In a recent Noble game, I ended up with my first permanent alliance. I found the change of dynamics in the game interesting and ended up with a cultural victory.

I was thinking of starting a game as a team with an AI (against other AI teams to balance it). I wanted some thoughts on strategies for this and wanted to know if anyone else plays regularly in this style.

I was unable to find any articles on the forum on this subject; if you know of any, please point me in the right direction.

Why team up with an AI when you can do it with a friend instead? Me and my friend regularly play as a team with 4-6 two-AI teams set against us. We just recently got our first Deity win as a team and it's been good fun.

It's a different dynamic entirely, but I thoroughly enjoy it. We've usually ended up having one of us as a blocker state (if the map is Fractal or Pangaea) while the other one stays behind, develops his land and takes care of most of the research and later game production.

I really can't say how it'd work with an AI since you can't interact with them like you can with a human. But really, coop games with someone are really fun and you should definitely give it a go if you know someone who'd be up to it with you.

Teaming with an AI can be a pretty good way to shake up the game. You have the same options to deal with them as you do with a vassal, e.g. telling them what to research, telling them where to attack, etc. Just remember to micromanage their research (they always try to get techs like archery and polytheism, etc.) Also, as far as I can tell, the other AIs are not allowed to conduct diplomacy with your partner, but have to go directly to you instead. Also, choose your partner carefully, as that can make all of the difference. My personal favourite partner is Cathy, because she can tech well, she builds a lot of cities, and she's competent at war as well. Plus, her UU replaces a unit that I almost always target anyways.

I had a blast doing this and warring for a couple games - playing team games...but the AI isn't coded to handle it well, so you probably could move up a level to make it challenging. But the prior poster is right - prepare to micromanage your partner to get the most bang for your buck.

Not that I a lot more, but I did find it pretty challenging during the permanent alliance (I was playing Mansa and ended up teaming with DeGaulle). It felt like playing with a super-sized vassal…or owning a big, enthusiastic, but boneheaded dog. At least from my experience with him, he was useless in war…. even a land based one on the same continent. I think he was finally able to muster four infantry and an arty to take back a border city that I had lost.


I think I’ll take the tip and partner with Cathy tonight :mischief: (sounds naughty). I usually play on standard sized maps of different varieties, but any other thoughts on:

1) Map size
2) Settings
3) Number of opposing teams


Also, any thoughts on leaders who would have good synergies together, or do you think it would not matter much.

I think I’ll take the tip and partner with Cathy tonight :mischief: (sounds naughty).And historically accurate.

:lol:

This sounds really interesting. Is this an option you can select, or is it something you do specifically in the game--meaning you pick one of the civs and do everything to make diplomatic relations with them nice so that you can get an alliance out of them?

Recently I had a game, with like 8 AI's, all individual, only conquest victory, epic on prince level or something.

It ended up with 3 permanent alliances, and that made the game a lot more interesting. The 2 or 3 remaining individuals were basically consumed by the alliances, and at some point it felt like a cold war, because declaring war would have huge consequences with some border cities, nukes, etc... Of course eventually I couldn't resist to get a few wars going on, but I think the AI would maintain peace forever if you would just let it run on itself.

PS. Annoying how the floodplains are removed after being nuked.

I've played couple of games with AI and in both of them, my ally didn't really know how to handle his economy. I'm not sure if my own economy confused them, but they kept building units and expanding constantly, even while going to strike. So I had to gift them money and figure out other workarounds for the whole game. Nevertheless, that big army had it's uses throught the game and I had some very fun moments :]

I think I’ll take the tip and partner with Cathy tonight :mischief: (sounds naughty). I usually play

:lol: It sounds even funnier if you ad the next 3 of your words from your paragraph.
Have "fun" with Cathy :queen:

This sounds really interesting. Is this an option you can select, or is it something you do specifically in the game--meaning you pick one of the civs and do everything to make diplomatic relations with them nice so that you can get an alliance out of them?

Downs:


There are a couple of ways to play this.

1) Would be to check "Permanent Alliances" as you are setting up the options for your game. You would start by yourself, and could eventually become a permanent ally with one of your AI opponents through diplomatic effort. There is a good article on the forum on this, but I don't have the link handy.

2) When you set up the game you are typically team #1.............click on the drop down for team #2, and change them to team #1 also, and so forth. That way you can start from beginning of the game in an allied state.