I disagree with this assessment for the most part. There are some checkpoints not worth doing on stage 3, but a blanket statement to avoid all checkpoints above the 2nd tri-color is too broad and bad strategy. Let's use 6th checkpoint on green path of Stage 3 as an example (one immediately after the 2nd tri-color). Requirements are: 33 Guards, 23 Necklace, and 47 Arcanes. That gets you 300pts. To get 300pts in the Pit, you need 6 flips, or a full set of badge combos. Not all badges are equal in the Pit. Longevity in the Pit is to have enough Blacksmiths, Farmers, Necklaces, and Statues, but Farmers and Blacksmiths are usually the hardest to come by because they require gigantic real estate of workshops. This checkpoint only requires you to have 23 of the difficult badges and you're done, while avoiding any farmers and blacksmiths. To get the same 300pts in the Pit, you'd need 5 blacksmiths, 5 farmers, 5 necklaces, and 5 statues. To me, this is burning blacksmiths and farmers too early and unnecessarily. You need those at the tail end of the Pit when things start getting stuck and not flowing. Every 5 blacksmiths and 5 farmers are worth 300pts since the other badges are much easier to acquire and usually have enough to cover the set of 6 flips. Therefore, to use any other excess badge in the Pit, you must always have at least 5 blacksmiths/farmers/statues/necklaces. It's better to give up 23 Necklaces for 300 pts than burn 5 blacksmiths and 5 farmers. I go pretty hard on FAs and my FSs enjoy the teamwork. I have won several FAs. We pretty much spend the entire FA in the Pit so we have a good understanding of Pit longevity strategy and can execute it. We did 510 flips in the Pit last FA, or 85 cycles of the fullI
First off you are far more experienced and successful than me. I appreciate your sharing you experience. You know your stuff.
Your example is valid. and I generally agree with your assessment - some of these 300 point dots are definitely worth taking - which ones depend. I was overly broad. Consider that all of the items below the top 3 tricolors have always been completed by my fellowship even if some were not worth it. Perhaps you are more successful, but I find stopping players from wasting resources a challenge. The starting dot in the center path (blue?) is one I would love to avoid, but I have never been able to stop my team from filling it. I give you credit if you can keep resources off of it as it usually requires a pig pile of Blacksmith or Farmers or statues.
I 100% agree that Farmers and Blacksmiths are critical in the pit and overall for the reasons you note. Necklaces and Statues depend on inventory. In my last run my fellowship had a gross excess of Statues primarily because of poor planning. A huge amount was made in advance which all three goods leaders choose to queue up their manufacturies as statues again after two days of Necklaces - our mistake. The impact after 4 days we had twice as many Statues as Necklaces. The correct answer is for each do a mix of both statues and necklaces after day 2. I wish I'd gotten your advise sooner as my fellowship clearly made a rooky mistake here.
Given the building size differential and a well planned effort, Farmer and Blacksmiths are critical as you surmised. That together with Bracelets are usually pacing. I know of no way to mass produce bracelets. Difficulties on badges also depending on the make up of the group, Arcanes can be difficult for many players bellow chapter 15 or so that don't have good CC production. I also found Marbles and Druids short at times.
Perhaps your fellowship has more skilled leaders than mine, but I usually find players posting out items that they shouldn't. This convinced me to go to the pit sooner rather than later and personally hording a few items (and having others do the same) so we could push our fellowship into the pit at an optimal point. I expect other fellowships may be far more disciplined and organized. We are still a work in progress on that, but we are getting better. I have started reviewing player maps after the event starts so that the top producers of Goods and Supplies in their shanty towns can better coordinate. A full fellowship review also helps to coordinate the shift from goods to supplies throughout the event. Statues are the best to have before the event starts but after start and especially on the last day, more workshops is optimal.
If you choose to avoid, generally, Farmers Blacksmiths and Bracelets based 300 point dots, I agree with you. I would add that one also has to look at the specifics of your own fellowship which might add a few more items. In any case, one path needs to be completed entirely so we are talking how many of 6 are not worth doing. Incidentally, your example, while valid and a good example, would not apply as we chose to complete Green. We thought it the easiest path. Some of the six clearly would be mistakes to complete. In fact, my fellowship completed one or two optional dots above the top row of tricolors (on the blue and orange paths) because we thought them worth doing.
I was trying, in my post, to be general. When you get down to specifics as you pointed out, it is a little different. I appreciate your sharing your pit recommendations and I will definitely change our planning based on your advise going forward. Getting to #17 is very different than getting to #1 or #2. Thank you for your help!
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