The Guide

Protection By Alliances at War

When your tribe is protected it is impossible for other players to act aggressively towards your tribe. Neither can you act aggressively towards other players. It is the ideal time to build up your tribe and defenses. You are only in protection when your tribe is very new or when your tribe is paused.

If your tribe is new, you start with a set number of military units based on your race, as well as goods and barren acres that you can build as you choose. Both military training and construction is instantaneous while your tribe is in protection. Note that barracks will not reduce costs while in protection. A good start improves your chances later on, so choose well. When you are happy with your tribe, click one the Start Now buttons found on the "Tribe", "Construction" and "Military Training" pages.

Heritage Bonus

If your tribe has died of age, you do not receive starting military. Instead, you'll receive goods, barren, acres and fame based on your former life.

Your first actions when you start with heritage should be:

1. Build your barren land
2. Train basic soldiers
3. Upgrade the basic soldiers to units with higher defence
4. Leave protection!

How to win? By Bolle

Each twelve months (twice a day) your alliance receives points based on their place on the power ranking. At the end of the age, the alliance with most points is declared the winner.

How do I gain power?

Power is gained in war. Harming the alliance you are at war with yields power. Power gained is lost after 40 years (20 days).

How do I get to war?

War is declared if you have been harming another alliance a lot, or if they have been harming your alliance a lot, or both. The thievery operation Diplomacy tells you how close to war you are.

How many points do I get?

You get more points the higher you are ranked on the land and power rankings. Below, you can see exactly how many points you will get for your position on each of these two rankings.

Example: if you're 1st in land and power you gain 50 points every 12 hours. If you're 1st in power but 5th in land, you gain 35 points every 12 hours.

What to build? By VorteX and Acwder

Constructing different buildings (there are 14) is one of the basic actions in Alliances at War, and one of the first you will perform. Remember: not only can you construct buildings on barren acres, you can also demolish buildings at the Demolition page. Perfecting your build strategy and customizing it for every possible situation may well give you the advantage you need against your many enemies. Every building is vulnerable to aggressive destruction in some way, though a building type like homes tends to be targeted more frequently than other types. To aid you we have compiled a couple of standard builds used by most players and alliances.

Growth Build

This is an ideal build for growing safely if your alliance is not at war.

• 30% Homes (45% if Mori Hai, 15% if Balrog, 0% if Dwarf)
• 7% Farms (10% if Mori Hai or Templar, 0% if Spirit)
• 15% Churches*
• 15% Guard Houses
• 3% Guilds
• 6% Yards
• 24% Mines

It is also possible to run academies instead. However, this often requires 25% academies to be really worth it, and that means less mines. Usually, people who go for academies drop the Guard Houses, but this can be really tricky. However, if you are a thief, academies can be better than churches.

Research Build

A crucial part of Alliances at War is research. Research is most effective when the whole alliance gathers it. The ideal research build maximizes the amount of Labs. Use the same build as for growth, but build Labs instead of Mines/Yards.

• 30% Labs *

* If you run more than 30% labs the extra labs will produce less than 1 research point per tick.

* Maintaining Labs increases the decay rate of science after you have invested your research points. Either demolish all labs or keep running a lot of labs as alliance.

War Build

Alliances at War is a war game, and therefore it is natural that some alliances go head-to-head in a war brimming with action and fun. But what should a tribe build in times of war?

There are 3 war builds: Thief, Mage and Attacker. Each has its own uses, and each has its own building strategy.

Attacker

• 30% Homes¹ (Same exceptions as above)
• 0-7% Farms² (Same exceptions as above)
• 0-25% Weaponries³
• 25% Academies
• 13-45% Guilds

¹ Sometimes, especially for mages, it's worth it to run less homes in order to increase your potential damage output. However, this also makes you a better kill target.

² Sometimes a tribe runs 0% farms and buys its food from the market. It works, it greatly improves your potential damage output, but it also puts a strain on your alliance's market and adds a weakness to your tribe: the spell poison can destroy huge food stocks in no time.

³ Occasionally running guilds instead of weaponries can be a better choice. This means going for a hybrid mage-attacker build.

Note: If you are being targeted by mages, demolish some guilds and/or weaponries and convert them to churches (or get a higher mage level). The guilds are useful to be self-sustainable. If you're being targetted by thieves, build Guard Houses. Either way, it is recommended to start off offensively to be able to kill other tribes more effectively. After all, offense is the best defense.

Mage

• 30% Homes (Same exceptions as above)
• 0-7% Farms (Same exceptions as above)
• 25-50% Academies
• 13-45% Guilds

Mages need to choose a good balance between ML and guilds: if you're ML 50 but have only 13% guilds you're quite useless. General guideline: if you are dealing with a high mage level enemy, run more Academies and less Guilds. If you are dealing with a low mage level enemy, run less Academies and more Guilds for more fire power. Templars don't have to run any academies if they use Mystics instead (at least 25 mystics per acre you own).

Thief

• 30% Homes (Same exceptions as above)
• 0-7% Farms (Same exceptions as above)
• 20-25% Churches
• 4% Guilds
• 34-46% Hideouts

If you are under heavy assault by mages, it is advisable to demolish some Hideouts and build more Churches and/or Academies.

Turtle Build

• 33% Homes (Same exceptions as above)
• 7% Farms (Same exceptions as above)
• 25% Guard Houses
• 25% Churches
• 4% Guilds
• 3% Bastions
• 3% Hideouts

Remember to use Thieves Trap and cast Seal of Deflection. It is optional to build additional Homes, like I did in this example. Think of these extra homes as cannon fodder. You may consider building Walls or Bastions instead of Guard Houses if the alliance attacking you is not using thievery, and vice versa for mages and churches. You only need walls at all if the enemy has dangerous attackers.

Which race?

Exploration

Exploring is one of the two main ways to grow in Alliances at War. Races that use exploration as their main way to grow are commonly referred to as 'explorers'—as opposed to 'attackers' who attack other tribes for land. What you need to explore To send an expedition to explore you need citizens, crowns and defence. The costs of defence and citizens are based on your current amount of land, and will be influenced by other factors. For example, economics research can reduce citizen costs, whereas walls can reduce the amount of military you must send out on the expedition. You will have to create a large stockpile of crowns for both the explore and more military units to defend your new land. To avoid being raided by stronger tribes you should store this money at the alliance market. Since you're sending defence, your defence at home will be lower and as a consequence the risk of getting attacked will be bigger. Watch out as well for attackers who might try and commandeer your incoming barren land during the 4 updates it takes before your lands can be built on. You will also need to train defence for the new land. How much depends on how large you will become after the explore. To be safe, train more than attackers around the same size could attack you with—after your new land has arrived—and make sure your strength is high to remove yourself from the spotlight. Explore efficiently Although sending the explore is easy, doing it efficiently is hard. Whenever possible, it is best to do the largest explore you can, 25% of your current land size. You can take a look at the formulae page to see how your explore costs are determined.

Mystics

In the world of Orkfia, magic plays a big part. Magic can be used for both good and evil purposes. In each tribe lives a mage who can cast both defensive and offensive spells. Many tribes in Orkfia have suffered destruction, defeat or succour at the hands of mages. Mage Level Your mage has a certain level. The higher this level, the better he is at casting spells and at defending against any mages. You can increase your Mage Level by building more academies. Each % of land built in academies gives you 1 more Mage Level (ML). So if 20% of your land is occupied by academies, your mage is ML 20. Templar can also choose to increase their ML by running Mystics instead. Mystics and academies do not stack, however, so it is quite pointless to run both. Mana Your mage can't just cast an infinite number of spells. He needs an energy source for that. In orkfia, guilds are that source. GuildS provide you with Mana. Each spell your mage casts consumes a certain amount of your mana. Since you can run more guilds as you grow, the mana required for a spell increases as you grow. Some spells cost more mana than other spells. You regenerate 12.5% of your maximum mana every tick. Of course, the maximum mana can't be exceeded. Guilds hold more mana if you own more guilds: each % of guilds you run increases the mana your guilds hold by 0.5%. So if you run 20% guilds, each guild holds 1.1 mana. Spells and fame There are different kinds of spells for different purposes. Self spells are spells which boost your own tribe, for instance by increasing the amount of food produced or by increasing the rate at which your population grows. Self spells have a duration of up to 28 months. A subcategory of self spells, the race spells, are only available to certain races. The biggest category are the dark spells, which your mage can direct against other tribes. Casting these spells causes damage to the target and transfers some of their fame to your tribe. There are also intel spells, or intelligence spells, which will help you gather information about other tribes. Finally, there are alliance spells, which you can cast on your allies to give them several bonuses. When you cast spells on enemy tribes, you get fame. Fame gains are based on the type of spell cast, the damage dealt and the size of the target: targets of the same size yield most fame.

Spells

Thievery

Thievery is the peculiar name in AatW for the third of the three powers: magic, military and thievery. Thievery is all about spying and sabotage. However, in AatW this sabotage can take on immense proportions. I will explain spying, sabotage and the mechanics of thievery on this page. Thievery in general Thievery is essentially the things you can do with thieves. Thieves are a special type of unit, namely the last unit on the military page. If you send your thieves on operations, they will leave your tribe for a while, usually three months. If you keep your thieves in your lands, they will provide you with protection against enemy operations. The defensive operation Thieves Trap will give you even more protection against thievery. The amount of thieves at home therefore determines the success of your operations and the failure of enemy operations. This is determined through TPA or Thieves Per Acre. If your target has less TPA than you, you will have a high chance of success. If he has a higher TPA than you, you will have a small chance of success. The same counts if he were to use thieves against you. Remember: only the amount of TPA currently in your lands determines the success of operations. If you plan to use thievery, check whether your target has any Guard Houses. These buildings will truly ruin your day. You can read about Guard Houses on the Buildings page. Plans and hideouts Your thieves can't just go out and ruin an enemy. They need the means to do this. In AatW, the means aren't coins but plans. You need to prepare an operation or it will fail. In other words, you need to produce plans. Plans are produced by Hideouts, just as Guilds provide mages with mana. However, the formulae for regeneration of thievery plans (TP) and maximum amount of TP are different than those for mana. You can check the formulae page for more information on this subject. Intelligence operations Intel operations help you gather information about an enemy tribe. Check the Intel Operations page for more information. Black operations Black operations can utterly destroy a tribe. In addition, doing them yields a lot of fame! You can read all about them on the Black Operations page. Self Operations During self operations your thieves are sent out on an operation to gather specific goods or knowledge, or to prepare against enemy thievery. You can read all about it on the Self Operations page. There are 2 types of operations: Intel Operations & Black Operations.

Intel Operations

All intel gathering operations require only 1 thief and are easy to carry out. Recon Your thieves search the land of the target and return with the target's build structure. Reveals "Incoming Acres" and "Under Construction" Sneak Your thieves search the land of the target and return with information about the target's total military and military still in training. Reveals "Military Training" Intercept Your thieves find out how close to their homeland the enemy's attacking force is. Reveals "Military Returning" Bribe Accountant Your thieves use bribery to learn how much resources a tribe owns. Reveals "Tribe Goods" Truth's Eye Your thieves observer the enemy's tribe to establish by which magical effects it is currently affected, as well as the target's mana reserves. Reveals "Effecting Spells" Reveals amount of remaining mana points of the target as well as the maximum guild capacity. Diplomacy You send a diplomat to the target tribe in order to learn how close to war you are with that tribe's alliance. Reveals "Hostility" (100% means war) 0-10% We are perfectly happy with these people! 10-25% These people have their deficits, but they are not that bad. 25-50% These people have some armies near ours! We should keep an eye on them! 50-75% These despicable wretches are a real threat to our noble nation. 75-90% This filth is about to attack us! We should prepare for war at once! 90-<100% They are invading! Take up arms and fight! >100% We are at war with these abominations!

Black Operations

Black operations are typically used in unconventional warfare and include actions like killing citizens, spying on military and destroying buildings. You gain three fame for each building destroyed, but once again the closer a target is to you in terms of size, the more fame he will yield. One exception if Ambush, which yields three fame per acre regained. Poison Water Send more than 500 thieves, unless you are larger than 1500 acres; then you should send at least a third of your acres. Difficulty: Hard Thieves required: minimum 500 or 1 per 3 own acres Destroys up to 2% farms Kills up to 0,8% citizens (minimum 50) Arson Send your thieves to burn down the homes of your enemy's population. Sending less thieves than 70% of your acres will result in fewer buildings destroyed. Difficulty: Hard Thieves required: 1 per own acre (for max damage) Destroys up to 1% homes Wildfire Start a few fires and watch on as your enemies' yards are consumed by the flames! Sending less thieves than 70% of your acres will result in fewer buildings destroyed. Difficulty: Hard Thieves required: 1 per own acre (for max damage) Destroys up to 1% yards Tunneling Your thieves will dig tunnels in under the academies of your enemy and destroy the foundations, thus destroying the buildings. Sending less thieves than 140% of your acres will result in fewer buildings destroyed. Difficulty: Hard Thieves required: 1 per own acre (for max damage) Destroys up to 1% academies Thieves Rebellion Your thieves will attempt to make the job easier for your mage by burning the churches of your enemies. This can be a very effective operation to take out large, well defended opponents. Sending less thieves than 70% of your acres will result in fewer buildings destroyed. Difficulty: Hard Thieves required: 1 per own acre (for max damage) Destroys up to 2% churches (20 maximum) Engineered Explosives Your thieves will plant some explosives inside an enemy's mines and watch the gold scatter all over the place as they blow up. Sending less thieves than 70% of your acres will result in fewer buildings destroyed. Difficulty: Hard Thieves required: 1 per own acre (for max damage) Destroys up to 1% mines Hwighton Raid Destroys opponent’s mage power. Difficulty: Hard Thieves required: 1 per own acre Destroys 4% of opponent's maximum mana Ambush Send your thieves on a devious counter-attack against any enemy who dared attack you and claim your land as their own. Difficulty: Easy Thieves required: 5 per own acre Claims 10% of the incoming land of the enemy 0.5% of the returning military units killed

Self Operations

Weather’s Light To improve their reputation and foster goodwill, your thieves work by the weather’s light in order to help the farmers get the harvest done in time. Difficulty: Average On average yields 13.5 kgs per thief sent. Templu Amblo Eager to satisfy their lust for gold, your thieves set out on an archeological voyage to find great treasures. Difficulty: Average +20 cr per thief sent (on average) Thieves Trap (self) To protect their base of operations your thieves build deadly traps to, as they put it astutely, neutralize the enemy. Difficulty: Easy Thieves required: 1 per own acre Lasts 6-10 updates Blocks 15% of enemy operations Land Claim Your thieves set out to explore and secure uncharted lands. Difficulty: Hard Thieves required: 1 per own acre +2.75 acres per operation sent (on average) Napanometry By devoting time to the art of Napanometry, more mundanely known as the gathering of information on foreign scientific breakthroughs, your thieves help your scholars produce more research. Difficulty: Average +1 research point per 30 thieves sent (on average)

Invasion

The noble art of combat. Is there anything more satisfying than to invade the lands of your enemy, brutally slaughter his military and citizens, and take his land? To watch your enemies howl in despair while your army leaves loots and destroys? Ah, the ecstasy! How to succeed in attacking The rules of combat are simple. As previously explained, military units have offensive and defensive strength. If you attack someone, the total offensive strength of all the units you send will be weighed against the total defensive strength of all the units your opponent has at home defending his lands. You succeed in your attack if your total offense is greater than the defending tribe's total defense. Bear in mind that the opponent�s spells, buildings and research will alter his total defensive strength and that your spells, buildings and research will alter your offensive strength. For example, if a Dwarf had 20 offence specialists, giving 160 offensive strength (8 x 20) and he attempted to standard attack a Brittonian with 30 defence specialists and 23 elites, giving 166 defensive strength (30 x 4 + 23 x 2), the Dwarf would fail if the Brittonian had all his troops home. But if, on the other hand, the Brittonian had sent out all his elites, he would have only 120 defensive strength at home (30 x 4) and the Dwarf would succeed. However, it is not that simple. Consider that the Dwarf had Ciorin's Blessing (self spell) on which gives 15% more offence and the Brittonian had Deam's Hunt (self spell) on which gives 10% more defence. The Dwarf would have 184 offensive strength (160 x 1.15) against the Brittonian's 183 defensive strength (166 x 1.1), which means that the Dwarf would succeed. If the Dwarf did not have Ciorin's Blessing on, he would have failed because 160 offence is not enough to beat 182 defence. The spell Enchantress Salem can negate Deam's Hunt, which makes attacking tribes with Deam's Hunt on 10% easier. Another consideration is buildings and science; your research bonus will improve the effectiveness of your walls and weaponries. For example, if you were in an alliance with 10% combat science with 20% weaponries, and had Ciorin's Blessing on, that would give you a 39% bonus to your raw offence (15% from CB and 20% from weaponries. The combat science enhances the weaponries by 20%, which yields 20*1.2=24%. Hence 24+15=39%). Clearly, modifiers can make a significant difference. So in order for an attack to be successful, careful calculation is required. Note that there are tools around which will calculate for you. After attacking, the troops that you have sent will be out for 4 updates (unless one of the race's traits is less time to attack). This means that those troops cannot defend or attack while out. You will need to wait until they're all home before you can attack again. This is all quite confusing for new players, but you will get a knack for it soon enough! Different Attacks There are eight different ways of attacking your enemy. Which one suits your needs best depends on the situation.

Attacks

There are 8 different types of attack. Which type suits your needs best depends on the situation. Standard Attack Conquer the lands of your enemy! You get more acres the bigger the target is. The Orkfian Gods frown upon invading much smaller tribes. >80% of your size gives good gains, 80-75% is a smaller grab and below that the gains are very little. Losses are greater for the attacker than the defender. You capture 35% extra land on your way to the enemy's tribe. These acres can be built on right away. Raid Storm into your enemy's lands, looting crowns, capturing some easy acres, and killing up to 20% of the target's citizens. Military losses are slim for the attacker and high for the defender. Attacking smaller tribes yields less crowns and acres. Note that Dragon (x0.2) and Balrog (x0.5) lose less minimum citizens. Maximum amount of crowns you can steal is the enemy's size x 500 Conquers about 3% of your enemy's land. Kills a minimum of of 2x the target's acres as citizens. Race modifiers apply. Targeted tribes receive a +15% defensive bonus! You capture 35% extra land on your way to the enemy's tribe. These acres can be built on right away. Barren Grab In this attack you target barren acres only. It potentially yields more acres than the standard attack since barren acres are easy to conquer. Using this attack on someone who has no barren acres results in zero gain. What a pity! When doing a barren grab you lose less military than with a standard attack. Gains are halved if the defending tribe is 51-75% your size, and quartered if the defending tribe is 50% or below Barren Grab cannot be used against a tribe that is below 70% of your size if that tribe is below 2000 acres. You capture 35% extra land on your way to the enemy's tribe. These acres can be built on right away. Hit'n'Run An attack that can be used to wear down a larger foe. Unlike other attack types, your troops will engage in combat even if they are outnumbered. As long as they aren't overpowered by more than two to one (so you need 50%+ of opponent's defence in offence), they will engage the enemy and kill as many troops as possible. They will also rain arrows over the enemy's citizens and kill as many as they can. The attacker's losses will be small; the defender's losses will depend on how much offence is sent. When the total offence sent is 60% of the total defence of the victim, then the victim will suffer 60% of the normal troop losses. Similarly, when 80% offence is sent, 80% of normal losses will be suffered. Hit'n'Run can only be used on larger opponents (e.g. more acres) Generals sent on a Hit'n'Run need 2 more updates to recover Hit'n'Run does not affect fame. Blasphemy Crusade The most destructive and arguably the most feared of all attacks. Religion sure can be a powerful weapon. Your troops will zealously storm into your opponent's lands. Determined to root out all heresy they will destroy buildings of magic, worship and thievery. Guilds, Academies and Hideouts will be destroyed and thieves will be massacred. Your enemy will suffer high combat losses but be warned; the attacker's combat losses are high as well. Destroys 15% academies, 7.5% guilds and hideouts, and kills 5% thieves and mystics. Because of the holy nature of the Blasphemy Crusade your generals need extra time to recover from this attack. Generals sent on a Blasphemy Crusade will need 2 more updates to recover until they can be sent on another attack. The gods demand payment in blood for their blessing. Even immortal races cannot start a crusade without this sacrifice. Fame is only earned for destroyed buildings during war. Raze Your troops rush into the lands of the enemy, destroying as many homes as they can. Can send 50% to 100% in offense of opponent's defense, with maximum damage dealt with 100% of offense sent. Destroys a number of homes, equivalent to 10-20 arsons depending on how much offense is sent. Homes destroyed cannot be built upon for 2 updates. Generals sent on a raze need 2 more updates to recover. Destroys ((land*0.012) + (homes*0.04)) homes. Losses equal to blasphemy crusade. Commandeer You may seize the recently captured acres of an enemy tribe while their army is still on the move. Gains are halved if the defending tribe is 51-75% of your size, and quartered if 50% of your size or below; cannot be used on a tribe below 70% your size if that tribe is below 2000 acres. Seizes enemy's incoming acres (minimum amount 10% of enemy's total land, can take all acres if within sufficient range). Gains decrease outside of optimal grab range. Losses equal to Barren Grab. You capture 35% extra land on your way to the enemy's tribe. These acres can be built on right away. Pillage This destructive attack can be used both to cause grievous damage and to gain resources. Your army turns farms, labs, mines and yards into rubble, plundering the ruins for goods to return home and enslaving as many as possible. Destroys 5%+(land*0.01335) of the target's Mines, Laboratories and Yards, as well as 1%+(land*0.005) of the target's Farms. Every farm destroyed yields 5000 kgs of food. Every lab destroyed yields 20 research points. Every mine destroyed yields 8000 crowns. Every yard destroyed yields 500 logs.

Alliances

Every player in Alliances at War is part of an alliance. An alliance can consist of up to 12 tribes and tribes in an alliance are, as the name implies, allies. They play together, help each other and fight their enemies (i.e. everyone outside their alliance) together. It might seem unfair with 12 people against the whole of Orkfia, but remember; all the other alliances are also fighting each other. How to know what to chose? When you register you will have several options, amongst which the following: Join Bootcamp or Join Random When you have little or no experience in the game, it's recommended you join a boot camp. There you will be helped by people willing to teach you the basics of the game. Another option is to join a random alliance and make your way to the World forum. There you will find the Recruitment topic where you can find an alliance that takes on new players. Or you can just stay in your alliance to try and figure things out by yourself. Join Friends If you have friends that also play and already have an alliance you can ask them to give you the alliance password and alliance number (#). Fill those in when signing up and you will join them in battle. Create an Alliance If you want to lead an alliance towards glory in Alliances at War, choose this option. However, it is only recommended if you are going to be joining with more than 5 other players. The world of Orkfia is a very competitive place, and very small alliances will be hard-pressed to achieve greatness.

Being Elder

In Alliances at War, it is all about alliances. But alliances consist of players. Who should say what the alliance should do? For this purpose, there is a voting system in Alliances at War. Each tribes has one vote, and the tribe that receives most votes is elder. You can vote for someone else whenever you want. An elder can appoint two co-elders who can help him with his tasks. It is important that your elder is concerned about the alliance. It also helps if he knows a lot about the game. The elder has several so called "elder options": Rename alliance Give your alliance a nice name to stand out in Alliances at War. Having an alliance with an original theme makes your alliance look like an organised group instead of a random bunch of players. Defect a tribe Choosing this will forcibly remove a tribe to another alliance. This is a powerful option to get rid of an inactive or unwanted tribe. Maybe you have some personal issues with the player that make it impossible for you to play together? Then defect him! Make sure your alliance backs you on your decision, or you may lose votes. Defecting cannot be undone, so do not be rash! Change alliance type Your alliance is either Public or private. If you are a small alliance that wants more tribes to join the alliance, choose "Public". New players that have chosen to join a "random alliance" might now be randomly allotted to your alliance. This also means that defected tribes will be able to enter your alliance. If, on the other hand, you do not want more players to enter, or if you prefer to decide who joins and who does not, make your alliance "private". However, you can only make your alliance private if the alliance consists of 5 or more players. Elder Message This is one of the most important ways to communicate with your alliance. Every time a player views the alliance forum he sees the elder message at the top of the screen. Update the Elder Message regularly and choose your words carefully. Since the Elder Message cannot be too long, you need to be specific and clear. The Elder Message is an effective way to give your alliance orders, or to announce an upcoming war. In war the elder message is best used to display the current target and time of attack. Important guidelines for the elder message: - Use simple language and be clear. - Do not use it to send someone a personal message. - Update the elder message regularly. Alliance Mail The Alliance Mail is an effective way to quickly give orders to your tribes and to make sure they notice the orders. The Alliance Mail sends a message to the inbox of every tribe in your alliance. This will highlight their inbox, informing them that they have received a message. This makes the alliance mail a very effective tool for issuing orders in war. Important guidelines for the alliance mail: - Use simple language and be clear. - Do not use it to send someone a personal message. - Do not use it too often. You will annoy your tribes. - Use it in war to issue urgent orders or to share urgent information. Banner Create and select a nice banner for your alliance to fit your alliance theme! The banner dimension limits are 500 (width) by 200 (height) pixels. It's possible to use animated gifs as well to create a changing banner. Instead of creating banners, you can also use pictures on the web as a banner. Don't forget to make sure that your banner does not violate the Code of Conduct or copyrights! Alliance password When creating an alliance you are asked to set an alliance password. This ensures that nobody else except you and others you have shared the password with can enter the alliance. Choose your password carefully and only give it to people who you wish to enter the alliance. You can change the password at all times. The alliance password only works for alliances that are set to private, which is only possible in alliances consisting of 5 tribes or more.

Market

The market is essentially your alliance's storage room. Each alliance has a market, and tribes use this market to store their goods. In exchange for the goods, they get credits. With these credits, they can buy their own goods back, or they can buy goods from someone else in the alliance. Since neither your credits nor the goods on the alliance market can be stolen, the market also functions as a vault. By putting goods in the market, you ensure that no one takes hold of them by raiding, or destroys them by means of spells. Finally, no accidents happen to goods on the market. So while your tribe can lose some wood due to heavy rainfalls or faulty construction, that can't happen to goods stored in the market. Market credits You don't get the same amount of credits for each type of goods. Each crown gives two credits, each kilogram of food gives three credits and each log of wood gives thirty-four credits. Soldiers are worth a different amount of credits for each race, because their cost differs per race. Credits required for goods are not subject to change, so one crown will always cost two credits. You can't have less than zero market credits. You can't lose market credits. The market and the alliance If everyone puts money on the market and takes out wood, there will soon be no wood left on the market. That is quite unsatisfactory if you want to build something. An alliance will therefore have to be capable of enforcing some sort of discipline among its members. Essentially, you can all take out wood as long as someone else is producing it and storing it on the market. But you should be willing to give that person crowns in return. After all, they are not your crowns anymore, as you used the credits you got in return for your crowns to buy your alliance mate's wood! Overall, however, sharing resources in the market is a good way to help your fellow alliance members grow or to aid them in difficult times. In any case, alliance members must cooperate with one another to maintain a good balance of goods. Communication and a clear hierarchy will really help: the market is a team effort after all. Squabbling over goods won't make the game any more fun. It might help a lot if the people in the alliance agree on some guidelines for the use of the market. Goods do not just disappear when your tribe dies, but will remain stored in the market. This means that your alliance will most likely build up a pile of goods that belong to no one. Do keep an eye on the goods left in the market even when you have a huge amount, though, as the pile can dwindle really fast if everyone is grabbing that type of goods. Just like goods remain in the market, so do deficits. If a tribe dies while he had to pay back five thousand logs of wood, the market will not get that wood back. The wood will be gone. Therefore, encourage your players to pay off any decifits before they die. Occasionally, you may want one tribe to produce a large amount of one type of goods. Warring often takes a lot of wood and might also take a lot of crowns, food and soldiers. Make sure the alliance is well supplied before you start a war, or you may find your alliance at a great disadvantage. Keep your market in a healthy state and you will have a much easier time. The market and war The market can be used as a part of war tactics. While an alliance is preparing for war, every tribe can load the market with lots of resources. This will give each tribe a huge amount of market credits which the player can use in war or when the enemy is trying to kill him. This way you will not run out of market credits and your chance of survival increases. Recent changes: goods decay In the age 48 changes the market was changed radically. Goods belonging to no one now slowly decay or disappear. This means that players should be careful about their deficits. If a tribe dies with a deficit of 500k wood, the market will slowly regenerate 500k wood. If a tribe dies with a bonus of 500k wood, the market will slowly regenerate 500k wood. In that case, players should take care to produce more wood during the decay period. Otherwise they may be left without any wood, crowns or food in their market!

Research

Doing research is a team effort. Research points (rps) are generated by Laboratories, and it is most effective if all tribes in the alliance have laboratories. All tribes invest their rps simultaneously. The elder can then purchase science using those same rps. How does research work? You can have 0 to 25 percent Research in any branch. The amount of research you get in exchange for your rps is determined by the amount of rps relative to your alliance's size. 14.4 Research points per acre (RPA) yields 25% research in a branch. This means that if your alliance is a total of 60000 acres, you need a total of 864000 rps. But if your alliance is only 15000 acres, you need only 216000 rps. In the following table you can see how much research per acre (RPA) you need to get a certain research percentage: Research Formula RPA 0 1.74 3.86 6.51 9.9 14.4 Research % 0 5 10 15 20 25 How long does it take to generate enough rps? That depends on the amount of laboratories the tribes in your alliance run. Assuming each tribe runs 30% laboratories, the alliance as a whole generates 0.3 RPA per month. As 14.4/0.3=48, you can get a maxed branch of Research in a mere two days! Decay Of course Research does not last forever. It is rather hard to reflect the process of technological innovation in a game. In Alliances at War, the edge the science gives you over other alliances simply slowly disappears, or decays. This decay is modified by two factors, alliance size and the amount of research points invested. Each month, 0.05*Acres + 0.007*rps of rps decay. You can easily calculate what this means for your own alliance. Here is an example: Your alliance has 20000 acres, and your elder sees you have 7 RPA left. This means a total of 140000 rps. The decay is therefore 0.05*20000 + 0.007*140000 rps. That's 1000 decay due to size and 980 due to rps. Coordinating your research investment Obviously, research can be a rewarding investment - use it well! But remember that research is a team effort. Also remember to consider how much RPA you want. The more RPA you have, the faster your rps decay, so consider your choice well! If you wish to have as much science as possible for as long as possible, you should invest 20 RPA. This is the absolute maximum in any branch. It is therefore possible to have invested a total of 40 RPA over two branches. Running 20 RPA is not very efficient though. First, 14.4 RPA already gives the full bonuses and the extra RPA only accelerate the process of decay, even though it'll take longer for everything to decay. Second, 20 RPA is the absolute maximum. So if your alliance loses acres, they lose any research points that are left on top of 20 RPA. Also remember that it is better to invest all rps in one branch of 14.4 RPA rather than two branches of 7.2 RPA. After all, there is a basic decay based on your alliance's size - and this decay counts for both branches. This means you lose an extra 0.05*acres of rps per month. Now check the bonuses each branch of science gives! Combat and Growth. Summary for elders Research is an important asset which improves your chances in the dangerous world of Alliances at War. Use it, and use it well. Here is a short summary of how you can get science: Have all your tribes run 30% labs or more. Make sure they do not invest their rps until you want them to. Make them all invest their rps at about the same time. Purchase the desired research branch. Remember that it is better to maximize one branch rather than split it in two branches.

Combat & Growth

Combat The art of war occupies the mind of every great scientist in Alliances at War. Unfortunately for these poor souls, their knowledge was often too dangerous to allow their continued existence after they had made a scientific breakthrough. 1% Combat 2% increased effectiveness of Weaponries and Walls 1% increased capacity of Hideouts & Guilds 1% faster regeneration of Mana Points & Thievery Points 1% of enemy magic spells and thievery operations blocked and 1% reduced enemy attack damage 20% bonus Generals and troops return 1 hour sooner from any type of attack to a minimum of 2 hours. Growth Other scientists are not considered great by later generations, but they did live longer and much more prosperously than their renowned counterparts at the war department. However, as they grew old the economy invariably stagnated, which in turn led to riots.... 1% Growth 1% faster citizen regrowth 1% increased production from Farms, Yards and Mines 1% less citizen & defence required for exploring 1% lower crown & log costs to construct buildings 0.5% lower crown costs for exploring and training military 20% bonus 10% more population

Alliance Strategy

Attacking alliance This strategy is built around attacker races. Research and market are used to boost the attackers' strengths. The market is fed with goods by the thieves and the mages, allowing the attackers to manage their tribes better. Thieves primarily do Intel Operations and mages cast Enchantress Salem on targets before their attacks. The attackers will protect the thieves and mages from potential agressors. In war, the attackers can either open up the enemy's defences to mage attacks by using the Blasphemy Crusade attack, or they can follow a straightforward approach and simply Raze their targets. Exploring alliance All players run their tribes to achieve fast growth. Economics Research can be useful because all tribes will use explores to gain acres. The alliance market is used purely as a warehouse where tribes pile up their resources needed for their next explores. However, the absence of attackers means that enemy attackers will feel free to grab you. Stealing from the market is considered a capital crime in an exploring alliance! In war, the thieves and mages will be a force to be reckoned with. The races in an exploring alliance are chosen for high income and strong defence. War alliance Chosen for the purpose to have a lot of wars, and to kill tribes fast. You will find many thieves and mages in this type of alliance, backed up by a few powerful attackers. Alliance research is purchased in Combat Research, sometimes in Warding (for great defence) but rarely in Economics. The alliance market is used with a market system in which individual tribes claim resources. It is important for a warring alliance that each tribe has enough market credits to rebuild their lost buildings. In wars there will be kill attempts and your tribe will be easy to destroy once you run out of credits or market goods. The role of the attackers is to protect the thieves and mages and to be a threat to the opposing alliance, making sure their attackers don't just send a lot of offence knowing they won't be retalled. Race Setup A coordinated alliance will want to decide which races to use. How many of them and what focus for each of them? Some races excel at growing while others, like Owl, can deal a lot of damage. Races can also be either mage or thief, and attacker or explorer. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. A good race setup is vital for the chances of the alliance. Important when deciding this is your team of players. Keep in mind what type of players you have and what their strengths are. Choose races to match each player, or players to match your strategy. Alliance Research When you go for high research it is important that there are clear research rules in the alliance. Some alliances allow attackers to run less labs, or even none. This can benefit the attackers but it will also slow down the accumulation of research. Alliance market The market can be used to help every tribe in the alliance, or simply as a place where each tribe stores its own resources for later use. The market can play a role in the alliance strategy. Generally, it is a good idea for an alliance to agree on rules of conduct with regard to the market. Read the Alliance Market chapter for more ideas.

War

At the start of age 51, the war system was changed extensively. This page attempts to give an introduction to, and overview of, the new system. For detailed formulae, see the Wiki. Declaring a war War is declared once an alliance has reached a certain amount of hostility. An alliance gains hostility through all activities directed against an enemy alliance. Exploring acres yields hostility as well. Detailed formulae can be found on the Wiki. Hostility gains increase if the targeted alliance has a similar average tribe size and if it has generally the same overall size. Less hostility is required to declare war the closer both alliances are in terms of size and power. Wage war or lose the age Warring is required if you want to win an age, as power can only be gained in war. Power is gained in the same way hostility is gained. As power gained is based purely on damage dealt, it pays off to target the enemy alliance's biggest tribes. Note that killing tribes yields extra power, so it is good practice to focus your efforts on one target! Ending a war A war can end in several ways. Firstly, it ends if either alliance gains 25% in power of the enemy's total alliance size at the time the war started. Secondly, a war ends if an alliance surrenders. Thirdly, a war ends if its full duration of 48 hours has expired. In this final case the war is won by the alliance closest to the objective of gaining 25% of the enemy alliance's size in power at the time of war declaration. Either of these three ways can be the trigger that ends the war, but it has to be one of these three. After a war between two alliances ends, hostility between them does not accumulate for 12 months. Victory If your alliance wins the war, you will receive the spoils of war: 2400 power + current enemy land/12 power for your alliance and 300 fame + current enemy land/500 fame for each individual tribe. This amount of fame is not subtracted from the defeated alliance's tribes but simply added to the winning alliance's tribes. Defeat If your alliance is defeated, you obviously won't receive any spoils. However, your alliance will keep all the power earned during the war. Each tribe in your alliance loses 200 fame. Surrender If an alliance feels sure that they are fighting a losing battle, surrender is an option. If you surrender, each tribe in your alliance loses 200 fame. Surrender is only possible if one of the following conditions is fulfilled: after 24 hours have passed since war was declared after the enemy alliance has gained half of the power required to win the war. If an alliance is at war with more than one alliance. Then they have the option to surrender every war except the one that began last. Fighting a war In Alliances at War, war is, as the name implies, as essential to the game as Alliances at War is to your life. We love to war because it's in our blood, and because war makes it so much easier to win a fight. Bonuses Immediately after a war has been declared, the damage your tribes deal to the enemy tribes will begin to increase. Damage done by thievery operations, spells and attacks increase with +5% each month. As the base damage is 50%, this means 55% once the war has gone on for one month, 60% after two months, and so on until the maximum of 100% is reached after 10 months. Also, your alliance deals 15% extra damage for every alliance you are at war with on top of the first. Attitude It is generally considered good behaviour to leave two warring alliances alone. However, it is allowed to become aggressive, something you might want to do if you've got an old score to settle. Alliance elders will usually make note of such attacks and take revenge. Sometimes you are at war with more than one alliance. Try to avoid attacking the same tribe as the other alliance your enemy is in war with. Not only is it a bit rude, but it might also be considered co-operation, a violation of the Code of Conduct. However, you are in principle allowed to attack the same target. Random Events Instant loss of 10% stored up mana and plans Instant gain of 10% mana and plans Returning military rushed 1 hour closer to home Vacation Mode Tribes that enter vacation mode during war will add 50% of their land towards the enemy’s victory count. However, this will not cause them to lose any acres. War strategies If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles. Don't allow your alliance's tribes to randomly attack, thereby exhausting their strength. Rather, focus on a few targets in order to weaken and kill them quickly, effectively and with ease.

During a war it is vital to obey your elder. The elder must have the loyalty of the alliance or defeat will be inevitable.