Sorin Markov
Chiliarch
Hey guys welcome to my Senior thesis. It's on a game called Grepolis and.. Oh wait y'all don't care LET'S GET INTO THE HOT TAKES!
#1 - The Shady Bunch / Drunken Loners - MASSIVE Swim
What really can I say about these guys? They’re numbers one and two in pretty much every ranking you can find. What things could happen to stop them? A mass loss of interest in the game? With almost 100 players, many of whom have won multiple worlds even recently, that seems unlikely. A coalition of other alliances? With how well split DL is from TSB and the tight grouping they have and the golding they have, that seems unlikely to work either. Perhaps another alliance, even one that drops late, can have some leaders that whip all 50 members into shape to take on Shady. Other than that, I see very little chance of them losing this world. By all accounts, this is theirs to lose.
It’s worth nothing that Shady Bunch has only lost 2 cities to people not in TSB or DL, although I have heard reports that members about to lose a city are told to leave the alliance to preserve this number.
HOW TO IMPROVE: Be more aggressive! Right now they’re locking down O54 by removing Styx, but they have the resources to carry out more than one front. They need to press their early advantage to take out anyone who could be considered a contender.
War records:
#2 - Sons of Odin / Sons of Thor
I had a good think about who takes the number two spot and I decided to give it to these guys simply because their stats are pretty good and they’re the only other ones with basically an entire ocean secured. True Fear creeps in from the Southwest and Drunken Loners from the East, but they still have more than HH/FF or Banda. However, this is the problem. They have two fronts to watch: True Fear/U.E. Banda and Shady. Facing either the Russians or Shady is a full-time effort. Facing both is disastrous. They need to hope it doesn’t come to that. That’s why I only gave them a float when they have as many players and cities as Shady. They also were something of an MRA at the start which does not lead to the greatest of alliances.
This is a group to watch because what happens to them may determine the winner of the server. If the leaders whip everyone into shape, they could be contenders. If they mass ghost, it will depend on the timing as to who gets their cities. The most interesting possibility is if someone gets in a war with them. It will leave whatever alliance attacks open to retaliation from whatever other alliance is near them. Sons will be put to the test this way, and if they win it will be the total destruction of the losers as they are eaten from two sides. If they lose, the attacking alliance has the potential to become as large or even much larger than Shady.
In a way this is true of all four ocean-dominating alliances just from the nature of politics and this set up, but as an MRA Sons has more of a target on their backs.
HOW TO IMPROVE: Sons, you have one of the hardest jobs in Grepolis right now: transitioning from an MRA to a real alliance. The leaders have to be superb to pull this off because it requires building personal relationships with every member to encourage them to be active. Talking to them outside of the game, having chats about what they can do to be a better player, maybe hosting events for team-building, all of that needs to happen.
At the same time, Sons also needs to be focused on diplomacy. They need to strike a balance between attacking some people for BP and not starting so many wars that they are overwhelmed. Perhaps make a deal with U.E. Banda and feed on True Fear while fortifying the front with Drunken Loners. It’s not an easy path for them, but what happens here will affect the world.
War records:
#3 - U.E. Banda - Swim*
It is possible to put this group anywhere from second to fourth. Second on power level and positioning (as the main alliance furthest from Shady), fourth. They already ran through The Lollipop Guild, Mainly Backstabbers, and half of True Fear with their botting and large amounts of activity, so this group could potentially be the main challengers to Shady. If that happens, this world gets interesting again. If that happened right now, it would be a race between the O55 alliances, True Fear, and the long-reaching Sons alliances to grab the ghosts. When it does happen though, perhaps the playing field will have changed drastically.
HOW TO IMPROVE: I’m not privy to their inner secrets and I think they’ve been doing very well for themselves. But also, Banda has the activity and the positioning that every alliance in this world wants except Shady. They could clean up their act and become a strong alliance.
War records:
#4 - Hounds from Hell / Fun with Flags - Float (?)
I’ll be honest, I don’t know what’s going on in O55, so I’m going off of statistics. I haven’t been able to talk with anyone from either of these alliances and I don’t know many of the names in there. Their war score with Sons and Shady has been sabotaged by FutbolTango joining Hounds from Hell while smack in the middle of Sons’s ocean and then giving up. But there are several players in Sons who did the same in south O55, so it kind of evens out if they decide to take those cities. I lack most of the information on HH/FF’s political situation, so this is rather a short paragraph on them.
HOW TO IMPROVE: They need to clean up their ocean. There are random cities from Sons, Banda, and Styx just scattered in O55. These should be easy takes if they put in a day or two of effort to solidify their position and get some points.
War records:
---TIER BREAK---
#5 - True Fear - Sink
A solid group who’s used to playing in the rim. This time they just got overwhelmed by Russian bots and bad positioning. Currently they are evacuating to the west rim, where they’ll be mostly isolated as there aren’t any solid rim alliances yet besides kind of Easy Targets (more on that later). This alliance has not sunk yet, but it is going to sink as Banda moves in to control their ocean. Sons may also come in from the north if they smell blood.
HOW TO IMPROVE: Once you’re sinking, there’s not a lot you can do. I give people sinks who I think are already dead and they just haven’t realized it. Perhaps there are some heroics here and they have a niche between Sons and Banda, but I think more likely is they just become the first rim alliance of en129 over in O34. Interesting, because that’s exactly where they were last world, too.
War records:
#6 - Styx - Sink
In a similar situation to True Fear, but instead of Russians, they get to face The Shady Bunch. The war score here is positively dreadful with no signs of improving. At this point they basically form a crescent moon on the edge of Shady, which makes for easy pickings.
HOW TO IMPROVE: Since Styx hasn’t even made an attempt to start a home out in the rim, there’s even less they can do than True Fear. My advice is for each individual player to use the war with Shady as a resume to try and join, though the odds of that are low given how poor a resume it likely is.
War records:
--SLIGHT TIER BREAK--
#7 - Easy Targets AKA We love Ukraine AKA Mainly Backstabbers - Already sunk
These guys looked pretty good until they mysteriously disbanded. They were beginning to fight back against Banda and make it look like a true war, but not anymore. A few of the players are making a home for themselves in far east O55, but they are effectively out of winning this world.
Not even gonna bother with a HOW TO IMPROVE for sunk alliances. Or war records.
#8 - *Under Construction* - Already sunk
This is an interesting story. I have an inside account from someone in the alliance as it collapsed. It was looking to be a good group, just starting to fight back and win against Sons while creating a good core, if a little close to Drunken Loners. Then, SmokingCroco, the founder of UC, mysteriously restarted. For some reason, this prompted many of the top players to ditch which then created an avalanche that led to where UC is now. Many of the best players went to Drunken Loners, which truly cemented Shady as the rulers of en129, while some went to their former enemies the Sons of Odin/Thor. This was a world-defining collapse as it was not the cause of a war or any other alliance’s machinations; it just happened, and it has shaped the alliances around it.
#1 - The Shady Bunch / Drunken Loners - MASSIVE Swim
What really can I say about these guys? They’re numbers one and two in pretty much every ranking you can find. What things could happen to stop them? A mass loss of interest in the game? With almost 100 players, many of whom have won multiple worlds even recently, that seems unlikely. A coalition of other alliances? With how well split DL is from TSB and the tight grouping they have and the golding they have, that seems unlikely to work either. Perhaps another alliance, even one that drops late, can have some leaders that whip all 50 members into shape to take on Shady. Other than that, I see very little chance of them losing this world. By all accounts, this is theirs to lose.
It’s worth nothing that Shady Bunch has only lost 2 cities to people not in TSB or DL, although I have heard reports that members about to lose a city are told to leave the alliance to preserve this number.
HOW TO IMPROVE: Be more aggressive! Right now they’re locking down O54 by removing Styx, but they have the resources to carry out more than one front. They need to press their early advantage to take out anyone who could be considered a contender.
War records:
#2 - Sons of Odin / Sons of Thor
I had a good think about who takes the number two spot and I decided to give it to these guys simply because their stats are pretty good and they’re the only other ones with basically an entire ocean secured. True Fear creeps in from the Southwest and Drunken Loners from the East, but they still have more than HH/FF or Banda. However, this is the problem. They have two fronts to watch: True Fear/U.E. Banda and Shady. Facing either the Russians or Shady is a full-time effort. Facing both is disastrous. They need to hope it doesn’t come to that. That’s why I only gave them a float when they have as many players and cities as Shady. They also were something of an MRA at the start which does not lead to the greatest of alliances.
This is a group to watch because what happens to them may determine the winner of the server. If the leaders whip everyone into shape, they could be contenders. If they mass ghost, it will depend on the timing as to who gets their cities. The most interesting possibility is if someone gets in a war with them. It will leave whatever alliance attacks open to retaliation from whatever other alliance is near them. Sons will be put to the test this way, and if they win it will be the total destruction of the losers as they are eaten from two sides. If they lose, the attacking alliance has the potential to become as large or even much larger than Shady.
In a way this is true of all four ocean-dominating alliances just from the nature of politics and this set up, but as an MRA Sons has more of a target on their backs.
HOW TO IMPROVE: Sons, you have one of the hardest jobs in Grepolis right now: transitioning from an MRA to a real alliance. The leaders have to be superb to pull this off because it requires building personal relationships with every member to encourage them to be active. Talking to them outside of the game, having chats about what they can do to be a better player, maybe hosting events for team-building, all of that needs to happen.
At the same time, Sons also needs to be focused on diplomacy. They need to strike a balance between attacking some people for BP and not starting so many wars that they are overwhelmed. Perhaps make a deal with U.E. Banda and feed on True Fear while fortifying the front with Drunken Loners. It’s not an easy path for them, but what happens here will affect the world.
War records:
#3 - U.E. Banda - Swim*
It is possible to put this group anywhere from second to fourth. Second on power level and positioning (as the main alliance furthest from Shady), fourth. They already ran through The Lollipop Guild, Mainly Backstabbers, and half of True Fear with their botting and large amounts of activity, so this group could potentially be the main challengers to Shady. If that happens, this world gets interesting again. If that happened right now, it would be a race between the O55 alliances, True Fear, and the long-reaching Sons alliances to grab the ghosts. When it does happen though, perhaps the playing field will have changed drastically.
HOW TO IMPROVE: I’m not privy to their inner secrets and I think they’ve been doing very well for themselves. But also, Banda has the activity and the positioning that every alliance in this world wants except Shady. They could clean up their act and become a strong alliance.
War records:
#4 - Hounds from Hell / Fun with Flags - Float (?)
I’ll be honest, I don’t know what’s going on in O55, so I’m going off of statistics. I haven’t been able to talk with anyone from either of these alliances and I don’t know many of the names in there. Their war score with Sons and Shady has been sabotaged by FutbolTango joining Hounds from Hell while smack in the middle of Sons’s ocean and then giving up. But there are several players in Sons who did the same in south O55, so it kind of evens out if they decide to take those cities. I lack most of the information on HH/FF’s political situation, so this is rather a short paragraph on them.
HOW TO IMPROVE: They need to clean up their ocean. There are random cities from Sons, Banda, and Styx just scattered in O55. These should be easy takes if they put in a day or two of effort to solidify their position and get some points.
War records:
---TIER BREAK---
#5 - True Fear - Sink
A solid group who’s used to playing in the rim. This time they just got overwhelmed by Russian bots and bad positioning. Currently they are evacuating to the west rim, where they’ll be mostly isolated as there aren’t any solid rim alliances yet besides kind of Easy Targets (more on that later). This alliance has not sunk yet, but it is going to sink as Banda moves in to control their ocean. Sons may also come in from the north if they smell blood.
HOW TO IMPROVE: Once you’re sinking, there’s not a lot you can do. I give people sinks who I think are already dead and they just haven’t realized it. Perhaps there are some heroics here and they have a niche between Sons and Banda, but I think more likely is they just become the first rim alliance of en129 over in O34. Interesting, because that’s exactly where they were last world, too.
War records:
#6 - Styx - Sink
In a similar situation to True Fear, but instead of Russians, they get to face The Shady Bunch. The war score here is positively dreadful with no signs of improving. At this point they basically form a crescent moon on the edge of Shady, which makes for easy pickings.
HOW TO IMPROVE: Since Styx hasn’t even made an attempt to start a home out in the rim, there’s even less they can do than True Fear. My advice is for each individual player to use the war with Shady as a resume to try and join, though the odds of that are low given how poor a resume it likely is.
War records:
--SLIGHT TIER BREAK--
#7 - Easy Targets AKA We love Ukraine AKA Mainly Backstabbers - Already sunk
These guys looked pretty good until they mysteriously disbanded. They were beginning to fight back against Banda and make it look like a true war, but not anymore. A few of the players are making a home for themselves in far east O55, but they are effectively out of winning this world.
Not even gonna bother with a HOW TO IMPROVE for sunk alliances. Or war records.
#8 - *Under Construction* - Already sunk
This is an interesting story. I have an inside account from someone in the alliance as it collapsed. It was looking to be a good group, just starting to fight back and win against Sons while creating a good core, if a little close to Drunken Loners. Then, SmokingCroco, the founder of UC, mysteriously restarted. For some reason, this prompted many of the top players to ditch which then created an avalanche that led to where UC is now. Many of the best players went to Drunken Loners, which truly cemented Shady as the rulers of en129, while some went to their former enemies the Sons of Odin/Thor. This was a world-defining collapse as it was not the cause of a war or any other alliance’s machinations; it just happened, and it has shaped the alliances around it.
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