I am assuming a standard 3v3, gig, watery map, and default start, any civ but Shang type game. You’ve chosen Phoeny or Egypt and you look across and find a Minoan, a Roman (any good helepolis civs will do) and ???? as your opponents. You better make sure you have at least one if not two heavy siege allies----preferably Hittite and or Sumer. I’m going to fast forward to late bronze now as most of us will try to win this in Bronze if possible. And Egypt is quite capable of beating any of the fore-mentioned in bronze if things go right. But I’m assuming the game is nicely balanced, and it is obvious that this game will be decided after a long iron war.
If I am Egypt, I recognize I have no answer for massed Helepolis and I don’t even sweat trying to figure out how to defeat that Minoan myself. I am going to do everything I can to help my heavy siege allies to do it for me. Remember this is a team game, and you win as a team. In late bronze I am going to aim for four land based units once I reach iron, Scythes, monotheism priests, balista towers, and Jihad villagers if I’m towerig under attack (I’ll get jihad after I’ve gotten the super unit upgrades). I won’t give elephants a second thought. I am going on villager killing raids with a scythe flood, hold ground with towers, and tribute like mad to my allies to keep them flooded in gold and wood to make sure they can crank out cats until the world looks level.
This is going to require a large amount of team work and coordination. It will not be three teammates, each responsible for his or her own defense. You should all build up military complexes close to one another’s main production areas to provide mutual defense. If a pesky Roman or Minoan slips into your area with a horde of Helepolis, you wont have time to wait for your Hittite ally to lumber a bunch of cats over there. And you can’t expect him to if he is fighting a furious battle at his own front door. Additionally, you need to communicate exactly what you are going to do in late bronze, so your allies can plan and react accordingly.
Once I’ve gotten the upgrades the only thing I will need gold for is occasional priests. However, I am still going to suck up all I can off the map and aggressively go after all the gold (expect in my allies base of course Start mining stone by late bronze and start towering resources and chock points. When you reach iron and get scythes and guard/balista towers start your scythe attacks with a dozen tower building villagers, a few priests, and some gold and stone miners following. As the scythes engage the battle start throwing up towers and grabbing important buildings with your priests. If you run into too many helepolis to handle, just leave and attack elsewhere. Tell your allies where they are and go on your merry way. There is no sense in sacrificing those scythes and villagers in a hopeless confrontation. Your main job is to raid, provide an annoying presence with your scythes, priests, and towers, and make dang sure you keep your heavy siege allies alive and prosperous. The other part of the equation is to try to win and keep the seas, or at least keep it at a stalemate. There are several important reasons. One is you can deny them the ability to trade for gold. Obviously, owning the seas provides/denies food. But maybe as important as anything, you can control the shallows. Massed triremes can cause major problems to any force trying to cross shallows and can be a major factor in deciding the game. I can’t take credit for much of this. These approaches have been communicated or demonstrated to me even if unknowingly by Stooge_Fright and Stooge_Farsan among others. They both have shown me the effect of offensive towering in iron and how hard it is to regain lost ground when your opponent is throwing up balista towers right behind the lines of engagement. Additionally, Fright has posted many times of his approach of taking a back seat militarily in iron if his allies have units that provide a stronger advantage than he can. Certainly, you need to have faith in your allies, and you have the right to strongly recommend where the resources you are tributing should be used. But your team is not benefited much by an Egyptian or Phoeny losing wave after wave of war elephants, scythes, elephant archers, and the like to a critical mass of enemy helepolis. Put those resources to better use and tribute them.