What did
@Iyapo1 say that was 'bad advice'? (And where did they claim to be an expert?)
I'm just going to clarify how their post (the one you quoted) reads to me, so maybe you can tell me where the advice is bad? (I really am curious as to what's being perceived as bad, because I acknowledge that I don't know everything and that I frequently misunderstand things, so I'm trying to clarify the point, not cause a riot like what happened in that other thread over in I&S.)
This is, admittedly, a subjective observation on the surface. But experience has shown that there is truth in it. For example:
- A crystal province in ring 2 on one of my cities is requiring 120 T1+2 goods for negotiations, and has a squad size of 103. (2 different encounters; only 1 encounter in this province didn't require any goods. All others are T1+2 in addition to supplies and gold.)
- A steel province in ring 4 on one of my cities currently requires crystal, scrolls, and silk. These items have not yet been researched in that city. I currently only have T1 goods there. So, while this city falls outside the chapter 3-5 window as quoted, it also demonstrates the problem.
- A marble province on ring 5 in a different city has a squad size of 228 to my 114 - that's upgraded to squad size 8 on the tech tree.
- An elixir province in ring 5 has a squad size of 430 - that's not open to tourney yet; I still have two encounters unresolved in it.
With that in mind, the advice
really is decent for folks who are trying to create sustainable, self-sufficient cities that slot well into their FS without dedicating a good deal of time each day to the game. By "good deal of time", I mean things like setting smaller productions to maximize their supplies production in workshops so that they reach their maximum allowed amount as per the Main Hall, and thus utilize the wholesaler to obtain goods to help them cater/negotiate. It's a strategy for the game, but it's not a strategy that appeals to everyone, so encouraging people who want to let the game run as an idle game in the background on their phone/tablet/computer while they write a novel; work; play another, more human-involved game; watch a movie; talk to people via chat/text; etc. and so on - encouraging those players to keep to the parameters recommended by the developers is merely another strategy.
Really, this is a perspective thing. I started using the military boost buildings and they've become a crutch. And that's what I think is meant here - that when you get used to having that boosted health and suddenly your military building peters out and you're back to regular 100% health, it can be a bit of a shock to see your troops decimated in three hits when your cannon fodder had been able to take five or six. Likewise, becoming accustomed to that increase in attack power for mages and archers can leave you with a nasty bit of reality once it wears off and you're back to
not being able to take out the enemy battalion in a single blow. It can be devastating to your troops if you have bad terrain and you're up against a lot of units that can decrease your attack power when they attack you when that building boost wears off.
And by getting players accustomed to the "boosted" abilities, it almost guarantees that city space will be needed for the military ancient wonders. And since space is at a premium and there's only three ways to get it, this leaves you with overscouting as an option - meaning you've dug yourself deeper into the hole just by using the boost buildings you crafted in the MA. That's how I understood this point, anyway.
If you think you can take the encounters in battle, then by all means, do try. But if your military gets squashed and you don't have orcs and don't want to pay diamonds to solve encounters, well, this one's not really a perspective point. It's just a question of whether one actually
can do the thing they're trying to do.