Utter noob seeking opponent

[Copper]

Until you can play the AI at +3 and consistently win - expect real people to hand it to you pretty regularly.

Not really sure I agree with that. Any experience against the AI, aside from becoming familiar with the the game mechanics, is pretty irrelevant when it comes to playing a human opponent. I think its best to start early with PBEM, then you won't have to unlearn a lot of the tricks that work against the AI but will land you in hot water if you try them against a human player.

Peek is absolutely correct. You can only learn so much about the game mechanics from the computer. It is the actual juxtapostion of those game mechanics, units characterstics, and terrain knowledge into a tactical construct that takes into account a perspective from the human opponent that is needed. That only comes from playing and gaining experience against human opponents. I would go as far to say that distancing yourself from the AI is more important than trying to beat it at higher levels.

The next stage is learning about your opponents through battle, and using his behavioural tendencies against him, and or anticipating them.

That's where the real skill comes into play.


Cheers!

Leto