I figured this is something i ( HERO ) are struggling with at the moment among other things. This board has been suggested for this type of thing so here it is.

What do small alliances do ( besides merge into a larger alliance which defeats the purpose of being a small alliance ) to curb the farming.

Its all good and well to say retal every hit. But what do you do when the numbers are just impossible to retal?

We have been doing our best to retal but its getting harder and harder to keep up with retal policies and sheer number of grabs. Our retallers are getting grabbed on grabs and it just becomes a sheer size and numbers game and 8 v 80 doesnt work.....

http://forums.earthempires.com/...ot-get-farmed-on-alliance

The best bet is to form an alliance with another larger alliance that is willing to work with you to help you out either by arranging aid to a retaler on your side, or using diplomacy to cool the grabs from the other side.

It's all in how you want to play it.

Yeah, there's no easy answer to this question.

Obviously, retaliating on every hit is the best strategy, and if you keep coming out ahead, then often times alliances won't see you as worth hitting. But that's not always possible as you brought up.

Talking with other alliances about it can often work, especially if you'd had some success retalling hits already. There are some jerkfaces out there that will give you the bully answer of not being willing to do anything, but having played a decent about of FFA and Team, I know most of the alliances on those two servers really don't try to be jerks to anyone who try to open a dialogue.

Beyond that, the last resort (which I don't recommend) is going postal and basically declaring war. This is also risky though. You're clearly not going to win, but if with your 8 countries, you can hit the right countries to really upset some players, and you make it clear that this is because of the farming, then you might be able to convince those clans to be a bit kinder to you. This won't be immediate though, as they'll totally wipe you out THAT set.

Sometimes when you're a small clan, you have to play the long game though and either make decisions that suck in the short term in order to gain long term success.

So there's no easy answer because no two situations are exactly alike, but if you're still struggling with this, good luck.

Another thing you can do is form alliances with other smaller clans, and basically have FDP's. So you're actually acting as one bigger clan under several banners, and you get to keep your name, your divisions, your forums. Imagine 3 small clans of 9 players. If you do the math, it adds up. At first you couldn't challenge a clan of 30 players, now you can. If all you three manage to get a bigger alliance to team up with you (of 30 members for example), then you could go to war against a 60 man tag; 9 + 9 + 9 + 30. You're 3 guys under 60, but an FS will erase that deficit. Of course, getting three small clans getting an alliance with one big tag may or may not happen. The thing about this, is that your three clans have to keep a very tight knit FAing convo going on.

I remember when NOW3P and I started diplomatic discussions years ago (when I ran a clan), we got fairly close. His clan had way more people than us, but on our side, we had them and we had another small clan. With the other small clan (can't remember the names though), we had an FDP. So, we felt safer. So, even if you're 10 + 10 (for example) going after a 25 man clan, I knew that NOW3P's clan couldn't go against us, even though they had a pact with the clan we were going against. Maybe he couldn't help us, but his clan couldn't FS us either. So, getting uNAPs does help a lot in terms of not getting hit when you're trying to FS a clan, with another clan assisting you. In the end, instead of having 50 vs 20, you end up with 25 vs 20.

Also, if you can pull it off, try FSing bigger clans, not smaller. Successfully FSing a bigger clan speaks volume about the quality of your players and your ability to run a Warchat. I remember back under Sov, Nasjym and a few others under the banner of MX, the Warchats were organized, so we took on opponents in wars where we were outnumbered (if I'm not mistaking - don't quote me on this). MX was always a midsize clan, but with IX by our side, we ran good Warchats and did what we had to do.

I would restart countries all the time, because people kept killing me - the Warchat was organized. In other words, I would spring up again, go in the Warchat and listen to instructions. People got annoyed by me and kept killing my small country time and again because I was a great nuisance as opposed to killing bigger countries that might have bee idling around (because of lack of targets they could target). As long as you can be a thorn in an alliances' side, they will get upset with you during war. If your players can do this time and again during a war, people usually get annoyed by your players when they come back from the grave. I always come back, I don't care about how many times I get killed in war, I assure you I will have a new country spring up the next hour to piss you off. I will grab land, nuke you, spy you, BR you or GS you. Get ALL your players to do that, the other alliance will think twice before pissing on you. In the end, if you have less players, for work twice as hard as your opponents, that speaks volume about you.

Furthermore, be active in the forums at all times, OR have one of your players (an FA or IA). Make friends of FA's. See who, after a few weeks, would be willing to have your back, or at least not grab the everlasting crap out of you. Lastly, the best advice anyone can give you: only run the alliance with a few people who are WILLING to come back, no matter what. Because running a clan takes passion. As for the players, I have no advice on how to motivate them. That is an aspect that has always eluded me. I suppose, do your best to motivate them, or have someone very charismatic to motivate them.