Well that will teach me...

[Walter R]

I decided I was due a breather from tough intensive games, so I elected to play at Prince for the current one; only so far it's been tougher than many King games I've played! (England, standard, Terra)
I've got that nice gentleman from Greece as my next-door neighbour, a surprisingly rampant Ethiopian runaway (never seen Haile so aggressive), Cathy and Harun kicking lumps out of each other and a surprisingly docile Boud. William is a weak near-neighbour and Haile dispatched someone before I had the chance to meet them.
I've just reached Renaisance, couple of turns behind Haile, and spent almost the whole game repelling Alex's aborted invasion efforts, whilst trying to stop Haile converting my cities...and I have to say it's been great so far, really enjoyable, but not at all what I was expecting (i.e. comfy snoozefest wonderwhoring etc.)

So the next time I feel like a lazy game I think I'll play on Settler!

 

[4N4C0ND4]

I'm an usual immortal/deity player.

Last time I played a GOTM on king (I think), I lost my capital to Nappy on turn 70!
Never happened to me on any game ever
Since you are not allowed to reload in GOTM, I swallowed and finally got it back on turn 100 or so. 2 pop cap at this time with no NC

Conclusion: when you play bellow your lvl, you can really be surprised since you underestimate AI a bit too much...

 

[Walter R]

Ouch! Losing your capital must have made it really tough, you're a better man than me to continue the game.

Your point about underestimating the AI is spot on I think - I'd been messing about too much in the very early game (I built Stonehenge for instance, Doh!), but once I woke up to the fact that it wasn't going to be a total stroll I got my act together and started playing more seriously!

 

[4N4C0ND4]

Once you have played many "normal" games, it actually feel like fresh air to have uncommon actions like that happening. Games of the month are a very nice thing for that, since you are not allowed to reload. And reading to what the best players do is very good way to improve himself. You should give it a try, there is 2 games a month, one between settler and king IIRC and the other one emperor and beyond.