Alliance growth and Baby Hammers

we are closing the gap between us and HFX...however,they have higher average score and much bigger training alliance...i think we should address that matter,sooner rather than later...
let's look at the facts:
HFX2 has 120 members and sits in top 10(8th)...that's pretty impressive...
HA Jr are currently 20th with only 47 members and average score almost twice lower than HFX2...
to rely on mergers is not so good because it will always take time to gel...sometimes it doesn't work at all...
best and safest option is to widen our recruitment base,meaning to grow our training alliance.
there's 2 ways to do that.
1st,to ask lower ranked members to join HA Jr and improve their position and average score...we will probably lose No.2 position then.we will benefit from this in the long run,because people are more willing to join alliances with higher score and stronger members...
2nd,HA Jr must start improving itself more aggressively...if we are protecting them,both militarily and diplomaticaly,then they should relish the opportunity to grow faster than others.
i would install different recruitment minimum for HA-HA...6 towns at least(i'd set 7,but that may look too much to some),instead of total score minimum...or we could combine those 2,let's say 6 towns and 125k ts...

I'm sorry but to me the total number of towns doesn't help at all. All that means is that you have a larger GR and Palace. I would rather have someone that has a smaller number of towns with everything built up and ready to go in the event of war than someone with a lot of towns but nothing built up. Some people hold off on getting that extra town because in times of war they can plant a colony anywhere they want to. If we make the town # a requirement then it will force some of them to plant a town and lose that ability.

i guess we don't need 50 members capable of planting MWC...and we will always be able to find several...warped towns not included,and they are far better solution than small towns...you saw my circ...more towns eventually stronger alliance...
see me for example,i have 10 towns,and if you check building levels scores,you'll see i'm pretty high there too...so,my towns are well built...lol

Redneck, more towns = more resources coming in = more growth

To increase resources coming in you can either pillage more, donate more, or have more towns. Either is fine, but I think gaining towns pays off the most over time.

Regarding our training alliance, a lot of them are there because they aren't as aggressive and not as active as the rest of us. Pushing them to do more is going to be an uphill battle. I think we can offer support with whatever they ask for...but I'm not sure what else would help.

more towns=more resources coming in= more growth only works when the town levels are high enough. If the town levels are not high enough then I can do more with 5 or 6 towns then some could do with 8 or 9. It all depends on how the towns are made up, how big they are and what upgrades are complete. All I'm saying is that if you push for a town number to have as a requirement, you might not get the fully developed towns that can help out the alliance when needed. Yeah you could have the 7 or 8 towns but how high is your barracks or how high is the hideout or wall or anything like that? This can be a very slippery slope to start down when dictating what people must have to get in, whats next telling people how many barracks they have to have to get in or what level their hideout must be per town to get in? With the minimum score it lets people do what they want. If they want to have 5 towns maxed out on everything and a big military with the ability to place 1 or more MWC then that's great. If they want to have 9 or 10 towns and just enough troops to defend themselves with nothing else then that's their right.

i tried to reply on this several times,but i really don't know what to say...
i'll say 1 thing only...if you really believe you can engage someone of my size in long term war,without help(be it gold or resources),then i have to say you are very wrong...while you have to use all 7 towns to produce troops and save gold,i have 3 extra towns to work,or if i shut down production,to build even more military...help with gold from outside i consider cheating.
i think it's quite an achievement to support army you have with 7 towns only...to move such army and stay positive with gold is impossible...so you rely on your gold reserves or on help from "bankers",lol...in my books,that would be pushing or multi...why would someone play just to give you gold when you need?
that would make that account your 2nd,right?is it fair to have 2 accounts?NO...
what i want here is to help our members become more self sufficient...you can still use gold from banks,i don't mind,but even that can't help when someone is prepared for long term war...i can't see how players with 5 or 6 towns can fight such wars without hampering their growth seriously...
i've seen members having great luxury mines(20+) with only 4 or 5 towns...if that's good in your books,then ok...
btw,i really appreciate your opinion on this...others do not seem interested in this topic...thanks.

I think that we all should have 8 towns that are fully functional. If you can get to that and have a MWC (bonus).. At this tage of the server it should not be to hard for everyone to have 8 towns.. and yes I fell behind on my building...

1st this alliance was never intended to be built upon a premise of being #1 in Theta or to my knowledge have we ever set out to place conditions to members that might not be attainable due to gameplay and the amount of time members can spend on playing.

I think its great to have common goals and actually working within to help members attain them. However I do not want to get into a babysitting position of this member should have this goal met by this specific time or there is an ultimatum attached.

I think and strongly work towards comraderie as an alliance rather than promote mandates and spend alot of time only to be frustrated with this not being done or that not being done.
Who wants to be in an alliance with someone bitching b/c they have a RL and haven't met a goal in a GAME?

We've been very successful with our current approaches with the mergers of 2 great alliances just by developing comraderie and becoming better in game friends