Post by cv431410 on Jan 8, 2007 13:28:46 GMT -5
I have been losing 8 team battles in a line and I am starting to get tired of it.
The captain’s role is the most important factor in the team player. When teams are equally matched, it is the good captain who will cast a deciding vote.
The captain must treat the entire territory as his own and take ownership of every city under his control.
The most common mistakes are:
(1) Attack
Background:
Attacking is obviously is most difficult task in the team play and must conduct under leadership of a good captain.
Attack for necessity, not for fun.
In a 5v5 match, a single player has little chance of succeed by attacking alone. On top of that, most players are “slow” attackers; many players are good defenders.
(1A) it is a matter of life and death for each captain to assume his front teammates are “slow”, unless he knows his team. Therefore, attacking must be conducted under captain’s supervision. The mistakes I have seen are unbelievable; as results, I have to report non-stop, because someone lost 40 knights ... he does not know what he is doing. Attacking is not knight rushing.
(1B) it is the captain role to coordinate attack;
(1C) withdraw
All attack stacks will meet the collateral-damage units; such damaged stack must be protected. For example, 20-knight stack are attacked by 15 catapults. Generally speaking, the knight are damaged, but not killed. This requires three immediate actions:
(1C1) the damaged stack must be covered by 10 fresh new knights;
(1C2) the damaged enemy catapults, if outside the city, must be killed by your knights;
(1C3) this is where most mistakes take place repeatedly, as if players have no brains, withdraw.
In this battle, you have killed a large amount of enemy catapults without losing many knights; this battle is over. It is time to heal. Pushing forward with knights of health 6.0 is nothing but disaster. Order should be given to withdraw. If the enemy decides to attack you, then you have shifted the attacker’s disadvantages by confronting them with fresh units.
If you do not have force to cover this:
(a) Stack designed to be damaged
(b) Force covering damaged stack
(c) Force for retreat.
then you should not have attacked.
(1C4) When all units are healed, attack immediately, the enemy catapults will be less lethal this time.
(1D) it is the captain’s decision to inform the team which style he choose to attack:
(a) Use double movement units strike at city directly via 2:1 number superiority, without reducing the culture defense;
(b) Use collateral damage units to reduce the culture defense, and then attack;
(c) Use collateral damage units to attack without reducing the culture defense (save 1 turn).
Option (a) is implemented in less than 5 seconds (move stack to position in the last 3 seconds of first turn and strike within the first 2 seconds of the next turn); therefore, there is no communication time within this period (<5 seconds).
Option a is bad if the city has a large numbers of pikes/elephants (so sentry units are important), but you can strike in 2nd turn, sometime even first turn ("stealing one turn");
Option b uses single move stack, which is also bad.
The unit compositions are different for each of these two styles, and therefore, the preparation will be a bit different. Option b, collateral damage units, uses single movement stack; the units should contains anti-pike units (crossbow) and anti-elephant units (muskets), unless you are Spain.
(1E) When attacking, withdrawing is always an option. Withdrawing need be covered by reserve force (5-7 units). Suicide? What’s the point? The bottom line is this: you do not have to.
(1F) Informing team in advance you want to attack 1 city, or 2 cities, or 1 city + 1 diversion.
(2) Defense
(2A) Pro-economy vs. Pro-defense
Defense is a bit simpler than offense, but it still demands captain’s design. Leaving to the front player alone, there are two types of front player:
Pro-economy
Pro-defense.
Both types, without captain’s intervention, can get into deep trouble.
Let
X = city
I = iron
F = fish
0 = tiles
Assume the current situation is this
00000
I0000F
00000
00000
00X00
Pro-defense player will place a city here (Single Point Defense)
00000
I0X00F
00000
00000
00X00
This placement wastes fish and many resources.
Pro-economy player will place two cities here (Double Fronts)
00000
IX00XF
00000
00000
00X00
This placement, double front cities, can run into trouble easily.
If you think pro-defense is good, let me share my experience with you: in one 5v5, both teams play defense and our team leads in 108 turns out of 110 turns. Unfortunately, our luck run out in the last 2 turns; we have to file 5 reports because we lost less than 100 points. Well, you have guessed it, our front city placement is:
00000
I0X00F
00000
00000
00X00
and there is a significant waste of land.
If you think pro-economy is good, surely you have seen double front cities means death. We have seen them many, many times. Well, you have guessed it, our front city placement is:
00000
IX00XF
00000
00000
00X00
The front guy is dead.
If the economic benefits are truly justified, then there is only one way out of this, the captain. Captain will need to order a pro-economy city placement to the front player:
00000
IX00XF
00000
00000
00X00
At the same time, order the supporting player to defend the one of the two cities and leaving the front player to defend a single city.
Without captain, it is very rarely to get this done right. It is so obviously that if there is a double-front, the supporting guy need to take care of one of the two cities, is it? In reality, nothing like this will happen on its own.
(2B) Troublemakers
There is a particular type of players:
(a) They love to attack;
(b) They lost ALMOST all the time.
You would think they could learn, would you? I suppose they do win sometime so they keep doing it.
If your team is winning, then offense is merely an option. If the captain does not want to attack, then he must stop his teammate, if the front line player is a “slow” war warmonger, which happens quite often.
(3) Economy
The easiest time to take city is early rush; as a result, early rush happens quit often. It does not matter whether you are the attacker or defender; the economy suffers quite a bit.
It is the captain job to help them to build back up. This means
(a) Strengthen their defense (obvious);
(b) Build city for them (less obvious);
(c) Build workers for them (less obvious).
Had you own your land and his land, would you send workers there? Would you send settlers there? If you do, then gift workers/settlers to front players or order teammates to do so.
Remember, for the same amount production, it is more productive to gift him settlers/workers than units. Why? Settlers/workers stop him from growing. He can produce units while growing (This is so hard for people to understand).
Again, take ownership of the whole territory. Treat every city as your own. If you do this and your opponent does not, it is quite possible you will put a distance in scores between you and your opponent, therefore, forcing him to attack you.
It is my believe that 5 strong players is better than 3 very stronger players + 2 week players.
(4) Planning
If you attack because you have to (low score), chances are your opponent's army is just as large as yours. You will have the advantage in unit number for a very short period of time.
(4A) Explain the attacking procedure before you attack. This is like a sport; your team is entitled 2 breaks just as any other sports.
Captains need to cover basic plans:
* Which side is offense, which side is defense?
* In 3v3, 1 defense + 2 offenses are common. In 5v5, 1.5 defenses + 3.5 offenses are common.
* If you want all out attack in the last a few turns so your opponents cannot counter attack, let teammates know in advance.
*If your team is losing and you want to mount a complicated plan such as sending 5 - 7 mostly empty boats (They do not know boats are basically empty) to one side in the last few turns and concentrate 4 players to attack the other side; then take the time to explain the strategy early, because it take many turn to put a complicated process together.
The captain’s role is the most important factor in the team player. When teams are equally matched, it is the good captain who will cast a deciding vote.
The captain must treat the entire territory as his own and take ownership of every city under his control.
The most common mistakes are:
(1) Attack
Background:
Attacking is obviously is most difficult task in the team play and must conduct under leadership of a good captain.
Attack for necessity, not for fun.
In a 5v5 match, a single player has little chance of succeed by attacking alone. On top of that, most players are “slow” attackers; many players are good defenders.
(1A) it is a matter of life and death for each captain to assume his front teammates are “slow”, unless he knows his team. Therefore, attacking must be conducted under captain’s supervision. The mistakes I have seen are unbelievable; as results, I have to report non-stop, because someone lost 40 knights ... he does not know what he is doing. Attacking is not knight rushing.
(1B) it is the captain role to coordinate attack;
(1C) withdraw
All attack stacks will meet the collateral-damage units; such damaged stack must be protected. For example, 20-knight stack are attacked by 15 catapults. Generally speaking, the knight are damaged, but not killed. This requires three immediate actions:
(1C1) the damaged stack must be covered by 10 fresh new knights;
(1C2) the damaged enemy catapults, if outside the city, must be killed by your knights;
(1C3) this is where most mistakes take place repeatedly, as if players have no brains, withdraw.
In this battle, you have killed a large amount of enemy catapults without losing many knights; this battle is over. It is time to heal. Pushing forward with knights of health 6.0 is nothing but disaster. Order should be given to withdraw. If the enemy decides to attack you, then you have shifted the attacker’s disadvantages by confronting them with fresh units.
If you do not have force to cover this:
(a) Stack designed to be damaged
(b) Force covering damaged stack
(c) Force for retreat.
then you should not have attacked.
(1C4) When all units are healed, attack immediately, the enemy catapults will be less lethal this time.
(1D) it is the captain’s decision to inform the team which style he choose to attack:
(a) Use double movement units strike at city directly via 2:1 number superiority, without reducing the culture defense;
(b) Use collateral damage units to reduce the culture defense, and then attack;
(c) Use collateral damage units to attack without reducing the culture defense (save 1 turn).
Option (a) is implemented in less than 5 seconds (move stack to position in the last 3 seconds of first turn and strike within the first 2 seconds of the next turn); therefore, there is no communication time within this period (<5 seconds).
Option a is bad if the city has a large numbers of pikes/elephants (so sentry units are important), but you can strike in 2nd turn, sometime even first turn ("stealing one turn");
Option b uses single move stack, which is also bad.
The unit compositions are different for each of these two styles, and therefore, the preparation will be a bit different. Option b, collateral damage units, uses single movement stack; the units should contains anti-pike units (crossbow) and anti-elephant units (muskets), unless you are Spain.
(1E) When attacking, withdrawing is always an option. Withdrawing need be covered by reserve force (5-7 units). Suicide? What’s the point? The bottom line is this: you do not have to.
(1F) Informing team in advance you want to attack 1 city, or 2 cities, or 1 city + 1 diversion.
(2) Defense
(2A) Pro-economy vs. Pro-defense
Defense is a bit simpler than offense, but it still demands captain’s design. Leaving to the front player alone, there are two types of front player:
Pro-economy
Pro-defense.
Both types, without captain’s intervention, can get into deep trouble.
Let
X = city
I = iron
F = fish
0 = tiles
Assume the current situation is this
00000
I0000F
00000
00000
00X00
Pro-defense player will place a city here (Single Point Defense)
00000
I0X00F
00000
00000
00X00
This placement wastes fish and many resources.
Pro-economy player will place two cities here (Double Fronts)
00000
IX00XF
00000
00000
00X00
This placement, double front cities, can run into trouble easily.
If you think pro-defense is good, let me share my experience with you: in one 5v5, both teams play defense and our team leads in 108 turns out of 110 turns. Unfortunately, our luck run out in the last 2 turns; we have to file 5 reports because we lost less than 100 points. Well, you have guessed it, our front city placement is:
00000
I0X00F
00000
00000
00X00
and there is a significant waste of land.
If you think pro-economy is good, surely you have seen double front cities means death. We have seen them many, many times. Well, you have guessed it, our front city placement is:
00000
IX00XF
00000
00000
00X00
The front guy is dead.
If the economic benefits are truly justified, then there is only one way out of this, the captain. Captain will need to order a pro-economy city placement to the front player:
00000
IX00XF
00000
00000
00X00
At the same time, order the supporting player to defend the one of the two cities and leaving the front player to defend a single city.
Without captain, it is very rarely to get this done right. It is so obviously that if there is a double-front, the supporting guy need to take care of one of the two cities, is it? In reality, nothing like this will happen on its own.
(2B) Troublemakers
There is a particular type of players:
(a) They love to attack;
(b) They lost ALMOST all the time.
You would think they could learn, would you? I suppose they do win sometime so they keep doing it.
If your team is winning, then offense is merely an option. If the captain does not want to attack, then he must stop his teammate, if the front line player is a “slow” war warmonger, which happens quite often.
(3) Economy
The easiest time to take city is early rush; as a result, early rush happens quit often. It does not matter whether you are the attacker or defender; the economy suffers quite a bit.
It is the captain job to help them to build back up. This means
(a) Strengthen their defense (obvious);
(b) Build city for them (less obvious);
(c) Build workers for them (less obvious).
Had you own your land and his land, would you send workers there? Would you send settlers there? If you do, then gift workers/settlers to front players or order teammates to do so.
Remember, for the same amount production, it is more productive to gift him settlers/workers than units. Why? Settlers/workers stop him from growing. He can produce units while growing (This is so hard for people to understand).
Again, take ownership of the whole territory. Treat every city as your own. If you do this and your opponent does not, it is quite possible you will put a distance in scores between you and your opponent, therefore, forcing him to attack you.
It is my believe that 5 strong players is better than 3 very stronger players + 2 week players.
(4) Planning
If you attack because you have to (low score), chances are your opponent's army is just as large as yours. You will have the advantage in unit number for a very short period of time.
(4A) Explain the attacking procedure before you attack. This is like a sport; your team is entitled 2 breaks just as any other sports.
Captains need to cover basic plans:
* Which side is offense, which side is defense?
* In 3v3, 1 defense + 2 offenses are common. In 5v5, 1.5 defenses + 3.5 offenses are common.
* If you want all out attack in the last a few turns so your opponents cannot counter attack, let teammates know in advance.
*If your team is losing and you want to mount a complicated plan such as sending 5 - 7 mostly empty boats (They do not know boats are basically empty) to one side in the last few turns and concentrate 4 players to attack the other side; then take the time to explain the strategy early, because it take many turn to put a complicated process together.