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Principles of Teamwork by Lightening_CN

Introduction

A team is like a chain, it is only as strong as it's weakest link; if one of them breaks, the entire chain will collapse. Teamwork in RTS is personally my favourite aspect of the game, because it is, without a doubt in my mind, the biggest test of adaptability and intelligence in Age of Kings. Although my article mostly deals with team strategy in AoK, the basic notions can be applied to any strategy game.

People must realize that team games are much more than multiple 1on1 contests, in fact, it is because of the added dimension teamwork brings to the table that I have played the majority of my games over the years in teams ( less fame, but more fun ! ).

Disclaimer!

Much of this guide incorporates the ideas and recorded games of other players than myself; I do not take credit for inventing or even being influential in the development of any of the strategies described here. This being said, it is however the result of hours of my own work and does explain teamwork in a broader scope which I think makes it more useful than several of the other articles mentioned.

The Double Team - Specializing units and economies

The most basic use of teamwork, double teaming, consists of aiding a certain player with an attack on the enemy he has engaged in combat with. Although executing a simple double team might be easy, getting it down to near perfection is something very few have done in the past.

Use of the double team is rare before the Imperial Age, but it can prove to be very useful in Castle under certain circumstances. Especially, when dealing with a few enemy combos or civs that are hard to counter alone; Aztecs for example. Against them, you can often expect to see the Pike and Eagle Warrior combo. The best counter to this is Archers and Knights, but it is quite hard for one player to mass both of these units and upgrade them, because of the gold cost. If both players work together and each produce one of those units, they can easily win against any Aztec combo. Using siege in a double team is also a good idea, it allows to do permanent damage to an opponent as opposed to raiding which simply forces an enemy to garrison his villagers. They key to a good double team is speed; don't give the other team time to group up or react in whatever manner to the double.

It's truly in Imperial though that unit combinations become a vital part of military success. The logic behind the importance of very specialized unit combos ( only 1 type of unit per player ) is simple. While other players working individually will need to research many upgrades and use all kinds of resources, your team will be able to get better units faster, you'll be spending less resources and pick up spare ress from your ally if the combo permits. If one player goes archery and the other goes stable ( basic Imp specialized combo ), odds are the stable player will have much wood to spare and the archery player will have much food to give. For this to be effective though, teamwork needs to be excellent. If one player doesn't pay attention, both will die almost certainly. Communication is key ( more on communicating later on).

Forward building

A less risky tactic that I have been using is having my ally build some forward buildings on my base and make his unit, while I do the same at his base, this is safe as it doesn't leave a player vulnerable to enemy attack but hard because players need to manage two fronts.

Demonstration Game - The Shadow Guild : Teamwork

The best use of this I ever saw and in fact where I picked it up from was with the Shadowguild, a team that excelled not because of individual skills but because of team skills. If you look at their roster, there were probably only two top 5 players, yet no one could beat them as a team, even when the weaker 1v1 players were playing. They wrote an excellent article on teamwork that I recommend to everyone (if you can find it, because I can't).

It's good to have an efficient double team, but you'll most certainly have to face them on your side, so how exactly do you go about doing countering a double ? Most people have it wrong...

Playing Pocket

Being the pocket, especially in 3v3 is a very important role. Not only is the pocket usually the leader of the team in terms of strategic decisions, but he must also skilfully coordinate attack and defence with his flanks. The middle man can possibly decide the outcome of a game if he has good judgement, DaRq_Apostate_ was pretty much right when he claimed the number one cause of losing a team game was having a bad pocket.

As a pocket player, you must always be aware of how your flanks are doing and thinking for the entire team: never concentrate on simply killing your single opponent.

The biggest mistake in teamwork : Reaction to the double team - When your ally is doubled, DON'T automatically go help him
With all the defensive capabilities AoC has to offer, you'd think this one wouldn't be as frequent, but it is. I've seen it time and time again and can't believe how clueless most people are about this. The usual scenario is basically player A being raided by enemy player C while fighting enemy player D.

Most of the time, pocket player B will rush knights to his ally immediately, only to find the damage already done or the raiding armies gone. In imperial, when two huge armies engage in battle against a defending player, it is a similar scenario but unless one of enemies have a big advantage the doubled player can usually hold longer while players engage in treb warfare. The pocket will once again come to aid his ally, and in many cases it won't make a big difference.

What the pocket needs to do is go hit either his man or another enemy. Double teams must be done offensively, so 2 players will be mostly unprotected at home. This provides a very interesting opportunity for the pocket to do some serious damage to players. As this is happening, The other advantage has to do with general control of the game. If your team is always the one reacting to the other, the chances of winning are considerably lower than if you dictate the tempo of the game. By not playing cat and mouse with the raiding double or following the enemy's troop movements in imp, you are creating your own tempo that the enemies will need to adjust to.

Demonstration Game - The Ram Express Buster

Crexis had claimed his strategy was unbeatable. The ram express was a team strategy where one player forward built a siege workshop and produced rams while his ally would make knights and monks. I think a big reason it had so much success was that no one even tried countering it using appropriate teamwork. Here is a great game where Siu_Lo_Bo and Siu_La_Ba make countering the ram express look easy.

Recorded Game this is an old AoK game and wont work with the TC expansion or the 1.0c patch

The pocket and control of the game

I mentioned the tempo of the game earlier on; it's very important to gain some momentum and the best way to do that is by having an aggressive pocket. In no cases should the player in the pocket position be playing what is referred to as "sim city", i.e. expanding for a good 30 minutes before being of any military use.

Always keep the enemy flanks on their toes and force them to invest in protecting from you raids and even more importantly, do the same to the enemy pocket, preventing him from being able to raid your own flanks.

Team Strategy

The double team is one of many strategies players can use in team games, but no matter the strategy, everyone always has to be working together for it to work.

The best example I can think of to illustrate what can happen when players use a strategy that could normally be viable in a 1v1 without working together, is when playing water maps. A player decides to go fast fires, goes land or just castles on a Team Islands game while the rest of the team Galley Rushes. Only a few galleys can offset the balance, because in feudal galleys have no counter. In other words possibly all 3 of your allies are doomed because of your decision. I'm not saying the other possibilities on water aren't legitimate, what I mean to say is that generally speaking a team should always pull in the same direction in order to be successful. Once everyone has got the good strategy down, get it working together. Although water play can be boring because of the limited unit possibilities and micro, with teamwork it can be great fun. Water is ideal for teamwork because of the vast open spaces: players can easily get from one place to another and help each other out

Over the years, many ingenious teams have developed strategies they could use against others and have had much success. I couldn't enumerate them all but here are a few of interest that are very accessible to anyone who has read all the way to here.

Lord_CaptnKidd - The C/F Fast Food Sling

The sling was a strategy that existed in the original empires, but it wasn't exactly done this way. Trebuchet are the supreme siege weapon and back in AoK when there were TC's all over the map, sometimes even rams couldn't do the trick. This is why this sling aims to get the bullet ( player who is tributed ) to reach the Imperial Age as quickly as possible while the slinger ( player who tributes ) plays defence. It can be very effective when used properly but being the bullet requires considerable skill - the fate of the team rests on the success this player has in quickly moving through the enemies before they can kill off the slinger.

The Slingshot

Crexis and Methos, Frankish Castle support and The Ram Express

These articles were the genius of two gamers who made a name for themselves not only as terrific 1v1 players but also as great team players. Although I talked about a counter to their strategy earlier on, don't doubt that they had a lot of success with these ideas and that they could still work today. In both articles, the double team is used but in different manner, these are strictly military strategies that aim to quickly destroy one opponent and then finishing off the other.

Teamplay

ME_Count_Rahl, Farm Sharing

This is kind of an ingenious sling - instead of tributing food, the slinger lays farm foundations in his ally's town, allowing him to farm free of charge, a considerable advantage. Although this wasn't as influential as the other strategies above, it's still a great effort at taking all the game has to offer to work as a team.

Farm Sharing

NoX 2v2 Arabia strategy ( June 2002 )

A few interesting strategies that have been used in the past also but with modern tactics. This proves that teamwork can still be very effective in today's game against good players. This strategy uses the double team but not as boldly as in the past, because during feudal the player commiting to the double is more at risk than if he was in the castle age, but it still is a great watch.

Tower Express

What good is having a great team strategy if you can't use it correctly ? Once you have all the basics about working as a team down, it is a must that you interact well with others to put your knowledge to full use.

Communicating - Piecing it all together

Communicating is an actual skill. Some people do it very badly, and some can tell you more in a few words than most can in complete sentences. A good communicator will almost always be someone with good teamwork, because being able to express your ideas quickly is doing the hardest part of working together ( anyone can produce an archer, a ram or a knight and direct it).

What is important to tell others ?

Generally speaking, by convention, players announce their civs in a random civ game at the very beginning. It is also important to announce within the first few minutes the strategy you will be attempting, if your team hasn't decided beforehand.

Always keep your allies informed on your status and decide collectively on the strategy you will be using. It is absolutely necessary that you inform your allies if you give up on a certain front, water for example. Don't let them waste a lot of resources for nothing. You should also never hesitate to ask for advice from your allies - being in the game they can often tell what strategy would be best to use relatively to their situation and how they can help you.

Flares

Once the chemistry between players gets really good, I've always said flares are all you need. No need to be wasting time typing long sentences, communication should never be something that slows you down. In all cases, flaring iis something you should be doing regularly - even when your allies have researched cartography.

Conclusion

In Age of Empires, rated team games gave each player full points ( Since then, when playing team games points are split among the players of each team ). It meant that more of the AoE elite were playing in teams and working hard at getting teamwork down to perfection. I believe the Zone killed a big part of teamwork when it changed the system and would like to see it come back.

There is still much room for innovation in teamwork, it is an area not many people have really devoted themselves too, especially in recent arabia play, so I encourage everyone ( especially the newer experts, who are regurlarly bashed for not making much contributions to evolution of strategy ) not to simply play more team games but to also make an effort to make teamwork better.

I'm a teamwork addict. I wouldn't be playing this game if it were mostly about 1v1 or team games weren't so dynamic. What makes it even more fun is when others know how to do teamwork too, so I hope you read this well if you're someone so I hope you read this well if you're someone I play with.

-Lightning_CN