Time Capsule

[DeletedUser]

A little while back I started a thread about "Underdog Stories", stories about how a smaller alliance was able to overcome the odds and survive. There were a few, but since this discussion has fizzled out.

This thread is for former members to post stories about the start of their alliance, the end of their alliance and anything in between. This is to keep a record of our past and current alliances, big or small, before they dissolve or merge and the stories are lost.

Ever wonder what happened? Where'd they go?

A good story is what keeps grepoforum and Iota interesting, especially when it's outside your own experience. Also, there are good lessons to be learned, which may be useful for up and coming leaders.

In the past months, we've seen Illuminati, Templars, Scipio Africanus, Doom Crew, HIGH LORDS, Galaxy, The Blackguards, and many others meet their end. Good, bad, or indifferent, I think its good to find out what happened and how things went wrong or went right for quite sometime. Please post an alliance name as your subject and a story about that alliance to put in the Time Capsule. Long after grepostats erases your name, this puts into permanence your time here in Iota.

 

[DeletedUser]

The Athenians

some of this is from memory and might be out on dates or finer detail, though were I've put exact dates that is from the alliance events.

Athenians

Athenian Elite was started by Hector X on 8 August 2010 almost at the start of the world. Athenian Elite mass recruited a lot of players in ocean 55 and soon became no.1. They shared their waters with Legion who were ranked no.2 in the ocean.

Hector ran the alliance with a co-founder called shadowblademaster. When AE got full shadowblademaster created another branch AE II and became founder of that.

I joined on 17 August 2010. Coloszeus (be more on him later) joined on 18 August 2010.

On 3 September Hector X disappeared and went inactive leaving a lot of AE members unsure what to do.. some decided to leave and went to Legion.

about 8 September shadowblademaster disbanded AEII and ran to legion to hide.

On 9 September Hector X turned up, announced he was leaving iota and gave me and coloszeus founders rights.

AE was a mess though, we'd lost some of our bigger players, Legion had taken over the number 1 spot and everyone else was worried after the departure of the original leader. On top of that Elite Shadows ranked No.1 in the world had started to attack our players, including Me (they had a couple of cs atempts on my first city).

Those of us left worked hard, we joined together as a team, supported each other and attacked together.. we did not give up, we carried on a tried to make AE as good as we could.

There was a coallition set up again Elite Shadows at the time, which AE joined and started to look at standing up to ES... however the coallition failed when a number of the alliances jumped ship or fell apart.

however, Masterity, one of the founders of ES spoke a lot with me and coloszeus and over time agreed a NAP. Soon after ES joined Legion and our war was over.

Legion had become friends and an ally after I'd spoken at length with their founder Jureros. Jureros and I got on very well and it was a basis for a friendship between our alliances. This was firmed when Legion went against KOTOR and asked us to join in. We joined in, teamed up with players in Legion and assisted in taking cities. KOTOR fell and solidified the place as no.1 alliance. AE took up it's spot as no.4. Later on the joint war with legacy saw legion and AE working so close that we were almost like one alliance, although Legion was then under the leadership of Commander Roky after Jureros' departure due to rl.

AE grew quickly after ending the war with ES and went to war with the bigger alliances in 55 and 65. They went to war with an alliance called Hades Heirs. Their leader The Baslisk made us an offer, which was to become the branch alliance of AE and to be led by me. After a number of discussions we decided to accept their offer and they became Athenians Heirs., this was around the end of September 2010.

Not long after we started to get a lot of players wanting to join in 66. we set up a branch alliance and gbajramo was sent to create and lead the alliance. GB was a master of war and soon got them to ranked 3rd and some excellent BP rankings. GB did later quit and Kockie took over and carried on the excellent success. This branch was called Athenian Hammers.

The athenians went to war with many alliances including KOTOR as mentioned previously, Legacy, Kings of Poisedon and Reign of Caos to name those that were more challenging. They later went to war with Little brother.

After many wars and proving ourselves we found that were had few targets. Many players started to get bored as the world progressed.. some found RL caught up with them.

Around xmas we lost a number of players. We took the decision to reduce the branches into 1 or 2, however at the same time Commander Roky approached me. We would take those that were active and create a new alliance. That alliance was Evolution, which is another story and another history.

As for Athenians... it was my baby.. I loved that alliance and it will always hold a place in my heart. Those that were with me there will always be friends regardless of where they world will take us. It was the right decision to end it when we did, even though it was a hard one to make.

My good friend Coloszeus who was my rock during our time in Athenians.. I was the front woman, but behind every great woman is a great man lol
Although I was the main leader I couldn't have done it without him keeping me grounded.. He quit recently and I miss him very much, but I'm glad we did Athenians and made it a great alliance and I'm grateful to all those involved.

I'm sure I've missed loads, but I hope this sums up the history of the Athenians.

Lozza

 

[DeletedUser]

I was going to mail you bbcue to say that maybe we could have a seperate thread for discussions so that the history bit doesn't get lost in the chat. I think that would be nice please.

 

[DeletedUser]

The story of The Forgotten

It was started on August 9, 2010. The Leader was lord of kronos and its name was descendants of hades(or something along those lines) I joined the alliance on the 10th and am the last member alive that joined on that day.

For the first week or so everything was fine. Kronos was doing a great job and had made me joint leader. We were doing great. I then went on a short trip for 2 or 3 days and when I got back I found the alliance in ruins. Kronos has gone and so I was leader, dropped into a ruined alliance. One good thing came out of it though, it had shown me who was loyal.

So, I started to lead(It was lucky I already had a second in command, atalantia)and it began to level out again. I even got myself a great third in command, alun the greatr, or so I thought. I took a trip again for 1 week leaving the alliance in the great hands of atalantia.

When I got back though, alun had tried to take over. Atalantia had sent me a load of messages before telling me that she didnt think he was a good person but I had faith in arthur. But it seemed atalantia was right. He had posted many things on the forums about how I was a rubbish leader and saying that he would be a better one.

I could have simply kicked him out but I wanted to see what the allianmce on the whole thought. I set up a vote, alun for eader or me. I won 50 votes to 2 Alun then left and tried to start a war on us, so we crushed him.

After that it all went quite smoothly, we made friends with Hive and a few other alliances and merged a few others into us. We were even good friends with Legion for a time.

Then Legion leadership had a change and they went to war with us. As you can see above I made lozza a offer and she said yes. We were now athenian heirs.

This was the best time of iota for me. I was in a great alliance filled with amazing people. I got to fight alongside Legion. We were pretty much always at war but we hardly ever lost a city. I got loads of BP and citys and made many friends.

The KoP war was one of the best we had. They declared war on us, we said fine, and they dissolved/ran/hid in a matter of days We were all laughing about it in the forums for the next month or so.

But then the athenians were struck, not by another alliance, by one of our own. It was pretty much another alun story. A player was trying to take over AH(Athenian hammer)and was telling a load of lies to the leaders on AE and my alliance, AH. I actually believed the player and I think lozza may also have believed him. Then his plan backfired. I sent his messages to Lozza ans she sent him to me. Then me, lozza and gbajramo has a private vote-Kick this guy or let him stay. We all said kick.

But then AH was struck by the leaving of Atalantia. Before I say this I must tell you a little about her. She was my second in command and the best person I have ever met on grepolis(sorry lozza) When she left my whole alliance was very, very sad. Everyone had loved atalantia, she was the one that held us all together. After she left there was a lot of blame thrown around.

A lot of people blamed lozza, mainly payne. Even though atalantia and lozza were friends. Some people blamed me until they found out how angry I was. Me, I blamed gbajramo. She had said he was one of the reasons she'd left. After though, I found out she had been talking about the AH take over, not gbajramo. In my anger I had read it wrong.

The alliance was crippled for a bit after that. I got a new second, Payne. Whilst he was good he was not as good as atalantia. And as he did not get along with Lozza, things were edgy.

Then of course Evo was set up. I was all in favour of it. I remember giving the idea to lozza and both of us coming up with a way to make it work before telling the council. Not everyone could join it from the Athenian alliances though. I made a list of around 15 people, the core of my alliance and lozza made sure they got invites. I joined thinking they would as well but they stayed. I was not sure what to do so I went back. Qorst thing I ever did.

Payne had changed the name to The Forgotten and so we had that name for a while. I stored a idea in the archive of a coalition in case Evo ever attacked us. It was just in case though. But payne saw it as a chance to crush evo. Then Evo went to war with us(the coalition was a flop)

The alliance was being destroyed. Not by Evo(Though they helped) It was by members leaving. I did all I could, as did finglas, but in the end I told some of my most loyal members to get out of there and I left.

The alliance is still going but its a dead alliance now.

I have missed out gaps but I wrote as much as I could remember. I could write the whole history but that would take to long

 

[DeletedUser]

The Brotherhood

I started out on this server sometime in August I believe. I'm not big on keeping track of the dates. The first alliance I joined, Legends, was ironically run by Calamack. He still asks me how the tides have turned in our leadership since then. Lol.

Anyway, Sh1bby and Alfie The Not So Great brought up a merge idea between Legends and The Sovereign Guard. We accepted, and became a bigger force in oceans 63 and 53. At the time, we had one true ally, Philosophy of War... Otherwise known as P.O.W. It was a small alliance then, run by a much respected gentleman by the name of BogFly. His alliance was young, and I thought wreckless, but we saw to it that we backed eachother up during every fight... And we prevailed. We took out 4 the Heroes and Doomsday, who were more show than they were "go." My first two conquests were top members of 4 the heroes, SturmSG and klonk... SturmSG asked, "if I leave my alliance, will you let me live?" I then replied, "the conquest of your city will be used as a message that we will not allow our members be bullied by a bigger threat." I never received any mails after that from him, and I believe he quit about a week later. His alliance fell a few weeks after that. Doomsday, however, had a few members who were worth keeping around given the fact that they fought off several revolt attempts without the help of their bigger players who left them high and dry. We took them in, and eventually absorbed everything around us in ocean 63 that didn't fly a Sovereign Guard or P.O.W flag.

Then there was our war with The Templars. Oh what a war that was. Brought upon us by Aramay before she left due to RL issues. The cause was from our teaming up with Have You Seen My Camel? She ragged on our alliances, calling us deceitful and unworthy because she thought we intended on being actual allies with her team. So we went to war. The Templars were a part of Illuminati at that time, and both sides sustained massive losses in our battles. Illuminati then cut their ties with The Templars because they could not substantial support, given their geographical position. The Templars proved to be a very tough battle for us at the time, and after months of attacks back and forth, we called for a cease fire so that we could deal with our real enemies, The Chosen and Eternal Myrmidon. Once the cease fire was called, well... as you can see, neither of those alliances really exist anymore (aside from those who jumped to Evo.)

Somewhere along the line, Alfie The Not So Great left the game due to RL and BogFly was missing in action. Leadership of The Sovereign Guard was appointed to me, and we all realized P.O.W had a lot more gunners than they did leaders at the time. We decided that we would share leadership as we always have, and merge into one team after cutting a bunch of dead weight. It took a long time, but The Brotherhood was formed...

Since the initial merge, we have also picked up The Templars recently, who merged with The Brotherhood Ultio, forming The Brotherhood Templars. They felt that our leadership was good, and theirs was a bit stagnant... And we all knew they had some great, dedicated players who we have fought against. I would say about 95% of our alliance members have proven themselves in each war that we have had, and this is what separates us from the rest. The other 5% just remain quiet, but continue to progress silently. Some just aren't much on talking, you know?

And now The Brotherhood Elite is ranked #4 on the server, after some great conquests and a few more amazing recruits added to our selection. The Brotherhood Templars are ranked #7 and soon to be climbing that ladder as well. The Brotherhood LTU is still holding strong, and though they consist of a lot of our smaller members, they continue to grow steadily.

Of course I hate to be biased, but I must say that we have arguably formed the BEST all around alliance that Iota has to offer to date. Yeah I know we didn't start as a core alliance, and "rim alliances" are usually looked down upon, but up until a couple months ago, nobody knew where we came from. No offense to all the other top alliances out there... Keep doing your thing... Alot of The Brotherhood Team is fairly new to this (most members only play on Iota) so I like to boast a little, since we're still here after some brutal fights and after losing several key players. I keep hearing from certain Evo members (and now even Total Domination LOL!!!!) that our end is near, but nobody is stopping us.

Imagine if we decided to team up with Bad Company... Something to think about How different the top 12 would be if #4, #5, and #6 joined up. But then again, look how boring it is between D12 and Evo. Who would want a repeat of that?

 

[DeletedUser]

Atlantic League Story

Chapter 1 - Foothold
We started in Eastern Ocean 67 on 10/26/10. On our 3rd day as an alliance, we lost our largest city to Eternal Myrmidon III (Myrmidon Elite III at the time), which enjoyed a 16:1 advantage on us at the time and ranked #1 in the ocean.

We pleaded for a diplomatic solution, but none of my messages were answered. I didn’t receive a message from their alliance until December (you’ll see why later). We had no idea when or who would be attacked or conquered next. So this is what was done:

We allied with nearly all of the top 15 alliances in the ocean including Slaughterers, The Godds, Lion Gate, & Charlies Angels, all were larger than us at the time. We recruited heavily in Ocean 67 and 77. And we made a comprehensive strategy to monitor and counteract the enemy’s growth and expansion. We have shared support forums, educational posts, and most importantly, a dedicated group of players who made our alliance more active than any other in Ocean 67. This in spite all of us being practical noobs and once-a-day players.

After a few of our allies lost numerous cities to the enemy and were unable to retaliate, I messaged a player 10 times larger than me at the time who had just managed to take an enemy city (XxSyLissxX). We had many candid discussions about many options, but found that a strategic pact would be most beneficial. And we were determined to show our mettle to them (THE DEATH CRUSADERS).

On 11/24/10, we commenced Operation Foothold, a coordinated series of attacks on Roadtrash & egami in an attempt to retake what was lost. We were attacking players that were 2-3 times larger than each of us. We failed our main objectives, but gained a small city. And we got lucky. The coordinated attacks impressed a very worthy foe, who decided to join us (Roadtrash). Thus started a very long list of enemy defectors that joined our ranks.

Each week since, we continued to land more coordinated attacks, take a few more enemy cities and hold off their attacks. Our coalition in Ocean 67 has been instrumental in our success and many of their members decided to join us. On 12/16/10, our alliance surpassed our enemy in the #1 spot in Ocean 67with 400,000 points.

Chapter 2 - Multi-front War
During the holiday season, we experienced heavy attacks from Athenian Hammer (madafrican & jpitre), Eternal Myrmidon I (Merc98), and The Hive (Ubuk). Our support forum lit up and kept all our cities safe, never losing one through that time. Lane, leader of Legion II at the time, sent a threat stating "AL will be destroyed in the New Year." Ironic that he didn't last the month of January. But I didn't take the threats idly, I formed a hidden shared forum (SOUTH) with TDC, Slaughterers, LB, Illuminati, THE CIRCLE, and Dark Rage (DL - Gaeltacht Rage) to discuss coordination just as we did against EM III.

In addition, the collapse of Doom Crew & Ultimate led to a great unease for us to our north in Ocean 66. This "Evolution" was wiping out the inactive Athenian Hammer cities and starting to prod our cities for weaknesses. Also, Evo started to attack Little Brother, prompting us to get into position to help and join this new "Coalition". We started modestly taking as many inactive AH cities as we could in the New Year (we had 4 cities in O66 on Jan. 1st).

As for Eternal Myrmidon I & Eternal Myrmidon III, they were on the rocks in Ocean 67. We forced their diplomat to leave, their main leader, and others to give up. Players like Scads, egami, Krulnak and others defected and wholeheartedly joined us against them. Merc98 formed the Olympians, who were invited to the Coalition at the time, prompting us to leave due to our history and suspicions he was a spy. Merc98 remained the last defiant piece and when he joined Evolution..., it was time to take him down.

SyLiss broke Merc98 and we with TDC & Slaughterers to evict Merc98 from 7 of his O67 cities and forced him into vacation mode. The subsequent week, we opened our first Op in Ocean 66 taking on property from Evo3 and jpitre from Evo2. Working with surfero999 and his killer 40+ catapult wall crushing nukes, we forced both from their alliances and into vacation mode. A resounding success for such long odds... only 2 of our players were larger than they were at the time.

Each subsequent weekend, we launched a coordinated Op using 10-25 players each time. Our progress became slowed as players were dropped, picked up by refugee camps, or ran into vacation mode. This was a new type of warfare of hide and seek which our tactics weren't tuned for. In February, we started Bad Company with our closest allies to demonstrate our commitment to working close together on Ops.

Four of our best players: egami, Notos, Scads, & Krulnak formed Green Team and invaded Ocean 56 with TDC. Travel times are long, progress is slow, but they make it work where we normally wouldn't have a presence. Currently, 46 League cities reside in Ocean 56.

After HIGH LORDS had for months become a liability rather than a valuable ally, we destroyed them in February. We reached 2.5 Million points in Ocean 67 and 50 cities in Ocean 66 in February.

Chapter 3 - Brother Alliance
In March, we opened war upon local The Forgotten members. Approximately the same time, Evolution began their first offensive, which took 3 cities from new AL members recently acquired from TF (cities recently retaken through players joining PL). At the same time, we lost Roadtrash and 5 out of our top ten players to RL. They will be sorely missed. We knew we needed new blood to replenish our ranks from unconventional sources, so on 3/19, Pacific League was born.

PL was labeled a MRA, refugee camp, right out of the gate. But with the great leadership from Krulnak and their members, they are now ranked #22. Just before April, Atlantic League earned #1 ranking in Ocean 66 after 3 hard months of fighting. There are now 292 League cities in Ocean 66.

As TBE prides itself as the "Players Alliance" in the North, we pride ourselves for being the "Players Alliance" in the South. Since October, only 2 players have ever left (not kicked out for policy violations) and joined other alliances. They no longer play the game. Weekly, I've received messages from players who have mentioned the League alliances as the "most organized" and "best run" alliances they've been a part of. Also, losing 0 cities to date helps develop a strong sense of security.

But what I think sets us apart is a modesty and selflessness for our fellow comrades. We support others in attack and defense as if the cities were our own. No matter the situation, character above all is expected at the League.

Chapter 4 is being written now. We'll see what the future holds.