As I have now been playing Steem Monsters for over three months (and recently added Drug Wars to the mix this past month), I have wanted to contribute something of ACTIONABLE value to my fellow players (and FUTURE players) - but NOT just fill my Steemit feed with daily images of quest reward SPAM (no offense to those doing so). Ultimately, Steemit is about ADDING VALUE to the social experience - that is the magic of blockchain technology. So, after some serious pondering, I decided that a weekly "Steem Monster (+ Drugs Wars) player strategy diary" type series, with CONCISE and ACTIONABLE tips, would be of most value to my audience. Please let me know your thoughts (good and/or bad), and I hope that readers (now and into the future) will benefit from this series. If you gain a better understanding of blockchain, gaming, "blockchain gaming", marketing, and/or any other area of knowledge I end up exploring as this series naturally progresses, then I will have done my "good deed" (of providing value) for the week. Also, feel free to hit me up on the battlefield...
** [DISCLAIMER : This week I got distracted a bit (by life, and some serious problems with my back (partially resulting from all the DAMN sitting I do at this MACHINE day in and day out) - which has been making sitting up at the computer for long periods of time difficult. But the good news is that I STILL managed to "stay in the game(s)" and make some progress. So there is something to be said for that...
1 ) I was able to complete roughly four out of the seven quests this week on Steem Monsters. This was my goal (to complete the daily quests in order to stay active in the game and continue earning rewards cards). The daily quest completion goal provides a healthy metric to enable me to stay active in the game. Other than that I did NOT spend much additional time/energy on SteemMonsters this week (due to the above restrictions). But I DID get a few JUICY reward cards, including a "legendary" "Sacred Unicorn".
2 ) The daily payout on 
3 ) I realized that buying up new recruits for your army (in the "bootcamp" section) ONLY requires Weapons and Alcohol as payment. This means that I can upgrade any of the other categories (ex. Drugs) which require all three assets in payment (Drugs, Weapons, Alchohol) and then use the LEFTOVER weapons and alcohol to progressively buy up defensive recruits. I have started doing that this week, and the progress I have made on building my battalion has been commendable - that is, after getting completely wiped out after getting in over my head with a battle (more below in #4).
4 ) As I figured out how to start properly (and progressively) building my defensive battalion, AND since I THOUGHT I was getting more confident in my understanding of the battling process, I decided to take the risk and give battling a try. Life is about taking risks, after all. In fact, life IS a risk in the grand scheme of things, as the "grim reaper" eventually comes for us all, so we might as well take some "strategic" risks, get knocked around and learn something, LEST this giant "classroom" called "life" will not be worth the price of admission (and exit) in the end. So I decided to try start with a small battle first, knowing that the probability of walking away with some booty (that is, assets which are OVER my prey's "assets in storage" would likely low. I therefore searched for a player with a relatively small daily level of production of ALL assets, thinking that SOME of these newbies may not have yet figured out how to secure their assets with an adequate amount of storage. As expected, when I ran my first battle I indeed got a win, but indeed found that ALL of the "loser's" assets were in storage. At least I accomplished my first win, but now needed to figure out how to choose opponents with BOOTY to offer. As a result of this I decided to get more BRAZEN (bad move) and just go full RAMBO and choose a MUCH larger opponent (that is, in terms of daily production) and throw "everything but the kitchen sink" at them. I did this, lost, and had my whole battalion WIPED OUT in seconds. Ouch! But lesson learned. The lesson: It is now time to MORE SERIOUSLY learn about the battling function to become (what 
"Drug Wars on Steem - Intermediate Game Guide: Battles"
https://steemit.com/drugwars/@timcliff/drug-wars-on-steem-intermediate-game-guide-battles
Once I had my entire battalion wiped out I decided to make the following adjustments :
A ) start progressively building up a new battalion, start with the lower cost recruits first (building up LOTS of them), while
B ) re-read Tim's post about battling (above) to become more confident
C ) If I decide to initiate more battles in the near future limit them to players which have a LOW production level. This maximizes the chance of winning and minimizes the change of getting wiped out
The important things I learned from this first battle failure are :
A ) You INDEED need to "know what you're doing" and understand the battling function
B ) You CANNOT see what the current asset holdings are for the opponent you chose to battle against, and so the ONLY information you CAN gain about them is their production level, which allows you to ONLY really be able to INDIRECTLY predict your chances of winning the battle, but NOT how much (if any) booty you can/will walk away with. This is likely a POSITIVE aspect of the game, in that it reduced the chance of players getting completely wiped out (due to complete transparency of their assets).
Okay. I think that's enough for now, considering that this week has been a challenging one for me. Even so, I think the amount of data/analysis above is ADEQUATE for this weekly series post, as I have a TENDENCY to write too much. So maybe this week's challenges have been a blessing. I hope you find some/any of these tips useful in increasing your understanding and/or skill level in the game. More JUICY tips to come with each weekly update, as I become more experienced and successful in the game. All comments welcomed.
See you on the battlefield...
