C.1  Five of my own ranked games from this summer, three wins and two losses, written up the way the Army writes up an exercise: what was supposed to happen, what happened, and what to do differently. I picked them because I learned something from each one, not because I look good in them. I asked each of my opponents before putting their handle up here, and they all said yes, and two of them want it known that they'd like a rematch.

C.2  I don't name the maps. The regulars on the Boneyards will know them from the description, and everybody else should be learning the principle, not the map.

99-21 · 99-24 · 99-27 · 99-30 · 99-32

What happened. My scout Peewee walked up on his base at about two minutes and saw a Kbot Lab and no extractors past his first two. That's a rush. I stopped the Commander's list where it was, put down two light laser towers on the path in, and switched the lab to Peewees only. Eleven AKs came in a little after the four-minute mark. The towers and the Commander handled most of them, and my Peewees cleaned up the rest. I lost one tower.

Then I did the most important thing in the game: I sent both Construction Kbots out to reclaim the wrecks. That was nearly a factory's worth of metal sitting in my front yard. While he was rebuilding, I got my Vehicle Plant up and started sending Flashes around the south side of the map at his outer extractors. He resigned a little before the half hour.

Lessons. Scout early, every game. A failed rush is a gift if you pick it up.

What happened. I went with my sea opening (Annex B-3) and for the first fifteen minutes it went great. I had the water. I had every shoreline patch on my side and two on his. My destroyers were sitting off his island and I thought I was about to win.

Vorpal had not built one ship. He had built two Aircraft Plants, and around the eighteen-minute mark a wave of Thunders came over the water and sank my shipyard and half my fleet in one pass. I had built exactly zero anti-air on the water. The second wave took out my tidal generators. I spent the last fifteen minutes trying to catch up and never did.

Lessons. Scouting isn't something you do once at the start. I never sent a second scout to look at his island, and if I had I'd have seen the planes coming. Also: Section 4.5. I wrote it. I should read it.

What happened. On a metal world you can put an extractor almost anywhere, and each one gives a little, so the opening is a race to cover the ground with them. Tarnhelm is a turtle. Neither of us attacked for the first twenty minutes. By minute thirty-five we each had a huge economy, a line of Guardians and Punishers across the middle, and armies that couldn't get through.

This is the one time I've been glad I built a Big Bertha. I put it up behind my line at about forty minutes, with a pile of fusion behind it to feed it, and started shelling his fusion reactors. He built an Intimidator to answer it, and while he did, I built up a group of Brawlers and went for his Intimidator before it was finished. After that it was a matter of time. It was quarter to one in the morning by the end. Julie was not impressed.

Lessons. The big guns are for standoffs, and only once your economy can pay for them (Annex A, A.11). Hit the other guy's big gun while it's still being built.

What happened. Same desert as 99-21. A good, even game for half an hour. We traded raids, I had a few more extractors than he did, and I was getting ready to push with Bulldogs and Zeuses. I noticed his army had gotten smaller and I thought that meant I was winning.

It meant he was saving up. The Krogoth came over the ridge at about thirty-eight minutes, and I did everything I tell you not to do in Annex A: I fed it my army a handful at a time, I tried to hold it with towers, and I never once sent anything at his base while it was walking. It got to my Commander at forty-seven minutes.

Lessons. When his army gets smaller and his economy doesn't, he's building something. Go look. If it's a Krogoth, go hit his base while the thing is slow-walking to yours.

What happened. First game I'd played in nearly a week, because of the storm. Kodiak wanted his rematch from 99-21 and picked the same island map where I'd been sunk in 99-24, which tells you he reads this page.

This time I opened with an Aircraft Plant right after the Shipyard, sent a Peeper over his island every few minutes, and put missile towers on both ends of my island before I'd built a single destroyer. Sure enough, he went air. His first wave of Shadows came in around fourteen minutes and ran into the towers and a squadron of Freedom Fighters. After that the water was mine. My destroyers sat off his shore and took his tidal generators one at a time, and he typed "gg" at thirty-one minutes.

Lessons. The lesson from 99-24 was right. It just took me seven weeks to use it.