You can stop asking now! Its here. Now let me have some peace, pleaaaase. : b As always, fairly impartial, and definitely opinionated. If I think you're the worst alliance since Falcons I'll at least tell you why you're so bad it hurts. Also, the rating out of 5 is just a grading scale of where you are compared to the other allys on the server, mostly based on stats. A 2/5 doesn't necessarily means I dislike you, my own alliance got 1.5/5 last time, and they're great. Equally 4/5 doesn't automatically mean I think you're great, -C- got 4/5 and I said I think they might collapse (and they did :x). If you want me to explain more why I said something or rated you X/5 just ask.
NE:
1st: OGC 4/5
Starting with OGC again, they've gone slightly down in my estimation, but theres no massive change. Their quad is - as expected - the most stable and locked down. The reason they've gone down a little in rating is the loss of one or two players, in particular the player who was arguably their best (Teutheim), and because of some fairly underwhelming attack reports coming out of the NE of OGC attacking TRA. As I said before, I think the fairly well known rejection of Adairnet was a poor error in judgement. Adairnet would have made up for (at least in the raiding charts) the loss of Teutheim. They still look like they have a fair amount of talent between their two wings, and that both wings are more or less similar in terms of ability, a nicely balanced pair of wings really ought to be the ideal and OGC have done well in their recruitment. Their 2 wings stand at one and two in Pop respectively, and they really should have some of the best arte hammers come release day. On a related note, with over 100 members, the OGC confed is one of the largest forces on the server behind only the SL confed in terms of membership. Overall they've been the only significant power in a quad thats not been really contested since Day one. Its all par for the course at this stage. Given their situation I'm predicting them to do the best on arte release day, and do well in cross quad. They've set themselves up nicely, they just need to deliver when the game really gets going. Their organisational skills have looked questionable in the past, so it'll be interesting to see if they step up their game for artes.
2nd: TRA 1/5 This is a collaboration between Adairnet and I.
Apparently they do still exist. Dubbed 'Travian Refugee Alliance' in certain circles, because -
'90% of their players will leave if they get invited to another alliance, so it's like they're all looking for asylum'
(Adairnet 2016)
They are hardly inspiring fear in their rivals. I'd be surprised if they got any artes, I'd be even more surprised if they got an arte and it wasn't a small confusion (which doesn't really count to most people anyway). To their credit though, they do still exist and could still be a nuisance (if only a minor one) to OGC. They also have that confed with SL, so they might even be involved in a major alliance's end game hopes. Also, they've shown ability to defend competently on occasion, causing upsets when OGC come sniffing. Notable examples include the events at Melzy where 30000 troops went to die, and MarcAnthony's ongoing struggles to take a 25% cropper from Ubica. Whether these successful defences are chalked down to TRA brilliance or OGC idiocy though.... (I'm going with the latter) Unfortunately, a 'rumour' tells me that TRA still think its 1 troop per fake. So despite the positives, they still look as generally incompetent.
3rd: TWD 0.5/5
TWD get a mention, because Old Bat is a MOD now and if I damage their ego again by ignoring them I might get a kicking. :b
Quick Summary: OGC own the quad. They really shouldn't be quite so sloppy against TRA though.
NW:
1st: Olympia 3.5/5
Olympia appear fairly well organised, and they've certainly got some hammers that any ally would be happy with. I can't quite put them on the same level as the likes of OGC but they're not that far behind. They've been causing some issues for Invictus and 2G in their quad, but by and large are only targeting spawns. This, combined with a look at the getter map of Olympia tells us that their main focus is in controlling the central NW area around the Grey Zone. They have no players at all out in the boonies simming for endgame. A couple of years ago their prominence in this area would have been a substantial advantage for endgame, but now with wonder outside of the Grey it isn't nearly as important an area. The centre (outside of the grey at least) generally comes with more limited cropper options and requires a fair amount of attacking to take over. The main benefit they seem to want to claim with the centre ground based on what we know of them is that its easier to attack cross quad from there. They're an aggressive alliance that've come for a fight and they want to be able to attack as many as possible as swiftly as possible. They also have easy access to the unique arte spawning locations, and already have at least one or two hammers capable of taking them. Center control is a sword that cuts both ways however. You may land cross quad attacks in less time, but the other alliances can hit back equally quickly, leaving less time to prep def. You are close to unique arte spawning locations, but again, less time to organise defences or move them. Given their position and current hammer sizes, I'm expecting Olympia to impress on release day and capture at least 2 Unique (You heard it here first :b) I'm less confident however in their ability to hold onto them. Some people would consider Olympia a dark horse, but I think - given their style of play - that they don't have major WW ambitions, they just want to fight.
2nd: 2G1C 3/5
2G have expanded in size significantly since the last analysis, and now boast 26 players. Up from 9. They also have a confed with the top SW alliance (sorry, spoilers) in WL and their training wing Lords. These factors mean there is far more of a look of permanence about this alliance than in the previous analysis. They've also continued to impress consistently in the raiding charts, right now they're 5th, sandwiched between the OGCs who each have more than double 2Gs membership. They also have the benefit of having me, which makes them amazing. Anyway, I would talk about their chances vs Olympia, but I'm not convinced Olympia have designs on them as much as they do cross quads. Aside from the spawns in the centre Olympia want to demolish, there doesn't seem to be that much interest in 2G. Could be that they're biding their time though. If that is the case, I do back 2G1C over Olympia. The support of WL would likely give them the boost they need to take down Olympia, and whilst WL are SW, they have a lot of assets on the SW/NW border, as do 2G so there isn't that much separation between the bulk of the 2G/WL confed making support in an NW quad war entirely feasible. Overall 2G have the made the largest improvement of any single alliance on the server in the past month or so, they look far less 'short-term fun'. They still can't match Olympia on their own however, so the confed is smart. Keep an eye on these guys, they may be one of the smallest mentioned in terms of membership but they could well have a significant impact.
3rd: Invictus 1.5/5
Poor old Invictus are having a hard time of it at the moment. They've been targeted much more than 2G and have found it difficult to match Olympias firepower. They're not doing badly in raiders though, despite sharing many of the local farms with 2G and Olympia, 7th is a respectable position. I don't think they'll do a great deal this server, but they're not the worst alliance. I expect they'll grab one or two small artes and hang on to them for dear life. Between them, win and raiders I guess they have enough players to push a few hammers, grab a WW and try and compete in endgame. Long way till they get that far though.
Quick Summary: Olympia are good, 2G/WL confed are better, Olympia are likely to jump into cross quad early.
SW:
1st: WL 3.5/5
This section may be a tad brief because WL were talked about a bit in the 2G section. WL are unquestionably the best in SW. The SW is similar to NE in the lack of competition, though early on there was STR S. The merger with STR has added to their ranks significantly and made them major contenders, the confed with 2G does no harm at all given the proximity and quality of the pair. I'm looking forward to seeing what WL produce on artefact release day, which will also provide a chance for all to see whether the confed with 2G is all front, or if the pair have the organisation and communication between them to be effective. My money of course is on the latter. My only criticism would be the quality of Lords. The WL training wing doesn't seem to contain many accounts of note, and given that WL has 14 spaces at the moment, they could probably move all the useful players across fairly easily. If I was outside of the confed I certainly wouldn't rate Lords at all in honesty. If half of the accounts turn out to be long term though the training wing will have been worthwhile. Ultimately time will tell with regards to lords, but WL themselves are serious contenders. 2G + WL together are a serious challenge to anyone.
2nd: Raiders 0.5/5
I've seen them try and attack, its funny. The irony of Raiders is that they don't have any raiding medals. Basically, they're rubbish. They're lower than TRA in rating because TRA actually did something (def against OGC)
Quick summary: WL are good, and should do well on arte release day. Raiders are bad.
SE:
1st: SL 3.75/5
I was going to rate them 4, but I just don't think overall they're as good as OGC. SL2 are better than OGCs wings individually, but SL1 are waaay behind and 2 just don't make up for it. They seem to have a bit of a 'lets hold hands and sim to WW' approach to diplomacy, having confeded with HL in the past and maintaining a link with the less than impressive TRA. I also heard they've offered diplomacy to one or two other allys in the past. The most damning indictment of their diplomacy is just how quickly the HL confed disintegrated, it hardly points to a well thought out and considered approach. Questionable diplomacy aside, they've improved on last time, taking a fair amount of quality players from the now collapsed (as predicted) -C-. Unlike OGC, they haven't balanced the quality of their wings, and unusually the '2' wing is superior to the 1st. I know they look pretty solid but I just still am not convinced by their overall quality. Though there is plenty of cause for optimism. If they deliver a strong showing at arte release they will go some way to silencing the critics and they are probably the 2nd favourites behind early front runners OGC. Overall SL look fairly good alliance, but one thats made some poor decisions, it'll be interesting to see how they do as the server progresses.
2nd: MFH 2/5
MFH are an alliance I've had an eye on for a while as they were on S2. They won't believe me because I never mentioned them there but honest Ive been watching :p. A small team of players who know each other well and have played together for a while shouldn't be entirely dismissed, particularly while they're enjoying a respectable place in raiding charts and have some potential in a quad full of drama. At this time, if they wanted to, I think they would offer the most competitive alternative to SL in SE. HL aren't the same alliance they were before the confed and a few disenchanted HL members might be tempted to find a new home instead of going across to SL. MFH showed on s2 they have the ability to stick around in a quad that they share with a large ally, and SL are no L.C imo. If SL want rid of MFH, they're going to have a hard time. If they don't expand much by the time artes come out I expect MFH should grab a handful (3/4) nothing like the lions share but a respectable amount for an alliance of their size. In the distant future they could be very helpful partners to someone in a WW attempt depending on how well they cope vs SL. Basically, keep an eye on these guys, they could surprise you.
3rd: H.L. 1.5/5
They look okay from the outside. They need clear and competent leadership though or they've no chance. They were far better off pre-confed and have come out of it just a few days later looking worse for wear. A merger with someone MFH would probably be the ideal, but it would depend on the level of trust between the two allys and could be unlikely at this stage. In all honesty I don't think HL will last particularly long, certainly not as they are. I'm not making an arte prediction other than that I don't really think they'll make it to artes.
NE:
1st: OGC 4/5
Starting with OGC again, they've gone slightly down in my estimation, but theres no massive change. Their quad is - as expected - the most stable and locked down. The reason they've gone down a little in rating is the loss of one or two players, in particular the player who was arguably their best (Teutheim), and because of some fairly underwhelming attack reports coming out of the NE of OGC attacking TRA. As I said before, I think the fairly well known rejection of Adairnet was a poor error in judgement. Adairnet would have made up for (at least in the raiding charts) the loss of Teutheim. They still look like they have a fair amount of talent between their two wings, and that both wings are more or less similar in terms of ability, a nicely balanced pair of wings really ought to be the ideal and OGC have done well in their recruitment. Their 2 wings stand at one and two in Pop respectively, and they really should have some of the best arte hammers come release day. On a related note, with over 100 members, the OGC confed is one of the largest forces on the server behind only the SL confed in terms of membership. Overall they've been the only significant power in a quad thats not been really contested since Day one. Its all par for the course at this stage. Given their situation I'm predicting them to do the best on arte release day, and do well in cross quad. They've set themselves up nicely, they just need to deliver when the game really gets going. Their organisational skills have looked questionable in the past, so it'll be interesting to see if they step up their game for artes.
2nd: TRA 1/5 This is a collaboration between Adairnet and I.
Apparently they do still exist. Dubbed 'Travian Refugee Alliance' in certain circles, because -
'90% of their players will leave if they get invited to another alliance, so it's like they're all looking for asylum'
(Adairnet 2016)
They are hardly inspiring fear in their rivals. I'd be surprised if they got any artes, I'd be even more surprised if they got an arte and it wasn't a small confusion (which doesn't really count to most people anyway). To their credit though, they do still exist and could still be a nuisance (if only a minor one) to OGC. They also have that confed with SL, so they might even be involved in a major alliance's end game hopes. Also, they've shown ability to defend competently on occasion, causing upsets when OGC come sniffing. Notable examples include the events at Melzy where 30000 troops went to die, and MarcAnthony's ongoing struggles to take a 25% cropper from Ubica. Whether these successful defences are chalked down to TRA brilliance or OGC idiocy though.... (I'm going with the latter) Unfortunately, a 'rumour' tells me that TRA still think its 1 troop per fake. So despite the positives, they still look as generally incompetent.
3rd: TWD 0.5/5
Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Bat
![View Post]()
Mostly applause, from me, except that you didn't rate me as being serious competition for the NE. My ego might have to reassess whether it can cope.
Quick Summary: OGC own the quad. They really shouldn't be quite so sloppy against TRA though.
NW:
1st: Olympia 3.5/5
Olympia appear fairly well organised, and they've certainly got some hammers that any ally would be happy with. I can't quite put them on the same level as the likes of OGC but they're not that far behind. They've been causing some issues for Invictus and 2G in their quad, but by and large are only targeting spawns. This, combined with a look at the getter map of Olympia tells us that their main focus is in controlling the central NW area around the Grey Zone. They have no players at all out in the boonies simming for endgame. A couple of years ago their prominence in this area would have been a substantial advantage for endgame, but now with wonder outside of the Grey it isn't nearly as important an area. The centre (outside of the grey at least) generally comes with more limited cropper options and requires a fair amount of attacking to take over. The main benefit they seem to want to claim with the centre ground based on what we know of them is that its easier to attack cross quad from there. They're an aggressive alliance that've come for a fight and they want to be able to attack as many as possible as swiftly as possible. They also have easy access to the unique arte spawning locations, and already have at least one or two hammers capable of taking them. Center control is a sword that cuts both ways however. You may land cross quad attacks in less time, but the other alliances can hit back equally quickly, leaving less time to prep def. You are close to unique arte spawning locations, but again, less time to organise defences or move them. Given their position and current hammer sizes, I'm expecting Olympia to impress on release day and capture at least 2 Unique (You heard it here first :b) I'm less confident however in their ability to hold onto them. Some people would consider Olympia a dark horse, but I think - given their style of play - that they don't have major WW ambitions, they just want to fight.
2nd: 2G1C 3/5
2G have expanded in size significantly since the last analysis, and now boast 26 players. Up from 9. They also have a confed with the top SW alliance (sorry, spoilers) in WL and their training wing Lords. These factors mean there is far more of a look of permanence about this alliance than in the previous analysis. They've also continued to impress consistently in the raiding charts, right now they're 5th, sandwiched between the OGCs who each have more than double 2Gs membership. They also have the benefit of having me, which makes them amazing. Anyway, I would talk about their chances vs Olympia, but I'm not convinced Olympia have designs on them as much as they do cross quads. Aside from the spawns in the centre Olympia want to demolish, there doesn't seem to be that much interest in 2G. Could be that they're biding their time though. If that is the case, I do back 2G1C over Olympia. The support of WL would likely give them the boost they need to take down Olympia, and whilst WL are SW, they have a lot of assets on the SW/NW border, as do 2G so there isn't that much separation between the bulk of the 2G/WL confed making support in an NW quad war entirely feasible. Overall 2G have the made the largest improvement of any single alliance on the server in the past month or so, they look far less 'short-term fun'. They still can't match Olympia on their own however, so the confed is smart. Keep an eye on these guys, they may be one of the smallest mentioned in terms of membership but they could well have a significant impact.
3rd: Invictus 1.5/5
Poor old Invictus are having a hard time of it at the moment. They've been targeted much more than 2G and have found it difficult to match Olympias firepower. They're not doing badly in raiders though, despite sharing many of the local farms with 2G and Olympia, 7th is a respectable position. I don't think they'll do a great deal this server, but they're not the worst alliance. I expect they'll grab one or two small artes and hang on to them for dear life. Between them, win and raiders I guess they have enough players to push a few hammers, grab a WW and try and compete in endgame. Long way till they get that far though.
Quick Summary: Olympia are good, 2G/WL confed are better, Olympia are likely to jump into cross quad early.
SW:
1st: WL 3.5/5
This section may be a tad brief because WL were talked about a bit in the 2G section. WL are unquestionably the best in SW. The SW is similar to NE in the lack of competition, though early on there was STR S. The merger with STR has added to their ranks significantly and made them major contenders, the confed with 2G does no harm at all given the proximity and quality of the pair. I'm looking forward to seeing what WL produce on artefact release day, which will also provide a chance for all to see whether the confed with 2G is all front, or if the pair have the organisation and communication between them to be effective. My money of course is on the latter. My only criticism would be the quality of Lords. The WL training wing doesn't seem to contain many accounts of note, and given that WL has 14 spaces at the moment, they could probably move all the useful players across fairly easily. If I was outside of the confed I certainly wouldn't rate Lords at all in honesty. If half of the accounts turn out to be long term though the training wing will have been worthwhile. Ultimately time will tell with regards to lords, but WL themselves are serious contenders. 2G + WL together are a serious challenge to anyone.
2nd: Raiders 0.5/5
I've seen them try and attack, its funny. The irony of Raiders is that they don't have any raiding medals. Basically, they're rubbish. They're lower than TRA in rating because TRA actually did something (def against OGC)
Quick summary: WL are good, and should do well on arte release day. Raiders are bad.
SE:
1st: SL 3.75/5
I was going to rate them 4, but I just don't think overall they're as good as OGC. SL2 are better than OGCs wings individually, but SL1 are waaay behind and 2 just don't make up for it. They seem to have a bit of a 'lets hold hands and sim to WW' approach to diplomacy, having confeded with HL in the past and maintaining a link with the less than impressive TRA. I also heard they've offered diplomacy to one or two other allys in the past. The most damning indictment of their diplomacy is just how quickly the HL confed disintegrated, it hardly points to a well thought out and considered approach. Questionable diplomacy aside, they've improved on last time, taking a fair amount of quality players from the now collapsed (as predicted) -C-. Unlike OGC, they haven't balanced the quality of their wings, and unusually the '2' wing is superior to the 1st. I know they look pretty solid but I just still am not convinced by their overall quality. Though there is plenty of cause for optimism. If they deliver a strong showing at arte release they will go some way to silencing the critics and they are probably the 2nd favourites behind early front runners OGC. Overall SL look fairly good alliance, but one thats made some poor decisions, it'll be interesting to see how they do as the server progresses.
2nd: MFH 2/5
MFH are an alliance I've had an eye on for a while as they were on S2. They won't believe me because I never mentioned them there but honest Ive been watching :p. A small team of players who know each other well and have played together for a while shouldn't be entirely dismissed, particularly while they're enjoying a respectable place in raiding charts and have some potential in a quad full of drama. At this time, if they wanted to, I think they would offer the most competitive alternative to SL in SE. HL aren't the same alliance they were before the confed and a few disenchanted HL members might be tempted to find a new home instead of going across to SL. MFH showed on s2 they have the ability to stick around in a quad that they share with a large ally, and SL are no L.C imo. If SL want rid of MFH, they're going to have a hard time. If they don't expand much by the time artes come out I expect MFH should grab a handful (3/4) nothing like the lions share but a respectable amount for an alliance of their size. In the distant future they could be very helpful partners to someone in a WW attempt depending on how well they cope vs SL. Basically, keep an eye on these guys, they could surprise you.
3rd: H.L. 1.5/5
They look okay from the outside. They need clear and competent leadership though or they've no chance. They were far better off pre-confed and have come out of it just a few days later looking worse for wear. A merger with someone MFH would probably be the ideal, but it would depend on the level of trust between the two allys and could be unlikely at this stage. In all honesty I don't think HL will last particularly long, certainly not as they are. I'm not making an arte prediction other than that I don't really think they'll make it to artes.