Anyone interested pls do message me or send directly if you know my country

I decided not to do a tech start and buy tech instead.

What are the pros and cons of having a tech phase and just buying it instead? Which one works better?

For a commie, tech start still works, but it's also not necessary because the indy start is pretty strong itself. I believe oldman prefers to tech start, and has won Primary as an indy. I've been the top finishing commie before in Primary also, and I do an indy start. The advantage to the indy start is you have more turns to build c-sites and can start grabbing earlier, hopefully opening up a lead in land size. The advantage of the tech starter is that your land is more efficient, even though you have less, and you are less likely to be top fed.

For a farmer or casher, I always recommend doing a tech start on the normal servers. On Express, since tech doesn't really spend a long phase at $3k, cash start or food start are more feasible. You'll find yourself quite fat and prone to be hit early, and poor on tech, but you'll have all kinds of turns to spare. You can spend those turns making lots of c-sites, and use the income to build up that tech and defense, and it will save you turns down the road.

I agree with everything you just said blid. I did a CI tech start this set for the first time. It was a bad set to try it as tech was $2200 when I was teching but even so I feel it wastes too many turns.