refuting common wisdom on scales everybody knows

[JimMorrison]

Dragar said:
One point missed so far in favour of Production scales is that by targetting high resource troops you are also lowering your upkeep. A strategy focused on low gold/high resource troops (as long as your nation has the appropriate units) will result in a substantially lower upkeep cost per turn.

And to simplify the equation, take a quick look at O3/S3.

You are gaining 115% of the normal gold, and receiving 55% of normal resources.

Shifting 1 scale to O2/S2, puts you at 110% of normal gold, and 70% of normal resources. You just traded 4.35% of your net gold income, for a 27.2% increase in resources. Yes, you may argue that you would always steal those points from somewhere else if you don't want Sloth 3 in a particular game. My argument is, if EVERYTHING else balanced out exactly how you wanted it to, with most nations you would still be better off making that choice, as very few nations actually prosper militarily under S3, unless you have an awake PoD, and even then you may expand fine at first, but you are always going to be handicapped in that way.

Really, it comes down to strategy, and any strategy must be well thought out to be successful. Saying that O3 is 100% necessary, is akin to saying that S9 on your pretender is "absolutely necessary". There is no such thing, there are just some strategic elements that are easier to use, and some that are more versatile, there are NONE that are universally irreplaceable.

<3