Well this will be the last I add to the topic. My thoughts are in bold.
[quote=""I__CHAOS__I""][quote=""36drew""]A. Your TC should not be idle for 25 seconds if you are doings things correctly.[/quote]
as if we all play perfectly and always find instantly our starting hunt, micro 1 vil on each crate and hunts never runs the wrong way etc... many things can go wrong, we're no experts
The starting of the game need not be complicated. You don't 'have to individually micro your villagers either. 2 on one crate, 2 on another, 1 on the last. It's really basic. Shooting your first herd towards your TC is also pretty straightforward stuff. You don't need to be uber fast or anything to accomplish this. Of course things can go wrong -- things can go wrong with a 17 villager age up too -- the mistakes will affect outcomes in both scenarios.
[quote=""36drew""]B. At higher levels any other than wood trickle is a rarity as a first card. Sea booming for high players almost always means schooners is about a fifth card.[/quote]
what we mostly see at higher level is the same rush over and over and over, and that includes 14 vils + wood trickle, true. Does that make you a better player? no.
I've seen several use schooner as first card, and lately I saw 2 or 3 recs with ATP as first card.
Yes choosing a smart first card makes you a better player relative to PR and Elorating, and in my humble opinion generally speaking it does. Factors other than speed of mouse movement, keystrokes, scouting, adaptation, micro, and micro matter. Card choice is one of them, and there is a reason that better players tend to use smarter first card. Point: if someone who did everything nicely -> villagers balanced on resources, perfect micro, etc played economic theory as a first card you would say that someone is smarter to play wood trickle, maybe schooners, maybe ATP (pretty situational though for the last two IMO and this is a general comment). Furthermore, yes perfecting a strategy that will improve your rank does make you a better player. For example, a guy might be able to wing a pike or grenadier rush and beat some players that are 'better' than them, but this does not make them better players unless this becomes the strategy to perfect.
Having said all of that, most people play the game for reasons other than competition -- I know that having 3 bombards appear out of nowhere in the line of stretlets gives me more satisfaction than beating a colonel -- even if I loose the game.
[quote=""36drew""]C. In team games if you are late with your first batch, it's big trouble normally.[/quote]
Huh? 25 seconds of difference on huge maps rarely matter. If you watch those top clans play in 3v3, they spend the first 10 min massing units and not suicide rushing.
25 seconds matters whether your 'suicide' rushing as you put it or not. You can have your first colonial shipment much earlier. I would in fact argue that time matters even more in team games, but that's a whole other story.
[quote=""36drew""]D. In nearly every single expert replay i've seen of russia (even those against quote 'non-rushing civs' the russian player goes for a 14 villager age up).[/quote]
I've never seen an expert use the fast age up as iroquois, does that mean Sporting's strat is bad? I believe that the game is played differently on each level, without the same skills, it's sometimes not useful to copy their strats
I don't feel like going down this road, but I think we can both agree that there are different ways to go from point a to point b.
[quote=""36drew""]E. If you are FF-ing or FI-ing as russia, I would really recommend against this. In 1.01 very few IF ANY civs can FF (maybe semi-ff is okay, not straight FF and certainly not straight FI) -- and of all the civs russia is one the worst ones to do this.[/quote] True, still there are maps like Texas and araucania where FF is rather common.
Suvorov FF is also used.
Sure.
I even have a texas deck for when I play on that map. Just once again is situational, and even then I still go for 14 villagers and up.
[quote=""36drew""]The bottom line is this; i've made recommendations to improve his gameplay -- while FF/FI-ing and 17 villager age ups might be dandy and all, they are very unlikely to improve your gameplay. Out.[/quote] Why would it not improve his gameplay? I bet it's gonna done more good than doing the same 1 strat over and over again.
You make it sound as if aging with 17 vils = GG
I'd say: aim for 14, but if you see you'll have too much idle TC time, go with 17 and enjoy the better eco, my 2 yuan
Picking one strat and mastering it's basics has helped me more than I can ever imagine in terms of gameplay. When I first signed up I read about a build order and went from seargent to 2nd leit in a matter of a couple days. Then I realized I hit roadblocks because I stuck to the build religuously and made no adaptation (you can make a good point about ATP and schooners here and I would accept that open heartedly -- like ATP on patagonia -- situation specific adaptation where it might be a better choice over wood trickle, maybe schooners too with blockhouse protection + 2cara). Anyway, I think if you actually watched the game that you would be really frustrated with how the outcome ended up. A few BASIC principles like constant villagers production (or even that alone) would have one the game.
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