An intermediate player to me is one who knows the basics of the game, some of the strategies of the game, but can't put it all together. I could go out one game and do great, and would get a butt whooping the next. This points out exactly what it takes to advance in the intermediate level: 1. absolutely no fear of losing, 2. a desire to try new things in order to improve, including DM 3. willingness to practice single player more than play on internet to win 4. Go out and put your practice to work by being afraid of nobody and playing to win 5. Find partner(s) to play with on a consistant basis
1. I would play in the expert rooms and I didn't care if it was set teams. My goal was to play my best game and figure out how my opponents would beat me or how my teammates would beat my opponents. If I had CAs and they were chopped up by cav one game and they beat up cav the next I wondered how. This is how I figured out the value of storage pit and market upgrades, not in manuals. I did not care about my rating or about losing, only cared if I learned something that game.
2. I learned as much as others did about the value and inherent risks of rushing. If your rush found his base and his missed, you probably won. Vice Versa and you lost. A mix of the two made for an iron age game. That is how I learned how to forward build. (BTW- I didnt even know it was called that til a month ago on this board) Forward building increased the chances my rush would find its mark and that I could sustain it. This is also why I learned to practice with walling. I cannot tell you how many games I won against better players who rushed me first by far b/c their rush ran into a wall and they were flustered. Walling was something I learned from playing the computer and when I did it on the internet people had no idea about it. Now in the expert circles I found out later others were doing it, but I was by no means an expert. By experimenting I moved my game way ahead of the pack, for the time being. 3. Practice on the computer. Now on this board there have been numerous threads bashing playing single player. I so disagreee. I first played the campaigns as I said before. Then I played random map and DM single player 2v2 games when I didn't have time for a full internet game. These are so beneficial in practicing your economy. True, military is too easy usally but for an intermediate player they need to practice finishing off another player. I would play 2v3 and 1v2 when i started getting better against the computer. Now I still play 1v3 on hardest and it is a real challenge. You will have to know how to wall and run. I would play tons of reveal map games to work on my bronze times. I figured if I couldn't get 13 minutes when I know where the resources are how will I when i need to explore. When I first achieved it I was so elated! When I could consistently get it I was starting to feel confident. This confidence is vital to a developing player and allowed me to continue to practice til I could get 13 with no reveal. 4. I went online and purposefully played everyone and anyone and played to win. It was really fun because it was happening. I tried my luck with a Christian clan under 5. I partnered with Gecko11C or something like that and we won all the time. We would take on people in the top 100 and win. What I didn't know I learned from him, and he is still online playing rated aoe and winning despite refusing to use the trainer or nukers. I recognize him as an icon to this game and I am really grateful that he chose to take me under his wing b/c he was much better than me when we first started playing together and only now do I think I am even close to his ability. It was after awhile, playing ROR as illiniman, and winning consistently that I began to consider that I had attained the label as "expert".