"My small-town Gym Strategy to optimize coins without killing the game."

#PokemonGO: ContextI am Team Valor and I live in a small town with 15-20 gyms in and around it. I am significantly ahead of the local competition (lv33) thanks to time spent in big cities as well as farming a local hotspot for Pidgeys.The balance of power varies over time, but Mystic seems to be the most popular team here, though Valor has more hardcore players who stay up later and take gyms more regularly. Instinct are the underdogs, but are strong in specific parts and occasionally build up strong gyms too.ObjectivesHold 10 gyms everyday with minimal effort.Keep strong non-local enemy players out.Maintain the balance of power so opposing teams don't get demoralised.Give casual players a chance to participate in gym gameplay.RequirementsA strong team of Mons significantly ahead of local competition.A car or bike, or otherwise easy access to many gyms.An easily accessible Pokestop hotspot to stock up on potions/revives.Don't just give up and assume there are none near you just because you don't live in a big city. There are some really random and obscure Pokestop oasis in the rural desert! It took me two months but I randomly found a small unremarkable park in the middle of nowhere about 20 mins drive away that has 24 Pokestops! Yes 24! It's like every rock, bench and tree in that park is a Pokestop! There are hardly ever any lures or good spawns there, but it only takes me 30mins-1hr to fill up my 500 capacity inventory there.Friends would be really helpful, but not essential. #foreveraloneA small town. :PTactics1)Focus on gym training rather than attacking. You want to hold as many strong gyms as possible to save you having to recapture 10 gyms everyday.Doing this efficiently requires a range of Pokemon to counter each type of defender at various CPs2)If there is a clear underdog team cough Instinct cough. Spare their gyms when you can afford to.So as to not demoralise that team even further and drive them entirely out of your local area.3)If an enemy gym is held by low level players, spare it if you can afford to.Give the casuals a chance and keep them active! The gym will get flipped by somebody else soon anyway, give them a few hours of a sense of ownership4)Knock off good training Pokemon at the base of enemy gyms.You don't want easy super-gyms for your rivals.5)Attack high level gyms of your main rival Team as a priority.You don't want there to be "safe gyms" for them in your town.6)Attack gyms with strong Pokemon from unfamiliar (and likely non-local) high level players.They are most likely big-city players cruising by looking for safe gyms in rural areas. Don't encourage them to ever come back by allowing them to sit on a gym in YOUR town overnight!7)If you find the balance of power shifting against your team, go full attack mode for a while. Forget defense.There was a week or two when my town was almost perpetually locked down by Mystic and it became nearly impossible to hold down gyms. So I stopped placing Pokemon in gyms to conserve resources, but relentlessly tore down Mystic gyms everyday until all the out-of-town players left and perhaps some Valor allies returned from holiday or something.OutcomeIf you do the above (assuming you have the appropriate conditions to do so), you should be able to hold a few high level "safe" gyms in the town so you don't have to retake 10 every night, thus saving time and resources whilst getting easy coins everyday.Apart from your safe gyms, the rest of the gyms in the town should be mostly low level and flipping constantly, keeping the contest interesting for your more casual team mates and opposition players alike and keeping the game healthy in your local area. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2drSDx7