The SoC Training Academy and its Training Grounds provide basic training for new and old members looking to enhance their game strategy. "Train a Cook today, lose to a Sergeant tomorrow"
We usually wind up playing pointless (sic) games with each other. It's better now that it isn't 1 v 1 with a deadbeat. Most recruits are still deadbeats. So, still a problem.
I say, create the game, invite some guides, then have us wait until a recruit comes along and plug him into a game that's ready to go. If a guide drops before a recruit comes along, have a way to invite another guide so there is always a game with exactly one empty slot waiting for the recruit.
Can I make a suggestion - don't put 2 newbies in the same game...
In all the games I've started the newbie was dead-beating without playing a turn. Then I finally got a guy play his opening turn, but the next guy was another newb who deadbeated and by the time it got back to the first guy he seems to have lost interest too...