I joined my first speed event; World at War 100 player map, x4 speed. I joined with a couple of mates from sister alliances (none of which I had actually played with before), when one of us picked the wrong game trying to be the first to join the next 100 player map that opened.

It was intense; the pace of the game was incredible! We realized quickly the pace of the game would necessitate a high amount of activity. We all had high command and had the added advantage of having partners join the game so didn't need to spend the time looking for them in game, when time was a premium. The speed rounds really exacerbate the difference between skilled and unskilled players, committed and those that check in two or three times a day, and those with the premium account. The queueing was invaluable. I've always thought the premium accounts were just to make things easier to manage and not over-powered, but in this situation, it really shined. I've wrecked players before in three or four hours, but this game I found myself doing it in less than an hour.

It really was an absolute KD harvest. I think my rate went up a full point. I had a personal best of only losing one armored car the entire game. One thing that appeared to accelerate this was the pace players go inactive. I expected to see it in the newspaper at the beginning of the fourth game day as usual, but the speed events must follow the two real world days before a player goes inactive, so the soonest the AIs started taking over was day 8 or 9. I finished with 970 victory points myself and only took on four players who put up a fight.

We realized, that with a day change occurring every four hours, if we slept a normal eight hours at night, we'd miss over an entire day. I don't think I slept more than four hours at a time the entire game. I would drink lots of water before going to bed just so I would need to get up and go to the bathroom several times and check in on the game on my phone.

The speed of the game really didn't allow for testing new strategies. I did however totally omit use of planes. I rarely use planes anyway when I play Comintern, but with the pace of the game I didn't want to worry about building airstrips everywhere.

One of the other players messaged me at the end asking if we used gold. I just explained our alliances all have a no first use policy on gold, and we didn't see any used so didn't use any. I explained the advantages we had and he admitted he only checked in a few times a day and understood how that would allow him to fall so far behind.

Now that the game is over, I need some sleep. I think I owe my wife some flowers too.

Has anyone else tried the speed events. What was your experience?

You are absolutely right; the "days" are six hours not four. You can tell I was a little sleep deprived after finishing the game.

The other point I intended to make last night, but failed to, was the benefit of the fire control with the premium account. Most nights when I went to bed, I was able to invade a neighbor who I thought was offline. I just put everything on offensive fire control, and it will bombard when it gets in range. I did this on two nights, worked like a charm.

We were able to finish the game by day change going into the 15th day. My average on that map is 14-16 days so we kept in it that range even with missing a "day" to sleep for every real-life day.

I always advise new players to think of the game as a marathon, not a sprint. To someone accustomed to the normal pace of the game, this felt like a sprint!

Yeah, the forlorn hope unit is a good trick. But it doesn't totally prevent the main stack from bombarding. I know when I'm clearing away multiple units with bombardment, it will clear away one gimped unit, then do a one-minute count down before bombarding the next. I don't know the exact rules for this, but should probably find out.

Another thing I forgot to add is the newspaper. Wow, that first day it was impossible to do opposition research. Every time I'd open it and try to scroll down, it would refresh because something happened and take me back to the top again. They really need to do something about that.

I'm glad the game ended when it did, I don't think I could have gone another day without sleep. Today I'm trying to return my caffeine intake to a normal amount.

We started in Asia and the Middle East, the team was Nat China, N and S India, Saudi, and I was Pakistan. Starting in that general geographical location made sense because everyone had different doctrine preferences. I went for Afghan, then Persia before attacking north. I took everything in Russia west of Siberia, then went into Scandanavia and Egypt at the same time. From Egypt I exploded West and South while my partners attacked in Algeria and South-Eastern coast.