I am miles away from Booty-Master, batting maybe .500 since the beginning of my days.  However since most of those matches were against the game's own developers and producers (and Sven, who is just always playing!), I tell myself I'm doing okay. 

Anyway this is a little premature since none of you have had much of a chance to dig in, but just so you can benefit from my beatings when you finally can:

1) Know Thy Maps. 

    Scrolling though the large # of maps can make them seem indistinct, but the way you play each of them can vary a LOT depending on size and # of towns.  A small map with a large number of towns, for instance, might mean you should go for guns, since you are going to run into opponents more often.  A small map with a small # of towns means you should upgrade speed first, since it might be a bit of a mad dash to try and win before the other guy knows what even hit him. 

    Similarly some maps will have what I call (from my days in organic chemistry classes) "the limiting reagent."  Often times one particular resource will be in relatively short supply, so controlling the one town that has it can be key to upgrading.  At the same time (again depending on number of total towns on the map),  maybe you can just skip trying to control that one town and try and steal enough smaller towns to win anyway.  It's a delicate balance, but you can have some idea what to look out for right away if you take the time to look closer at the map variables and at least avoid getting blown out right away. 

Maybe this stuff will be obvious once you're playing, but it took me a while to catch the hang of it, so hopefully there are at least a few other dummies out there that can benefit

best,

Seth

Sounds Intresting can't wait to try the game

I'm not the best at RTS games but I can't wait to try this out on XBLA.

Communication would be better if in Player Matches, I didn't get matched with people saying "I'm jus' gonna go around and blow up their ships," and never doing anything else. Bugging the crap out of the enemy is a good tactic, though.

Naw, I'd love to though. If that's the way you play, that's cool.

It's hard to tell people that I'm trying to be a resource-gatherer when I all I hear is "D00d, help me take this town." Kinda far away, buddy, getting the rum you need.

I'm surprised I haven't played with complete noobs yet. Good to see people using the tutorial.