1st, lol at the idiots who focus on size instead of content... Fools! BWahaha!
Magnus, great post!
I hope you don't mind a suggestion, by splitting your text up a bit every 3-6 lines put a few spaces so someones eyes don't get lost in the sea of text.
After reading pretty much everything you said, i've realized a few things.
Yes, Mole Shopper is very strategic, I personally never said it wasn't, however even more so now I believe it isn't the MOST strategic scheme, it could possibly be one of the most, MAYBE, but it most certainly doesn't stand out as the most, and i'd have to spend a VERY LONG time playing every single scheme ever to truly present any useful theories, and even if I did, nobody would really care anyway, so why does this even matter?
Anyway....
Let's look at various definitions of the word strategic:
1.
relating to the identification of long-term or overall aims and interests and the means of achieving them.
2.
relating to the gaining of overall or long-term military advantage.
3.
helping to achieve a plan, for example in business or politics:
4.
used to provide military forces with an advantage:
If you truly understand each invididual word, and what they mean as a collective, then it's VERY surprising you claim Mole Shopper to be THE most strategic WA scheme, it's ignorant towards the definition of the word.
Mole Shopper most certainly is a lot like Chess, because like Chess you memorize starting scenarios, opening moves, end-game, counter attacks etc.
But I still don't see it as strategic as Elite/Intermediate because both these schemes share all that, with the added element of other skills/techniques/strategies.
Elite/Intermediate lack the luck factor that Mole Shopper has which is determined by crates, this is luck, you cannot argue that, whether or not it has a huge impact isn't as important as the fact that crates dictate a lot of your turns, which is luck/random, however this does actually add an extra element of skill/strategy which Elite/Intermediate doesn't have, because you have to be versatile and adapt to any situation, but the same goes for Elite/Intermediate, you have to be versatile and adapt to any situation and keep on top of things.
However though, because Elite/Intermediate both have a static weapon selection, there is less chance of getting "the perfect weapon at the right time", which to me makes it less luck based than Mole Shopper, which makes the strategy more important.
I still haven't saw anything anyone has said that will convince me Mole Shopper is the most strategic scheme, but thanks for trying, it's literally amazing to see other people who take the time and passion to write so much about things they love, as you will notice, this website truly lacks that right now, there are many shallow people who don't take the time of day to try anymore.
Edit - Mole Shopper would be exactly like Chess to me, if Chess started off with half the pieces, and through the game random pieces drop on the board with no colour, and the 1st player to collect them gets a random extra piece. It's not so strategic now...