Hey! The presence/absence of yellow is actually a bigger issue for mermaids than it is for Swarmlings. Swarmlings only need neighbor at one of their starting spots (due to free TP action from Stronghold) and are happy to start west in isolation with their second placement, if they need to. If yellow is not in, usually Swarms have a neighbor at G6 in the east (grey, black, or brown). Also, sometimes swarms get black on C1 in west or red faction on E3 west. Neither of those are particularly great for Swarms but they do provide neighbor west. Swarms can also survive neighborless at the start, if they absolutely have to, better than most factions at least (but def. something to be avoided almost always).

​​@@mrfickles hey thanks for the reply, that is helpful to consider. The game that led me to ask this query was a game in which there was me as Swarmlings and we were playing with Halflings, Witches and Chaos Magicians. And the guy who played Halflings spent nearly all his power in the first couple of rounds trying to get back at me after I attempted to block him getting to G5 and H7 (I say attempted because he ended up getting those hexes anyway with that great drain of power). So I may have been leeching off him but thanks to him, I was trapped so the leeching was only temporary and I could only attempt a sanctuary town there with H8 and I11. Witches and CMs did not affect me at all because they were concentrated in the east and so I didn't worry at all about them. It was because I was trapped in the east that I tried my best to work with what I had in the west but that didn't bode well. The Halflings player did beat me in points but out of four players, he came third and I was certain he could have scored more (coz this was in BGA and he had a high ELO) had he been a bit more flexible with his gameplay and try an alternate strategy and not waste his power trying to get to those two hexes I tried to pinch off him. EDIT: I just realised that it's my bad for me not being flexible with trying to go northeast as an alternative route if it appears to Halflings I'm going southwest and so they're spending that power to try and stop me.

This is a great idea for a strategy video. I do think it's a little harder to pull off than is typically implied by experts. Thanks for raising the idea!

Thanks Fickles❤

Hi Karlos. Thanks for your Q. I don't want to advise on ongoing games, but the general principle is that (1) you should be upgrading near others and getting power from their upgrading and building next to you, (2) get power from going up the cult with priest and/or your first favor, and (3) be willing to burn down to 4 power kernels as Darklings (they don't need the double dig power action, so four kernels is enough throughout the game). After your game is over, if you share the game link, I can give feedback on your situation more specifically. Good luck!

That's awesome, I'm really glad to hear it. Thanks for asking about patreon. For now, just sharing content with friends who you think would like (more) TM would be great. If you have any requests/ideas for future strategy videos, let me know and I'll take it into consideration. I've gotten a couple other requests already, in addition to my own ideas, so my mental wheels are definitely turning on what's next!

Hey! Thanks for your comment. I'll likely continue making strategy videos if there's interest. Feel free to ping me with ideas and strategy questions for future videos. Probably a mix of basic strategy, advanced strategy, game analyses (e.g., I recorded myself analyzing an auction for one of my games), and new dimensions (for example, Lava factions). I'm not sure yet which of these directions would be most valuable to viewers.

Glad to hear there's hope. :D Game analyses and faction auction sound interesting. Since You've already done all the basic factions I'd personally appreciate F&I factions, but I get that they aren't played as much as the basic ones, thus some other strategy videos might be more valuable. I have watched some of your older videos and think I did learn something about the game strategy as a whole not just one faction. Just yesterday ended up with acolytes which I've never seen played and still ended up destroying my friends. Point being I've leveled up my game as a whole. Also I would appreciate a quick video of some starting positions on other maps then the original, but that's "nothing" compared to potential videos previously mentioned in this thread. Anyway, looking forward for any future videos. :)

Let's goooo! haha. Keep up the good work. You'll climb elo in no time.

Thanks for your comment! For any of the niche lines, the circumstances in which they are best are somewhat rare. But top players are able to identify those situations and then navigate pulling it off. You're right that not being able to hard dig (3worker dig) going forward as Darklings is a factor. And more importantly, priest production is incredibly valuable to them, so it is borderline-silly to forgo that. However, if you see a track of dwelling scoring, trading house scoring, temple scoring, ... that's a case where dwelling rush could situationally be strongest, for example. It's a lot harder to pull off the niche lines though and easier for things to fall flat. That said, you usually shouldn't be converting workers to coins round 2 in Darklings dwelling rush games -- 7 starting coins leftover, hunt coin scroll, and get coin power action r1 or 2. It also let's you secure key territory quickly which could be a factor in some games too. Hope that helps!

Thanks! I'm considering at least doing the Lava Factions if there's enough interest from ppl. For **Fan faction** beginner's guides, check out Matt the Lesser's videos: kzbin.info/aero/PLCDlg3oYX_I2Yvebp_W3NT_JZfeacxi2b. For Introductory guide on **Yetis** check out this video from Zoras: kzbin.info/aero/PLCDlg3oYX_I2B-gSPEOEMN8d0_6-7tF-E

Yeah, jekyl plays violin. It's a busy house! I've got to snag chances to record when I can. Haha.

🔔😆

...diggy diggy hex, diggy diggy hex...