Team Game Starategies

In AOE you get team bonuses for different civilizations , some are impressive but some are not that impressive. For example the Spanish team bonus is very impressive since your trade carts generate 33% more gold. Team bonuses where the unit production speed increase are also good. Huns ( Stable ) , Brits ( Archery Range ) , Goths ( Barracks ) and Celts ( Siege Workshop ) improves unit production rate by 20%. So when selecting civilizations in a team game it is important consider these team bonuses. And once you select your teams it is important that use them effectively. For example if one of your team mates is playing Byzantines and you haven't made any monk , then your wasting the 50% more healing rate your monks get because of Byzantine bonus.
Trade carts play a big role in team games. Protecting your trade routs is a must especially if your playing a gold heavy civ like Turks , Spanish or Teutons. Always build your market close to your castles so it is well protected. And when sending carts to an allies markets don't send all to one market , this is a very risky strategy since if his market gets destroyed you have to redirect all your carts to a another market , delaying your gold income. The number of carts you create depends on your civ and the population limit. With most civ's if its a 200 population limit game you can create about 30 carts , but for civ's like Goths you don't need that much since you dont't need huge amounts of gold. Another important thing to remember is that if your market gets destroyed you should immediately create a new one and signal your allies. Otherwise he might not notice that his trade carts are not working and suddenly finds himself short of gold.
Since trade routes are very important one good way to slow down your enemy is to attack there trade route. Trade carts have low hit points and can be killed easily. You can create about 10-15 cavalry archers , go straight to his trade routs , kill about 5-6 trade carts and retreat to your base. If you keep doing this he either has to post some units there or have to send units to protect the route again and again. This not only limits his gold but distracts him as well making his progress very slow. When taking trade carts always try to take trade carts of gold heavy civ's like Turks , Huns or Spanish.