one opper, one wizzie, one food core cleaner, then the rest can split to banker attacker strats ifr thats what you want.

fambank is better

Fambank is just playing as 1 big team In your team roles you have 4 /5 food producers, this is 4/5 times the overhead of producing food for attackers pop / units. So you want 1 farmer. Secondly, you don't want that many pop bankers, 2 max as they are vulnarable. Given enough planets your cf bankers will be cheaper to built.

If everyone knows each other upkeep / needs you can play as one team without fam bank. Food source sents to bankers, Bankers sent to attackers etc. Fambank is there to lower the need of detailed in advance communication.

We did it this round and it was sit and sit indeed because we did not had space to built more infra...

Sorry (in most cases) family bank SUCKS as dont get me wrong there are some benifits to family banks but there are also a lot of disadvantages and flaws. 

1. For one it virtualy destroys all team working within the family, it can HALVE communication between key players because they just have no need to chat and share aid, all they do it click "send to bank" and then log back out.

2. People sit round waiting to grow, this is perhaps the worst point beacuse while JUMPS do help and work it is a solitery action (you jump up, you must come down) it is a single action!!  Meaning the rest of the time your just stood there waiting to jump again?  Spend 30 mins jumping with family bank and then sit there 4 days doing nothing but clicking send aid?  It stops people growing and puts them (on hold) until there jumped agai, whats the point having people sat there for days with hardly any growth?  In set teams, the entire team grows at a constant level (not just big jumps)

3. JUMPS - Only really work for bankers (or at least they work best for bankers) because bankers can just build the same key things (CF's, RC's, Lasers, Fighters ect) but for an attacker all it really does it create a fleet, so wheres the upkeep and rebuild costs for that fleet?  Wheres the constant flow of GC to keep building?   Part of been an attacker is maintaing your fleets strengh and making sure theres fleet on the build to replace you loses.  How are you going to replace your loses when you only get jumped once in while? 

4. The worst thing about family banks (in my own opinion) is its bloody boring you would be better off giving 1 or 2 people 10 accounts between them and just saying there you go.   Well all a family bank means is 1 or 2 key family members decide everything and all you do is spend the entire round clicking send aid, and build when they tell you, get fleet jumped when they need, get cut out of tactics and have to wait sometimes hours for aid (oh yeh thats good when your been raped) just sit round waiting while eveyone blindly sends to the bank.   You are basically giving all your money to one person and saying you play this game for us and make all the choices, whats so fun or good about that?  more to the point where is the team work element when all your doing is building a dictatorship and not a team.

5. Ok perhaps Im way off bat with this but if IC wanted a family bank and thought it would be a great idea then perhaps they would have made one by now?  I mean the ENTIRE balance of this game (as far as I know) has always been a natural balance between attacker and banker types races, we virtually make our races to match each other, we make them to work together, they are built and purpose made to act as one team.  So we take ALL OF THAT AWAY and blindly send to one place?   Sure my attacker race would work amazing with your banking race but that doesnt matter because all we do it send to one place, theres no true team building involved, just one button (send aid) and thats it for the entire round.

In my opinions team working is the way to go (even if that includes having a bank, or small bank) you should still work in teams and share specific aid.  Send attackers regular GC dont just send it all blindly to the bank, is the bank going to deffend you back side while the banks off cooking dinner or fast alseep?   YES Banks can work with experienced players, a good active family, good communication and good strats BUT on the other hand it virtualy cripples team working in the family, it affects the natural balance of the game, and even makes some of our race choices totally pointless.   

Is funny that people would stack all there eggs in one basket, somone finds out who your bank is and starts casting destroy cash and iron, as well as placing nukes then it could really hurt.   Sure losing 5% of your own GC isnt too bad, losing 5% on millions of GC just sat there is.    You wake up in the morning and send 200'000 iron to the bank but later that day you get stuck and need maybe 20'000 iron back to build something (so you ask the bank) and what do you get told?  Sorry were jumping bankers at the moment, or maybe tomorrow, or later ect.  In other words we allready spent it all come back when you send more.... nice.....  Have seen leaders spend HUGE amounts of bank money while others suffer and sit there waiting to build fleets and defence.    Who do we jump first?  Do we jump the bakers so we have money?  Do we jump for iron and endro?  do we jump attackers who deffend everyone?  Who do we jump?   

Theres NONE of that with team working everyones growing (all the time) if you want to bank money they organise smaller quicker jump days.    Look at world wars, they use to throw HUGE amounts of shells at the enemy ALL IN ONE GO then they would stop firing, the men would get up and march in (and get machines gunned down) in fact thousands died that way until somone genius said (just dont stop shelling them) make it CONSTANT and march the men behind the artillery line (the creeping barage was born) that alone saved thousands.  The point is ONE BIG GO doesnt always work that well and short, smaller, controled bursts of aid can work just as well (if not better) than huge big jumps, rememebr for banker big jumps are great for attackers its not so good, they need regualr aid....  Anyways enough, but fam banks suck and destroy banker / attacker team working and make for a very dull round, if it was so good the game would have a bank option.

"1. For one it virtualy destroys all team working within the family, it can HALVE communication between key players because they just have no need to chat and share aid, all they do it click "send to bank" and then log back out."

All families should be communicating on irc/msn.

"2. 2. People sit round waiting to grow, this is perhaps the worst point beacuse while JUMPS do help and work"

It's not about you 1 person, it's about the family should always remember that.

"4. The worst thing about family banks (in my own opinion) is its bloody boring"

Again if you get on mirc/msn or simply communicate with people via ingames msg's you get your voice heard in the family if you feel the need to say something or comment. About 1 person making all the decisions i'm not sure about that, i always welcome feedback on anything, and to comment on what they think can be improved etc.

"5. Ok perhaps Im way off bat with this but if IC wanted a family bank and thought it would be a great idea smile then perhaps they would have made one by now?'

No the game was made to be played however you see fit by the rules, people simply figured out the best way to play and in essence it makes sense because you are a "family" not teams ...

~ Cloud

Random Hero - Some points well made "as always" in my own opinion I the actual answer to family banks vs team work is simplly to have both yes people should be put into smaller teams it does create growth and more communication so why not have attacker banker teams?  AND still have a bank / small bank or whatever.   Sure if your banks offline, over spends, gets hit hard then your screwed and waiting for your bank to come online, same goes for teams as random hero pointed out, if your team mate is offline, if a banker or attacker goes inactive then what do you do?  Well call me insane (people often do) but wouldnt it be better to have both?   To increase team working and communication by creating teams who can still help each other, but also contribute to a fmaily bank at the same time.

Sure if your banks offline ask your team mate, if your team mates offline ask the bank.  One of the biggest arguments against family banks vs team working IS NOT which works better.  Its the simple fact that one person prefers one way, and the next person likes another way.  You cant always please everyone with one strat (is like closing one of your eyes) lets be fair some TEAMS banker and attacker can be bloody vicious (and thats without a bank) so what happens if thay have a bank as well, seems to make sense to me (have both) if a banker has 4 million GC sat there whats stopping them sending 2 to there team mate and the other 2 to the bank?   My most honest complaint about family banks is that some people can get left behind a little and attacker do NEED regular GC aid, but they dont always get regular GC aid they get occasional big jumps, whats the point having a family bank if your attackers arent getting a regular supply of GC so they can grow there fleets and jump points while replacing loses.  Anyways thats my biggest gripe about family banks that attackers simplly need larger amounts of regular daily GC to properly grow, not just big jump.  But still think if a family could do both fam bank and set teams at the same time then it would never matter who went inactive or offline, and the combination of team growth and family bank jumps could be a great strat, good communication, strong teams, big jumps and regular aid all rolled into one package, why on earth let a fam bank destroy teams when both or either are possible.

>Fam bank works for all fams.

It does not work for small families. Players log in at different times for different lengths. When you have a large family, chances are that most of the time a large family is going to have one player on who can take the bank at any given time. Small families have less chances for players to come on to take bank from them. So they pass on bank to a random player hoping that they will log on soon.

Banks effectivness is fully realized with IRC activity. If a fam doesn't have that (Like all PW fams these days) then they're screwed. In game messaging is just too slow and cumbersome for effective communication.

Fam bank is ideal. It'll do the most for your family if your family has good leadership and competent players. When everyone knows what's going on and how the game works, it's advantageous to have maximum liquidity of your assets to invest them in what needs them the most as soon as possible. This means more funds invested where you need them sooner with fambanking than teaming+SS.

The problem is, MOST families are not like this. In most families the fambank hinders players who would otherwise be SS or in teams and hurts them more than helps. Attempting to fam bank in a family not ready for it easily leads to ruin for a whole fam for a round. There's nothing you can do to jump back after a bad leader misuses the fambank resources to the wrong people to produce the wrong things while leaving family members to stagnate, go inactive, and quit.

> Rain wrote:

> PLEASE DO NOT POST ABOUT HOW FAM BANK IS BETTER... THIS IS ABOUT TEAM BASED STRAT.

Ok...

I say in a fam of 15 you have something like this:

Team 1
2 banker/pop, 1 resourcer/opper/retaker, 1 food/attacker.
Team 2
1 banker/cf, 2 resourcer/opper, 1 food/attacker.
Team 3
1 banker/pop, 1 resourcer/opper/retaker, 1 food/attacker.
Team 4
2 Bankers/cf, 2 attackers/res(1 iron 1 endu)(Both make food),

This is obviously only for ideal circumstances. I want to hone in a strat and eventually try it out. Anyone want to give me some advice. I don't like Fambank... It works only when the entire family is completely willing to follow and be constantly active.

Any suggestions?

as for an ideal fam of 15 i would say

Team 1
2 cf/to bankers/2 attackers

I believe this is a good choice because cf bankers usually are able to grow faster early on and support their attackers. Once they convert to cf/to's they'll be making mass amounts of money. The attackers will most likely be large attackers and thus be able to make rez. Etc.

Team 2
2 cf/to bankers/1 resourcer/1 attacker

Again, same idea with the bankers, only 1 attacker and 1 resourcer. The resourcer is able to produce the food and rez as is the attacker (more focus on rez) or even food on attacker and all rez on resourcer. Bankers should make enough to support them both, and then have extra for savings.

Team 3
2 cf bankers or pop, 1 resourcer, 1 small or medium attacker (if small attacker, push 1 banker to team 1)

this is where activity drops or the semi-active people are. Pop are much slower at the start and boom about halfway to 3/4 expo phase. the pop banker should make enough to support both resourcer and attacker if the attacker is small. If the attacker is medium then the cf banker may be needed to pick up any slack at bor. Then, depending on expansion and what not, the cf banker can move to team 1 or where he is needed.

Team 4
1 pop banker, 1 small attacker and 1 resourcer

pop banker can support the small attacker and resourcer at first. Simple team work really. Resourcer and attacker send stuff to pop banker after building 50 mf's and 10 rs. then go from there

this is has advantages and disadvantages obviously so.

sorry guyz I wont share my wisdom here

@annatar, turn one of the attackers in a pure resourcer, keeping his planets full of res buildings in safe systems shared with the banker, the other attacker must have at least one portal in each system to protect and fast retake from possible threats. You can still have a good round with a team like that. As soon as the others see you going up they will start to colaborate with you.

Important: do not spread so much, with that small setup your goal is to keep a small core safe, dont let napped fams stay in it, neither allies.