Team Game: Overview of possible synergies and interaction between players / civs

I mainly play team games as I enjoy the different approaches it offers. However, I think there should be more interaction between players and especially civilisations and allied units which would allow for more meaningful civilisation pics and completely new dynamics and strategies. I found that some buffs and civ effects work on allies - while others do not. Personally, I would love the game to be consistent here and enable us to use all specific advantages or at least more of them also on allies.

I am aware of the fact that there might be super strong combinations, i.e. imperial official supervising allied buildings – but I believe that this would lead to such a different cool dynamic in team games and new strategies. And of course there will always be a meta no matter what you do to a game :P…
Feel free to help completing the list! I will keep editing and adding. I am sure I am missing many features.

I made to this overview for myself to start thinking of cool civ combinations and thought maybe that is interesting for some other players as well…

Do general / civilisation specific features which are already in the game work on allies?

Explanation:
[Yes] Does work
[Yes / Bugged] Seems to be intended to work but is bugged
[No] Does not work
[To be verified] I still need to test it

General:

  • [Yes] Sheep: Bringing sheep to an allied building / leave the sheep in the allied base; AI auto attacks the sheeps (needs to be tested with real players) – manual killing of the sheep is possible; Rus player will get the 5 gold bounty / sheep upon kill
  • [Yes] Sheep: Can be right clicked on allied scout to follow them
  • [Yes] Wolves: Bringing wolves to allied towncenter / towers; Rus player will get the 25 gold bounty / wolf upon kill
  • [Yes] Transport: You can place units in allied transport ships / rams; all units will be unloaded
  • [Yes] Villager Repair: Allied buildings and siege can be repaired by villagers
  • [Yes] Garrison: Units can garrison into allied buildings
  • [Yes] Walls: Units can be placed on allied and enemy walls
  • [No] Walls: Walls cannot be connected to allied walls
  • [No] Rams: unfinished rams cannot be continued to be built by the ally
  • [No] Relics: cannot be placed in allied buildings; they can of course be dropped somewhere on the ground and then be picked up by the other player
  • [To be verified] Dock repair: Does dock repair also affect allied ships?
  • [To be verified] Fishing boat repair: Can allied ships be repaired?

Abassid Dynasty:

  • [Yes] Imam: Healing works on allied units
  • [Yes] Mill Berry Bonus: When you built a mill the 100% bonus food also works on the berries when your ally is gathering
  • [Yes] Military wing: Camel support aura: works on allied units
  • [Yes / Bugged] Culture wing: Healing technology: visually works on allied units but no health is gained; I assumed it is bugged

Chinese:

  • [Yes] Monk: Healing works on allied units
  • [Yes] Gate of the great wall: Damage bonus also applies to allied units
  • [No] Imperial official: Cannot supervise allied buildings
  • [To be verified] Castle wall repair: Do castles auto repair allied walls ?

Delhi:

  • [Yes] Mill Berry Bonus: When you built a mill the 100% bonus food also works on the berries when your ally is gathering
  • [No] Tower of Victory: Does not affect allied units
  • [To be verified] House of learning: Mosque healing technology works on allied units?
  • [To be verified] Scholar: Healing works on allied units?

English:

  • [No] Network of Castles: Does not affect allied units
  • [To be verified] Abbey of Kings: Healing works on allied units?
  • [To be verified] Monk: Healing works on allied units?
  • [To be verified] Farms: Can you built farms and the ally farms them? Since yours are cheaper?

French:

  • [No] Neutral market placement upon game start: Allies of a french player cannot see the neutral markets even though map vision is generally shared.
  • [To be verified] Monk: Healing works on allied units?
  • [To be verified] Influence: Can you built a castle next to allied production buildings for cheaper production?

Holy Roman Empire:

  • [Yes] Prelate: Healing works on allied units
  • [No] Prelate: Cannot inspire allied units
  • [To be verified] Elzbach Palace: Damage reduction applies to allied buildings?

Mongols:

  • [Yes] Khan signal arrow movement buff works on allied units
  • [Yes] Mongol sheep production building can be placed in allied base; AI auto attacks the produced sheeps (needs to be tested with real players) – manual killing of the sheep is possible; Rus player will get the 5 gold bounty / sheep
  • [Yes / Bugged] Kurultai: Damage buff works on allied units; healing is visually shown (with the + above the allied units) but no health is gained → bugged???
  • [No] Jam network: Does not work on allied units
  • [To be verified] Khan signal arrow attack buff works on allied units?
  • [To be verified] Khan signal arrow defense buff works on allied units?
  • [To be verified] Shaman: Healing works on allied units?

Rus:

  • [Yes] Warrior Monk blessing of the saint: Works on allied units [needs to be verified if only visual]
  • [Yes] Warrior Monk: Healing works on allied units
  • [No] Wooden Fortress: The wooden fortress does not give a bonus to allied lumber camps / towncentres
  • [To be verified] High Armory: Does the cost reduction work on allied siege workshops?

Wishes for improved interaction between players and sharing of information which are currently not featured in the game

  • In game voice chat: This is especially needed for random team games in my opinion, as there is not always time to type.
  • Additional information when clicking on allied buildings: It would be cool to have the same additional UI information as the allied player when clicking on his TC; i.e. what are the allies resources, how much bounty has the rus, how many imperial officials has the chinese player etc. just to have some additional information
  • Shared control of units: There is no option to share control which could be helpful for some macro / micro – if implemented correctly
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More collaboration and synergy between ally civs is definitely something that could be worked on and improved. I’ve always felt like it should make sense to pick complementary civs, for instance if one player picks Rus, the ally would pick China to handle walling. I don’t think units should directly be able to supervise allies and such, but more interactivity would certainly be a good thing. For me the biggest issue right now with 4+ player games is the maps aren’t designed around that many players and the spawns and world geography are both terrible for making interesting games (ever tried a 8 players FFA on Nagari? 4v4 on King of the Hill?). For me #1 priority should be, even before fine tuning the meta, to release the map editor to let the playerbase create maps that fit better specific custom games and scenarios. The meta could actually use the data of custom maps to help refine the balance even more, because only testing on official maps is bound to be biased rather than fully balanced at the core meta level.

I think an editor was announced for the spring update :). Not sure to what extend you can edit and create your own maps etc. though.

I agree that 4vs4 maps are nuts… but I am also not really sure what to change since walking ways will always be huge in a game with 8 players. I would like to have a map ban option when searching for games.

And yes: Synergies between civs, so that the bonus would complement each other, are generally just awesome. From my findings above I believe that mongol + rus for example work great together! Sheep production buildings in the rus base - movement speed via Khan for all… now that is a mobile army (at least with the current rus meta).

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