Building the Perfect Team

I have seen several articles about 4th Age Nation Design Strategy. While these articles have applied very well to individual games they have not completely addressed the needs of a 4th Age team game. The interesting thing about a 4th Age team is that the goal is to not necessarily design the best nation, but to design the perfect team in which each nation complements one another. The purpose of this article is to suggest how this goal can be achieved.

Please do not misunderstand me, as I am not saying that there is only one perfect team design for the 4th Age. I am simply suggesting what I think makes a great team and some ideas players might want to consider when joining a team game.

First, I have a list general comments on why I design nations the way that I do.

1. I prefer neutral for an allegiance choice.
2. I believe emissaries and agents are the two most important character classes for the F.A.
3. I prefer single class characters in most cases. I do like C/A's.
4. I do not like playing naval nations or choosing naval SNA's
5. I do think buying 2 random artifacts for 4000 design points is a good deal.
6. I think name commanders at 40 is a pretty decent SNA at a cheap cost.
7. I think mages should be used primarily for the artifact retrieval game.
8. For most nations, I choose 400 light cavalry for troops. For Pop Centers I add a fort, two towers and one camp. Assume this for the team example.

   That said, here is my suggestion for a four nation team including SNA and the first twelve character slots.

   Nation I (Militant)
   Neutral Allegiance, SNA's: Name 40 Commanders, Name 40 Agents, Buy/Sell Bonus, 2 artifacts and 5 war machines. Character: 50C, 40A, 60E, 60E, 60E, 40E, 30M, 30M, then 40C, 40C, 40A, 40A.

   Nation 1 is the military backbone of the team. This nation needs a solid economy to support large troop numbers and therefore starts with four emissaries and SNA 8. The mages are present to cast research artifact spells for nation 4. If a player 1 likes SNA 24 (conjure mounts) it can fit well with this nation. If player 1 dislikes mages they can be moved to nation 3.

   Nation 2 (Agent)
   Neutral Allegiance. SNA's: Kidnap/Assassination +20, Name 40 Agents, 10 War Machines. Characters: 40c, 30C, 40A 10S, 40A 10S, 50A, 60E, 40E, 40E, then 40A, 40A, 40A, 40A.

   Nation 2 takes care of the kidnapping and assassinations for the teams. The team should give all agent artifacts to nation 2 early on in the game. I chose 10 war machines here simply because I don't care for any of the 2000 pt. SNA's. If I had to pick one I would probably choose SNA 22. This nation also works well as a subhuman DS with 60A's.

   Nation 3 (Scout)
   Neutral Allegiance. SNA's: Scout/Recon at Double Skill rank, Name 40 Agents, Name 40 Commanders, 2 Artifacts. Characters: 40C, 40C, 40A, 40A, 60E, 60E, 60E, 40E, then 40C, 40A, 40A, 40A.

   Nation 3 does the scout for characters and commands the companies for nation #2. He should also have wealth of decent agents for other missions. His economy should be solid with his four starting emissaries so he should be able to field a solid military as well.

   Nation 4 (Mage)
   Neutral Allegiance. SNA's: Teleport spell, Name 40 Emissaries, Conjure Mounts spell, and 2 artifacts. Characters: 40C, 30A, 30A, 60E, 40E, 50M, 50M, 50M, then 40E, 40E, 30C, 30C.

   Nation 4 locates and picks up the artifacts that nation 1 researches. The team should give any mage artifacts to nation 4 early in the game. Nation 4 will distribute newly found artifacts as needed to the rest of the team. Conjure mounts will ensure the team has a source for mounts if the market is "bought up". If nation 4 is a DS he might want to consider SNA 26 or 29. As a Free People nation 4 makes a good elven choice.

   While this is probably not the perfect 4th Age team which can be designed, it is certainly a very solid team which is made up of nations which complement one another quite well. When designing a team for a 4th Age game players should consider how they can assume roles which will help the whole team succeed and not just benefit themselves. This example fits that description.

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