by Steve496
So after a cursory look over the first few rounds of each game, my immediate reaction is: you're paying too much for your digs. Particularly in the witches game. I count act5 3 times and a 3w dig in the first 3 rounds - if you're wondering why your economy fell behind, that's the reason.As a general rule: act6 is powerful and efficient and worth prioritizing. act5 is not. It is the thing you take because there is some particular hex that is particularly valuable - for positional reasons, for connection reasons, because it gives access to a 2nd hex of the correct color as well, whatever - and you don't expect to be able to get act6. It is not the thing you routinely want to be rushing on R1, and particularly not something you want to be taking every turn. And in order for a 3w dig to be worthwhile... lets just say it needs to be an *amazing* hex before that's worth it.
By means of comparison: had you bought a priest for 5pw on R2 and sent it to air, you would get a dig out of that (and 1 power back). This is only one power more than act5, and also gives 2 spots on the air track. And if you could get the priest via act2 instead...
In short: find other ways to get digs, or explore other strategies for getting hexes of the right color. Chase cult spades. Pass early for bon1. Save for act6. Advance shipping or use actw to hop between hexes that are already the right color. Figure out what alternatives work for you, so you can treat act5 more as a fallback plan and worker digging as an emergency backup, rather than as a backbone of your strategy.