ARS

ARS is an alliance to have fun in. We started out as a TFC clan way back in 1995 and quickly moved into multiple games. We got into PA in R2 and had very strong holdings throughout R3-5 and were perhaps one of the top 10 to 15 alliances simply due to our size. More recently we have gone back to enjoying ourselves and try not to get involved in personal vendettas, conflicts, politics and all the other bollox that can ruin the game.

R2 - The Struggle for Power
ARS first evolved half way through round. Just an alliance for friends

R3 (The New Dawn) and 4 (The Tides of War)
ARS recruited early in both rounds and quickly became one of the top 10-15 alliances with membership around 300 and domination of several clusters.

R5 (The Price of Freedom) and 6 (First Encounters) ARS began streamlining its membership and the HC unfortunately became 1.

R7 - Critical Diplomacy
I think this is when pay to play was introduced. ARS was reduced to a handful of dedicated members who were just happy to play the game rather than remain competitve.

R8 and 9
Pay to play, we just played for fun. No competition and we happily drifted into obscurity.

R9.5 - Resurection
This was a free round to ty and encourage players back to the game (I suspect). Unfortunately, I (Ferretus) cannot remember very much about it. No doubt we continued to plod on as we normally did in these middle rounds.

R10 - Genesis
Ferretus returns to Planetarion on a free account and begins ARS again. Only recruits a handful of members (under 10) yet still manages an effective and powerful alliance. Forms a NAP with C24 Deadly during their initial incarnation who eventually become very powerful due to their membership base (initially 44 when NAP finally agreed, after havoc finished - 3rd). Final standings are as follows
Ferretus : 503rd HQ Gal: 222nd ARS: 40th
Havoc Period
Being out of the game so long we forgot about havoc and also thought that we had to pay for it. Anyway after the initial delay these are the final standings.
Ferretus: 138th HQ Gal: 7th ARS: 43rd

R10.5 beta
This was the first open beta test of the new game. It only lasted a couple of weeks but the new game looked promising enough to start ARS up more officially.

R11 - A Legend Reborn
Recruitment starts afresh in preperation for round 12. We ally with Bruderschaft and SU who each eventually finish 17th and 19th respectively. Despite sitting in 18th position right up until the closing weeks of the rond we eventualy dropped to 20th. Much of this round was proving to the community that we were not some noob alliance and fighting off many of the now top alliances who felt we were an easy target. Fortunately this didn't last long as Ferretus progressed within the PA community and liased with the creators and top alliances more.
Havoc Period
The Havoc period was exactly that and for some reason we became the target of SIN as many of our players came under attack by this relatively new alliance. They had the advantage of having about 30 members which made for easy planning (from an alliance point of view). ARS eventually finished 20th following this 2 week period.

R12 - The Edge of Darkness
October 2004-Dec 2004
(215 alliances took part in R12)
The round started well and confidently, we quickly maintained our position and crawled up the rankings to around 14th. BUT, some of our members got a bit cocky and overconfident and had visions of bigger and better things. One of our stronger ARS galaxies (8 members) defected to Coven which is a shame as we spent R11 fighting them. By mid to late round both of our Battle Commanders left as we wouldn't merge with Bruderschaft to become one large alliance. Wizz said he was leaving the game as he has no time for it anymore, while Ice was far more vocal and unfortunately our friendship appears to have broken down. Ice then used our joint IRC room to recruit for the new alliance and even tried recruiting Tosswink and Ferretus individually slagging off the other HC in the process for not wanting to join. ARS finished a disapointing 23rd after losing half of its members due to poaching.
Due to Spinner being ill and the usual delays in between rounds R13 has taken longer than normal. To keep everyone amused a number of speed games were introduced (10 min ticks). ARS did not compete in any of them.
We can confirm that Bruderschaft is no more and has joined with between 4 and 10 ARS members to become IRON. They seem to have had some success in the speed rounds and are growing increasingly arrogant. Will be interesting to see how the real round works for them. IRON has made continual negative remarks towards ARS and appear to be wanting a barney. Good news is that by them doing so we have gained big allies who don't like their attitude either. This next round could be interesting.

R13
? 2005-?
Before this round has even started ARS are considering making this our last round. We are simply too old to be staying up all night babysitting planets and quite honestly it is obvious to us that the comunity is getting very young. We have been asked to stay by alliances such as F-Crew who respect our more traditional 'antique' style, depending on how the round goes will determine whether we call it a day and focus on our other games.

Full Name: Arse Romping Syndicate Short Name: ARS Public IRC Channel: N/A Alliance motto: HAHAHA look at those losers in top 10 Affectionate nickname: