Team games with AI

[michmbk]

So I was getting a little bored with the normal type of game, and a little frustrated with one city challenges (I always get DOWed on once I get apollo!). I went in last night and tried a custom game with AI teams...I wanted to be Genghis, and had 11 other people in, with us having 6 teams of two leaders randomly determined.

I ended up playing it for 2 hours before going to bed and it was a lot of fun. I ended up paired with Monty (how perfect is that?). It's interesting because he gifted me ivory and gold right after he hooked both up....and researches the same thing as me sometimes to move it along faster.

Other pairings were funny as well - I thought Shaka and Augustus are absolutely hilarious as a tandem. But we're just warring on people constantly - Monty keeps pillaging with his elephants and I go for the cities with my keshiks...two teams are almost dead (poor Ragnar - he had washington as his pairing, who was too busy building wonders to have adequate defense for elephants and keshiks), but the Shaka/Augustus tandem across the world is a little scary right now - they have a lot of cities.

I don't know how it'll turn out - it seems like we're teching insanely fast, but I think everyone else is too. Has anyone else done a team game like that, where you and the AI take on other AI teams? I'm curious as to what other experiences people have seen when trying that.

 

[Michelangelo]

Never tried that, although judging your enthousiasm, I might give it a try.

 

[michmbk]

It really is a lot of fun. Monty and I ended up wiping out Ragnar and vassalizing Washington...we then gifted him techs so he's basically our third teammate. Meanwhile, Mansa and Toku wiped out Wang Kon, and vassalized his partner Saladin....we ended up in a massive three on three war all waged in Saladin's territory and couldn't take down his last city. Finally got peace from them, and turned our stacks to Shaka/Augustus. It took three hours of battles, but we wiped them out.

Meanwhile, Cathy and Hannibal are laughing away on the other side of the world, popping their borders and teching away with Hannibal's cash, so they're a bit ahead in tech. I don't think they've been in a war yet, but they're about to get some seriously veteran cavalry and riflemen to come in - Monty and I have some MASSIVE SODs.

What has really created the interest in it is the gifting back and forth with Monty, and with our vassal Washington. We tech together, so whatever he researches, I get as well and vice versa. Same for all other teams. I gifted him happiness resources when I didn't need them, and he gifted me his excess ivory so we could both have elephants. He gave me a bunch of gold when he was running a surplus, and I did the same back to him when I became cash flow positive. We even gifted cities after taking them, depending on who was closer to the city, so they could easily culturally assimilate. Meanwhile, I gifted several workers to our vassal Washington, so he could grow after Monty's pillaging (Monty loves to pillage) and start adding to our military might - ended up getting him from furious to cautious, and now he even helped with research - got him to do a tech we needed and trade it for steam power. Another neat trick last night - I was saving two GGs approaching education, and used one for my academy, and gifted one to Monty.

It's created some different strategies - I'm sure it's probably a little easier because the AI isn't programmed to be a team (plus we had the perfect warmonger combo), so I may try it on a higher level to see how that plays out. I think we're going to close down a domination win tonight, unless Hannibal and Cathy put up a bigger fight than I expect...we have a LOT of land. But now I want to try one with all 24 civs, so 12 teams. Should be interesting - it's definitely given me a fresh look for the game.