Hi friend,

There is a lot you can go into here. Lost in what context ? Was your military out produced? Did they create the better composition of unites (counters etc)? Did you have pressure ? Did you eco suffer with villager production by comparison?

Generally speaking depending on the civ you select your strategy can be different.

I often play quite aggressive on arena. The walls themselves aren't that much protection and not having some military pressuring or defending in early castle can snowball the game.

If you had four relics that would mean you most likely had map control. If that was the case you could of expanded your military buildings closer to your opponents base. You could pressure with a castle or siege to force a response.

You can take a look to see what units they're creating and prepare the counter. Or better since you have forward control you can suprise them with the units you create.