Sorry about your misfortune Ro. From what I'm seeing lately, there's been a change in the game and TACTICS have become absolutely vital. Quality difference has become almost insignificant.
The forum seems to bear that out as well (all the rants about high quality teams being beaten by lower quality, and yet if you look close, those high quality teams in a majority of cases are using poor or inefficient tactics.
Maybe it's just my perception, though.