This is something we did every now and then to train newbies and test skilled players leadership skills.

2 skilled players 2 or 4 newbies.

each skilled player teams up with one or two newbies and vs the other skilled player and his newbies.

Skilled player can build build nothing and can only command newbies. It can be quite fun, you ubber skilled folks should try it. For some reason I can't seem to get any newbies to come and read all this shit I had you guys post, so maybe some online interaction could help them out.

What do you guys think?

kinda good to test the skilled guy's way of playing, but newbies don't learn how to play their own games tho. but could teach them how to play good.

LoL, that actually sounds fun - doubt many noobs would wana do exactly what i say tho. They seem to have a mind of their own.

OldSchoolXeno (aka tomcat, lol) used to help SadendXeno and HappyendXeno out overteamspeak like this. He wouldn't even be watching the game, but he'd listen in on how the battle is going and would give suggestions and tips to Sad and Happy. Sounded pretty usefull when i was listening in on their teamspeak channel last year.

It can even be helpfull for a skilled player to have someone spectating and offering advice. Its a double edged sword tho, sometimes such instruction is helpfull and directs you well. But on occasion, the ideas (even from a pro) may distract you from thinking clearly on your own and basically throw a wrench in the machine that is your strategy.

Have any of you ever read "Enders Game"? If you have not I highly recomend it. It is by far my favorite book. The homeworld series are the closest thing to the game discribed in that book I've found. It's part of the reason I love this game so much.

newbie bloodsport gets the game even closer by making 1 player a commander. You're right about newbies having a mind of there own though. For this to work well everyone would have to be on the same page.

I'm not sure you'll find many 'newbies' or even 'semi-skilled' that will be willing to play these games.

A friendly comment out of the today's game for Ratamaq: if you get attacked by obviously superior fighter swarm(twice the fighter squads), do not just suicide your fighters trying to fight them off. Dock all the fighters and keep them docked until you can get the fighters closer to being even. I usually wait until 9-10 squads, or more, if you don't lose too many collectors. When they do attack collectors, issue dock orders to the collectors being attacked, it will keep them alive longer. Also, for this situation you'll want to research collector armor level 1 so they don't die so easily.

A surprising number of people who obsess over sophisticated builds and the minutiae of unit stats forget or never learned a basic rule: don't fight losing odds unless it serves some larger purpose to sacrifice the ships. "They are attacking me, so I have to do something" doesn't count.

Average skill level would triple if everyone just: 1) picked fights only where/when the odds favored them, and 2) always probed targets before attacking.

Noobs frustrate me so I have a hard time doing this.