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