Alliances

What an alliance is

An alliance is a group of players who act together: it has a name, a tag, a roster and a chat room of its own. The alliance card on the right of the Diplomacy screen keeps all of it together: the Overview tab holds the announcement, the description and the defence; Members holds the roster, applications and invitations outstanding; Help holds the requests for help; Management holds your office, leaving, handing over the leadership and disbanding. If your office sees something of the members, it has a tab of its own too.

Founding one needs an advanced Embassy; joining one needs an Embassy of any level. How many members an alliance may hold is decided by its leader's Embassy alone. The members' Embassies do not make it larger, but they decide which office each member may be given.

A tag is a few letters or digits: besides A–Z, the Turkish letters Ç, Ğ, İ, Ö, Ş and Ü are allowed, but not spaces or punctuation. Writing a tag in capitals or small letters, or with i instead of ı, does not make it a different tag: if GÖK is taken, so is gök. The same goes for an alliance's name: while Kılıç Birliği exists, no second alliance in that world can be called KILIÇ BİRLİĞİ or kiliç birliği. In a Greek alliance name, accents and a final ς make no difference either. The founding form says how long a tag may be.

Joining

There are two ways in. An alliance may invite you: its Hegemon, an Arkhon or a Presbys sends the invitation from your player page, and you answer it on the Invitations tab of the alliance card on the Diplomacy screen. Or you find the alliance by name or tag on the card's Find an alliance tab, read its public page and apply to join.

The Hegemon, an Arkhon or a Presbys answers the application. Whether there is a seat is checked at the answer: even if two applications for the last seat are accepted together, only one player is seated.

You cannot join an alliance while you are at war with one of its members. Once the battle is over you can.

Once you join, each of the alliance's office holders sees what their own field needs about you: the Strategos your army, the Tamias your treasury and goods, the Presbys your treaties, the Arkhon your cities, your population and when you last played; the Hegemon all of it. The invitation and application screens say so before you accept; the detail is under What the offices see.

Offices

Offices and the Embassy

The Hegemon gives the offices, from the office list on a member's row on the Members tab. An alliance has one Strategos; the Arkhon, Presbys and Tamias offices may be held by several members at once.

Every office asks for an Embassy: the Hegemon can give one only to a member whose Embassy is at a high enough level. The level each office needs is written in the office list; for a member whose Embassy falls short, that office is closed and the level it needs is shown beside it.

A member whose Embassy later falls keeps their office; but once removed from it, they cannot return to it until their Embassy is high enough again.

What the offices see

The members' records

If your office sees something, the alliance card has a tab for it: Armies for the Strategos, Treasury for the Tamias, Membership for the Arkhon, Treaties for the Presbys. The Hegemon opens all four on the Records tab, choosing at the top. Each member is one row, with the totals at the bottom; in Armies and Treasury, opening a row shows the detail city by city.

Office holders see only those who are members now: a player who leaves or is expelled drops off the list at once, and an office holder removed from office no longer sees that field. The figures are as the member's cities stood when they were last worked out; Treasury gives that moment on every row.

Description and announcement

The public description is what every player searching for the alliance reads; the Hegemon or a Presbys writes it. The announcement is for members only; the Hegemon, an Arkhon or the Strategos writes it. Both are on the Overview tab of the alliance card; if you may write one, a Write button stands beside it. The Hegemon and a Presbys can also write the description on the alliance page.

Both pass the same moderation as chat: a text that is not allowed is not written.

Handing over the leadership

You hand the leadership over from the Management tab of the alliance card: pick someone from the New leader list and confirm. It takes effect at once. You become an Arkhon if your Embassy is high enough for that office, and a Symmakhos if it is not.

The member taking over must meet two conditions. Their Embassy must be at least at the level it takes to found an alliance, because a leader carries the founder's requirement. And since their Embassy will now decide how many members the alliance may hold, the alliance must still have room for all its members under them. A member who does not qualify cannot be picked from the list, and the reason is written beside their name; if nobody qualifies, the transfer button stays disabled.

Leaving

Kinds of agreement

Friendship. A declared friendship. If a city of one of you is occupied, the other may send a relief army there (Freeing the city); apart from that it brings no bonus and no obligation.

Non-aggression pact. A promise not to march on one another; it binds only the two of you. It does not stop an attack: whoever attacks breaks their word, the pact ends and everyone can see it.

Cultural treaty. Two players each send the other an object; whoever receives an object shows it in the Mouseion of one of their own cities and can move it to another whenever they like. It takes no place from the agreements your Embassy holds.

Leaving an agreement

Either party may withdraw from a friendship or a non-aggression pact. The capacity it held is free at once, and the other party sees it in the record.

No war inside the banner

You cannot attack a member of your own alliance: a march, a strike, a port assault and a raid from a base are all refused by the server.

A force already on the road does not fight if the two of you join one alliance while it travels: it turns back, loses nothing, and you are told why. A relief whose right to free a city lapsed on the road turns back the same way.

Standing in an ally's city

Alliance membership is military access: you may send your army to the city, and your fleet to the harbour, of any player in your alliance. There is no approval from the host and no separate permission. Click the ally's city on the island and choose Defend; to send a fleet to its harbour, press Send a fleet in the same window.

A force standing there defends the city: if it is attacked your army fights beside the garrison and your fleet guards the harbour. Each force is counted on its own, and its losses come out of your force and your city.

Only you command the force. The host is notified when it arrives and when it leaves, and sees on the city's page whose force stands there and what it is, but cannot order it. You pay its upkeep, at the campaign rate from the moment it leaves home until it is back.

Your forces in allies' cities are listed under Allied bases on the Army screen. Each base is one card: every column that went there is added up and grouped the way your own city's force is. Land force shows the soldiers, In harbour the warships and the army's own transport ships it crosses the sea on. Each column is also listed on its own under Columns here at the foot of the card; Return home… lets you pick the column to recall, or recall them all at once. A force in the city's battle stays until the battle ends, and a force in a harbour an enemy fleet is holding cannot leave by sea. From there your army can march to other cities on the same island, defend the island's battles, and go out to raid or to occupy. The card's Order from here button tells you in which window each of these orders is given.

You cannot station in an ally's city while it is occupied, and membership gives no right to land at a harbour an enemy fleet holds.

A city or harbour an ally holds

You may send your army to a foreign city an ally is occupying, and your fleet to a foreign harbour an ally is holding; the army goes with Move troops in the city's window. Your force helps to hold the occupation or the water and fights anyone who comes to free it; you still pay its upkeep. The ally holding the place grants it: they are told of arrivals and departures and see your force on their occupation panel; the city's owner is told nothing about these forces.

You cannot keep an occupation alive. If your ally's own garrison has nobody left who can hold the city, the occupation ends; in a harbour, if your ally has no warship of their own left, the control ends. The moment the place is lost, the allied forces there set out for home, and a force on the road turns back on arrival.

Nobody helps to hold the city of a member of their own alliance. Land and sea are separate: the harbour of a city an ally occupies is still its owner's, and no fleet is sent there; from a harbour an ally holds, on the other hand, troops may come ashore.

Raiding from an ally's city

An ally's own city is a forward base for you, and so is a foreign city your ally is occupying. You send part of the army standing there out by clicking the target city, opening Attack the city and choosing that ally's city in the From list. On the What it goes for cards you choose between Raid and Occupy. The target is a city that nobody holds and whose owner is not in your alliance; it may be on the base's island or across the sea. The force crosses the sea on its own ships. Your ally's harbour lends you none. A force short of ships, or one that walked to that city, boards the transport ships your fleets brought to lie in that harbour: it uses its own first and takes what is missing from those. The ships it takes are from then on that force's, and its city's. In a force that came by sea, those who stay must keep enough ships to get home. A raid brings goods and Gold and takes no captives. It comes back to that city, and its soldiers and carts stay there, ready for the next order. An occupation that wins stays in the city it took, which becomes your base, and is nobody's guest any more. If it loses, the survivors come back to the ally's city. In battle this column does not join your army from home: like a column out of a city you hold, it fights as a force of its own, with its own morale. A force that is fighting, leaving, or whose hospitality has ended cannot be sent out.

Giving a raid order also books your ships: you need idle transports at the city that pays for the force, enough for everything the raid could bring back. On the same island that is what its carts can carry; across the sea it is the hold its ships have left over after the soldiers. Without ships or a Port the order is refused and nobody moves. For a raid on the same island the window says, before you give the order, which city the goods will go to and how many ships are booked. An occupation brings no loot, books no ships and pays nobody a commission.

On its return the host takes a commission on every resource and on the Gold; the card at the top of the window shows the rate and who is paid. The goods become that city's ordinary stock: what its stores cannot hold is lost, and the rest can be raided later like anything else. Your Gold goes to your treasury and your ships bring the rest of the goods home by themselves: there is no collection order and no store of yours in the ally's city. Whether the goods are still on the quay or already at sea is shown under Allied bases on the Army screen. If the hospitality ends while the raid is out, nothing is paid and the raid goes home with all its plunder.

In a city your ally is occupying, the commission goes to someone else. The ally holding the city takes no share, because occupying a city does not make it theirs. The commission goes to the city's real owner: the goods into the city's stores, the Gold into the owner's treasury. The rate is the one every raid from an ally's city pays; the lower rate your ally pays on their own raids from this city does not apply to you. The order form says who is paid and how much. The rest of the plunder is still yours; the Gold goes to your treasury and your ships bring the goods home in the same way. If the occupation ends while the raid is out, the base counts as lost: nobody is paid a commission, and the raid makes a real journey home with all its plunder.

If the base falls: when an enemy attacks your ally's city your army there defends it, and the attacker has to beat that army first. Loading takes time — the crews work at your own Port's rate — and a battle does not stop them. If the city falls, loading stops at that instant: whatever is already in the holds puts to sea, and ships that had loaded nothing leave empty and do not come back. Cargo still on the quay can be plundered too, but the attacker takes from the city's own stores first; from the quay it takes only what the stores could not supply, and only as much as it can carry. What it leaves stays yours, and your ships go back for it. The report gives three amounts separately: what put to sea, what the enemy took and what is still on the quay. No second commission is charged.

Marching and defending from an ally's city

Part of your army in an ally's city can march from there to another city on the same island. Open the window of the city it should go to: in your own city Move troops, in an ally's city Station troops, in a city being fought for Defend from a base. The From list holds your forces in allies' cities after your own cities and holds. On the Army screen, Show on the island on the base's card opens that island as well. The city chooser at the top also lists your allied bases after the places you hold, marked ally's base: pick one and its island opens, and the island's windows give their orders from your army there, just as they do from a city you hold. The From list of the New order window on the Army screen also holds the allies' cities where your land forces stand, marked ally's base. Pick one and you march the soldiers from there to your own cities on the island, to cities you hold, or to another ally's city. That window sends no fleet and no goods from an ally's base.

A column that goes to one of your own cities becomes that city's soldiers when it arrives, like troops you move between your cities. A march on one island never lands: this is how you get into a city of yours whose harbour an enemy fleet is holding. If a battle is being fought for the city or somebody holds its harbour, the column first stands there and defends it, and becomes the city's soldiers once the city is free. A column sent to the city that pays for it has simply walked home. A column sent to a city you hold joins its garrison; one sent to another ally's city stands there as that ally's guest.

A column sent to a defence stands beside the other defenders in a battle on the island: a stranger's siege, a siege of your own city or of an ally's, an uprising or a relief at a city you hold. When the battle is over it goes back to the ally's city it left and joins your force there. If the hospitality has ended by then, it goes home by a real journey. A force that is fighting, leaving, or whose hospitality has ended cannot take these orders. The host learns from a notification that your force has left their city.

Sailing out of an ally's harbour

A fleet of yours lying in an ally's harbour sails out from it and comes back to the same harbour: in the target harbour's Attack the harbour or Send a fleet window, choose your fleet in the From list, where it stands under your ally's city and is marked ally's base. The purposes are the ones an order from home offers: strike and return, take a harbour, free a harbour. In battle the fleet that sails out does not join your fleet from home; it fights as a force of its own. Transport ships that came to that harbour with the fleet stay there and do not sail with it. To move the fleet to the harbour of one of your own cities, or to another ally's harbour, choose Station in a harbour in the same window. The fleet does not come back to this harbour: it stays where it goes, and can take the transport ships lying with it. In one of your own cities it becomes that city's fleet on arrival if the city is free; in another ally's harbour it lies as that ally's guest.

You command it and you pay for it; nothing of the host's is used, and the host is only told that an operation left. No minimum fleet must stay behind: an ally's harbour is the ally's even after your last hull sails. If the hospitality ends while the operation is out, the fleet sails home by a real voyage; a fleet in battle or leaving cannot sail out.

Asking for help and the defence picture

If a place of yours is threatened, you can ask the alliance for help from the Help tab of the alliance card on the Diplomacy screen: pick one of your cities or a place you hold and, if you like, write a short note. Every member sees the request and is told; the request sends nobody by itself. The island's name on the request's row opens that island, and whoever wants to help gives the order from there, in the city's window. One request is open per place: asking again for the same place, or pressing Renew, extends the same request and nobody is told a second time. How long it stays open is shown on its row; it closes when you, the Hegemon or the Strategos close it, when it runs out, or when you leave the alliance — and a closed or expired request can no longer be acted on.

The Hegemon and the Strategos see the alliance's defence on the Overview tab of the alliance card: which member has an enemy on the road to their place, where a battle is being fought, and where allied forces stand. In this view sizes are rounded as a lookout would see them, and unit types, stores, armies at home, outgoing operations and spy reports are not shown; the members' armies, unit by unit, are on the Strategos' own tab (What the offices see). The view ends with the office or the membership.

What happens to the forces when membership ends

While the time runs out

A force in a battle does not walk out of it: if its leave ends while it is fighting it fights until the battle is over, then goes home. A force waiting out its time does not join a new battle that starts meanwhile; if the city falls, it goes home.

If an enemy fleet holds the harbour the force cannot leave by sea. It is not deleted or moved by magic: it waits to leave, and sets out the moment the harbour is free. Leaving and rejoining the same alliance does not bring old leave back, nor restart the time.

Expelling a member

A member cannot be expelled while other members' forces stand in that member's cities or harbours, or in the cities and harbours that member holds. If the leader tries, the server refuses and shows whose force stands where with what; those forces must leave first.

The member's own forces standing elsewhere do not prevent the expulsion; they go home.

When a player leaves the game

A player who deletes their account appears everywhere under a name beginning Silinmiş-. If they led an alliance, the seat passes to the first member who meets the conditions for taking over, looking in turn at the Arkhon, the Strategos, the Presbys, the Tamias and the other members, the longest-serving first where several share an office. If nobody meets them, the member under whom the alliance stays largest becomes leader; with nobody else in it the alliance closes. Agreements with them end, their market orders are withdrawn and their armies on the road disband.

Allied forces standing in their cities start for home, occupations of their cities end, and nothing new — no army, caravan or spy — can be sent to those cities any more. Journeys already under way and battles already being fought finish in their own time; once nobody has business with a city, it leaves the island and its parcel is open to the next settler.