Can't ever beat your best buddy? Can't defeat the AI on toughest? Try co-oping with a buddy (not the buddy you want to beat). 2 players playing one civ can do 2x the micro and might have a chance of keeping up with that buddy or that AI. As refresher, co-op is where 2 players manage one civilization. You can do co-op against one player. The film will appear to be just a normal 1on1.

When we were testing game screws for AOK, Helegator and I would often team up to play The Sheriff. He would still win (usually). (The Sheriff was Microsoft's top playtester for AOK back then. He got paid to play AOK 10-12 hours a day. Ouch.) By playing co-op, you don't receive any innate ability to cheat, just the ability to do things simultaneously. It's a lot easier for a player to play against a co-op team than it is to play against 2 different civs because of the resource gatehring and the pop cap problem.

But it requires excellent teamwork and cooperative skills. Much more so than a 2on2 game. You can't give units conflicting orders and your economic and military strategies have to be in sync. You can't have one player research MIL1 off the bat and build a barracks while the other player is trying to get a fast classical.

Co-op is great fun and is ideally suited to a game like RON that requires some excessive amounts of micro ability.
posted by Tim at 10:12 AM