Lets hope we can bring some life into this forum and some discussion. Maybe now that some egos have gone or been humbled, we could bring back a nice polite forum that is a nice read for everyone, where everyone is respectful and respected (you may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one).
Never seriously done a top 12 I think, so yeah. Am just going to consider top 9 alliances because its the only ones I know stuff about.
I always wanted to help Slivas with his newspaper, but didn't dare to write one alone, he always seems busy. So am gonna do an unconventional top 9.
Of course there will be bias from my position, deal with it.
a bit of context for those who will read this in a few months:
After running a global coalition to bring down Shady (renamed Leaving on a Jet Plane), SkullS won. Shady had taken in The Priory and Plunder and Pillage (who had had too many inactives and some leadership quitting to keep going independently). Their fall started with the breaking off of "Work In Progress", who are now "The Grey Company" I believe. Most of ocean 54 Shady (who's main alliance all but disbanded on 14/15 of June) went into SkullS. Most of the old Priory (south east 44 mainly) with a few additions are in Grey Company. Most of the original Plunder went over to join The Hive. Four ex Shady came over to my home, Epidemic.
1+3) SkullS
Founded 8th of March - third oldest alliance still standing I believe
Great Victory over Shady, now they have become what they wanted to prevent: the big guy who seems to be marching towards an easy crown.
When this was Shady's case, a group of alliances decided to avoid this happening. Other than this most likely outcome happening, one could fathom them splitting up to fight themselves to bring some entertainment and excitement. But maybe that would underestimate the desire for a crown. Maybe despite me finding this unlikely, some coalition will manage to topple them... but that's just too many cities to take. Anyways, coalitions taking down a big alliance seem to just bring another big unbeatable beast anyways. The ultimate hope of other contenders is death from boredom? Hope keeps some awake, but can't eternally.
Geography: Massive presence in 55, clearly dominating 54, 64, 65 and 56 (the entire South Eastern quarter of the world, as well as more than half of the North Eastern quarter).
Towards more recent news, they just had their first OP on The Grey Company, taking across both alliances 39 cities and loosing 3. But most of these cities were isolated in 54, whereas most of Grey Company is in 44. So this doesn't really mean much.
2+10) Apples
Founded on 4th of March, second oldest alliance still standing
The major player of the South Western quarter of this world. They border SkullS but don't fight. The main question is when this will change. SkullS need something to do after all. I'm interested to see how the apples will fare when this fight does start.
So far though they have undoubtedly been winning the war against True Fear, with whom they share a long border that stretches for almost two oceans across 45 and 35. Current score is 178 to 38 in favor of apples. But almost all of the heavy lifting is done by the main alliance. Maybe the sister arm is just to avoid another alliance springing up in their behinds? At rank 10 in points and 14 in fight points the secondary apples seem to be more of the rotten than the angry type.
Other what is intended to be friendly banter, this bunch is clearly the second force to be reckoned with for WW. Let's see how that works out with the clear favorites neighboring them.
4) The Hive
So just because I remember the names of some of the names Nislija has flown his flag under, I'm gonna put down here what I got.
The oldest I can remember was Raid and Ravage, maybe an hommage to plunder and pillage, or maybe they were an official second branch. It never became clear. Then came their association with some other alliance that was at that time called Mad Pugs, so Raid and Ravage became Raiding Pugs. But turns out being called Pugs didn't work out, so they became Smoke Free and/or No Smoking. But as we all know with addictions, they come back. And so their abstention from lung destruction didn't last long either... At some point they were also called Just war... not sure when. Anyway, either they decided to stick to the line of saving our health and environment, and are now fighting for the plight of disappearing bees around the world, which is causing pollination issues and endangers parts of the food chain. So they built a Hive for these insects. Other possibility is that they just felt like they were a metaphorical hive, because they were so full of energy and well organized behind their queen. Who knows? I prefer the first version.
Anyway, these guys also took in/merged with Legion I think to be the clear masters of ocean 34. After the fall of Shady, some old plunder members decided to join what had evolved from their prior academy, giving the Hive a decent position in the upper diagonal going from south west to north east in ocean 44.
Fighting: despite multiple appearances of the Pirate captain from 33 on the externals reassuring they would be back, The Hive has an impressive lead of 49 to 1 in their war against We Be Pirates. They also have a score of 37 to 5 beating True Fear. Don't know much about that, but seems to continue going on well for them. Last week they got opped by us, Epidemic, and lost over a dozen cities. Which makes this the only ongoing fight they are loosing, 1 to 19.
5) Epidemic
My home after getting almost rimmed down in the core after coming out of an early VM. Has been faring much better these past months than initially, used to be called Immortals, name under which Plunder and Pillage gave us a good pounding.
Nowadays we are clearly the number on in ocean 43 and to a lesser extent also in 53. After helping SkullS against Shady, from what one can find on grepolife and the oracle of zancle, it seems like we are now focusing on the Hive and northern 44 as well as occasionally going cherry picking for pre-made cities in the north from Avenged Sevenfold. Quite promising alliance with great team spirit, became second and first in the initial and following matches of the current event after good teamwork on our most popular forum thread. (spot the chiasmus?) Who wants a resource buff anyways? SkullS can take that one.
6) The Grey Company
Quite a few familiar faces here from the Priory. Luckily for the world they didn't want to join SkullS it seems and still want to fight. Let's see how they fare. These initial stats don't mean a thing as it hasn't come to established borders yet. But if the whole weight of shady couldn't withstand skulls, how could this faction withstand a SkullS that has swallowed almost half of shady? I love underdogs though and they definitely will have loads of fun for them! Question is what will they be able to do with all the bp and slots they will gain?
Geographically, these guys have a beautiful stronghold in the south west of ocean 44. Let's see how they can use this to their advantage.
7) True Fear
Founded on January 25th according to grepolife, but I'm pretty sure these guys were here the minutes Epidamnos came out of the womb of those servers over in Germany. So the oldest alliance and only premade and only alliance that existed when bp ended that has made it this far and been a serious alliance.
I must say, the admiration I had for Shadies when they seemed to be a small bunch, fighting the world, and being good at it, has migrated to these guys. They were unusually loud on externals, and seem to have some very boisterous personalities. But despite any criticism one may say regarding this, they are an alliance that keeps Epidamnos turning. I mean if you think of it, they have fought every single alliance near them, lost more cities than some big alliances have in their secondary ocean (if you count the 165 lost to apples, 65 to twisted, 53 to TSB, and 37 to The Hive... its over 300). Yet despite everybody being annoyed at some of the arrogance, despite all the prophecies that they would ghost and move on to another world, despite many things. They are still here, and seem to be going nowhere. I believe their leitmotiv is that they don't pact people when they can avoid it. And they must have a very good bunch of players with loads of motivation and perseverance to still be here. I know that whoever wins the world wonder aspect of this world, this group has been the most impressive to me. (which is my opinion, that I am entitled to, so don't even bother to criticize, and instead propose someone that impressed you more instead of saying why they didn't impress you).
Yes, their war stats don't look that great, I'm not going to bother posting any, because I can't say much to any of them that I haven't already.