Alliance Tiers - inspired by Epi

[Raphael]

Epimetheus recently posted a youtube video that broke down alliances into tiers based on their numerical rank, and that inspired me to make a post about it and share my thoughts. I disagreed with much of what Epi had to say once he got closer to the top AA's, and I've been government in various top AA's and probably have a unique mix of experiences to share. These are purely my subjective thoughts and observations, so if you feel like I've mischaracterized your group then I probably have. Post a long reply telling me how you disagree!

 

Below Rank 75: The Abyss - This is where you find one-man alliances, offshores, dead alliances being preserved by their last fan, or micros that have a handful of active new players struggling to get off the ground. Other than offshores, almost every alliance past rank 75 has more inactive than active players, low membership, low average score. Light never reaches this low on the rankings. There is no advice to leave the Abyss, the pressure has crushed you. Best to leave your AA once it gets here unless you have a reason to stay (offshores etc).

 

Rank 51-75: The Second Page - It's actually not uncommon to find household names floating around this tier, as a lost war can often sink smaller groups past rank 50. This is where low-tier raiding groups and true micros are usually found. Characterized almost universally by the phrase "I didn't realize they were that low!" on at least a couple of the names here. This is also where training AA's are usually positioned, as well as new alliances for their first month or two can usually be found here while they're first building up.

The main advice for this tier is to use diplomacy to your advantage, the lower the ranks the brighter good diplomacy can shine. Secure a protectorate with someone strong enough to defend you against major threats, stop stirring up pointless drama or wars, focus on growing your members and recruitment. You may even want to strongly consider opening talks with your closest allies about merging into them in order to combine forces. This tier is often suffering from multiple terminal issues that will take more effort to fix than to scrap and try again later.

 

30-50: The Potential - This tier is where a lot of newer or growing groups end up who are missing a key piece of the formula. These are the household names who sometimes end up below rank 50 during a losing war, micros who are doing better than most, or even smaller whale groups like Yarr. Breaching the top 50 usually means you're doing things right, but you may be missing one or two key things that will push you up into the relevancy on your own. Many of these groups are key members of larger coalitions, but not necessarily powerhouses in themselves yet. The main advice for these groups is to identify what you're missing and try to flesh it out (most probably are doing this already). Pieces like: Recruitment, do you have enough members? Average score, are you missing mid/upper tier nations (I am aware this can take awhile to grow)? Maybe your FA is subpar and you're associating with too many sub-rank 50 groups who pull you into needless wars and prevent your success, maybe you don't understand the economic meta of the game, or maybe you're not culling your inactives like you should be. Usually it's only one or two tweaks that can start to bump these guys up the ranks.

 

21-30: The Swamp - The name sounds harsher than the intent. This tier is where many once-micros have found their stride, are coming into their own identity other than being a micro, and generally are striving to do things the right way. This is also the place where some household names go to die, groups who should be competitive with at least the tier above this one but for one reason or another have stumbled into a decline and now fight for their own survival rather than success. This tier is generally where alliances start being able to enforce their own will, in a limited capacity, and find success in doing so. This is also where Arrgh usually sits doing its own thing. All the keys to success are here: Money, experience, political connections, and membership. These groups are often some of the silent workhorses in their coalitions, but generally don't get recognition or a huge say at the negotiating table. The universal advice for this tier is that improved tiering will drastically change your outcomes. Advice to the older-but-fallen alliances: Favor activity over tradition especially for government positions, you are in a spot where you will have to experience pain one way or another in order to recover, usually this happens from a splinter if the alliance itself can't pull itself together in time. 

 

Rank 13-20: The Backbone - This is the tier usually comprised of high-member-count alliances with prominent middle tiers, beginning to breach into the upper tiers. These groups usually can and will enforce their ideas into the coalition, but they aren't necessarily the leadership. These are the groups where the most surprise is directed when they do exceedingly well or exceedingly poor. Tiering, time, and sometimes member-count are the only thing that really separate these groups from the tier above them. The advice in this tier is to start being conservative with your politics: Rather than being ride-or-die in someone else's war, take the backseat and let the powerbrokers take the heat for their decisions. Cultivate relationships with all corners of the web and you will benefit greatly when your time comes, otherwise you will end up categorized as a hanger-on to one of the bigger alliances.

 

Rank ?-?: The Secondary Powers - A bit subjective here because we're now drifting into political opinion and that can't always be based on score/rank. Especially while a war has been going on for the past month. This tier is comprised of top alliances usually with their own robust upper tiers and political connections. These groups could easily form their own spheres of influence and most have done so in the past. These groups can probably fight any single or even handful of alliances in the game by themselves and win, and are usually considered equal partners in their coalitions. They just aren't ~1m score alliances, with the notable exception being TI - who are a secondary power purely by their own ambition or lack thereof.

 

 

Rank ?-?: Great Powers - The powerbrokers and figureheads of any given sphere. These groups could almost be paperless and still heavily influence the politics of the game, the names of their high government often make the news when they retire or change seats, and generally a lot of the game's politics hinge on their decisions. These groups are almost universally years-old alliances with triple digit memberships and roughly one million or more score. Even the argument of who is considered a great power at any given time is a source of constant debate and content for the game. These groups tend to lead (or be seen to be leading) their own spheres. They take the brunt of responsibility for sphere actions, even if they may not be the ones pushing said actions. A treaty between any of these groups is considered a significant and a threat to the balance of power. These groups are usually the bulk of damages dealt and received during global wars and their presence determines whether or not a war is considered "a global" affair. Advice at this or secondary power stage is pointless, as usually these last two tiers are arrogant enough to ignore any advice given regardless. They will rise or fall due to their own actions and probably take several other groups with them in either direction.

 

 

 

 

I'll close this out with the disclaimer that a ton of what I've said is a generalization of the tiers at the time of posting. You could probably break it down further but I tried to tier based on where I thought made sense. Not every group in any given tier fits that tier, and a lot of what I mentioned was subjective. I tried to be positive but honest, so hopefully I didn't hurt any feelings. I recognize we all spend hours of our weeks trying to run our respective alliances and it's not as easy as taking a sentence of advice to succeed. Hope you guys enjoyed this! 

 

 

Edited January 29 by Raphael

[Solomon Ben-David]

Disagree, entire post should be replaced with "TSC based"

[Jesus Prime]

I hope my alliance gets to the top 30  It would be unlikely but it would be fun since I was there from the near beginning. ;_; 

[Insert Name Here]

Interesting post.

I definitely agree with your assessment regarding the 5 most powerful alliances, since they're the ones who can make power plays. Honorable mention to KT who are also very proactive in starting conflicts, but they just don't have the numbers the others have, mainly Rose, Eclipse, TKR and Singularity.

[Sweeeeet Ronny D]

I am insulted to be grouped with garbage alliances like TFP, Carthago, and Aurora.  It sounds like we need to get our act together.