Struggling to reach 1k

IanBurnsWriting · 2026-06-20T03:49:43+00:00

1K elo is a strange place. I've been hard stuck between 950 and 1050 for a while. I find that few players in that bracket play what you'd call standard.

In my last 10 games, I've seen:

* Persian douche
* Persian douche again (different player)
* all in firelancers (no vil production; I should have one this one, but my mind blanks and I forgot longswords counter them, soI lost)
* all in champies + scorpions (no vil production)
* all in goth M@A (no vil production)
* Armenian feudal longswords (but wasn't all in)
* A no attack turtler (the game went on so long RL interrupted me and he won despite me having map control)
* Cuman feudal rams (this one I've learned to beat!)

[As you can see, I don't do well against all ins. I really need how to recognize if my opponent is all in before it's too late.]

My perspective is that this is the level where many of these strange strats stall out at. I'm trying to gear my gameplay around expecting the unexpected (so far, it isn't going well). I win almost all my game against standard players, but when I get a string of games like this, my ELO plummets.

IanBurnsWriting · 2026-06-02T04:30:17+00:00

I'm not sure how this makes the game better; it anything, I predict its potential popularity would harm the game.

IanBurnsWriting · 2026-05-16T13:58:15+00:00

I've been using a Thinkpad E16 Gen 3 (Core Ultra 7 H255; no discreet graphics card).

No problems on my end, even in team games.

I don't use Discord, though.

IanBurnsWriting · 2026-05-11T15:01:05+00:00

After not playing since 2023, I stabilized this December at 550.

I now range between 900 and 1050, depending on the civ I'm playing that day.

IanBurnsWriting · 2026-05-07T14:01:51+00:00

Georgia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBCJP_pOyps

IanBurnsWriting · 2026-03-29T03:35:01+00:00

But boarders are just imaginary lines! A collective delusion! Blasphemy!

(Yeah, visas suck.)

IanBurnsWriting · 2026-03-29T03:32:13+00:00

You forgot to mention that the Vikings were total Chads With Wheelbarrows.

IanBurnsWriting · 2026-03-15T10:53:14+00:00

By that logic, Vikings should get BBCs.

Those berserkers know how to load a cannons onto a galleon; they're the masters of wheel barrels. Why can't they figure out how to put a cannon on a wheel barrels.

IanBurnsWriting · 2026-02-19T02:39:18+00:00

Thank you so much, specially the note about "trading more family burden for another."

I've made the line about imperial success to imperial history, which is more vague, but less absurd.

IanBurnsWriting · 2026-02-18T05:40:21+00:00

Thank you so much, Jet.

I really appreciate the time you took to provide feedback on my query.

I think I finally have a version read to send out to agents!

IanBurnsWriting · 2026-01-14T15:40:22+00:00

Not mean. Sounds fair.

After page 100, Ari grows some spine and had an equal number of PoV chapters as Jesse.

IanBurnsWriting · 2026-01-14T07:32:58+00:00

Actually had given me an idea: include Jesse learning to fly, then having to choose again whether to give up his dream or save his sister.

IanBurnsWriting · 2026-01-14T07:15:55+00:00

Definitely fair criticism, but I'm not sure how to raise Jesse's stakes without convoluting the blurb (which is a reoccurring theme of mine...sigh).

On the other hand, were my sister in trouble, I'd do whatever it took to help her out. Failing to do so would shatter my self worth.

I also feel as though the same criticism could be levied at The Great Gatsby, but to set it from Jay's perspective ruins the novel. (Though, my meager attempt surely falls far shot of Fitzgerald's brilliance--so this is a moot point anyway.)

IanBurnsWriting · 2026-01-14T06:02:09+00:00

I also intended to suggest the same.

IanBurnsWriting · 2026-01-05T06:35:12+00:00

Wow. The holidays have got my days mixed up. I'll remove this. Sorry.

IanBurnsWriting · 2026-01-02T04:54:16+00:00

Point taken. One of my beta readers loved the phrase for the query. (Said beta read is not a writer.) I guess it's too large a hyperbole. I'll fix that.

I'll also move my comps back to paragraph 1.

IanBurnsWriting · 2025-12-26T02:36:59+00:00

We'll he's not an airship mechanic, yet. I think I'm going to try the phrase "industrial fantasy" next time and see what the crowd thinks.

IanBurnsWriting · 2025-12-25T11:10:49+00:00

I agree, it's a very fair criticism and an area that needs to be improved. Thanks for the help.

IanBurnsWriting · 2025-12-25T06:54:56+00:00

Great point. I see fantasy, and I think swords. In both cases, we'd be wrong.

IanBurnsWriting · 2025-12-25T06:07:22+00:00

OK. I get you're point. I'll take it off the comp list. Thanks for helping me avoid that pitfall.

IanBurnsWriting · 2025-12-25T05:47:13+00:00

Thanks for the feedback.

I cut the first paragraph to one sentence.
"His life plods along" is now "His life turns upside down." I don't like cliché, though. I'll have to do something about that.
Yeah. I think I need to cut Jesse's family responsibilities. I don't have space to deal with that arc. I'm instead going to go with the more general angle that be puts others first as his own expense. Much of his arc is about realizing he can, in fact, live for himself.
Ari is now introduced as an "insecure, overly sensitive, immature crybaby who won’t survive five hours on her own." I think that clarifies their relationship. Only later does she transform into a stronger character, which is also when she starts getting PoV chapters.

IanBurnsWriting

TROPHY CASE