This is the game we mentioned earlier: SPOTLIGHT GAME: Frogman vs. newty. This was a very close game that was decided by a combination of seemingly harmless events, but when taken together spelled doom. Both players are Spanish on Old World. They both play similarly except newty goes for CIV2 while Frogman goes for COM2. This allowed Frogman to catch back up and pass newty with econ, while newty has trouble taking advantage of his early CIV2 because he can't get shis 3rd city up.

Frogman gets the upper hand during the early raiding action, killing two of newty's merchants. newty tries to get his 3rd city up in a decisive loaction, but Frogman kills the early builders. newty starts building his city and almost finishes it, which would have seriously cramped Frogman, but Frog manages to start his city just as newty completes his. Whew! That was close. Meanwhile, Frogman is still ahead in econ. He flanks newty's borders with a castle, and then builds a forth town deep in newty's territory. This enables him to place a tower right near newty's second city lumberjacks. However, he has trouble getting the tower up because the borders keep going back and forth. He goes after newty's gems rare and then pushes the border enough to get the tower close in. (Unfortunately, he never research religion, which would have been quite a bit faster in getting his borders moved closer to newty.)

That well-placed tower signaled the ned of the game as newty's wood econ dropped below +100 and he never really recovered. Frogman used that gap to start attacking Frogman's second city. So newty, instead of defending, decides to go after Frogman's second city. A min-race ensues to see who can bring the other's city down faster. But wait! Frogman stops his attack on newty's city and instead goes after his capital. There's no towers and no temple and the Madrid falls pretty quickly. When newty goes after Frogman's capital, he loses his troops and Frogman retakes his 2nd city. Game is over.

Lessons learned:

• Scout out your opponent well to learn where his rare resources and economy points are. Both players did a good job scouting each other out, but Frogman did a better job, which helped him in the end, particularly during the raiding. Too many players, including me, try raiding with no scouting. It doesn't work very well.
• RAID RAID RAID. In most of the games I have seen, the game is decided by the best raiding. Not every game, but most games.
• Don't under estimate the ol' border flank. It can be decisive.
• Capitals are often less defended than the border towns. Don't be afraid to go after it.

posted by Tim at 6:52 PM