I was going to do a full top 12 but this honestly is taking way too long lol it isn't worth it so it'll be top 9 instead also I'm going to be blunt with my opinion and it can be considered rude to some. But think of it more as just being honest also since Plaque and DBD deathwish are no longer top 12 I'm choosing to not include them my only thoughts on them are I never really see plaque and from orcale it looks like DBD deathwish gets ganged up on 24/7 lol
1. EPIDEMIC
BP ranks: first overall, first attacker, first defender
as someone who isn't really part of the 'core' oceans quite yet there are some details I am unaware of, but from my third person perspective what being first in attacking AND defending says to me is they are 1. Getting teamed up on pretty hard(this is also judging from all the orcale rumors lol) and 2. They either must have been crazy aggresive at start of the server where they were miles ahead or they are managing to counter attack while being ganged up on, which is really impressive. Would lose some respect if it was just a bunch of turtles after multiple alliances start hitting them but that isn't the case. I believe TLB and DBD have both oped them recently and both their ops seemed rather successful judging from the numbers. Don't know if this will make EPI turtle up more or start blasting them back, or maybe they take some cities north of them(they've been taking quite a few nocturnos cities) and expand out that way. Interesting thing to keep an eye on
also looks like they been cleaning out their inactives because their average points shot up
2.The Lost Boys/ 9.The Lost Tigers
TLB BP ranks:fourth overall,second attacker,fourth defender
TLT BP ranks:fourteenth overall,twelfth attacker, fifteenth defender
TLB recently had a successful op against EPI, I've heard that they mainly focused EPI players that were inactive but i don't know how true this is and it doesn't cut away from the fact that it was successful, they also took TLT under their wing(got some stuff to say about them soon xD) after, frankly, destroying them. While I don't really see the reason why people want to be part of academy's but hey that's their choice, TLB has also taken a few cities from DBD but I don't think these were contested heavily and DBD hasn't really answered back so I doubt they were important cities since DBD doesn't seem afraid to tussle, and to their west they have TF who seem to have friendly relations(i'm not saying a pact don't kill me) so expansion for them seems kinda rough other then oping EPI or taking TLT cities for free.
As for TLT I would like to first clarify that the following is not directed at all their players since I am quite friendly with some of them(pretty much one of them actually). Now you may notice that they have some DBD city takeovers under their belt, for those unaware of what happened down south, a player named flyingryan had quite a few cities in o56 and they oped him which just so happened to be Non Sunt Dii's target(we started a day after sadly), he defended by himself for quite awhile(it was honestly very impressive and he amassed quite alot of DBP) so yes if you look at orcale you will see that TLT took DBD cities but it was more of a fluke(as in they took it from 1 player not the entire alliance). The week before that they tried to op Non Sunt Dii, if you noticed I said try because they were not successful on any of them, and this is when one comes to realize that people with 80k+ points still dont know how to attack at all. Some of them even still don't understand that you need to send LS with a land nuke or a single bir can kill all of them(yes this happened multiple times) I was impressed by a few of their players timings cause they stacked them very well and they also had a very good use of decoy attacks(just so happens to be their two players with highest points, who would have thought), but the follow up from the rest of them was, to be blunt, embarrassing. They need to be either eaten or taught how to attack because(not that im complaining) i shouldnt recieve a couple thousand bp for doing absolutely nothing lol. So yeah basically, TLB are beasts, TLT has two good players i've seen so far(not going to judge entire alliance because they weren't all part of it xD) and they need some work
3. Death Before Dishonor
BP ranks:third overall,fourth attacker, third defender
It seems like for the last week DBD has been getting the EPI treatment, which is getting hit from all directions, They got Kurbads.(and the rest of 2good4u but ive heard its mostly kurbads doin work) to the east forcing a bunch of their players to turtle up( you a beast kurbads. ;D) you got them losing their cities in o56 and Non Sunt Dii took some in their south part of o55 then to the west you got EPI, who seems to be their main focus and they recently launched a successful op against them(again I don't know the details of their ops so I don't know if there are special circumstances or something) but good job with that one, they have the dynamic duo still, i don't really understand where all their cities come from but hey they still leading the pack so good job with that xD. and then north they have HH which is probably the most unfortunate group to have near you, at least with EPI they are battling on all fronts, but HH has been taking A LOT of cities from them(im including DBD deathwish in this) They need to secure their borders or try to bundle together more and not have so many people split off in random spots(im pretty sure there is some DBD guy in like o26 or something like that), it makes supporting a huge pain and makes the numbers look much worse then they actually are i believe.
4. True Fear
BP ranks:fifth overall,third attackers,sixth defender
Of the top 12 alliances I feel like position-wise they have one of the best(probably second best behind HH), they have friendly relations with TLB(who is the majority of their south and half their east side), and since they don't touch each other it gives them the ability to have a much stronger border with EPI, and then to the north they have nocturnos who they seem to be drilling through whenever i look at the map. But then when i look at the map i also cant help but notice how spread they are. they have cities everywhere in four different oceans and all these oceans are contested with other alliances. Ragnarok seems to be going even with them which when they are 12th place against the 4th placed alliance, but im assuming this is more because being unable to support the far cities more than anything else. I don't see a good way of solving it other then either taking the entire section where those 4 oceans meet or just ditching the cities more north east, but I will be interested to see what their solution is
5. Hydra Hooligans
BP ranks: sixth overall, sixth attacker, eighth defender
They have a moderate sized alliance, they've been recruiting quite a few people lately since last time i saw they were a lot smaller, but I've heard from some DBD players that these guys are beasts and even going so far as to say they will win the world(Kinda early to call that but hey who am i to judge). They have a good core and they aren't obnoxiously spread out like some other alliances but that makes it all the easier for them, I don't know why or how the ratio for cities taken is so high against DBD deathwish but it's looking like a slaughter. One of my favorite alliances and i'm very impressed with what you guys are doing. Sorry for the somewhat shorter response but i don't really have anything to critique that im aware of
part 1/2 since i went over 10k characters