:

- 885 Alloy Production

- 888,125 Coins ((3,750 * 15 + 1 * 130,000) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 15) + 50,000)

- 548,960 Supplies ((12,000 * 9 + 4,800 * 9) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 9)) + 50,000)

On the 7th collection, you'll now have 1430 Alloy.

- Sell 1 Tannery and 1 Estate House

- Build 1 Bakery

- Donate Goods (produce as needed) and Coins

Production (Bakery not yet active):

- 855 Alloy Production

- 834,750 Coins ((3,750 * 14 + 1 * 130,000) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 14) + 50,000)

- 509,360 Supplies ((12,000 * 8 + 4,800 * 9) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 9)) + 50,000)

On the 8th collection, you'll now have 1285 Alloy.

- Sell 2 Tanneries

- Build 1 Bakery and 1 Estate House

- Donate Goods (produce as needed) and Coins

Production (2nd Bakery not yet active):

- 1,215 Alloy Production

- 888,125 Coins ((3,750 * 15 + 1 * 130,000) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 15) + 50,000)

- 628,160 Supplies ((12,000 * 6 + 4,800 * 9 + 60,000 * 1) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 9)) + 50,000)

On the 9th collection, you'll now have 1,500 Alloy.

- Sell 2 Printers

- Build 2 Doctors

- Sell 6 Tanners

- Build 10 Estate Houses and 2 Breweries

- Donate Goods (produce as needed) and Coins

Production:

- 1,680 Alloy Production

- 1,504,375 Coins ((3,750 * 25 + 1 * 130,000) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 25) + 50,000)

- 689,360 Supplies ((4,800 * 11 + 60,000 * 2) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 11)) + 50,000)

This should be enough production twice a day to make it to day 12 with this level of AP generation (5780/hr).  If you scale your AP up further, you may need additional Coins and Supplies as well.  

QI Update and New Low QS QI plan

What's New in the Update?

Well, nerfs.  Lots and lots of nerfs.  Mostly though it doesn't change too much.

• Goods buildings cost 200 Alloy.  This is the only change that needs to affect your economy progression.  And it only is a big impact near the start.  For the Bakery rush plan, the worst case scenario is you spend 95 more Quantum Shards on 1 more Bakery rush to cover.  For my lazy plan, I have an update coming.
• Pillory AP/hr has been taken out back and murdered so that it's no better than the alternatives.  Doctors are now the recommended AP/hr building.  While Pillory and Cartographer are *slightly* higher per square, Doctors are *much* cheaper per square and will likely allow you to convert at least a full collection earlier.  As such it's best to fill most space with Doctors, and reserve Pillories or Cartographers to fill in geometry better in places or use up excess resources.
• Cultural buildings also now provide AP capacity, but since we gained 100k capacity for free recently, this is rather unimportant to worry about for most players.  Cartographers have slightly better capacity/tile than Doctors.  Pillories have none.
• Lunar Coins from encounters have been reduced.

New Low QS plan

This is not entirely a reaction to the nerfs so much as something I'd been thinking over through the first championship.  

• I do not want to start every championship with a 1k Diamond infusion so I can do a high QS plan in the first round.
• With the most important reward being the Gold & Silver Bazaar fragments, the motivation to go as hard as possible at earning Lunar Coins is not so high in the long term.  As long as enough Lunar Coins are earned to buyout the bazaar fragments and a little more each round.
• Buying the round end chests for 1500 QS offers some extra Gold & Silver Bazaar fragments.  How many depends on your guild's overall progression.  
• Finally, because of the nerf, city AP is more valuable as settlement AP has been lowered.  It then follows that the more city AP you have the less impact it has to max the settlement as fast as possible.

So in moving away from spending QS on Bakery rushes, the first plan I examined closely was mass Alchemists.  Tier 2 buildings are after all the fastest way to ramp Alloy production.  

While 30+ Alchemists are perfectly capable of providing the kind of Supply production I'm used to without ever touching a Bakery, the journey to get there is very starved on non-Alloy resources.  Compare 1k Alloy of either:

• 5 Alchemists cost 300 Population, 250k Coins, and 300k Supplies.  
• 1 Bakery costs 120 Population, 84k Coins, and 100k Supplies.  

The extra Supplies deprive you of expansions.  The extra Population also slows down how many you can fit because you need more Clapboards first.

So this changes attention to stopping with the T2s at some point and building T3s.  This wasn't entirely satisfying at first either - the Alchemist start still left Supply lagging ; and waiting 10 hours for a Bakery to even come online wasn't exactly helping with that.  It's not like the rush situation where you immediately get 8+ productions out of it and then Supplies are suddenly good.

The solution I settled on was using Shoemakers instead of Alchemists.  The best way to view Shoemakers is that 5 of them have the same production as 2 Bakeries.  This means in building 5 of them you 'waste' 21 squares (5 * 9 - 2 * 12), but save 1k Alloy.  They get along with support Breweries (often temporary ones early on) much better than Alchemists do as Breweries are mainly gaining value from the base production of other Supply buildings.

On City Support Buildings

At first when I was considering this I was looking at the possibility of loading way up on ascended buildings with the idea of using them to power past the first round without spending Diamonds; and then in the second round flipping back to a high shard consumption strategy.  

I was prepping my run throughs with higher than normal Supply % and 200 starting Goods to try and overcome the supply shortage compared to Bakery rushes.  But once I'd settled on a plan I was happy with with Shoemakers, I wanted to answer the question: "how much do I really need all that?" and adapted my simulation of the run to only have my normal amount of support (220k starting Coins, 65% Supply boost, 50 starting Goods).  The result was the extra was gaining me about 32 encounters from earlier upgrades.  To put this in comparison, 1x 200 AP/hr building (i.e. Yukitomo Empire/Imperial) is worth about 15 encounters a round and doesn't require constant upkeep.

As such I'm pulling back from the extra event work that "loading up" on temporary buildings would entail.  I do still like having "some" but my 15 core ascensions of 10 Koi Ponds + 5 Nomad Nooks will suffice (+1 permanent Clover Keep Ruin and a few ascended troop providers for the start which are whatever I have handy at the time).  To the extent I want more out of QI from my main city I'll work on additional AP generators.

The Play

Initial build

- 3 QS Expansions

- 1 Goods Expansion

- all houses : 27 Multistorey + 25 Estate Houses on my starting Coin budget (670k Coin)

- Balance: 0 Coin, 295k Supply, 0 Alloy

First Collection: 

- Collect and Sell 9 Multistorey Houses.  Build 4 Churches.

- Collect and Sell 9 Multistorey Houses.  Build 4 Churches.

- Collect and Sell 2 Multistorey Houses.  Build 1 Church.

- Collect and Sell 5 Multistorey Houses.  Build 2 Churches.

- Collect and Sell 2 Multistorey Houses.  Build 1 Church.

- Collect and Sell 3 Estate Houses.  Build 2 Churches.

- Collect the rest.  Sell Churches.  

- Build to 2 Shoemakers (new), 24 Multistorey Houses (new), 25 Estate Houses (3 new).  

- Return 1 hour later to confirm Shoemaker completion.

- Balance: 2.3M Coin, 245k Supply, 141 Alloy

Second Collection: 

- Collect and Sell 9 Multistorey Houses.  Build 4 Churches.

- Collect and Sell 8 Multistorey Houses.  Build 3 Churches.

- Collect and Sell 3 Multistorey Houses.  Build 1 Church.

- Collect and Sell 4 Multistorey Houses.  Build 2 Churches.

- Collect and Sell 2 Estate Houses.  Build 1 Church.

- Collect and Sell 4 Estate Houses. Build 1 Church.

- Collect the rest of the houses.  Sell 6 Churches.

- Sell the rest of the Estate Houses, replacing with 6 Multistorey Houses and 1 Mansion.

- Build 12 Breweries.

- Collect Shoemakers.

- Sell Churches, Breweries, and Mansion.

- Build to 6 Shoemakers (4 new), 18 Multistorey Houses (12 new), 22 Estate Houses (new)

- Return 1 hour later to confirm Shoemaker completion.

- Balance: 3.9M Coin, 313k Supply, 67 Alloy

Third Collection:

- Collect and Sell 8 Multistorey Houses.  Build 3 Churches.

- Collect and Sell 7 Multistorey Houses.  Build 3 Churches.

- Collect and Sell 2 Multistorey Houses.  Build 1 Church.

- Collect and Sell 1 Multistorey House and 1 Estate House.  Build 1 Church.

- Collect and Sell 3 Estate Houses.  Build 1 Church.

- Collect and Sell 2 Estate Houses.  Build 1 Church.

- Collect the rest of the houses.  Sell 3 Churches.

- Sell all but 4 Estate Houses, and add 5 Multistorey Houses.

- Build 6 Breweries

- Collect Shoemakers.

- Sell Churches and Breweries

- Build to 10 Shoemakers (4 new), 1 Ropery (new), 14 Multistorey Houses (8 new), 15 Estate Houses (11 new)

- Return 1 hour later to confirm Shoemaker completion.

- Build 2 Expansions with Rope.  Build 8 Estate Houses

- Balance: 4.5M Coin, 287k Supply, 151 Alloy

Fourth Collection: 

- Collect and Sell 8 Multistorey Houses.  Build 3 Churches

- Collect and Sell 4 Multistorey Houses.  Build 2 Churches.

- Collect and Sell 2 Multistorey Houses.  Build 1 Church.

- Collect and Sell 4 Estate Houses.  Build 2 Churches.

- Collect and Sell 1 Estate House.

- Collect and Sell 4 Estate Houses.  Build 1 Church.

- Collect the rest

- Sell Churches

- Build 1 Expansion with Rope

- Build to 4 Multistorey Houses (new), 8 Breweries (new), 2 Doctors (new), 14 Estate Houses, 10 Shoemakers, 1 Ropery

- Balance: 5.0M Coin, 201k Supply, 661 Alloy

Fifth Collection: 

- Collect all

- Build 1 Expansion with Rope

- Sell Multistorey Houses and build to 2 Clapboard Houses (new, instant finish), 16 Estate Houses (2 new), 10 Breweries (2 new), 10 Shoemakers, 2 Doctors, 1 Ropery.

- Balance: 4.4M Coin, 391k Supply, 196 Alloy

Sixth Collection: 

- Collect all

- Build 1 Expansion with Rope

- Sell 5 Estate Houses and build to 3 Clapboard Houses (1 new, instant finish), 3 Doctors (1 new), 1 Mansion (new), 12 Breweries (2 new), 11 Estate Houses, 10 Shoemakers, 1 Ropery.

- Balance: 4.9M Coin, 621k Supply, 981 Alloy

Seventh Collection: 

- Collect all

- Build 1 Expansion with Rope.  Sell Ropery

- Sell 5 Estate Houses and 1 Brewery and build to 4 Clapboard Houses (1 new), 2 Bakeries (new), 3 Doctors, 6 Multistoreys (new), 6 Estate Houses, 11 Breweries, 10 Shoemakers.

- Balance: 5.4M Coin, 762k Supply, 661 Alloy

Eighth Collection: 

- Collect All.  

- Sell 3 Estate Houses and build 3 more Clapboard Houses.

- Balance: 6.5M Coin, 1.5M Supply, 276 Alloy

Ninth Collection: 

- Collect All.  

- Sell 5 Shoemakers, all Estate Houses, 2 Multistorey Houses and build to 1 Mansion (new), 8 Clapboard Houses (1 new), 13 Breweries (2 new), 5 Bakeries (3 new), 1 Beekeeper (new), 4 Multistorey Houses, 5 Shoemakers, 3 Doctors.

- Balance: 7.7M Coin, 2.9M Supply, 21 Alloy

Tenth Collection: 

- Collect All

- Build 3 Expansions with Honey

- Sell Beekeeper, last 5 Shoemakers, Mansion, Multistoreys

- Build to 9 Estate Houses (new), 17 Breweries (4 new), 8 Bakeries (3 new), 1 Cannon Camp (new), 8 Clapboard Houses, 3 Doctors

Eleventh Collection: 

- Collect All.  

- Train 300 Cannons.

- Sell Cannon Camp and 1 Estate House.

- Build to Gunpowder Manufactory (new), 18 Breweries (1 new), 8 Bakeries, 8 Estate Houses, 8 Clapboard Houses

- Balance: 7.2M Coin, 936k Supply, 5876 Alloy

Twelfth Collection: 

- Collect All.  

- Build last Goods Expansion with Gunpowder.  

- Sell Gunpowder Manufactory.  

- Build to 9 Estate Houses (1 new), 2 Cartographers (new), 19 Breweries (1 new), 8 Clapboard Houses, 8 Bakeries, 3 Doctors

Thirteenth Collection: 

- Collect All.

- Balance: 12.7M Coin, 5.4M Supply, 17766 Alloy

Fourteenth Collection: 

- Collect All.  

- Sell all Houses and Supply Buildings.  

- Build to 30 Doctors, 9 Cartographers, 48 Gargoyles, 2 Nautical Statues

The mix listed of Doctors/Cartographers/Gargoyles/Nautical Statues is based on what I expect to have for Supplies and Alloy and how much single-color boost I need.  The precise mix I settle on may be slightly different in the end ; and evolve over time as I get new support from my main city.

If I needed no boost I could convert on collection 13 instead of 14 to 2 Pillories, 38 Doctors, and 4 Cartographers, geometry permitting (that's a very high % of 3x3s - would need to be quite careful about picking expansions; probably need additional impediment removals as such.  The amount of 1x1s I currently plan to use makes it easier to deal with any geometry while needing boost).  Would probably need additional supply boost from main city to be able to handle additional Pillories or Cartographers in order to be more geometry tolerant.