If caranthir.pkk reads this he'll probably wonder why i bothered mentioning this but something bothered me in another game tonight...bothered in a confused way. I hadn't played pkk before, a few people in servers said he was good, we'd played in a 6 player game on 'demosthenes' server (think that's how you spell his name, excellent server, played a few times on it before too), anyway pkk got disconnected somewhere in Defcon 1 and ended in the deep minus numbers and last in that game (as did i in the next game with the same players, i think because we both had EU, lol 
anyways...
...after those 6 player games i played 3 1v1 games with caranthir.pkk. followed by the same spectators, polite chaps...'hi.there' or something
Game 1 -
Caranthir.pkk - Africa.
Hyperion - EU.
After hearing things of Caranthir.pkk
(rumour mill) i'd expected quite alot...and with these territories i'd expected to get my ass handed to me 
, i could see his fleet deployment deep into my ocean waters and i thought to be honest that it was messy navy placement 
and gave him the benefit that maybe he wanted to rush me head on and crush my navy...knowing i could only come down. Seeing his fleet i managed to get all of my subs all around and down Africa where i wanted...i was surprised with the ease i had doing this. Anyway...the game ensued and i lost as expected, by a fairly large margin, 50/60 points i think but i didnt go into minus numbers in any game .
Game 2 -
Caranthir.pkk - USSR
Hyperion - Africa
I thought i should take this game
, easy set up...most of my battleships and a few carriers near the new zealand pass expecting his navy (which came and was successfully destroyed, including lots of subs) and scouts between Ireland and England incase he came from there instead. 8 Carriers and 9 subs in the Indian alcoves ready to strike (kept my subs out of the west alcove thinking he was good enough to nuke there first...which he was as my subs were out of range of the nukes i moved them them into the alcove and firing distance and happily claimed "AH no!!! all my subs nuked!!!!" ) I placed all 4 airbases in north Africa preparing for vertical bomber launches over EU to horizontally hit USSR in bomber waves from defcon 2 into 1, having already successfully scouting silos and airbases. Unfortunately he had placed a substantial fleet above EU (probably incase i advanced that way) and a few measly carrier fighters took out my 20 bombers 
...disaster (and the only reason i lost that game...i hit everything but Leningrad which would have levelled the game). I lost again but by a much smaller margin.
Game 3 -
I don't remember the territories of this game but I lost by the smallest margin in all 3 games (improving i thought...adapting to his playing style i thought)...but i couldn't help but feel bitter after these 3 games. Not because i lost, but because i think i lost from bad luck...in Game 1 i expected to lose as EU against Africa (i've never been good with EU until tonight when playing with a new strategy
against Ace, which ill write after this) but i expected to be beaten more extravagantly...carriers in the Indian...better naval placement from my opponent etc etc. Games 2 and 3 were my own fault...i lost all of my base bombers very early and this was my undoing, he even pointed this out to me in our last game the cheek...i use a sound strategy (for me anyway) and i'm not going to try and take anything away from caranthir.pkk he beat me fair and square every game and i even enjoyed getting beat by (MOR) in a game a few days ago (it'd been a while since i'd lost a game and again to unfamiliar setup Asia/SA, but i've learned from it) anyways...i narrowed the scores to smaller and smaller margins in each game without my base bombers (which are a big part of my game in 1v1 )
What bothered me of late was something that was said in my games with Ace from some fairly new spectators (not so much bothered as surprised me greatly
), saying that we were in the top 20-30 players and on the forums, we both fainted vanity on this as good gentlemen would and said 'naah' and Ace was polite and said maybe Hyperion is but not me 'Pfft!' i thought but i'd take the flattery whilst it was coming ) , i frequently profess i'm only an average player (perhaps i've gone past that point...i'm in the tournament final now and have played every of the tournament games fairly).
I believe winning most 1v1 games is a ratio of 1.Skill. 2.Learning. 3.Luck (for a 5-6 player game i consider that ratio to be reverse
) but this comment was not the first time i'd heard such praise of my gameship in servers of late much to my surprise considering i struggle to get well known players to play me. I've frequently lost to Radiant in KOTH matches (although i attribute that to the old KOTH settings we were using x5 speed etc as i've not played him in regular setting games and have only one victory to my name, lol) and i lose to Skynet always (everyone has their excuses but he just outdoes me with being patient ) and i've beaten most other names that i've played (i won't name names but i have screen/IP shots 
).
Is it just me or does anyone else expect more extravagent play from certain players or unknown players and then says "bugger me!!!
" when you're wiped out by a demo player (fictional scenario ) because they used such simple tactics to destroy you when you expected the complicated.
I guess it's just a case of getting to know the style of who you play against before you can beat them constantly...*sigh*...
I dissapointed myself in these 3 games but i was outplayed and deservedly so.
