Round 14 1up Announcement
This was a 1up internal announcement in Round 14 which Sid also made public on AD here.
Political Situation
By now I'm sure most of you have noticed that lately we've received more than our fair share of incs. Many of you probably already know what's happening - and no doubt those of you that don't would like to.
Firstly, we should take it a compliment that alliances feel the need to gang up vs us this early in the round. We always expected it from LCH - blocking is their way of life and they're realistic enough to know they lack the quality to compete at the top solo. If they'd just stuck to working with hydra that would make life interesting, but are now also working with Insomnia. That makes 3 top 10 alliances - with a combined score/roids of more than double ours - all working together to attack 1up.
And that's still not a big enough block for them - we know for sure they've been inviting other alliances in (though as yet we have no firm evidence that any others have accepted).
They will claim it's not a block. Hydra HC, when asking other alliances in have referred to it as a "faction". But if they're coordinating atatcks (they are) and they're not hitting one another's planets (which is the case) then they can call it what they want - but it's a block by any reasonable definition. A block that already contains around 20-25% of all paid planets in the game and which is trying to grow even bigger. Not only does this block threaten 1up, it also harms all the alliances not in it - as they get proportionally more incs than the blockers do due the blockers having incs from 2 less alliances than everyone else.
Until this point 1up has had no NAPs and no cooperation on attacks with other alliances. You will all have noticed that in your AG raids, all planets (other than 1up members) have been valid targets. This may change now. Whereas 1up would have preferred to stay solo - even given some small degree of blocking by other alliances - given the size of this block we now have to consider all available options. Accordingly, your AGs may find that at some point in the future certain non-1up targets will be excluded from attack.
In-Galaxy Defence
When your galaxy is attacked and the 1up members are not atatcked you MUST check with HC before sending ingalaxy defence. You must also ALWAYS check before defending a member of an alliance defined as hostile to 1up (that is, an alliance that is intentionally focussing its attacks towards us). If 1up doesn't need defence, and the attackers on them are not associated with us then defence may be allowed.
Planetary NAPs
When we attack hostile planets in 1up galaxies we generally need to attack most/all non-1up members there to minimise in-galaxy defence. This is wasteful for us (it uses up attack fleets we would far rather were sent at genuine hostiles). It is also unfortunate for those galaxy members who are in smaller alliances that may struggle with defence and who have no wish to embroiled in our battles.
Accordingly, 1up is happy to grant planetary protection to these galaxy members IF THEY WANT IT. The terms of such protection are very simple: they agree not to attack 1up members or to defend hostiles ingalaxy vs 1up. In return they will NEVER get atatcked by 1up. They may also defend members of non-hostile alliances ingalaxy vs 1up without risk of being counter-attacked by us. Most galaxy members obviously won't want to accept these terms - in which case respect them for it and don't try to force them to agree.
For the moment, they will need to check whether a target is 1up with a 1up in their galaxy before attacking. We will try to work out a better system later. If any of your galaxy want this protection then you need to inform a HC so it can be noted in our tools.
Although this planetary protection is intended for members of smaller/neutral alliances, we will extend it to ALL member of your galaxy - even those whose alliances are hostile. If enemy HC aren't able to stop their members from fence-sitting then it's hardly our job to do so
In Closing
Feel flattered that the opposition admit our superiority by blocking this early in the round when we've stayed totally solo. Keep your activity up and we can pull through this - and hopefully demonstrate, as we have before, that ultimately quantity is not a substitute for quality.
