Team games- very tough

[Dis]

what I really wanted to put in the thread title was: team games: way to get your ass kicked.

Has anyone won one of these? I quit in disgust after being gang raped by the romans and the celts. The praets raped me bad. Interestingly it wasn't the celts gallic warrior that hurt me, but their axeman. I was using axeman to counter the romans, but my axemen weren't strong enough to take out the celts axeman.

And my buddy the Vikings were of no help whatsoever in my war. At least they lent me some iron, or I really would have been screwed.

I went from first place team to last place team because of the war. The interesting thing is there was little score disparity. I had 4 teams of 2 civs each on a large terra map. I (frederick of the germans) and the Vikings. The other teams were the Celts and romans (augustus), STalin and Shaka, Wang Kong and Mehmed II, Churchhill and Hannibal. Churhill and Hannibal were second to last place above me, and they were about 100 points behind the leaders (Augustus and Brennus). I selected the teams myself to include all the new civs. I quit in 800 AD.

800 AD seems like a late year. I was still researching metal casting. That seems real late for that tech. I'm not sure if single player is real balanced for team games.

But I'm determined to win one. I just don't know how. .

[Jaybe]

Try again as Rome (not that I've ever tried a team game yet).

You neglected to mention game speed, map size/type, difficulty level.

[Thrak]

Team games are great - with another player. Playing alongside an AI is probably more like going wrestling with Tiny Tim as your tag partner.

[Dis]

yeah I think it would be better with a human.

games speed was epic. map size was large terra (I did mention that), and difficulty level was warlord. The first time I was ever in last place on warlord. In fact, I have never lost a warlord game. I don't lose noble games either. This is why I'm perplexed.

This was actually my second team game. I gave up my first because the map sucks. I don't know if I was losing, since I never met any of the teams. That one was a standard custom continents map (epic speed). I chose 1 continent per team. I realized how boring it is sharing a continent with your team mate (no war). But that wasn't the worst part. The continent was a thin strip of land that parallelled the north poll across nearly the entire map!! Most unrealistic contient ever!. The other continents I saw in the replay weren't that bad. But our was so long, maintenance costs were just killing me.

[Dis]

one thing I noticed with warlords, is the starting positions seem to suck compared to civ4 original. I end up with a lot more tundra. Why is there so much tundra in warlords?

[Will9]

Try not putting all warlords leaders as your enemies. Most of them are tougher than vanilla leaders.

[CerberusIV]

Pairing Augustus and Brennus probably wasn't a good idea. They both seem to be pretty strong in the games I have played. Ragnar is actually proving rather mediocre.

[kiky]

Originally posted by Thrak
Team games are great - with another player. Playing alongside an AI is probably more like going wrestling with Tiny Tim as your tag partner.

That's true, but it give different challanges, because to make sure you survive you also have to help him/her survive!

As in my other thread, pairing Toku/Musa and Genghis/Isabella could be pretty strong.

[LDiCesare]

The thing I disliked in team play was a bug with the visualisation of the map when we switched from one civ (me) to another one (my son). Apart from that, it clearly looks more interesting to play with a fellow human since you can decide on focused research for instance instead of having the ai do anyhting without any goal in common. But then the other ai's are also on the loose, though they use the same algorithms and thus are more likely to work in synergy.

[pauli]

all of my mp games are team games; used to be me and a friend or two vs solo ais, but lately we've experimented with ai teams as enemies and ai as teammates. both are intriguing.

ai teams are extremely tough, because (in my experience) they simply will not negotiate most things. they're so happy with what they've already got from their teammate that rights of passage, trade, and going to war with people for you are simply not on their agendas.

ai teammates, now, are a mixed blessing. on the one hand, i find them great because they compliment me as a builder - the ai builds UNITS, so i can hide behind their power graph you can direct their research, which is quite handy, though you have no way of influencing how much they put into it. you can also direct their targets (marginally) while at war. what you can't do is keep them from getting certain wonders - i have yet to get the great library when i have an ai teammate, and i've actually had to go to war to dissuade the ai from building other wonders in the past.

but yeah, hostile ai teams take the game to a different level.

edit: oh yeah, and a properly chosen ai teammate will let you benefit from the five starting techs bug

[diemex]

I've been experimenting with team games. Me and 2 AI team mates vs 4 groups of 'paired' teams. Aggressive AI on.... I also turn tech trading off. Playing around with settings and so far its been fun.

[Dis]

Originally posted by kiky


That's true, but it give different challanges, because to make sure you survive you also have to help him/her survive!

As in my other thread, pairing Toku/Musa and Genghis/Isabella could be pretty strong.

too bad they don't help me survive.

[Virdrago]

My brother and I play on the same team, Huge map, 18 civs (8 ai teams and us), standard speed, usually continents, Prince level. Generally it makes for a good game. Only problem I have is when one ai team attacks someone (us or another ai), their "teammate" has no idea of what's going on, and can be neutralized, as their units arrive too late to make an impact. If they were coordinated, like humans, they might smash through our defences a lot easier. Or the AI's. I find the wars usually get bogged down unless another team decides to prey on someone.

[Addled Platypus]

will have to try next time a start a new game

[MasterDave]

My wife and I tried a few team games against the 3 AI teams (of two), at first with us set to Monarch level, and those two games were a total slaughter. The AI tech advantage gets multiplied big time when two of them are sharing research.

We then played a couple of games on Prince, and won one, but it was still a huge challenge. I can beat Prince in my sleep in a normal single player game, so I am fairly certain that team play vs. the AI very strongly accentuates the tech and production advantages that the AI's get at Prince and higher levels.