Help getting out of Debt

Hello i have been playing Skirmish with 7 AIs to practice and i find that my main issue is getting out of debt before the mounting debt eats me alive.

 

 

like this last game  i was playing as Scavenger HQ and i settled with 3 carbon next to me but only used one due to the low demand of Carbon and Aluminum was rather close. however i found myself traveling farther for Silicon and then i bought 3 pieces of land from auction that had Low Silicon and Low Iron and another one that had High Iron and used those to produce Steel while using the High Iron to produce Iron for my 3 steel mines. but since the distance was pretty far Fuel became a problem so i laid down as much Electrolysis Reactors near my HQ but then Water became an issue as a result of the Electrolysis Reactors i had.

 

 

eventually all my stock was bought out and i was in a massive hole in debt got eliminated.

 

 

how do i fix this issue.

 

i was doing everything i could to produce only the stuff that had the highest prices.

11,433 views 2 replies
Reply #1 Top

First issue sounds like you're taking quite a bit of auctions which gives you a lot of debt. Pick and choose selectively which ones you want to take. You can't have all of them. It also sounds like maybe you should let some of the auctions go for low tiles across the map.

Second thing to consider is that scavengers typically don't use iron and steel. There are certain isolated circumstances where you might do it for a period of time but typically you don't claim an iron tile at all as scavenger. If the price of steel is high and iron is low just go into steel for a little while next to your base and then switch out when the market tanks. Otherwise you should be producing other things (because the other 3 HQ's produce steel and you're just selling it off and making it cheaper for them to upgrade by producing/selling steel).

Third is that you need to be very careful about which tiles you claim and how far away from your HQ they are. Fuel costs are doubled in beta 8-9 and so a tile very far from your base might end up costing you more debt. Instead of the high silicon across the map take a low silicon that's closer. You may even find based on the shipping time/distance that you get almost as much silicon from the mine closer to your base.

Fourth - when are you producing power? Scavengers don't normally use a lot of power but if you were producing steel and electrolysis reactors (or glass) you were using a lot. Make sure you've claimed a geo or have a wind farm or solar panel by HQ 2 or 3. Watch the price of power and adjust accordingly. Remember that these power producing tiles are keeping you from going further into debt and not adding to your cash so you don't want to go overboard with them unless you have close to $0 debt and you're trying to make money on power.

Last thing to remember: just because something has the highest price doesn't mean it's the most profitable to produce. A steel mill produces at .5 whereas a low iron mine produces at 1. If the steel is $95 and the iron mine is $50 you're making more money from the iron mine than the steel mill (not even factoring in the power costs which could tip the scale more heavily toward the low iron mine). Electronics typically have the highest price but you only make .25 per tile with those. Just something to consider.

Hope this helps! Also consider watching some videos on youtube to get a good sense of the build order and what people normally do to avoid debt and build a more efficient HQ. Zultar, Cubit, and PBhead have some good videos out there to name a couple. They're 3 of the best players so very good to learn from.

Reply #2 Top

Exactly what magic said but I would bet your main issue is shipping all of those resources from so far. You need to pay attention to your fuel consumption. Found in a location you don't plan on claiming anything to far from that is unless say there is only two silicon tiles on the whole map and both are far that might be worth picking up for silicon value late game. A good was to avoid the debt early would be to claim this tile and throw down a solar panel and later as it becomes valuable switch to silicon...