I have an alternative to hitting VM members.
Instead of hitting them, why not force their entire alliance into 2 months of VM?
In VM, you cannot recieve or send money or resources.
Your bank won't grow.
Any member nation leaving the VM earlier can be rolled.
And since the pixel-huggers like VM, they surely will comply with this.
Sure you won't be able to rebuild for two months.
But hey, no one can burn your pixel for two months as well.