10 CBA Tips

[Halt]

This thread was originally written on another forum, but since I wrote it, I am giving myself permission to post it here. Please offer feedback as necessary.


Alright guys, I know it's coming, but let's keep the comments to a minimum saying that CBA is a noob game, CBA sucks, CBA is for people who can't RM/DM/Nomad or other comments to that effect.

I'll try to keep this introduction brief and as straight forward as possible. This thread is intended for newer players as well as older players who can learn a thing or two. I also welcome input and discussion, I'm open to criticisms of my own game play as well. With this list of tips I hope some can improve so that we will have better CBA games in general.

For those of you who still think that you can't be a newb in CBA, I used to think the same way, I never thought I'd see the day when we'd actually have to make splits and organize fair teams, today it is more than obvious who the newbs and experts are. Games evolve and change, people find different styles of play and new tactics, they find ways to take advantage of the unaware and gain an edge in late game. Those who keep up with the latest and greatest in innovations will succeed while those who live in the past will struggle to gain the upper hand, keep in mind the losing screen at the end says to "keep trying new strategies!" I remember when nobody walled their front gates, nobody deleted 3 castles to make room for more stables/ranges, nobody walled in an enemy, nobody secured a dead enemy/ally base for extra building room, nobody prepared razes for allies, nobody had the raze/kill amount list memorized, and the list goes on. All of this came about through players trying new strategies and finding the good ones through trial and error. This is my justification for saying that there are goods, newbs and idiots in CBA, anyone who still thinks otherwise is simply kidding themselves. CBA can make progress just as there is and has been progress in RM/DM. Now, with that out of the way I will make a list of things to keep in mind while playing CBA.

1. All players need to cooperate and communicate.
Explanation: I put this as number 1 because I think it is the most important. Team cohesiveness, willingness to cooperate, and communication is the main criteria that makes up a good team versus a shitty team.
Q: What would happen at the beginning if a player flared huns but only 2 out of 4 of your teammates actually went for huns?
A: The rush would fail.
Q: Would you know to go help a troubled teammate if he never told you he was getting raped? A: No, unless you looked at mini-map in time.
Q: How are you supposed to cooperate if nobody tells you what they're doing?
A: You can't.

2. Every team needs a leader.
Exp: CBA is a team based game, teams are made up of teammates and headed up by a leader. Teams need a leader just like a country needs a president. If there is no leader, chaos will ensue, players will disagree with each other on what decisions to make, where to go, who to protect, who gets razes first. I know this from personal experience, that the game will go smoother if only one person is directing. If someone sucks at leading, if you think you can be a better leader, relieve them of their command and don't let them run the show anymore, it's that simple.

3. Most of the time every team has a main razing civ, that player should always, at the very least, flare where they intend to go, so that supporting allies can meet them there and significantly increase the chances of success at the location.

4. If you are in trouble, instead of bitching and flaring, tell your allies that you are in trouble and how they can help your situation. Define what's going on, what type of assistance is needed, how much help is needed. Keep it brief and it'll go much farther than pissing and moaning.
Examples:
- Getting raped, need all here plz
- Brits about to get vills, need some husks to kill archers
- Need some turks to block my sides
- Need one more raze to get vills
In other words, let your team know what you need, and if they are any good, they'll take care of you, vice versa.

5. Play FOR the other person.
Exp: - If you get vills, wall yourself up and send a vill to an ally who hasn't gotten them yet instead of idling them in your base.
- If you aren't getting attacked, send your units to block the sides of an ally who IS getting attacked.
- If you have mayan/brits on your team, damage a gate for them so they can get villagers, they only require 1 raze!

6. Don't even try to take out a castle if you haven't got enough units to raze it fully or damage it enough so that a smaller 2nd wave of units can take it down.
Anything other than that constitutes as feeding and only really serves to benefit the enemy. You shouldn't ever have to use 300 units just to raze ONE castle.

7. Razing a castle of huns/persians or other heavy duty civs can be very beneficial because it reduces the amount of units they can spawn. But only razing one castle of aztecs will not help your team because the units suck anyway, don't raze it unless you intend to raze them all.

8. Wall in front of castles first, this should be the first thing you do when you get villagers. The exception to that is if you haven't had any of your gates taken down, in which case, wall in front of them. When walling front of your base, make sure you have a line of sight to watch for incoming enemies. And while not necessary, I would still recommend walling in front of your castles to serve as a secondary defense.

9. In a fully walled up base, you should be able to fit around 15-20 buildings in your base. In the front you should have 4 on each side, 3-4 in the middle, delete back gate and you can fit 4 more, then another in the corner on the opposite side, if more units are needed, delete 3 castles and you can fit another 4-5 buildings.

10. When you make a gate, you should wall off 3 squares of it with single walls, or just the left and right sides if you have bigger units such as koreans/persians.
Exp: An army can maybe fit 8-12 units on a fully exposed gate, if it's walled off, enemy will only be able to fit 1 or 2 units on it. What you're doing is reducing the surface area of your gate so less units can attack it, at the same time you're lessening the enemies access for razes and protecting yourself. If you've got all of your razes walled off and some enemies still don't have villagers, you're in good shape.

[Clown]

Again, to summarize a bit: take ownership of a game, be responsible, and work with your teammates to maximize effectiveness.

And again, CBA is not hard.

[Gropes]

Halt all your advice is terrible. You have no idea what you are talking about. Get drunk then post you shall make more sense