It'd be best if you have at least a few team medals, as well as a working understanding of the SoC team strategy guidelines:
macbone wrote:Basic Team Strategy
Do NOT miss turns! Against well-coordinated opponents, missing a turn can mean the difference between winning and losing a game.
Rule #0: Communicate, Communicate, Communicate.
Each team member must understand the game plan and contribute their thoughts. Do not remain silent. Whether it’s in team chat, in your Training Field thread, by PM, or over chat, keep talking. Ask questions.
Rule #1/2: Team Chemistry
Find partners who work well with you. Strategy is important. Communication is, too. But finding a good partner that works well with you is priceless.
Priorities (listed in general order, but these may change depending on the situation):
1. Break opponents’ bonuses.
This is generally the responsibility of the teammate who plays immediately before the player with the bonus, unless that teammate will not be able to break the bonus.
2. Keep opponents to under 12 territories each and break population bonuses (extra troops for more territories) above 12 territories.
3. Take and hold your own bonuses, both area bonuses and population bonuses.
4. Eliminate weak opponents.
Note: In Quads and Trips, often #4 may take precedence, especially when one opponent is surrounded by your team’s players and cannot go right away. Usually, if you can eliminate one player in team play, the game’s nearly won.
Crucial points:
5. To repeat, never miss a turn. Give your password to a buddy who can jump in and play for you if you’re in danger of missing a turn. Note: this does not mean finding a player to play complex maps for you. Someone else should make your move only if you cannot log in to take your turn, such as going on vacation or losing your internet connection.
6. Avoid attacking neutrals. The board generally has at least three armies: yours, your opponents, and the neutrals. Kill your opponents’ armies, not the neutrals.
7. Don’t attack with less than three dice. Exceptions: 3v1, when a bonus must be broken, when you have a shot at taking out another player, or if you can’t fort those troops to your teammate. But always ask yourself if you can use those armies elsewhere.
8. Don’t attack your teammates unless you can capture and hold a bonus.
9. You should preferentially attack the player who comes immediately after you, your natural target. (Try to maintain contact with that player's countries, try to avoid contact with the countries of the player before you, your natural predator, and try to act as a buffer between your teammates and the players who go immediately before them.)
The last person to go before an enemy collects bonus armies is in charge of breaking the enemy’s bonus. So in a four-player doubs game, Red should attack Blue, Blue should attack Green, Green should attack Yellow, and Yellow should attack Red.
10. When possible, direct your forts to the teammate who goes immediately after you. So in a Trips game, Red should fort to Green, Green should fort to Blue, and Blue should fort to Red.
11. Reinforce your armies so that they’re building up in attack strength. Stacks can wreak a lot of damage in team play, so when possible, direct your forts to build up powerful stacks.
12. Separate your enemies so they cannot fort to each other or kill each other for cards in Spoils play. Break their supply lines.
13. Protect your singles. Snatch up their singles. If a continent bonus cannot be taken easily, then work to build a population bonus for one player.
14. Teamwork is crucial. If a group works together as one, they will beat four people working as individuals.
The game is about the team. At any time any or all of one player’s pieces or bonuses may be sacrificed to gain a significant advantage such as enabling the killing of 2 of the enemy players or gaining a dominant position.
15. Plan ahead. Develop a strategy. Determine what your enemy is going to do, and then disrupt their plans. Prevent them from doing the same thing to you.
16. No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. Be flexible and proactive, not reactive. Alter priorities and strategy to fit the tempo of the game.
17. In regular Team games, most discussion will take place in team chat, PMs, live chat, or some other medium (smoke signals, telepathy, etc.) In classroom play, discussion should take place in the thread your teacher will create in the Training Field. Alternately, you may copy and paste team chat into the Training Field thread.
18. Other strategies are contingent upon settings (Fog, Manual Deployment) and maps (such as Conquer maps like Epic Feudal and Peloponnesian War.)
Contributors to this strategy include PTLowe, Bruceswar, emelar, catnipdreams, lt. Futt, oldrisky44, and many other SoC players.
Available Teammates:
Leehar
Bleed_Green
tkr4lf
Betiko
jigger1986
IcePack
GeneralRisk
Sniper08
chemefreak
SaviorShot
nimic
malevolous
IR1SH ACE
john deere
aad0906
mob deadly
rdsrds2120
chapcrap
freakns
TheCrown
ickyketseddie
jgordon1111
General Brock II
therev1957
sempaispellcheck
Crazyirishman
xman5151
mviola
cookie0117
pconnolly365
jasholz
Bruceswar
mviola
darth emperor
swimmerdude99
Jdsizzleslice
patrickaa317
White Buffalo
gradybridges
IcePack
smegal69
HerrZ
Ishihara
Edgron
Master Chief
4 U 2 NV
ckyrias
macbone
Count Belisle
JJ41375
TheMissionary
Grandilof
WPBRJ
Kingm
hmsps
Steve The Mighty
codierose
pirlo
skillfusniper33
the_samurai
aleksandr
themissionary
ooge
kraphtone
captainmoo
vioiet
gilligan
_sabotage_
pedronicus
dukasaur
Master Fenrir
2007spaceodyssey
jabajabba
shuston10
72o
sundance123
pleve
Drew483
Arya
whydelilah
Keefie
epitaph
dibbler
swifte
nicestash
pirlo
The Phoenix
)
