BK has been bugging me about writing an article related to "Express", and I figured it was time I wrote the article I promised him nearly a month ago. In my defense, I must state that BK's threats were the primary reason for my acceptance!
Editor's note : I do that very well, yes. Fear me, nub!
Anyways, I am confident most of you are familiar with Express even if you do not actively play it. However, for those among you who might be unfamiliar with Express, I will provide a brief introduction to the rules of Express. First, in Express, every country receives 1 turn each minute with a turn cap of 500 turns (and 500 stored turns). Essentially, this results in fast and often bloody games. Second, Express sets are generally 2 days, 1 week, 2 weeks or 1 month long. The shorter sets tend to me less violent, and the longer sets usually result in the formation of multiple kill squads that attempt to destroy countries who are not in their team. Third, Express games do not have a public market, thus countries often have to be self sufficient. Express is the one place where "Rainbow Builds" make sense. Finally, Express games do not allow any pacts/clans/etc, which basically means you are alone. However, people often coordinate in Express games via IRC when planning "Kill Runs".
So why should you play Express? There are many reasons why I believe each and every member of LoT should play Express. Why? For one, Express can be a great training ground for building better countries. I often try new builds in the shorter Express games just to get a feel for them. You can test things out on Express and you usually get plenty of turns for testing. Additionally, Express games are a great place to work on basic war skills.
By no means do I claim that Express battles are anything like Alliance. However, fights on Express can train you to deal with breaks, to calculate breaks, and to get a feel for how to kill a country with the various attacks (Guerrilla Strike / Bombing Runs/ Land Kills/ etc). Moreover, our clan could use a stronger presence on Express, especially during the longer games. Granted, life on Express often involves a lot of death, but on the flipside you get to dish out a lot of death as well!
I hope the above paragraphs have given you a feel for the "rules" of Express and the reasons to play Express. I would like to end by saying that Express is a unique experience, one that not everyone might like. The server is not netter friendly due to the lack of a public market and the Russian kill squads. However, for those of us who live to war, Express can be a fantastic place where a few minutes could mean the difference between life and death. Life on Express can be intense, exciting, and nerve-racking. I would highly recommend LoT'ers play Express, in order to both enjoy the game and fine-tune our game.
Article by : Terrace
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