Well done post Whisper. And as you well know, there are even more reasons why MRA's are not worth the paper they are printed on.
* The leader of an MRA often has to become a tyrant in order to get the others to go along with whatever plan they come up with because they have created for themselves a psychological, and command control problem. An effective fighting force is broken down into smaller groups. No squad has 70 men and no army puts one or two people in charge of 70 units directly. Why? Because it doesn't work. Because it doesn't work, the leader often has to threaten their own players as much as they do the enemy just to get the minimum of what is needed for any action and as usual, its a day late and a dollar short. Instead of the tight nit, efficient, fighting force that they pretend to have, they have created a bloated corporate monstrosity with chain of command problems, leadership voids, and logistical nightmares.
*Because they have filled rosters early in the game (usually with people spread all over the map) they have battles and skirmishes all over their lines. How effectively does one or two leaders in an MRA deal with this? Usually very poorly while pointing the finger at everyone else instead of themselves for creating the entire problem to begin with. Without good communication, half their own alliance wastes time fighting the wrong enemies, or even friendlies if the comms are really bad.
*Infighting and factions. Many MRA's add so many people so quickly that the groups have little to no optimum choices to expand too. The MRA invites anyone with any points at all up to 15 islands away from them such that the only expansion points left are 1200 point inactive players. Often they are told to pick on the weakest enemies that are around them because they are separated from the core and the larger choice targets are already spoken for by higher ups who can be half an ocean away from a choice target. This creates sub-factions within the corporate whole who know darn well that they have to fend for themselves quietly and off the radar if they really want to be in a good position later on down the road. Moral problems? Growth Problems? Animosity? You betcha!
.....Do we really need to go on? I guess so because still too many foolish people rush to gain numbers without realizing that numbers alone, are not an advantage.
If an MRA actually does clean up its act then what will it have to do?
1. Remove inactive people
2. Move or expand to form a core defense area
3. Boot inexperienced players to eliminate wasted hours of training people who are not an asset.
4. Create stringent join criteria
5. Remove large alliance wide totalitarian tactics and let your attack groups fire at will in small groups or on their own for greater efficiency, secrecy, and effect upon the enemy.
So what must eventually happen to all MRA if they want to win? They must cease to exist anymore as an MRA! Why does this never happen? It is because the fools who create MRA's do not have enough experience and intelligence to understand that it is a tactic of defeat and not a tactic of victory. MRA's are created by those who do not understand the warfare in Grepolis. It is the generals mistake, not a valid tactic. This is the reason why so many people create them, and the reason why they almost always fail. The general who creates an MRA rarely has the wisdom to change his or her ways timely enough and correctly enough to transform the MRA into a true alliance of effectiveness. It is a leadership problem. You can even calculate that anyone who joins one, also lacks greater knowledge of the game, or, does so only for temporary survival until a true alliance is found or created. The general who starts an alliance off as an MRA is creating for themselves and everyone else, an inefficient, ineffective, corporate monstrosity with sub-factions, disloyalty, and possibly infighting and much worse. It is akin to shooting yourself, and everyone else around you, in the foot before trying to march off to battle.
