I made the mistake of playing rated games when I first started and had built my deck horribly wrong, so, I have a low rating and am only a seargent although I can man-handle most people I play against now.
You may find that you may get dissatisfied, I had a lvl 28 Dutch deck, and a lvl 32 french, but, I realised I had messed them up horrible, so, I restarted my Dutch and just got up to 19 last night, except I made it much, much, better then I previously had.
Also, single player doesn't teach you anything about creating a good deck, in-fact, I think its counter-intuitive. Single player will have you making a deck that get stomped by most players.
My rating is only 1500+ but, I know I'm better then that.
When Rise of Nations first came out, I was one of the TOP players, playing with the likes of Mist, The Good Evil, and a couple other people that I don't remember. Thats why my account here is so old .I dunno what they are all doing now, but, I'm starting to finally get used to playing, and as soon as I level my deck, I'm sure I'll do great.
Key things to remember :
Scout : Nothing can help you counter your enemy better then knowing what he is making.Micro : You have to be able to micro quite well, nothing will help you in the long term better then out-microing your opponet. If you just send your soldiers into battle they will just recklessly shoot whoever is there, whereas if you personally aim their shot, a person dies, which means 1 less person attacking your troops, which means, they are putting out less damage then they would if said soldier was still helping the attack. Don't overdo it though, there is no reason to have 20+ soldiers attack one single guy as, the first 10 will kill him and the other shots are wasted."Macro" : You gotta keep functioning while you fight/explore, if you aren't properly using your resources, you could easily loss to a person that you may have 10000+ more resources then, because, if he spent his on soldiers and improvements whislt you were fighting he has the advantage, and now, you have to try and recover. This doesn't mean waste resources, but, try and keep production/upgrading going well into the game. Also, Don't forget to keep making settlers cuz, if you don't have those little fellows then you have no economy.Explore : An idle explorer is a wasted explorer. Try and keep him out and about, finding treasures, and scouting as a whole. Do try and keep him alive thouh . In the beginning of the game it is essential, while, in the latter part of the game he becomes negligable.Wow, I ramble alot.
[This message has been edited by TravisJ (edited 09-21-2006 @ 03:37 PM).]