my H2H running record...

[Zefelius]

One game tonight vs. Spain. I got the Mongols. He walked for ages, which I think ruined him. I saw his settler running around when I already had two barb towns. Gonna be hard for you, buddy. I met the French (threatened for 25 gold) and Germans (sold HBR for 20 gold) so I had a pretty fast horse army. Found Madrid and it was defended by a militia. I guess he had a galleon out looking for something or maybe hoped to drop my cap (wouldn't have worked as I brought my warrior home). He might have been a good player, but he just walked too long.

I sympathize with him. Happens to me every so often too. Remember that game with you and Pawk, where both of you were chasing me for about 10 turns!? Fond memories! ha! But even in H2H when I'm not being chased sometimes it looks like there will be something viable up ahead and I'll find neither trees nor good settling spots. I suppose great players have a better instinct about that sort of thing. Mountains are good clues of course.

Maybe this guy, however, was one of those types that absolutely has to have the whale. That's not a good policy.

[JackHall2003]

I sympathize with him. Happens to me every so often too.

Yeah, been there, done that.

Maybe this guy, however, was one of those types that absolutely has to have the whale. That's not a good policy.

Correct. Not Good. My guess is he recognised the name and figured - screwed if he does and screwed if he doesn't. You move that 4 or 5 turns to try and get an advantage, when that yields nothing, panic starts to creep in and seeing as your up against a decent player you can't afford to have wasted those turns, so you better make it worthwhile & the more you move the worse it gets.

[Zefelius]

My guess is he recognised the name and figured - screwed if he does and screwed if he doesn't. You move that 4 or 5 turns to try and get an advantage, when that yields nothing, panic starts to creep in and seeing as your up against a decent player you can't afford to have wasted those turns, so you better make it worthwhile & the more you move the worse it gets.

I think you nailed that one...

[Zefelius]

Tonight I did something kind of low which I don't think I've done before: messaged players on Xbox the name of a cheater. It's one of those things that people get tired of seeing, and ultimately players have to decide for themselves anyway as opposed to trusting me or someone else. I get that. But I just couldn't help it: this guy, first off, refuses my GW requests. Well, that happens all the time anyway. Second, he attacks my galley as soon as he gets his free galleon and----loses! Ha! What does he say? "Cheat." Yup, after he GW glitched he actually was dumb enough to call me a cheat just for losing a battle.

Then I do the dumb thing which is to amass CAs and a galleon fleet outside his cap and attack when I should have know better: sure enough he freezes it. It was clear as day. No doubt in my mind whatsoever. He waited and then froze it. For some reason the trick of avoiding a freeze didn't help, perhaps because no pause notification went up. That's beyond me. I asked him to unfreeze but got no answer. I told him I would let others know and still no answer. So I messaged everyone. Kind of a 15 year old thing of me to do that, but really it did feel good! And then he unfroze it after he saw my mass message.

On a positive note my win streak is still going well at 28-4 with my new GT. Not a bad start, but I always manage to have big losing streaks as well so I'm probably due one!

[elthrasher]

Ugh. Just had some horrible games against former (?) forum member SvedishChef. I got random America against his Spanish. Should be easy, right? No, the closest civ over was his Madrid. He'd already gotten a walk-in (never found out who he got) and had a lot of gold. I poked at him with my first horse army and lost a battle with the odds in my favor. Bleah. I got out a second army, which took a while because there wasn't much gold left on the map. I found another Spanish city and went after it. Wound up getting killed by an archer army. Pretty bad. I think I only got like 1-2 barbs in all despite a GE start.

I went for legions, but he was expanding everywhere and I couldn't do anything about it. I needed to work gold to get my 100, then tech to medieval. It just took too many turns. He had knights and catapults by the time I was ready to do anything. I think he also picked up the GW in there somewhere so had he wanted to, he could have made me sit and watch an econ win or whatever.

Next one I got Spain and he was Japan. I walked a while and he settled in place. I settled next to him in 3400 BC with 50 gold, hoping he hadn't earned much yet. This move was partially motivated by the fact that I didn't actually have time for a long game. Anyway, turned out he was good for gold. I ended up attacking his warrior army and losing. Bah.

[danthechan]

he might have been a good player, but you can't be sailing the seas before you walk the neighborhood. my guess is he got a free galley and sold it.

[elthrasher]

he might have been a good player, but you can't be sailing the seas before you walk the neighborhood. my guess is he got a free galley and sold it.

That would also be a good move. I assume you're referring to the Spanish player I beat, not SvedishChef (also a good player). I think he probably did rush a galleon because he could have had better defenses in his cap since it took a little while to get my horse army to him. When resources are really tight, moving the militia to your cap and putting your token warrior defender on the galleon makes a lot of sense, although obviously one militia isn't very good defense if you actually get attacked.

[Zefelius]

Anyway, my Mongols vs. some random guy's (Zef?) Americans. I walked my settler, found Delhi and put my cap in a bad place in order to have the walk in. I actually settled by a barb, which I ended up taking of course. Between that and my cap I had one grass, two sea and one tree. The rest was desert and plains. Very bad capital. But who cares? Delhi is my new capital, right?

Well, as soon as I didn't have a unit next to it, it was flipped by my opponent. I tried going after it with warriors, but he had Bronze Working and gold. Useless. So much for my Keshik rush. It would take ages to put that together with one tree. Yes, and Delhi with it's mighty two trees was just two tiles from Karakorum. Gah.

By this point I had met the other AI, so I finished Horseback to sell it to them. The Arabs wouldn't pay and the English gave me 10 gold. So worth it. I sent a warrior out after a barb I'd passed and started researching Iron Working, my only chance. No way to expand off one grass and one tree. Naturally the barb killed my warrior as I attacked for the second time (it was 1900 BC) so I had to send out yet another unit. I managed to threaten the Arabs for Bronze Working, so I sent an archer. My opponent had a vet warrior right there, but I took the barb, since the archer should hold it and I knew the barbs were wounded and probably wouldn't hurt my archer.

Next turn my opponent tried to horserush me. I killed the horses with a warrior army but my opponent responded by attacking the barb with his warrior. He won 2-3 and got the city which was fairly far from my other cities. So down to just my non-awesome double city with its one tree.

I got some legions and a barracks. I knew he'd have an archer army up in Delhi and 6 attack isn't enough. While I worked on more legions, I sent my first army back to that barb town and took it. It was now 3 pop. Not bad. But my opponent sent out another horse army and got it back as soon as my legions were away. Back went my legions and I killed his horse army but he had an archer army up in the barb town by then and I had to retreat. Insult to injury, a spy comes out of Delhi and burns down my barracks. Gah. He went into CoL pretty late. He wasn't the most experienced player. But he had a better position and a much better civ.

I finally got my first GP, getting just 3 culture per turn for ages. It was an artist and I flipped back Delhi with its archer army. Now there's something. Much easier to build a new barracks in a two tree town. I ignored the barb town and went straight for Washington. I landed four legion armies by it and was reasonably lucky in the battles and took it in a single turn. My opponent sent me a message: very nice. A good sport! Maybe it was Zef. But he didn't quit. Okay, probably not Zef then (all right, all right I'll stop).

I got another city and had reached the end of the American peninsula. I was going to try to carry on the attack with my galley, but he brought up a galleon and sunk it. I got my armies off first at least, but I didn't really have mobility. He was expanding to islands a lot now. My only shot was to take the English and Arab capitals. Problem: longbow archers and fundy legions I'd have to face. The AI were well built-up. They each had about three cities and a lot of units. They had done all right on gold since I couldn't go steal their barbs. It was really late in the game, maybe 1000 AD. Tough going with legions. I tried my best. It took forever to get Fundamentalism off the Arabs. I did get Monarchy, so I was able to tech Feudalism in four turns (3rd and final tech I actually teched this game), but of course knights are quite expensive compared to legions. My opponent GS'd Invention, Steam and then Industrialization while all this was going on. Swell.

It took some doing, but I eventually took all the Arab cities and the capital and all English cities but London. But then tragedy struck. He was bringing a catapult army to Washington. I had two legion armies stationed on the other side of the city. Washington was on a hill, so I figured I'd put them in the city and get the hill advantage to kill his units. I moved them in and then he flipped the city leaving me with no offensive units on that part of the map. Very bad! He was running around with cruisers at this point so it was looking very bleak indeed. I had about four knight armies and a few legion armies left. I took a couple more of his cities and got Gunpowder. Not incredibly useful really.

I was moving in on London and wondering if I could sneak some of my speedy knights back into Washington when the tanks showed up and I got a call from she-who-likes-me-but-doesn't-care-for-CivRev that she(wlmbdcfcr) needed a ride home from the train station. Probably not winnable from that position anyway. I killed a tank army with a fundy knight army, which was fun, then attacked Delhi, which had just fallen for like the 5th time. A single Modern Infantry defending. My fundy/infiltration/GG knight army won. Seemed like a good time to quit.

Just went back to this comment. Amazing Thrasher! Shows what a good player you are to make that one competitive. I wouldn't have known what to do. I'll have to reread this again soon to gain more insights.

[elthrasher]

The mario gods are having a little chuckle. I randomed America two more times. Really didn't need to be America in those games. In one my vet horse army reached my opponent's empty capital in like 2600 BC. Had a GS in that one.

I almost had a slower start in the next (GH) when a German (AI) warrior finished a barb for me, but I managed to take Berlin with a single horseman and a warrior. That lead me to grab Moscow and send two armies at my opponent. Lost against the odds to archers, but no matter. He was Egypt and I teched CoL faster than he. I expanded, then used my humanitarian. He dropped an archer army into one of my empty cities, but who cares? I got Feudalism at 100 BC, which isn't fast, but is fast enough. Also picked up a GB for Monarchy so I had the Samurai Castle. He quit when his horsemen weren't very good against my knights.

Third game was more interesting at least. I got the Romans against Spanish. I moved only a short way, getting 25 gold and settling on a spot with just one grass but one fish to make up for it. I could see my opponent's borders. He had settled in place. I went for a barb between us but got double-wounded, then lost a button race to finish it. So anyway, he ends up with a vet warrior army and mine is non-vet. I didn't have any gold. What to do? Make him nervous! I headed towards his cap. He dutifully retreated and never really pressed me.

Good thing because that was the only barb I got to attack until very late in the game. The Romans can do okay with no gold but just okay. He got his 100 gold fairly quickly and I could see he was building settlers out of Madrid (3 pop, then 2 pop, then 3 pop, etc.). I'm sure he had more cities than I did at 1500 BC but as he never pressed me, I'm sure I had more cities than he did at 0 AD. My turf wasn't that great so I had a bunch of cities clustered together with two of them in the middle making legions I'd never need. I stole a GB from the Aztec AI (all AI survived this game!) and got the Samurai Castle. I tried attacking him with knights, but he had elite pikemen defense. I went into Democracy. He forced peace. 10 turns later I went into Fundamentalism and came knocking with bombers. But I was killing him in tech by then anyway. Probably wouldn't have been much of a game if I had had a good start. Would have been a very difficult game if he'd ever pressed me at all.

[elthrasher]

Just went back to this comment. Amazing Thrasher! Shows what a good player you are to make that one competitive. I wouldn't have known what to do. I'll have to reread this again soon to gain more insights.

If you want to be impressed with me, be impressed with my Arab victory over REM018's China. I lost this game! And REM is a much better player than the guy I lost to (but Arabs are ever so slightly better than Mongols).

[elthrasher]

It's absolutely absurd, the rate I'm getting random power civs. I think I haven't gotten India or France once on my latest run.

I got America yet again vs. Zulu. My start looked okay, but the Zulu took Russia, which was the closest civ to me. Probably would have been a slow game unless I could get a gallop in or something. I had two horses out and wasn't likely to get any more gold. Galloping into a thicket of Impis is suicide. But I got my first ever disconnection since I moved to this house. Seemed like I wasn't connecting properly to my opponent anyway.

Then I got an England mirror match. That's a little better, but my opponent lagged out in 3900 BC and then my game froze up. Somehow this counted as win.

Zodia ELP showed up in my next lobby. All right! 75% chance at immediate victory! I got the Zulu. He didn't get the Colossus (got Hanging Gardens) so he quit.

Germans vs. China. I settled close to him and he won two coin flip battles. The funny thing was he had a double-wounded warrior army outside my cap. I had a single warrior in my cap. I attacked 1.5-1.5 and lost. Dude waited two turns healing by my empty cap which let me hammer out another warrior, but it was useless since the coin flip battle had given him Infiltration. Still funny that people don't know how to spot an empty city. I'll bet he thinks he played really well!

flashgordonahah came into the lobby next. I unreadied. He slunk off to be a pathetic loser elsewhere.

I got the Germans again against America. I started way out on a peninsula. I got 25 gold walking, but then had to settle by a barb hoping it would give me oak. It didn't. It gave me 50 gold. So I had one tree against America. Awesome! Still, 50 gold buys a warrior army. I found him and double-moved onto a hill by his cap. He just had one archer defending. You're outta there! Lucky. That might have been a tough one because I had no good way to get more gold, no grasslands and just the one tree where I settled.

China vs. a frequent (but not current) top-10 Zulu. This game was a barrel of laughs. He took Athens really early on and went into Democracy. Okay, that's a better warning system than tin cans on a string, I guess. He choked me out on a fairly large peninsula with Madrid and just over 100 gold. I took Madrid, but got no tech. My opponent was teching really hard. I trailed him for a while. Figured it was more fun to play his game than overrun the Impi in his cap and make him quit. He made it so far as to GS Industrialization (I had no GS) despite my (somewhat late) EIC. He got some artifacts and stuff to help. Anyway, I got the GS for Corp and used it, even though it meant no Oxford bombers. I didn't want to lamely GS Industrialization and let him tech Corp. I built Oxford anyway, just in case this top-10 player was aware of the most powerful wonder in the game (but really, why would he be?). I was first to tanks and smushed him.

Then I got America AGAIN! Oh man. I was up against a bad Spanish player. He didn't do a thing and then quit.

Ran into the same guy again. This time I got Russia and he was America. My map looked lame so I walked past it. I found Beijing and was going to ElBrecher it, but an American warrior showed up, so I formed the army and killed it. Then, having learned my lesson, I took Beijing at the end of the turn and moved my army out at the start of the next. He flipped it and I took it back easily.

I wanted to also take nearby Thebes with Oracle, but it took ages because they had a ton of archers and I had to leave the culture to heal a few times. I had kind of forgotten about my opponent. When I checked on him again, he was in Republic with like 9 techs. What? He hadn't done anything in the other game. Okay, this could be fun. I built some legions. I found his cap which seemed to have a library (sigh) and was guarded by just a warrior. I had the Oracle by this point so I attacked off a galley and took Washington. The city also had a workshop and a granary but was only 3 pop. Weird. He stayed in the game, now at like 11 techs.

I rounded the horn with my galley and spied two empty cities. I decided to try to grab them at the same time. He flipped one just as I took it but I got the other one. It had a library in it as well. What's with the libraries? Way to totally miss the point of playing America. Anyway, I attacked off a galley with my horse army (Oracle again) to take that flipped city and won the even battle. That gave me a 3rd library city and eliminated him! He was just teching up with those three library cities and I guess his entire army was comprised of the two warriors I killed. It's funny the things people do. Normally if you see America at 11 techs in Republic, you go "ah crap, too late" but I could have won this thing any way I wanted to.

[Zefelius]

If you want to be impressed with me, be impressed with my Arab victory over REM018's China. I lost this game! And REM is a much better player than the guy I lost to (but Arabs are ever so slightly better than Mongols).

But you lost with one hell of a fight!

Sort of like the Mavericks against the Heat: the Heat have the superstars and are healthy. The mavericks have one superstar in his prime, and a couple of other stars past their prime plus two more key players who are injured (Butler's out and he's their 2nd best scorer). Yet the Mavericks aren't laying down just yet...

[Zefelius]

I was sooooo close to going 40-4, but then lost when I had everything going for me!! Horrible, horrible... even if I shouldn't complain.

I was Aztecs against America. I find 7C, have a HA outside of DC around 3200, and take London the same turn. I'm bound to win. Easy as pie. But what do I do??????????????????????? Switch governments. Totally stupid. Uggggghhh!

So I win my next game Romans against Egypt to put me at 40-5 instead. Still nice, but you just hate to blow a 20 game win streak on something sooooo stupid.

[ScottieX]

played the mighty zodiac elp. figured i'd take the 75% chance of instant victory. this time he obviously got what he wanted as he kept playing. in a few turns he had the arab capital whilst pressing pause constantly. after a few turns i suggested he stop cheatng and he said ok which was nice of him.

so i figured he had a good start. I had stone henge and not much going on. still i got a ha up and had a look around finally finding the greeks who i killed by attacking from a hill. then i saw him coming down from the north. i killed a couple of his warriors and he moved his aa out to meet me so i kiled that too. then he quit.. apparently i was a f*n horse rusher or somthing.

I wonder why he didnt think to just fortify the archer army in the city.....

[REM018]

If you want to be impressed with me, be impressed with my Arab victory over REM018's China. I lost this game! And REM is a much better player than the guy I lost to (but Arabs are ever so slightly better than Mongols).

That was a nice game. I was surprised by how many armies you were able to put together for your final wave of attack. I was preparing for the counter, but was just 2 turns away from having a few legion armies ready. I had the barracks in the wrong city. I could not catch your roaming horse army that game, I had a fundy archer army looking for it, but judged the shape of the map wrong. In the beginning, I wanted to take Thebes, but was one turn away from it when you took it. And since you had a scout too, it did not make sense to try and go in the next turn. Then I killed your WA and HA with my HA by Beijing and things looked better. The killer for me was when I lost my march HA that I shipped over to Tripoli as a surprise to your single horse 3 vs. 6. That was unexpected. That was tough. After that I built too many archers to guard the many hills behind my cities that were exposed to your horse army.

But still, amassing that many armies was impressive and I for some reason was short on gold and could not get my legions ready in time even though I had 5 3 pop cities.

[Jackoneill]

played the mighty zodiac elp. figured i'd take the 75% chance of instant victory. this time he obviously got what he wanted as he kept playing. in a few turns he had the arab capital whilst pressing pause constantly. after a few turns i suggested he stop cheatng and he said ok which was nice of him.

so i figured he had a good start. I had stone henge and not much going on. still i got a ha up and had a look around finally finding the greeks who i killed by attacking from a hill. then i saw him coming down from the north. i killed a couple of his warriors and he moved his aa out to meet me so i kiled that too. then he quit.. apparently i was a f*n horse rusher or somthing.

I wonder why he didnt think to just fortify the archer army in the city.....

Zodiac is a funny S.O.B, he calls eveyone a horse rusher, you have no skill etc.Welcome to xbox scottie.
Yes he loves the magic button, and if he has a bad start lol, or if you get your 100 gold first he will quit, most times.

[Zefelius]

so i figured he had a good start. I had stone henge and not much going on. .....

Nobody likes Stonehenge of course...

But I had a game a couple of weeks ago where I accidentally built it early (saving hammers) and it ended up being kind of cool. I was Aztecs and found the Arc for all the temples (maybe 5 cities at that point). It was sweet getting extra culture as well as extra science. I don't remember how long it lasted though because I forget when SH expires. But overall I think that's about as good as it usually gets with it.

[elthrasher]

Nobody likes Stonehenge of course...

But I had a game a couple of weeks ago where I accidentally built it early (saving hammers) and it ended up being kind of cool. I was Aztecs and found the Arc for all the temples (maybe 5 cities at that point). It was sweet getting extra culture as well as extra science. I don't remember how long it lasted though because I forget when SH expires. But overall I think that's about as good as it usually gets with it.

Stonehenge obsoletes with Literacy. If you have Stonehenge a 3 pop city with a temple will yield 4 culture instead of 3 culture. Unless you were playing a total noob, it's highly unlikely your Stonehenge even resulted in an extra GP, especially if you got one for Monarchy or Invention.

[JackHall2003]

I found Beijing and was going to ElBrecher it

Can you explain to me again in what situations this works? Is it just against ai warriors? Salmeen told me once, but I can't remember why they don't get upgrades.

On a side note, I'm finding a lot of guys I've never played before and unreadying and leaving the lobby when I join?

[elthrasher]

Can you explain to me again in what situations this works? Is it just against ai warriors? Salmeen told me once, but I can't remember why they don't get upgrades.

On a side note, I'm finding a lot of guys I've never played before and unreadying and leaving the lobby when I join?

Generally when I've done that, it was because I was seeking out a certain opponent.

ElBrecher works really well when your opponent is defending at 1.5-2.5 and you have three non-vet warriors. Yes, the warrior army will probably win. Yes, it can backfire when you fail to wound and then give your enemy an upgrade for retreating, but that's rare. Usually you will wound and not give him an upgrade. Then you form the army and finish the job. It's better than just attacking at 3-1.5 or 3-2 because when you go 3-1.5, one unlucky battle and you're through. Using ElBrecher spreads the risk a little. If you are unlucky in one of those three battles, no problem. You can have bad luck, good luck, and average luck and you will win.

I have done this to human players but good ones will be smart and quick enough to heal between combats so it's less effective.

[Zefelius]

Stonehenge obsoletes with Literacy. If you have Stonehenge a 3 pop city with a temple will yield 4 culture instead of 3 culture. Unless you were playing a total noob, it's highly unlikely your Stonehenge even resulted in an extra GP, especially if you got one for Monarchy or Invention.

I think I was awarded half of a GP at some point. I remember being kind of disappointed.

On another note, it's amazing that I've been winning games in ranked without knowing such obvious details as when Stonehenge obsoletes. Shows how average the competition is out there. Although the players are quite gifted with their insults: one told me recently that he let the clock run down the full minute every turn b/c he was fornicating my mother. Little does he know she's not that attractive anymore.

[elthrasher]

I think I was awarded half of a GP at some point. I remember being kind of disappointed.

On another note, it's amazing that I've been winning games in ranked without knowing such obvious details as when Stonehenge obsoletes. Shows how average the competition is out there. Although the players are quite gifted with their insults: one told me recently that he let the clock run down the full minute every turn b/c he was fornicating my mother. Little does he know she's not that attractive anymore.

Maybe he doesn't care about that. I don't think not knowing when useless wonders obsolete hurts your game all that much. For example, when does the Great Library of Alexandria obsolete? Does your very likely lack of that knowledge hurt your game? No. Does the Great Library of Alexandria affect the game any less after it has been obsoleted? No.

The Great Library of Alexandria obsoletes with the discovery of: University

[Pedal2Metal]

My son played on my account against Asmodeios a day or two ago.
He played as China while Asmodeios played Aztecs. It was a good game early on. Didn't see most of it but he said he was quite slow to get his 100 gold. The key was he threatened w/his HA but ran away each time so I think it left some uncertainty in Asmod's mind so he built archers & had to be more careful in expansion. Anyhow, Asmod quit after it was pretty clear there was no chance of coming back (my son was way ahead in tech & had armies coming). I think Asmod was #5 after the loss so he must have been top 5 already (perhaps higher) as we are only 2-0. I haven't seen the leaderboards in a long time.

best regards,
Pedal2Metal

[Pedal2Metal]

Although the players are quite gifted with their insults: one told me recently that he let the clock run down the full minute every turn b/c he was fornicating my mother. Little does he know she's not that attractive anymore.

LOL!

best regards,
Pedal2Metal

[Mawpawk]

played aginst manamoe who always uses america so i did 2 ,but he must finally have goten bored with that as he chose england. i started on a 9 tile island with no barbs and a great builder for my 3 warriors then i built the galley 2 find 7cog, pretty good start i guess but i only had 8 beakers and not much else it took foreva 2 get to code o laws and in the mean time manamoes english ruled the mainland and took out a couple of civs, he expanded very well before he got republic and rushed fued to take the arabs and start harassing me but the american settler spawn and mathmatics slowed his roll and i managed 2 tech feud as my 13th tech, knight armies evry turn game over for him. typical america bullying, i guess il have 2 unmute him as a power civ only user....

my mongols vs roger A julias england, i grab a goodie hut and see a red roger A julias settler standing next 2 me so i plant and rush warrior for the in... but nooo mister julias has other ideas and the screen says waiting for, bugger. so beware of him fellow civ bretheren ,

my mongols vs januts indians, another goodie hut start and rush 2 warriors finding januts hilltop cap,after a couple of warrior battles i camp his only tree(rubber) and expect an instant win...but nooo, januts uses his fish 2 grow and tech away while i unsucessfully try taking a few of the ais. he gets code of laws before me(irrigation,currency,literature..) and escapes to some islands and i know fundy is at his disposal but a grab angor for republic and expand better than he did and end the game with fast stepping knights and galleons.kudos 2 this guy for not giving up and quite possibly could have won if he had hammered up to take me before i grew with a fundy onslaught.

just had another mongols vs the Dude's colossus egypt, got the walkin on athens(no demo) HA takes out spain(no nav) horse army dies at chinas odds under doorstep, knowing the power of colossus i gold rush 2 100gs and throw a library up in athens and spain and beat him 2 republic by 1 turn(phew) he flips a city and nulifies irrigation but he quits when my tech is 17 and his 12, and that was with 6 cities!

[JackHall2003]

Played AKAHB again and lost (again). My russians vs his French. we agreed beforehand to no oxford, heh, wishful thinking. He gets Madrid and I get no gold. My painfully built HA lost 6-4 to one of his archers and that was that.

Spain vs China. I settle a carp spot for the walk-in on Russia. Chinese find the KT early, I get the SoC (GB & GA). EITC in Madrid, and the 100g settler goes in the galleon. Chinese have a militia in moscow trees, but the KT doesn't attack, guess he knows how poor it is. My Galleon reveals an islan city of his, flip it and he quits.

Fired up the PS3 for a go and jumped into a player match, they're always available on PS3 but noob level much higher than ranked, anyway, picked the russians and my aztec opponent when getting beat decided to freeze me. WHAT? It's a player match FFS? In another i was 'kicked' from the game when miles ahead on tech - sigh. Might as well give the disc to my boy to trade.

[Zefelius]

It's horrible when your only two losses in about 30 games come from freezes. The first one I mentioned before: I had 7C and Monarchy from the Brits as well as a HA outside of the opponent capital by 3200. Game over---except I switched governments.

Last night I was playing a much better opponent but had another good start: My Aztecs versus Asmod's Spain. I got the KT Knight early and got two walk-ins prior to 3000, one of them being London for Monarchy again. I was clearing up the map and accumulating a ton of gold while researching Feud with my quick 5 cities. I didn't even need a barracks since I had the vet knight. Asmod was also having a good game as he set up terrific defense so by the time my HA and knight arrived he had archers set up at excellent chokes on forest behind rivers. I arrived just a little too late to break through. He also had the SoC and was planning on flipping my Paris which was close to Madrid, where he would have landed an AA.

It would have been another classic game between us, but of course there was random freeze---nobody's fault. I quit b/c I was ranked at 15 and I think he was at 12 or 13 at the time.

Otherwise with around 30 straight wins I might be in the top 10 at this point, but of course now I've likely used up all my good luck and will soon enter into another one of my infamously bleak downward spirals!!

GG Asmod

[Jackoneill]

I played a power civ battle last night against UAintACrookSon
I was china crook was the zulu.
Crook put alot of early pressure on me and took 1 of my cities, but I took rome and got republic in the bc,s, and just spammed cities everyere.He used 2 GS for monarchy and invention I don't know why.We had some knight battles, I won some stupid battles(cool for me)
I got to industrialization first and had 2 bomber wings out when crook called it.GG man.

[Mawpawk]

my indians vs mr turtle powers japanese

start by an ox resource move 1 plant for the 4000bc warrior move 1square 2 barb village, 3900 take barb for 50g rush warrior ,3800 move into japan tree rush another warrior, turtle quits as he thinks iv cheated ...but a little party chat explaining the benefits of ancient indians bonus and we are friends, the end

[Chug E]

I had an interesting game the other day. Spain vs Spain. We both walk, he finds double whale. I'm able to get a walk in on two AI caps tho, so I choose to go the Library route. I know I know, but hey I had a ton of gold and good pop in two of my 3 caps. I bought two Libraries. Meanwhile I make a bee-line for CoL to start expanding. While I'm exploring w/ my galleon, I see he's pumping settler after settler after settler from his 6 whale cities. This is before he even has CoL. It was one of those golden maps where next to his starting spot there is just a whale it seems, everywhere. It was so interesting because he literally had whale EVERYWHERE. In fact, I swooped in and grabbed a couple of his whale spots he was surely to settle, but he was too late.

I expanded very well, but this dude had so much whale that he didn't even need CoL. He had so many cities that he was able to catch up in techs pretty quickly by back filling. The end result was a VERY timely Oxford Bombers. As soon as I started attacking w/ them, he quit. I know I keep mentioning whale, but I seriously don't think I've ever seen a map w/ that much whale in a such a condensed area.

[JackHall2003]

Played a guy earlier who was very familiar with the pause button - THEWHOL3FNSHOW. His aztecs v my indians. Great start and about to take Athens, He hits the pause for about the tenth time in 15 turns and the game freezes -sigh. left it on and fired up the PS3. My Spanish vs Zulu, another great start, his impi ary loses and I just get the waiting for message, don't think there was a pause though, Back to xbox and take the loss.

[asmodeios]

Played a guy earlier who was very familiar with the pause button - THEWHOL3FNSHOW. His aztecs v my indians. Great start and about to take Athens, He hits the pause for about the tenth time in 15 turns and the game freezes -sigh. left it on and fired up the PS3. My Spanish vs Zulu, another great start, his impi ary loses and I just get the waiting for message, don't think there was a pause though, Back to xbox and take the loss.

I've had the same experience with him. And have his name on my bio list.

[Zefelius]

Pawk and I had an epic game. It was good to beat him b/c I was losing most of the way, which gave me some revenge for the last time he beat me from behind.

My start was horrible. I moved my Roman settler toward a hut just as I saw him take it. So I had to backtrack from whence I came and was basically cornered in a tight piece of real estate. Sent out a warrior toward the nearest barb and the Aztecs took it. I thought the game was over because obviously his vet German WAs would be coming after me soon. I think one thing that helped was a nice hill between myself and Pawk, so I could see his first attack coming and I beat back his first WA. It seemed like he had access to much more land and gold, but something must of happened to him to slow him down b/c amazingly I got to 100 gold first---mostly by selling CoL to the Aztecs and getting one nice village.

I couldn't expand too quickly with little gold and knowing he'd be on his way with a second wave of vet legions, so I concentrated on defense and beat back his second attack by taking out one of his armies. I did get two galleys out, and one found the SoC, but it took forever to get my galley back to use those GPs (GA and GH).

He beat me to all the techs I was aiming for---sometimes by just one turn. It was a very close game the whole way, and once the first two small attacks were repelled, Pawk got more serious and the game much more intense. He beat me to Nav so I knew a third attack was on its way. This one almost took me out for good. But I had a couple blitz legions saved up, and some cats by this point. He took a couple of cities and we fought back and forth, but I had the edge of home turf and repelled him.

Now it was my turn to attack---and I put my march CA and Great General AA and blitz LA on a galleon (saving some units for defense) and started taking his cities which was hard as he had recently found 7C. And He also surprise attacked me with a 4th wave and took Rome along with another city as I was invading his territory.

I just barely retained the edge and ultimately got my cities back---mostly due to my lucky GG AA and March CA which was tough for Pawk. Also, I'm not usually very good with tactics or defense, so my improvement there probably made a difference---if Pawk knew I was ready for him I'm sure he would have attacked differently---and I expect next game will be tougher for me.

But feels good to beat an elite player in a long, 2 hour game and makes me feel that I've gotten a little better on balancing units and teching.

VGG Pawk!!

[Mawpawk]

well im glad you had fun i had a good time with the battles aswell but my game was doomed when your galley sunk mine and i had 2 walk my little dudes all the way over (slowmo infiltration legs) and the second time your galleon sunk my galleon so i had to land where i was instead of that nice little hill behind rome! gd times but it was a terribly boring 1 from my side as i only had 2 cities until just before you attacked nonethe less we can both take valuable info from such a long game! just had another exhausting 1 with asmodeis, iv only played 2 games 2day and thats taken 4 hours!!!!

[Zefelius]

It's a tough choice with Germans. I can see how you were tempted to attack w/o expanding too much, because sometimes you can get away with that with the Germans. Sounds like I got lucky that you didn't attack sooner since my galley found yours just as you were on your way. I just wish I had sunk it before you smartly dropped off those armies!!

[Zefelius]

As Thrasher always says, never give up too early in H2H against ranked. Just played against an American in the top 50 who got 7C by around 3500 and then Tripoli at about 2800 and then proceeded to defend his new cap with one HA, an archer, and oh my gosh a library! That really surprised me b/c I thought it's pretty much old news that you don't want to build libraries---if that's really what you're going to do---at least until after initial hostilities are over. And this is a guy I've seen playing for a few years now.

I'm glad I didn't quit that one...

[Jackoneill]

I just played a pathetic match against lamanore, he laged the clock from the first move right until the end.My question is, why in the hell do people still try to play little baby games too get some rank points?.It blows my mind sometimes, I mean the game is 3 years old and clowns still will do anything for the win.(Grow up)

[Zefelius]

I just played a pathetic match against lamanore, he laged the clock from the first move right until the end.My question is, why in the hell do people still try to play little baby games too get some rank points?.It blows my mind sometimes, I mean the game is 3 years old and clowns still will do anything for the win.(Grow up)

They play those little baby games because in fact... they're dumb little babies.

[elthrasher]

It's pretty amusing to play some random guy after having played five solid games against Scottie and Morte. I got the French against an Aztec player who seemed to know what he as doing. He didn't have a chance. No chance. I moved and just settled in what looked to be the thick of the action. First warrior out found Thebes and I got the walk-in, gaining the Oracle. I got a horse army and saw an Aztec army. He approached Paris, but I had a bunch of warriors on a hill and he decided that didn't seem so great after all and went elsewhere. That suited me because I'd found Madrid. I got Navigation (teched Bronze to be sure I would), got some more gold and put two settlers and my march horse army on a galleon. I soon had found Confucius (after my first GP) and ffs Seven Cities of Gold, that I totally didn't need.

My opponent was expanding in despotism working hammers and grass and had earned Irrigation. He took Kyoto a little after I had Madrid. I could see two empty Aztec cities near where I had spawned. I sailed my galleon up and dropped my horse army in. I wasn't worried about a trap, as I had a GA from Confucius. He brought his horse army over. I grabbed the other city. He came back and retook the city, so I killed his army and took the city back yet again. It was around 1000 BC and I had 8 cities, hadn't used my GH yet. He quit.

[Zefelius]

Well, Scottie and Morte are pretty good!

I myself lost today in one of those frustrating games against a Zulu player who won without ever attacking me. He found the AW early then 7C a bit afterward. I was Arabs and went for cats but just as I landed them he built the Great Wall---not sure if it was GBed. That was a waste of my time---not expanding much thinking that his 7C meant I should focus more on attacking rather than expanding. In retrospect perhaps I should have gone with quicker legions. As good as Arabs are, I still don't have their tempe figured out.

So even though I put time and money into 2 CAs and a LA, I kept playing. By the time I expanded my way to Oxford Bombers, he was way ahead in tech and built Leo's for a bunch of fortified Infantry. I could have played on, but he expanded okay, had good defense, was ahead in tech and money, so I gave it up. It's not often I get beat with a built GW and Leo's!