Hah ! I do that too.
In Front Office Football, if I’m playing ruthlessly, I always stockpile 1st Round draft picks – get a Top 5 pick, turn it into two future 1st Rounders from a bad-mediocre team, repeat ad infinitum. Within about a decade that one Top 5 pick has snowballed into a self-sustaining half-dozen 1st Rounders every year.
Of course, since that strategy can be a little too effective sometimes, I often play with house rules and forbid myself from making any trades that involve future draft picks.
for FPS games, i always quit playing when i die on non-boss fights. (i would prefer to include boss fights too but that tend to be not feasible. in a game designer’s world, superheroes who saves the world come with the ‘save and reload’ ability) i’ve found that adding ‘value’ to your HP that way makes the game more fun.
it works. you just need to remove the ‘no matter the cost’ part. try maintaining your borders when Australia has a 2 army head start on you.
Civ III:
I never start a war until I reach the Synthetic Fibers technology and can start whomping on opponents with modern armor.
I free all my slaves. When I capture workers or settlers, I always send them to join the population of some growing city.
I refuse to use any of the “New X” city names once I’ve gone through the game’s available list.
I never agree to Right of Passage treaties. Stay in your own damn yard.