I know fully well war is essential to an alliance, but note the key words in what I said.
I agree, but unless they get themselves into war with a few massive alliances soon, then they will gradually grow to become quite an alliance
If Heg goes to war with a very large alliance any time soon, they won't be growing much. Give it a few weeks, and they will be ready. That was what I was implying.
The Hegemony used be called Dogs of war - Hegemony. They got crushed by The unit, so there was a big confusion, and there was a lot of memebrs leaving, and chaos. They have recently settled down, and changed there name, back to The hegemony (I say back to because that's what it was before it was DOW-H). I class that as a new alliance, because although it is the same alliance as before, they have a had a new beginning.
I think a war with a relatively large, but not massive, alliance would be good for them. maybe an alliance on the second page of rankings.
@Lord syron orm - I agree. If they get a few more decent players, and a middle-sized war to get their hands on some cities, they will reach the optimum rate of growth.