I don't even know why OP thinks Math is going to help with anything in this case.
Trade is an investment just like any upgrade or unit you create: you lose something in the immediate in hopes of getting a higher return in the near future. If you make 3 scouts you are putting yourself behind in economy in hopes those 3 scouts will cause enough damage that in the end amounts to more resources lost for your opponent than those you had to spend on those scouts. I believe every AoE player understands this.
It's the exact same thing with Trade vs Market abuse.
Yes you get an immediate power boost from selling on the market. But what you don't seem to understand just yet is you can't just assume you can finish a game with your first push, no matter how powerful it is, especially not in a 4v4 game with a closed map such as BF.
Maybe in lower levels that might actually work every time, but you will eventually learn that the higher the level, the better people get at walling and defending and camping hills and placing good castles and stalling etc. More often than not, you need a series of very strong pushes to finish a game and if you can only afford 1 strong push, you will die badly after it has been stopped and at higher levels, it will be stopped. You probably just never witnessed it because you still haven't reached that level yourself.
TL; DR: At lower levels, its probably absolutely viable to skip trade and sell resources for a temporary power boost. The higher the level, the less viable it becomes.
Trade is an investment just like any upgrade or unit you create: you lose something in the immediate in hopes of getting a higher return in the near future. If you make 3 scouts you are putting yourself behind in economy in hopes those 3 scouts will cause enough damage that in the end amounts to more resources lost for your opponent than those you had to spend on those scouts. I believe every AoE player understands this.
It's the exact same thing with Trade vs Market abuse.
Yes you get an immediate power boost from selling on the market. But what you don't seem to understand just yet is you can't just assume you can finish a game with your first push, no matter how powerful it is, especially not in a 4v4 game with a closed map such as BF.
Maybe in lower levels that might actually work every time, but you will eventually learn that the higher the level, the better people get at walling and defending and camping hills and placing good castles and stalling etc. More often than not, you need a series of very strong pushes to finish a game and if you can only afford 1 strong push, you will die badly after it has been stopped and at higher levels, it will be stopped. You probably just never witnessed it because you still haven't reached that level yourself.
TL; DR: At lower levels, its probably absolutely viable to skip trade and sell resources for a temporary power boost. The higher the level, the less viable it becomes.
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