Cash On Wheels COW, which is short for Cash On Wheels, is a strategy that works in BRE versions .910 and below. The COW is a method of trading coins to collect more interest from the bank than normal. To do a COW, you need at least two players willing to cooperate. Each player should specify a specific time to call the BBS, for executing a COW requires good timing. It all starts with one player saving up the money from all of his turns in the bank. When he reaches his last turn, he sends all of his money to player #2 using a trade deal. Player #2 then takes the money and puts it in his bank and leaves it there throughout his turns. He also saves up all money in the bank, adding it to player #1's funds. When #2 is done with his turns, he sends it back to #1. If there are more than 2 people in the group, #2 would send the money to #3, who would do the same as #2. The next day, #1 will recieve the money and put it in his bank. He plays all of his turns, saving up all his money in the bank, and sends it back to #2, who does the same. This keeps going on day after day, until the money reaches 1.599 billion coins, which is the maximum amount you can get interest off of. At this point, 1.599 coins are left in the bank after each turn. The interest, usually 25-35 million per turn, can be "capped off" and spent on army. Then the player with the money plays his next turn, drawing another 25-35 million coins in interest and spending it on army. On his last turn, he sends the 1.599 billion coins to the next player, who does the same as the first player. This cycle goes on day after day, and soon the players can have a sizable army to attack with. --==>>SAMPLE<<==-- Player #1 plays turns and has 10 million coins. Player #1 sends the 10 million coins to player #2. Player #2 recieves the 10 million coins. Player #2 plays his turns, adding 10 million of his coins plus 2 million in interest. He sends the money back to player #1 Player #1 recieves 22 million coins the next day. Player #1 plays his turns, adding 10 million of his coins plus 4 million in interest. He sends the money to player #2. Player #1 recieves 1,599,999,999 (1.599 billion) coins. He plays one turn, leaving 1.599 billion in the bank at the end of the turn. Player #1 has about 1,630,000,000 in the bank the next turn. He withdraws all but 1.599 billion coins and spends it on army. At the end of the turn, he has 1.599 billion coins in the bank. Player #1 repeats this cycle until his last turn, in which he sends 1.599 billion coins to player #2. Player #2 does the above, and the process starts over again. ====================== USING THE COW IN .950+ ====================== Using the COW in versions .950+ require a fast turnaround time to another BBS (less than 24 hours). Get a partner on an ally BBS and do a COW with them via InterPlanetary trade deals. Works just the same as the v.910 COW. Make sure you contact your partner and work out playings times. -=+-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+ BRE Strategies - #41 Evading Pirates On turn #1 put ALL your military in the Trading Market (unless you plan to send them out on an attack this turn). Play ALL your remaining turns with your military still in the Trading Market. On your last turn, take them out of the Trading Market. The Pirates can't touch your stuff while it's in the Trading Market. They still have ONE turn in which they can take your stuff, but hey, that's better than 10-20 turns..... More strategies coming later...... BTW, this is for the 10-15% who don't know this strategy. So please, PLEASE, don't write saying "I already knew that...", etc. And who's the person who had that Bullwinkle tagline? I laughed until I cried when I saw that one! -=+-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+ THE BEST REGION What is the best money making region? That question has been asked since the beginning of BRE. In this file I will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of every money making region. First I will list the four money making regions in regard to the amount of money they make: 1) Coastal 2) Desert 3) River 4) Mountain Coastal: At first glance it looks like these would be the best choice, but they have a major downfall. If your popular support falls, the income of these drops rapidly. With 0% popular support they will make less than 300 coins per region, which means that if you have 1,000 coastal and 0% popular support then you will make less than 300,000 coins from them. With 37% pop. support the coastals make about as much as Mountains do though. If you're taken down to 0% pop. support then it will be very hard to recover and prevent yourself from going through civil war. Desert: After hearing why coastals might not be such a great investment you are probably thinking that deserts will be great, but they aren't that great. The amount of money that they make each turn varies greatly between each turn. They go anywhere from making more than 3,000 a piece, to less than 1,900 each. If you deperately need money these might go on a bad streak and put you through civil war. River: Rivers actually make the most of any region on a turn which they produce money, but every once in a while they take a vacation and produce food. Sometimes they go three or more turns in a row without producing any money. If these produce food on a turn when you need to raise your morale or support these could put you through civil war. NEVER rely on rivers to produce all your food, if your food gets bombed and the food bank gets bombed and your rivers go on a cash producing run it can put you through civil war too. ALWAYS have enough agriculturals on hand to produce all the food you need. Mountain: The only disadvantages of mountain regions is that they make the least of all the money making regions. Other than that they are the most stable region and will never fail you. If you have enough of these you will always have money on hand to rescue you from anything. Final Analysis: The region you will rely on for making money depends on your playing style. If you are a more cautious player then you will probably want to go with mountains. If you are a more daring player you will probably want to go with deserts. I have noticed that a mix of all the regions works very well also. You might want to choose your 'main' region (Mountains, deserts, etc..) and go with a 2:1:1:1 (IE 2,000 Deserts, 1,000 Mountains, 1,000 River, and 1,000 Coastals) or even a 3:1:1:1 mix or any other mix you like. Notes from the Author: When I'm in protection I buy almost all coastals, and then after that I go to a mix of 3:2:1.5:1 with Deserts, Coastals, Rivers, and Mountains respectfully. If you are a player like me you might want to use that mix, but I recommend finding the mix that works best for you. -=+-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+ BARREN REALMS ELITE STRATEGIES : SUPER MASSIVE MOOLAH Possibly the best strategy to use in a game of Barren Realms Elite is the Super Massive Moolah trick. This is when you invest until you get 2 billion coins a day or more. 2 billion coins is the maximum you can have in or out of the bank at one time. There are several ways to do this. One way is to start a COW (cash on wheels) and then use the bank interest to fund investments which you invest for 240 hours. Another way (popular in .950+) is to save up money until you have 1.5 billion coins (doesn't really take that long) and then split them up into 10 different investments, one coming back each day. That is, you invest 150 coins for 24, 48, 72, 96, 120, 144, 168, 192, 216, and 240 hours. Then when each of these investments come back, you re-invest it for 240 hours to keep the cycle going. Eventually, your investments will total great than 770 million each. When this happens, invest only 770 million of the investment for 240 hours. The rest is yours to spend (I recommend buying army or agents). The 770 million you invested for 240 hours will come back around 2 billion coins. When these 2 billion investments come back, you can do one of two things: 1.) Invest 770 million of the 2 billion and spend the rest on army, bombs, etc. 2.) Invest two sets of 770 million from the 2 billion so you will get 4 billion coins in 10 days instead of 2. Make sure that the investments come back at different hours, otherwise one will be held due to the fact that the bank can only hold 2 billion coins. Using this technique, you can, at the very least, be a factor in the league. For reference, 1.22 billion coins can buy about 8-10 million jets, depending on the prices. Don't forget about the carriers. With this kind of army you can attack entire BBS's several times a day, bringing in 1000+ regions daily. You can also bomb the heck out of a foe to hinder their progress as well. Use your money wisely, and don't forget to re-invest 770 million of the 2 billion. -=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=--=+=- " HYPER INVESTMENT " Well since you are reading this i will assume that you have read the instructions in the game or the instructions i have for d/l in the text file area. You are given 20 turns of protection in which you can not be attacked, the idea is to attain as many credits while in protection as you can. So on your first day you only take 2 turns. 1st turn You will want to pay and feed all your poeple, sell ALL your military and buy as many income planets as you can, i recomend buying ore as they dont loose credits when in a time of war, you will need 4-5 food planets also. DO NOT BUY MILITARY UNTIL YOUR LAST DAY OF PROTECTION, because it drives the purchase price of those items way up. 2nd turn Pay and feed all your poeple and then with the rest of your credits you will INVEST it all at the bank, the bonds will pay you 10,000 credits at maturity ( which is in 36 real hours ) for a 7500 credit initial investment. Now that you have invested on your second turn you will now exit the game and wait for 36 real hours to play again. 36 hours later you only one (1) turn You come into the game and pay and feed your poeple and reinvest every credit you have in the bonds, then log out of the game and wait for 36 hours. So now you have 17 turns of protection left to do this strategy. When you reach 1,000,000,000 or more credits and have 2-4 turns of protection left you should use about half of your 1,000,000,000 credits to buy covert agents, these can be sold later at a tremendous profit, you will have to get 30-40 government planets to house all those covert agents but it is well worth it. So now you have 500,000,000 credits left and you have to invest that again and wait 36 hours. Comin' out of protection Now you have around 9500 covert agents and your 500,000,000 investment is now around 800,000,000 , if you have another turn of protection left i would advise buying more coverts and reinvesting again, if not then it is time to buy your military!!. Buying military First spend all your credits then go ahead and sell some coverts for big bucks to buy more military. Buy in this order 4000 Carriers 30,000 Heavy cruisers 4000 Generals 15,000 Defense stations 70,000 Fighters 100,000 Soldiers Now that you have a gigantic army you will not be able to feed and pay them on your second turn out of protection so you must repeatedly attack the largest empire in the game and obtain all the planets you can to be able to support such a large army. YOU MUST ATTACK THE BIG EMPIRE EVERY TURN or you will lose control of your empire from lack of food and money and you will plunge into cival war.