_NeT_ AnGeLs ClaN
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