Pick Your Teammate
Your first decision in playing a team game is how you will pick your teammate or teammates. There is two ways
to do this, pick up games, and playing with a set teammate such as a friend. The biggest advantage of playing
with friends or people you know is you can count on a certain standard of ability and support. When you play
with whichever person joins the game you really have no idea what you will get. Some people find this
exciting while other players are frustrated to find their teammate is not up to their level of skill. Generally
people have more fun playing with regular partners against strangers because they are able to develop and
master their teamwork over a span of games. But it's really up to you how you want to find or pick your
teammates.
Setup
Once the teams have been decided and the game started open up the allies
menu and check the right box to set your teammate as your ally. Also take note of their color so you will not be surprised when
you see them. Now open up the messages menu and click on allies only, or check the box for your teammate. After closing
it, re-open it again to make sure the changes took place.
Survey
Take note of your position in relation to your partners. Depending on how far you are apart you may have difficulty
in supporting each other in the case of a double attack. When you're quite far apart defensive Towers and
walling in becomes very important.
Planning
Next you plan your attack. Take note of your positions and the starting positions and plan out who is going to explore
which starting positions to check for the enemy. Discuss what you're overall plan is going to be, early attack,
build up the tech tree, rush, build up to Mages, then alter your strategy as the game goes on depending on what
the enemy is doing.
Coordinate Attacks
Team games are about teaming up not just not fighting a certain person in the game while fighting everyone else. Make
plans to gather your forces together and attack certain targets. Often troop coordination and attack is a decisive factor
in team games. If you're not going to be using all of your collective units to attack the same enemy, coordinate your
separate attacks on the separate enemies so they are unable to provide reinforcements to each other.
Communication is Key
Communication is very important in team games. We are not all mind readers. When you're under attack by the enemy
let your teammate know about it, let your teammate know when the enemy is doing something because there is the possibility
they did not see it because their focus was elsewhere. When you see the enemy has certain buildings that allow for certain
units, are taking a new expansion mine, look weak, have build up specific units, let your teammate known about it just
in case they didn't notice.
Let your teammate know when you need help. It's very unfortunate to
see a teammate die when all they had to do was ask for help. Make sure you are clear about which expansion mines and
islands you are taking so you and your partner do not try to build at the same one.
Announce Attacks
If you are being attacked, inform your teammate immediately. This can
do two things. Allow your teammates to come save you, or inform them
the enemy has all their units at your village so it's time to go attack
that enemy's village.
Give your team info. Give the team all the info you know within reason.
Such as, Blue is building another shipyard, top left. Red has a new town
bottom left. Things like that must be told.
Don't Rely On Your Teammates For All Information
Teammates will not always let you know what they or the enemy is up to. If you see your teammate is lacking
in recon, step in and do the recon yourself.
Specialization Can Sometimes Be Deadly
When building everything, play as though each of you are the only
player there. With new players it's common to see them say something like: "you build the land troops, I'll
play the sea troops". If both teammates started in the same time such as on Friend this might be an option but on
any map where you and your teammate are separated there is the chance your teammate will not be able to reach you
to save you in time when you are attacked. In situations like that you do not want to have a bunch of Archers when
the enemy is attacking with Footmen even though your Archers would work well with your teammates Footmen (if they
were around). The exception to this is when the enemy is at a lower skill level which will allow you to get
away with much more as they will not be as offensive and will not resource as quickly. On water maps because
there is more control over invasions specialization can be effective such as one player invades while
the other builds all ships.
If You Attack Them, You Attack Me!
Help your teammate as if they are yourself. Don't be cheap when sending reinforcements to your enemy
holding back because you want to save them for yourself. If your teammate dies quite often that leaves two or more
enemies to focus their attention on you. It's better to have your ally alive to draw off the units, attacks and
attention of the enemy even if they do not have much to work with.
Gang Up On the good Players!
If you know that someone is a good player or that one player is
better than the other, then you should focus both or all you forces and attacks on the
good player first before they can build up. Generally good players become better as the tech tree advances and it
becomes harder to stop them as the game progresses. With these players it's best to gang up on them, finish them off
then head on to the enemy with the weaker skill level. Sometimes it's easy to tell which is the most powerful or
better player while other times you can fall back on past player game history.
Try Not to Share Mines
An early newbie team belief is that two players starting and building together can build a safer city. While this
can sometimes be the case, what usually happens is two players quickly drain the resources much faster than one and
are forced to move out of their defensive fort for another mine. This is more of the case on maps with smaller mines
such as less than 60k. Another problem with building together is that the enemy knows exactly where to hit to
defeat you. A common game ending blow in Friends which both players start at the same mine is to Blizzard the enemy
Peasants. When a Blizzard is cast on Peasants mining the Gold Mine, both players lose all of their resource gathering
operations. Your are less likely to have your whole team beat down in one move when you're gathering from separate locations.
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All these Peasants in the same place makes for an easy target. While Towers and a Mage can provide
some defense the enemy can probably use Invisibility or sneak Hasted Death Knights in for
a Death and Decay.
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Have a Clue
The worst teammates are those that don't have a clue what is going on in the game. They just sit in their
village building and resource gathering ignorant about what is going on in the game around them. It is your responsibility
to either ask what the enemy and your teammates are doing, or go see for yourself with flyers or whatever.
Don't be those players that are living in the dark. They are the worst teammates you can have. A good teammate
knows what is going on and what to do about it.
Use Follow
Use the follow feature to keep up with your teammate when doing a
joint attack. select all you units then right click on a teammate's unit.
It is important to tell your teammate that you are following so they will make sure no one falls off the train.
Make sure you tell your partner that your units are following theirs and not to
stop at all because your guys will stop too and will stop following.
Orcs and Humans Are a Great Combo
While two Orc players on land maps are very powerful bringing a Human player
in instead can be a great combo because you will have all units and strategies
available. One player may provide support with Bloodlusted Ogres while the other sneaks
in and Blizzards with invisible Mages. The Human player can also Heal the Ogres during battle.
Orcs and Humans teammates are especially valuable on water maps for Invisible Transports and attacks while
also having Bloodlust to power your way onto an island.
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Orc and Human teammates attack.
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Teammate Battleship Control
Combining your ships in attacks is what often wins on water maps. It's very important to group your Battleships together
and to divide targets between yourself prioritizing them for the maximum effectiveness. A Battleship usually requires
two hits to kill so the entire team firing at the same enemy Battleship will be overkill. Before a battle divide up
your targets between you so you be only firing 2 shots at each enemy ship. Proper team control and communication can
allow a team to win battles even when severely outnumbered.
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The Battleships of 8 players clash in Fierce Ocean Combat
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Proper Battleship control and communication turns the tide of the battle.
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Rather Than Defend Go Attack
Most of the time, it is better to attack the home town of the enemy
attacking your teammate rather than sending troops helping your teammate out. If you go help your
teammate the best result is that all the attacking forces will be repulsed and killed. The enemy will have done
some damage while you will have not really done any damage back to them. An exception is that a counter strike
will overpower them after losing so many units. If however you attack the enemy while their army is away, you will often
find they will have little to no defenses at their town allowing you to do little to severe damage while their forces
are away. If you begin damaging the enemy town, the offensive enemy forces attacking your teammate may withdrawal, even if
winning, to come back to defend their town which will allow you in effect to save your teammates down without actually
going there to defend it.
Attack All Enemies Equally
Don't leave an enemy untouched. If you spend all your time on one
enemy, the enemy's teammate may become too tough to handle.
Stay With Your Teammate Until You Are Eliminated
Don't just leave the game when you start to lose. By doing this you are stabbing your teammate in the back and
turning your back on your teammate. Help your teammate till the end. Even if the only thing you can do is use
your Flying Machine to scout for your teammate. If you have no units left to control and just buildings
then it's ok to leave the game if your teammate feels you can no longer do anything to help them
but otherwise stay in the game. You might still be a help to your teammate and that is all that counts.
If it is possible for your teammate to still win then it is possible for you to win.
Do you want to miss a win?
When you are going down and you still have some Gold and Lumber left, don't
waste it on Footmen/Knights. Instead send your Peasant in your teammate's city and have
fun! You can wall in their Barracks, Towers, Peons, Farms, whatever. You can
repair any buildings damaged instead of having your teammate take his
Peasants off work. You can do a lot of useful stuff. But remember to use
this only if you are going down for sure because you might be a lot better
help if you build another Town Hall somewhere rebuild your town.
Hide a Peon/peasant in your teammates town before you are
eliminated. That way you can still stay in the game and watch and
rat out the enemy to your teammate with your Flying Machines if you have
them. Your teammate needs all the help they can get. This will also confuse the
enemy making them wonder if you're really out of the picture.
Strategy is often fairly simple, team up and attack
one of the enemy players, finish them off, then move on to the remaining one.
Sometimes both of them invade you early, so it's important that you walled in, and you hold them off while your teammate
kills both of their groups of Peasants or at least comes to save you.
Generally there are 2 positions open when playing 8 player maps. Often each team
fights over the two open mines as well as any expansion mines that are around. Walling in the town is
a must to fight off possible attacks from all 3 players at once except on water maps.
4 player games can become very complicated. With 4 players on a team, it can be hard to
effectively organize to attack and defend as a team. It's important to pick a leader and to
work together to attack and defend each other.
A real danger in 8 player games is having all 4 enemy players attack you at the same time. When this
happens it's important to have your allies come to your defense, to escape to rebuild elsewhere or have the remaining
allies go attack the other 4 enemy players while they are away from their town.
Resources are often lacking in 8 player games as there are usually not enough expansion mines to go around. Work as a team
to secure and defend additional resources as this is often how team games are decided.
