Topic: Teams can work
As the current round in MW is coming to an end me and Dimpel would like to share our team strategy. After a bit of deliberation we decided to play teams, some members in the family were a bit apprehensive at first. I wanted to play teams because i had drafted into a fam and brought a banker with me, so it was a selfish choice at first. Dimpel joined me and he brought his banker and soon we had a almost full family of teams of 2 or 3. Now let me explain we did not have a family of well known IC "vets"
The fam strat did not exsist, we just micro managed our own teams, we did not advise either team, just chatted on ic about the weather and how much dimpel fails at everything he does (with the exception of finding and marrying a wonderful girl, congrats 
) As new players joined the family we didnt yell at them orders, we simply let a team pick them up, if they could support or needed them. We gained steadily but were not top in infra, however we had no pressure.
Me and dimpel did try and keep tabs on defences, and with our ally we set a good core for ourselves which we held the entire round. Infact, i think towards the end it would be near impossible to break. Within the core we set about 10 fronts with other families and each in turn tested their strength.
We pushed to 2nd in nw, building, exploring, overbuilding. Still in teams, we coordinated attacking, and became active in irc.
Now as we had no family bank you'd think we would fall behind, but infact it worked fine, no one had the stress of staying awake, there were 0 arguments or interconflicts all round, no intentional deletions. We didnt need the fam bank because we knew our teams, we knew when we'd be on and we could if necessary set up our own loan company within the fam. If im awake at 4am when our down under guys were on, they'd lend me 5m to build and my banker paid them back in the morning. No team fell behind during our growth stage.
Jumps - we published in forum jumps and from this stage we set up a slight fam bank, but as it was purely for savings, again there was no pressure holding it. We calculated each jump and when we had enough we did it. Our attackers didnt drag the bankers down, we used our fleets wisely. jumping fleet ofc as teams isnt as effective as fam bank, but if it was needed 2 teams would come together.
As a family we initiated a warfund, 5 ticks on the market daily income, we didnt overstress it, all bankers followed and continued aiding their team members. As like in many of the good families i've been apart of, i didnt feel like we had any weaknesses, as all players were responsive, and all players kept up to date with each others doing.
Wars - we had a lot of wars, and when we felt we needed to we went into full save, and naturally resources/cash filtered through to attackers since building was put on hold. we were strict not to use the warfund and luckily when 93 did cancel on us we were prepared.
I'm not going to say it is the best family, but in ic nowadays the pace is slower, and the competition is less fierce. But what i will say this system is stress free, "simple ic" no bullshit, just playing the game mindfully, and strategically. None of this "whos bank?" "dickhead logged off with the bank" "aah, shit, i have the bank and want to go to bed, but no one is here" no one had to wait 5 years to build. its progressive, self motivating, and with the right guidance and understanding, it is without a doubt perfect.
It goes to show a fam bank isnt necessary, and the hype over this unbeatable system is nothing but dribble. For me the greatest achievement is to see players actually playing ic again, and not being played on strings. Because if you want to be a good player, a motivator, a leader then you have to cut away all the crap and simply play a smart game, do not play someone elses.
this round we had it both fam bank and teams. just depends on how active you are 
