[melnorjr]

Originally Posted by Ironhawk

But you see, this was my point. There is nothing available to the vets that the noobs havent seen or heard of. What elevates one player from another is just good planning and good play. You might be surprised by a particular trick now and then but if thats what you are expecting to get out of these games I think you have the wrong idea.

Thats possibly true. I might well. Admittedly seeing things in application can be a big factor in itself, but personally, I have barely touched on reading forum threads. I've read one or two guides, no battle reports, probably a grand total of 6 or 7 threads, and this is my first MP game, nor have I played really extensively in SP. I'm pretty green, but I have a pretty solid grasp of the concepts and the mechanics - particularly the mechanics, since I've played with modding and attempting to balance mods enough that I have had to.

I'm hoping to encounter things I hadn't considered, to learn more options for my own play. I'm a strange type. Ever profiled yourself on your gamer-type? there's social gamers, achievers(many in this game are probably here), killers, etc.

I'm an explorer. To me the fun in a game is doing something I haven't done yet. Going somewhere I haven't been. I deliberately play games without looking at guides, or (in the case of dungeons in WoW or some such) fight bosses and things without already knowing how to beat them, because the most fun part is figuring it out. The fun for me is not in the having won, its in the winning. When I have learned the be all end all I-win-button in a game, I use it once, and quit playing.

From what I hear and from what I've seen however, there is no such button here.

From what I've seen however, and no negativity intended, is that what seems to define a vet is not ingenuity, or cleverness, but experience. That's a bit of a tautology of course, but what I mean to say is that among the things that define a vet are simply knowing the probably course of action of a person in a given situation, knowing tricky little mechanics that noobs don't know yet, and simply knowing how troops tend to match up - noobs tend to go overkill when attacking something, or underestimate and not fight hard enough. The vet has seen enough battles to know the right amount of force needed to do each action.

And again, no insult intended, but I haven't run into somebody beating me with what appears to be a superior cleverness or ingenuity, but generally with experience, luck, or situational advantage.