Author: zax77 from accumulated experience
This section will talk about how a game progresses in the duration of a full reset. Do not argue with specific instances of good players. There are always exceptions for good players!
Beginning
At the start of a reset, industrials will rule top 10. The reason is because people still don't have tech yet, therefore industrial will provide the greatest contribution of NW from its direct production of military. During the first 5 days of any game, the ranks in the top 10 will fluctuate signicantly day after day since everyone has almost the same amount of land compared to each other, hence producing at the same rate as all others which gives no lead to any specific players. People who does not do indy startups will just be hanging around in the low ranks. They tend to have a lot less land then others since they don't have much military, rather they have cash and tech.
Mid-game
After 1/3 of the game, techers/cashers/farmers will start to surface the top 10. The ranks would be pretty stable. People would only shift about 4 to 5 ranks in between each day. The reason why cashers would start to surface the top is because those industrials who were maintaining top 10 for the first part of the game were only concentrating in landgrabbing and netgaining. Even if these indys started getting their tech up, cashers and techers will start to surface the top 10 since when techers/cashers/farmers have tech in hand, they will do better than an indy. At this point if you're an indy and you haven't got any industrial or bus/res tech, the techers/cashers/farmers will start taking over your rank.
At the very middle of a game, techers/cashers/farmers should be penetrating into top 5. If these industrials doesn't get relatively much fatter than these techers/cashers/farmers while maintaining rank, they will begin to fall out of top 5. Industrials do the worst in a general scenario because they have to pay for their military expenses every single turn and rising, where as other strategies can purchase military at will and hence avoid paying military expenses if they don't wish to spend their cash yet.
End-game
By the last 1/3 of the game, techers/cashers/farmers should have totally penetrated top 5 UNLESS you are really good at playing indy and are able to maintain rank by having lots of land to compensate for your low production. At this point in time rank should be very stable. There would only be a shift of one or two positions in between each day.
Near the very end of the game, indys would have almost no chance in getting a
rank 1 spot unless you're an elite indy player. Cashers, farmers, techers (or
perhaps MB resellers) would have dominated top 5. At this point they're the only
ones fighting for the final rank 1 position. They would have stockpiled lots of
cash, getting ready to spend them all near the end and make their final jump in
NW.
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