I'm not what you would call a "good" Akihiko player, but you suffer from the same thing I do, you respect people too much, by that I mean you let that Chie player slap DP too many times. I do it myself a lot because I think "he surely wouldn't want to eat a fatal combo," but I just recommend playing more patiently, which is very hard when playing Akihiko because it takes away from the momentum.