Hey everyone - following in Quitch's shining example I'm going to throw up my replays as well in this thread. I don't promise they'll be anything grand as I've just started with this game, but personally I'm a replay junkie. I love sifting through them to get new ideas and tactics, and eh, I'd like to throw mine into the fray.

At the very least they may be a shining example of what not to do. By all means, throw in your comments, suggestions, etc. Hope you all enjoy.

Faction: Phantom League
Map: Emerald
Rank: Conscript
Opponent: Duke
Wins: 0
Losses: 0

The Skinny
This was my very first online game as a trial player. This is a total battle of n00b vs. n00b. I was relatively pleased with the results as I managed to get my opponent to surrender around the 14th turn, but reflecting back, my units were getting hung up on each other in the center, and I neglected to make use of transports at all until at least the halfway point.

I'm a huge artillery freak, and I kind of went overboard. As luck would have it, either the position I was in, or mistakes on my opponent's part allowed me to indulge in my artillery fetish virtually uncompromised.

Duke made a virtually unforgivable mistake when disclosing his southern SA - he used his disclosure cash on two rocket launchers and marched them, unprotected, to the border of one of my yet undisclosed SAs. I quickly punished him for that.

The one area of the map I started losing ground on from turn 10 or so on was in the western area. It was my last disclosed SA and I was virtually unable to drive Duke's units from my borders, so with no cash flow, I was relying on reinforcements and trying to defend that SA from two fronts.

In the center I kept getting harrassed by his bombers, but I had so many units at that point I just started to roll right through, bombers be damned. Around turn 14 or so I had unloaded about 8 annihilators in various positions around his remaining positions and he surrendered.

I think another of Duke's mistakes was when he was trying to bust into one of my northern bases, he advanced, got bombarded by my annihilators, retreated, regrouped, advanced again, got bombarded, retreated, etc. I don't know how he would have done if he had just charged and accepted the fact that he was going to take some losses to artillery - it may still not have worked, but I punished him brutally for moving in and out of my artillery range repeatedly.

I felt it was a good game. I'm not sure if I should feel proud, as it was indeed a n00b vs. n00b game, but it was interesting and fun.

Faction: Free Nations Union
Map: Emerald
Rank: Corporal
Opponent: Anvari
Wins: 1
Losses: 0

The Skinny
This was my second game. It was a relatively quick battle, which looked like it might go either way for a few turns. I started with a big push from the north. I didn't go quite so artillery-crazy as I did in the last game, trying to balance myself out a bit more. I gave myself one rocket launcher well supported by LAVs and other assault units in the north.

In the south however, it looked like I was in trouble. My southern point was almost immediately surrounded by three of his territories, plus the ocean. Not the best setup in the world. I think his mistake came from trying to push out on two different fronts from those three territories instead of trying to quickly crush my surrounded territory, giving him even more income and having all of my threats be coming from outward instead of inward.

He did make pretty good use of transports, shuttling a few units back and forth to try and take it, but I managed to hold out long enough to win the game on other fronts. He made some blunders too, like leaving a few expensive units hanging unsupported.

He made rather poor guerilla choices too, such as an Ostrich. I'm sure I made some mistakes too, but somehow I went from having a not-so-great position (subjectively speaking) to pulling out a win.

After this game, I subscribed.

Faction: Phantom League
Map: Emerald
Rank: Sergent
Opponent: Duke
Wins: 2
Losses: 0

The Skinny
It's both funny and unfortunate that the replays that are the most painful to watch are usually the ones that teach you the most. This rematch against Duke wa a hard-fought struggle which I eventually lost.

Part of the problem I had was trying to take his southeast SA which I was attacking from a northern SA - my only way in being a narrow passage three hexes wide which allowed him to block my way for virtually the entire time.

He tried a different tactic this time, one that I was initially confused by, and eventually at a loss to respond to. Nearly all of his initial disclosure cash was spent on LAVs. This allowed him to put constant pressure on my southern-most SA from two fronts, basically guaranteeing him the ability to push through my borders with relative ease, while blocking his own borders at the same time.

I'm sure I made some poor initial disclosure choices, but alas I'm not experienced enough to figure out exactly where I went wrong - only enough to get a feeling that I should have gone with a different set of initial units.

I tried to make better use of transports, and found myself shuttling tanks and other units back and forth from a rear SA up to the front lines of my western SA - I held him back for quite awhile, but he eventually broke through my lines. I tried to develop some counterplay in the northeast, but with limited results.

The interesting thing is that for most of the game I was technically up in balance, but it was all just an illusion, for no matter how hard I tried to hold the lines - and boy, how I tried - I eventually crumbled under his relentless assault. I'd be very interested to hear in some feedback from any of you players out there in regards to this match. By all means, PM me.

And, after 15 long, desperate turns, I surrendered.

Faction: Phantom League
Map: New Paradise
Rank: Lieutenant
Opponent: Anvari
Wins: 2
Losses: 1

The Skinny
This was my first non-Emerald game, and I have to tell you, this game absolutely convinced me beyond a shadow of a doubt that subscribing to M.A.N. was a good idea. I found myself instantly confronted with a map much, much bigger than Emerald, with different islands and a whole new dimension of gameplay and things to learn and adapt to. To me, this was an absolutely epic battle.

I started off by making an initial unpleasant discovery: It's a bad idea to attack a small, neutral island with one transport full of weak units. This was the game where it finally hit home to me that if you attack a neutral country without enough units to even take out the defending guerillas, it's as if you gave your opponent a free territory for no work on their part. It was a lesson well heeded.

Anvari went full-out towards establishing naval superiority right off the bat. I decided not to contest him for control of the sea. I looked over the entire map carefully and decided that I could continue with my plans while giving up the sea, at least for the time being.

Anvari had total control over the western-most large island before too long, but I was making good progress to the east, and managed before too long to capture two of his SAs, giving me an incredible financial boost towards the war effort.

Interestingly enough, I managed to defend a small far-west neutral island for more than three-quarters of the game with a few LAVs and tanks, plus the help of a couple of death turrets.

At the midway point of the game I found myself with control over two large islands and a virtual cornucopia of cash. The only problem was, all the cash was at the southern-most parts of the map, far away from the action. It was at this point that I decided to amass a gigantic fleet of firestorms. I eventually ended up with well over a dozen and managed to decimate his entire fleet, and push northwards, to where my only real trouble-spot was.

Near the end of the game I lost my northern-most SA, but by then the battle was all but over - I had Ostriches, tanks, firestorms, LAVs and Annihilators charging from two different angles, with transports to back them up.

It was my first win on a large map, and perhaps that's colored my perceptions of the actual battle, but I thought it was a fantastic match and it absolutely sold me on this game.