What to do before/right after server maintenance comes

-by lord hamereditr (server na40), made on 3/12/2012

Intro
Server maintenance is when the server is cleaned up. All player-built and abandoned barbarian cities (NPC's) are converted into flats, and all those small cities that players havent even played on which they haven't saved are turned into flats also. This is generally bad for the game.

Food manangement
Let F=Food to buy, Let U= current troop upkeep. Formula: F= U x 27. This is enough food to last you about a day of pure food consumption. Of course, it will take 2-3 days before the food crisis is over, but 27 hours is enough to last until food prices go more towards normal.
 * When maintenance comes, all p[layer-built NPC farms will be instantly erased. This is the worst change that happens, and as a result 70% of all lvl 4-5 barbies are cleared becasue 70% of them are player-built. As you can reason out, less npc farms means less food for giant armies, which start to get hungry. There is also difficulty training troops too, as this puts an even larger burden on the few farms. Once I've seen a lvl 5 have only 120 food right after I scouted it. the more troops you have, the worse the situation you are in. Troops take more food while attacking, so attacks on players will be harder. But despite that, players start to extensively farm other players in desperation for food, and other resources that can be sold for food. After maintenance, food prices may double to triple and all food sold will be sold instantly. This is because food is few and far between, and also becasue players want to compete against others by setting higher prices. A few hours after the maintenance, this happens. So you want to sell all excess resources to buy more food. You want to buy when prices are low, and this is my formula for calculating the amount of food you may need: