Thought I'd add my view.
I am extremely passionate and enthuisastic about FoE. Only been playing it 2 weeks and admittedly I've spent around £250 on the game in diamonds because I want to be good - I want to be amongst the best - I know for that I have to speed the game up a little. I'm already ranked at 800 with 31,000 points. When a new server/world comes out I will be absolutely delighted - I will be able to start on par with everyone else with no-one having any advantages and I'll be able to see really how good I am.
Regarding the new replay screen. I'm actually a rubbish player. So I'll never be good. Money wasted and could be spent on better things, oh well. That's just me, none of us are perfect and yep, some of us are stupid. Moving on. I usually always use AI. Yep, the AI is rubbish, but in fact with the new instant result thing it is actually rather good. I've lost only one or two units quite often against tough opposite where I KNOW for a fact I would have lost half my army at least because all the opposition gang up on a particular unit and kill him, and so on for another 4 units until they (the oppositon) are all dead.
You want to watch my replays, go ahead. You'll be watching the AI mate, not me.
For those of you who use your own "strategy" what's so private about it? There are 41,000 people in FoE, do you not think someone, somewhere uses the same strategy as you? I agree with half the people on here who are saying that people are just resisting change. Because they know they are good and "kill it" and now they won't be "killing it" as much. Oh diddums.
Yes it does help the newbies and you know what it's a good idea too, because newbies may be more inclined to stay and the game will grow. So what if the long standijng members don't like it - they can leave then. As the newbies stay and become the new long standing members, others will join and so on. The long standing people are only annoyed because they are resisting it - newbies will have nothing to grumble about as they will not know any different. So go ahead, all leave. It won't bother me. I'm not gonna sit here and say the game will die out because some of the newbies will eventually become experienced and replace you anyway.
Ok that's that, now as for the "strategy". Who cares if someone copies you? Do you really think people are gonna be that bothered and sit there for 30 likely minutes and actually write down (as if they can remember every move for a 30 minute battle) everything you do and analyse it like a retard? Don't be silly. People always copy and so what if they do? It's not YOUR strategy, you don't own it, and people will figure it out anyway. It's like patents and something that you're good at, maybe football or standing on your hands. Other people will be able to do it too, given time and all that jazz.
The fact of the matter is, in my opinion it definitely adds to the game. I've always wanted to know how my own defence actually performs. I've always wanted to be able to see just what gets put against me, sometimes I am like ok so you beat me, and how did you do that? It's a learning curve, you learn from experience, this game is all about experience and learning. So just because some of you don't like the fact that others can learn from you - well go somewhere else. As passionate as I am, and as much as I would HATE for this game to die out - it's just not going to. So leave, if it upsets you that much. Go on, put all your hard work, time passion in the bin. Otherwise, stop moaning for something that actually helps newbies. Give them a chance. Not everyone is bothered about strategy anyway - as I said - I use the AI (even though it's rubbish) and some people just play it for pure fun because they are bored. Not everyone will take it seriously. So if you were try and derive a percentage that would actually bother copying you and trying to become a "you", it will probably be, maybe 5%? Anyway, that's my two penneth.
