I recently came to know the game, and really liked it. So i started reading about the different strategies, and started playing.
It took me a couple of games to figure it out how the attack/defense more complicated cases were ruled, and sometimes i missed some phase because of browser problems, but that is ok, i was learning.
Now, the problem is that i can't find a place to play. I explain myself.
If I go into games with not anonymous players, it happens each and every time that the other players look at the experience of everyone, and the 2 or 3 more experienced automatically ally together before the first phase. It is not metagaming per se, but if the other 4 or 5 does not ally themselves, they are doomed. And each and every time, the other players do not realize this before is too late, or at all.
So the very fact of being new means you will lose. And there is nothing you can do about it, except to play in an all noobs game, but you can not select a game with that constrains. No matter if you are a good or a bad player.
An example: last game, i got germany. On the very first move, i had russiasending moscow and warsow after me and moving his fleet to take sweden, england going through norwegian sea for norway and on north sea to then convoy an army to belgium, and france goin burgandy to then attack munich.
No matter how good a player you are, there is no way for you to stay in the game. No way. And all i did was beign a top 35% while they 3 were top 20 at worst. It is not metagaming, but.....

What about playing Anonymous games? Well, let's say i really tried, but all i had was 70 per cent of those games canceled because of some obvious metagaming, even twice i was in games canceled because of clearly rigged games -multiaccounting-. I even got a private message from a player answering a question i did to another player... and then an oooops.

Really, if thereis not some way in which we can make some kind of open games only for players on the same percentile, the classism will keep the really interested new guys out of the system, because there is no way to stay in the game. The only new player to keep on playing will be the ones that have no interest whatsoever in strategy, in the game, and just want some quick fight.... which it is ok to lose.

Please let me know if any of the old timers have an idea for a way out of this vicious circle in which the new players are picked to lose, and because of that they drop in percentages, and because of that they are picked to lose, and on and on....