Hey all, just wanted to make a post following up on a great Season 3. Thanks for the fun - I enjoyed checking in and seeing how things were going and adjusting those little sliders practically daily.

Despite 2 pretty successful seasons in a row, The Husketeers, like many others, will have to do a reset and skip Season 4.

Not to belabor the lessons learned over these past two seasons, but I wanted to give a tip for all those new players or players who want to enjoy this game for the long-term: This is a hardcore simulation. Think the Elden Ring or Dark Souls of DCI Sim games. As someone who has played the DCI Fantasy game from the 2010s, marching.art, and FMA for many seasons, this is by far the hardest to get started and to stay in the game. I've tested the paths between quick victory and sustainability. I won't give too specific tips so as not to upset anyone's strategy or enjoyment of experimenting, but I do want others to enjoy this game over many months, not just two or three and then become frustrated with the process. Because it's exactly that - a process.

Personally, I am disappointed at having to take the next season off. And even after that, I realize I'll have to rebuild in a very slow, deliberate manner. It'll probably months before The Husketeers even remotely appear in finals again. But, as I close out this post, just take a note or two from someone who has tried since the game launched to find some level of success: Playing it small (maybe very, very small, smaller than you'd think) then growing (and again probably quite a bit slower than you originally think) is closer to the right thing to do from what I've found. Money doesn't come easily or quickly in this game. Coming back after blowing nearly $1mil on staff and members and buses? Not likely. To play this game consistently and not file for bankruptcy every other season you have to realize that this is a fundraising simulator foremost.

The game IS about the money. There's no easy way to put it. If you have $2 million in the bank, you're actually not really close to sustainability. If you have $6 million you're getting there. You'll always need money to put into each corp you have and plenty, plenty more (like 3-4x the amount you spend) to try to get an ROI worth staying in the following season.

To some of you, this is already obvious. Others (looking at you Eggbeaters xD) got lucky and were able to find a sweet spot. For you, I wish you the best in your growth. For those who are learning the game or getting started, this is for you. Enjoy the game - Take it slow - Grow!

What do some of those who participated in the last few seasons think? Any realizations or generic advice to share? I'd like to hear anyone else's experience trying to manage their funds (nothing too specific to spoil the experiment for others). It's been a recurring topic on the forums - for good reason!

See all you good folks in a couple of seasons (I hope)!

100%! Even in my testing during development this is all very true. While there are some bugs to iron out, this is very much a game where you have to plan, spend wisely, invest wisely, all for the long road. You may get lucky with gambling in high stakes fundraisers but you can easily lose it all the very next season. This game is a tycoon, and it was built to be as realistic as possible (as one can get in this kind of game). Drum corps spend years or decades working up for a national tour, for World Class status, for their first championship.. and most spend the rest of the time trying to replicate their success.

As they say, slow and steady wins the race!

Btw I was one of the founding members at FMA and had one of the most successful corps for the first 21 seasons.

In other news, I am going to try to implement souvie booths tonight that people can start utilizing for this season to help being in more money

The path to success is definitely making slow and steady advances in your bank account until you have a solid base to start with. I feel like the game starts with a lot less funds than you need to start even a low-level drum corps, which is a good thing. I believe it is a good, and realistic principle for a DCI simulator for players to start with very small corps, compete casually, then upgrade over many many seasons. It will keep you coming back for more and encourages playing a long game. Though I think seasons should be much shorter (~2 weeks) so players can perceive their corps' growth more frequently.

Truth be told, that style of play is not in my nature. This is the secondary account of The Watermelon Club, and since the very beginning I have been experimenting with ways to min-max, game the system, and funnel as much into a single powerhouse for complete domination of one division at a time. Personally, I find it enjoyable to use extremely risky fundraisers such as Tax Fraud and taking huge loans that I'd only be able to pay off if I got lucky. I'm not too keen on sharing some secrets I use, but one thing I will say in agreeance with your post is, do not follow in my footsteps or your corps will implode.

The strategy that will get you the most playtime without folding is using tiny corps, getting lower placements, and transferring a moderate chunk from your corps to your organization. Then, you only invest in the fundraising type with the 1.0 - 2.0 return rate. Over time you will hoard money because the fundraiser cannot not go into the negative. To convert it to consistently good placements every season, calculate the amount it takes per season to field a corps at the level you want and save up to sustain that amount.

Example: In season one, there was one fundraising type had a return rate of something like 1.1 - 2.0. This was also before the corps tax was implemented. Watermelon Club loaned as much money as we could, and pulled funding from other corps. We set aside exactly 2 million dollars to max out the corps, and invested the rest into high-risk, high-reward fundraising. 2 million was enough to make us place 1st in All-Age. If the high reward fundraiser succeeded, I would have had enough money to invest 20 million the next season into the fundraiser with a 1.1 return rate. This means I would be generating a minimum of 2 million per season, because 20 million * 1.1 = 2 million. Therefore, every season I would be able to fund a corps that cost 2 million, and so every season I would be able to sustain a corps with maxed out stats.

This strategy can't work anymore because the fundraiser was changed to 1.0 - 2.0, so there is a now chance you make 0 dollars. Additionally, the cost to max out a corps is approaching about 3 million-4 million with the inclusion of buses. The solution to that is to have even more than 20 million, perhaps around 50 million, so you can compensate for having multiple seasons with 0 income. If you have 30 million dollars to invest in the 1.0 - 2.0 fundraiser, there is a 90% chance you roll a 1.1 or higher. Reworded, this means a 90% chance that you add another 10% of your money (3 million dollars), or higher. The chance of rolling lower than a 1.1 is < 10%. At 10%, it is still a reasonable to lose money maxing out a corps. However, if you have reserves to compensate for the worst scenario, which is rolling a 1.0 multiple seasons in a row, it is less of a worry. The chance of < 1.1, 3 times in a row is 10%*10%*10%, which equals 0.1% chance. If you have 9 million dollars or more in reserve, this means you can reasonably say you will not lose money investing 30 million into the 1.0 - 2.0 fundraiser every season. Additionally, the rich can get richer very easily in this game. Multiplying 50 million dollars by 2 will get you 100 million dollars, and multiplying again by 2 will get you 200 million dollars, which is 66 times more than what you need to sustain a maxed out corps for one season. The biggest investment costs 10 million and has a rate of -3.0 - 7.0, which means there is a 6/11 chance for you to double your money in one season. Relying on that twice is honestly not that bad (30% to happen 2 times in a row). That will set you up for life, and you will have enough to max out all divisions of corps.

I’ll reveal a little info about The Order last season.

Four of my staff members has 99 effect and no members were below 85 in talent.

Even if you send $1.5M + you’re not even close to guarantee. The difference between the previous and the one before it was a 15 point jump in like 3 days and then going down in points for almost 7 days straight.


Like the others have said, This game isn’t about drum corps or performance, The stats aren’t nearly consistent enough to rely on them. It’s just trying to get the $ number to go higher for me.

I’ve got about $3,000,000 for this season (almost 3x as much as last) and I’ll be doing significantly less again.

Hopefully by the end of the calendar year I can start an open or all age corps if I stick around that long :p

Time will tell.

Hijacking to ask if we don’t get fundraising profit after a season bankrupt? I went back through my IRS report and didn’t see anything come in. I had my bingo hall from season 2 still, if nothing else. Just wanted to check; Eclipse is back in business 😎🌗

The stats are just one small part of how the scores get calculated, but it is definitely something I am trying to tighten down and make more realistic!