NOTE: This article reads like an essay in the point of view of an individual. This article is more a guide than an encyclopedic article.


How can you tell if an alliance is a good one?
What to look for in an alliance?

MCA (most common answer): Protection. I am tired of being farmed!

Answer: The who's who.
Reputation is perhaps the most important. Alliances that chain attack other alliances, have very little resources to support their structure, and poor leadership, are usually short lived. They are either attacked by a much more competent alliance or they fold.

Answer: Size does matter.
Membership size! There are a few exceptions like ☼, but those are held up by exceptional players. In the vast majority of cases, alliances with large numbers, but not overextended in their organization, tend to have the resources required to defend their membership. Alliances with only a few members usually cannot offer very much protection for a number of reasons. They are not distributed along the size range reducing their ability to retaliate and they often do not have enough active members.

Answer: Effort Justification.
Try to find an alliance that has an application process. Then you know they only accept certain types of players and there is an alliance structure. Alliances that freely invite people tend to loose track of their members.

Answer: Organization
A website. Organization is by far the most important aspect of finding a good alliance. Most alliances use facebook groups, but those groups are prone to looking track of posted info as topics disappear and you cannot divide topics into subject matters. One forum serves all. Best if they have their own forums which they can break down subjects such as policies, retals, private, etc. etc. Alliances that use live chat programs like IRC are super effective in war times for coordination.

Answer: The Law
Policies. You MUST find an alliance that has retal (retaliation policies) if you want to be protected. These are policies that state if one of its members is attacked, the original attacker will be retaliated upon by the alliance a certain number of times. Alliances that have NAP (Non-aggression pacts) with other alliances make for a well established alliance with friends in times of trouble. Also MDP/MPP (Mutual Defence Pack or Mutual Protection Pack) serves to further increase an Alliance's support network.

*Note: the exception to all these guidelines is the Teddy Bear Bombers.