Settings: large, continental, no reveal, default start, 75 pop, 1.5 speed, RANDOM CIVS.
First game I get Palmy (groan) but my opp gets Persia (yea!). I had a horrible start. I'd read somwhere about pulling in that 25 food first thing to get the extra vill, and that's what I did, carrying it in with 3 vills from a nearby berry patch. This threw me off though, since I didn't explore as much as I should. I found plenty shore fish but they were all spread out, so pitting wouldn't do. I went with a dock first (probably a mistake with palmy) but what the hey, I was playing Persia on a water map. Get the dock, a nearby forest provides the wood and Palmies chop like crazy. I tooled around 13 and bronzed around 16. Yuk. My first scout got killed by a lion just on the other side of the shallows in the river, (ouch!) so I had to send another vill. Get him there and get 2 ranges built (plus 1 range I had at home). Soon as I bronze, I start bowmen upgrade. At the time, I don't know it, but my opp had found my 2 ranges by the river and had built _3_ ranges just out of view. Soon as IBs are done, I start building them at the forward ranges. 2 pop out and then I see his three ranges sitting there. Uh-oh, I think. So I send my lone vill off a ways and built another range and a seige behind some trees and out of sight. I'd begun compy research at the home base range already. I begin moving the two IBs up to shoot at some enemy woodies not far from his three ranges. No enemy troops in sight. I kill about 2 or 3 of his vills the rest run. I begin to chase, but 3 enemy IBs appear and start shooting my guys. The enemy is on a hill, my guys lose, killing one. By now 2 more of my IBs have appeared, so I move them forward to engage. A bunch of enemy scout ships show up and begin staking out my ranges. A few more IBs then the compie upgrade finishes, but damn, he's killing them as fast as they show. Big battle going on, with him winning, making 3 IBs to every one of my compies. Then his IBs go compy too. Now I'm really getting raked He hadn't found the 3rd range I'd built a ways off, so I build another range and start building compies there too, as well as 2 STs from the siege workshop. I also throw some gallies into the mix and they take over the river. Big battle by the shallows, consisting of 2 of my compies appearing and him killing them I kill one of his, he kills two of mine. When I get about 8 compies from the other ranges and the 2 STs are done, I move them up and mangage to break the stalemate. He wasn't expecting that. Now its ME killing his archers as fast as they show. Finally ahead, I'm able to start moving groups of compies past the ranges an into his base to kill vills. A few camels, a few cavs, but I'm too far ahead now. My STs have reduce his three ranges to rubble and my gallies have won the river. He says 'gg' and resigns. If I had lost my foothold with those 2 ranges, it would have been a long game. If I hadn't moved that vill off and constructed another range out of sight, I probably would have lost on his side and would have had to regroup on my side to go again, probably with transports, since that was the oly shallows and he would have held it. So despite both of us getting fairly poor civs in terms of developement speed, it ended up a challenging if unexciting game. Upon reflectin, instead of a secoind range out of sight, I should have gone with a stable and throw in some camels. Ah, well, that's the fun with random games. Live and learn.
Game 2 is a joke. My opp is a 1600 rating with 0 played and 0 abandoned, so I'm slightly nervous, wondering if he's smurfing. Even though I had the settings post outside, once we got to the room, he starts haggling. He wants to pick civs and wanted a 50 pop. I say WTF and went along. He choose Egypt and I took Minoan. I figured that I could get compies by the time he got CAs since I could build more boats and get more food and bronze faster. So the game gets underway, I pit by 2 sf/forest; good position. Next up is a dock, then another dock, then a gran, then barracks. I'm booming pretty good and hit bronze around 14 with 20 real vills and 15 or so boats. His score is low low low so I'm not too worried. I check achievements and he's tooled, but did it 2 minutes slower than me and with only 16 vills, so I'm thinking 'no boats'. My scout vill was already close to his area before I bronzed. (I found tree stumps and backed him off to build three ranges a little ways away. I finished the third range right about the time I bronzed). I used my home range to research. Not much going on. No signs of life. I check timeline and he's still tool. Yawn. I start getting IBs from the three forward ranges, but decide to wait until they comp up before I move in. By the time they comp, there are about 12 or so of them. I get 3 more then move up toward where I saw the stumps. Minoan range gives me a good view. A buncha vills chopping. I walk the comps right up beside them and let them stop. Mass carnage ensues. All woodies dead. He was still berry picking, but they were in range too. Meat. He resigns, never even made bronze. I see then that he'd finally built a dock and had 4 FBs; final tally on pop: 20. 16 vills and 4 FBs. Poor newbie. I hope he doesn't stop playing altogether! Oh, I almost forgot. He was being a real weenie in the beginning and kept upping it to 2.0. After about 5 times of putting it back, I paused the game and reminded him of the settings I'd had outside. After that he left it alone.
Altogether another hour in the RoR hamper, and the only thing I'm getting is older!