Let me explain a few things My W-L ratio and why it looks so good.. First, a bit of background. I have been playing for a while on and off. I like to use all the civs, particularly Mongols and French. A few months ago I picked up the game again and started playing. I have 3 accounts. I was playing a selection of different civs. Like random, but just picking myself. I had been lucky not to encounter any good Zulu (or at least close) or America players for the first couple of weeks. I found myself ranked around top 30 on two of the accounts. Approximately 20-2 or 20-3 ratio on both so I started trying to make the top 10. This is also when I started getting messages from players I never played or heard of calling me a cheat.
I switched to using almost exclusively Spain Arabs and Aztecs (China if I know the other will be Zulu or America) with both accounts and got both to the top 10 fairly easily. One got the re-set thing where it takes the points off you but leaves the record. The other is still in the top 10. Number 6 I think with a record like 115-15. That must mean I’m great (or cheat), right? Wrong.
Lets just take a moment to break it down.
Losses –I have had a look around here a little and it turns out most loss have come from people here. I forget which accounts I have played people on but it goes something like this, At least 2 from Blades, another 2 from Remo, 1 from Chief RocKa and possibly LiamSutty and Digitalpackrat (may have been different account) a couple from accidental freeze, a couple from Zulu walk-ins and the rest just bad starts I could not recover. Those loses are just the flash account, there are more (lots) on other accounts.
I have never quit out a 4000bc freeze simply because I do not think I caused them. I have never quit a bad start unless the opponent shows me they know how to win. I have only had one person freeze the game on me I think that I waited out. In the hundred odd games no one has pulled the stunt where they take your city in 1 move and until recently no one has great wall glitched. Lots of people hitting pause early though I think to beat the barbarians. And lots not giving peace in democracy, but I guess you learn to live with it.
Ok now the wins. Approximately 10:1 winning ratio. Looks great. But lets dig deeper.
I know how to move and take another city in ten turns. Opponent quits. 20? Free wins.
I know how to build a horse army in ten or fifteen moves, opponent sees it and quits. That’s us up to 25? Free wins.
Zulu opponent can’t kill you in first 20 turns, quits. That’s us at 35 wins.
Egypt opponent does not get the colossus of Rhodes. Quits. 40 wins.
Spain does not find a whale. 45 wins. You get the picture.
So nearly half my wins all I need to do is settle my city. Really? What’s up with these players? It’s basically how I learned to play –losing but not quitting. See how the other player wins.
That still leaves around 60 wins but the truth is I’m using good civs.
Maybe half of those games I had to fight for. In the other half the opponent just plays on without actually doing anything. They think they can maybe just force me to quit because they have 12 tech and I have 3, I don’t know? But build a few cites and before they know it it’s 20-14 to me and they just quit. So in reality my win/loss ratio should be around 3-1. The players who beat me are the one who actually attack me. Should be obvious, but it seems a lost point on most.
The good players I have played the most (on various accounts) are Remo18 Digitalpackrat and Blades not far behind. I have had some good games with remo sadly only winning when I have the civ advantage or get the 7 cities of gold. I think I only got my first win against digital very recently in ffa and I sure I only got the better of blades once.
If my ratio was against these players I think it would turn from 10:1 into about 1:5
On my 3rd account, I started out using France Mongols and Russians exclusively (now though just pick from lots of civs. Mongols are just too tough against Aztecs Zulu etc. Egypt also give me a tough time because they get irrigation too fast). I got this one up to number 25 at one point but that also got a points re-set keeping the w/l numbers. I think this is around 150-75, but i play on this if short of time etc. Strip out the games where I had to quit for time and the freezes (like 4000bc ones and re-synch) probably brings me back to the 3-1 above.
So am I any good? Probably not the best question to answer for yourself, but I’m certainly not as bad as 75% of players out there.
On a different note, I have just recently started playing FFA. (first thing I notice is the amount of freezes (that don’t look like anyones fault) and the amount of games that don’t register between 10-20% –Does everyone find this) Whatever, I’ll need to work on it a bit I think and change my style. Played 4 yesterday. The first was my Spain against 2 chinese and a zulu. I placed my city with no grass (or whale) and it screwed me. I do this all the time in H2H, but 100g is not quite as easy to come by in FFA. Zulu player found me early and I never really recovered. One Chinese quit and the other did nothing. I’m sure If I had got my 100g 20 turns earlier or had grass to build a settler I could have won because the zulu only had 2 caps and 100g city. Very frustrating watching him win that one. I won the next 3 as China, Spain, Spain, but two did not register. I think it be the way the other quits, but not sure
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Originally Posted by JackHall2003
I didn't quit though, but had to a few turns later. Next time I'll hunt you down 
