Should my KD Predetermine a Setup?
Every age there are changes to race/pers that ought to determine the optimal KD strat. Races, personalities, and even more nuanced changes to game mechanic change regularly. KD-wide strats are many times worth having, but depend on what you want out of the game as both a player/leader and kd.
1. KD-wide strats permit a KD to have a pre-determined style of game-play; one that is maximally amenable to the habits and interests of those within the KD.
Utopia is an odd game in so far as there is no clear interpretation(for many playing) of what it means to be “winning.” At the extreme, if you are interested in pure size, then getting off to a fast start, having a race/pers that improves as your prov scales, and having a build more suited towards OOW pumping, hostile wars, and min time wars is beneficial. Embedded within any discussion as to kd-wide build is a conversation about KD goals. If you want to shoot for top 5, it should be different than if you want top 10-30 and pester top kd’s, 30-100 and war other war kd’s, or be out of the top 100 all together and just WW.
2. KD-wide strats allow for provinces to ensure synergy.
3. You can make sure that you won’t have a glaring weakness that can be used against you during war/hostile.
Such weaknesses may include a lack of economy, an inability to open on targets in hostile, a lack of fools gold, or a lack of provs capable of becoming UB.
4. Besides KD-goals, KD-wide builds can also suit your habbits better or worse.
Just as kd-builds are associated with KD goals, they are also associated with what your preferences are, what your habits are, and what you understand to be those game mechanics most easy to capitalize on.
5. KD-Wide strats are not for everyone.
KD-wide strats allow you to optimize based on what your kd wants, but sometimes what the kd wants is to simply goof around with some new race/pers that seems fun. It can be fun making strategies based around the random choices people made. Going random also synergizes well casual play, as war kd’s often want to war kd’s that seem to possess similar skill, and so a terrible setup can bait the types of wars you want.