My alliance, Fourhorsemen, a half seasoned/half newby player group with 26 members, just finished its first war. Nineteen members participated, & we were matched against a Russian alliance that marshaled 24 participants.
We’re not a super chatty alliance - about 1/3 of us, including the strongest players, use chat on a daily basis, so I was concerned about this during our first action. Surprisingly, the usually silent members followed the targeting suggestions the top players made during the second half of the war, so the coordination issue didn’t materialize.
Despite the disadvantage in numbers, Fourhorsemen came away with a victory by 550 points. Everyone seemed to enjoy the war, & no one had major complaints about the format or mechanics. Here’s some general observations from our experience.
Revenge Bar: the effects were noticed immediately, but after rounds one & two, everyone just dealt with it. IMO, the revised version installed for our war isn’t a game-breaker, but just something we had to account for in our planning.
Team Targeting: I’m the strongest member, & I targeted the opponent’s strongest player for my first attack & was ignominiously trounced. 
During the 2nd half, my 3600 power defense team was wiped out by that same player, so I can’t say that we or our opponents bullied only the weakest teams. That said, we did selectively analyze the 2nd, 3rd, & 4th rank teams to decide targeting priorities.
Overall, our mix of mid- & low level targets allowed us to consistently score decent point totals from initial and clean-up attacks. By the halfway point, we had eliminated nearly half of their teams including a couple of their stronger ones. The way we looked at it, our opponents prioritized our weak teams, but since we fielded fewer, they couldn’t gain as many bonus points as we could. It’s one of those “God giveth, & God taketh away” situations. Personally, I’m fine with this because it’s just a strategy aspect of AW that every alliance can work with given experience.
War Flags: We got the jump on the war because of time zones, so most of our members launched their 3 attacks within the first 30 minutes. As the #2 ranked member posted in chat, having to wait 12 hours before the next 3 flags were issued took a little wind out of the excitement sails. This is the only aspect of AW for which I’ll offer a proposal. After a player uses their first 3 flags, schedule the next one 6 hours later with the subsequent flags coming at 4 hour intervals. This provides an interesting strategy twist: does an alliance want to use each flag immediately, or will there be a greater advantage from holding off until closer to the end of the war. But the status quo would still work for us during this initial play phase.
Rewards: One each of five assorted mats/gems was underwhelming, to say the least. I don’t expect ascension items after each war, but could we get like 5 midnight roots or metal ores instead of one? I was the overall top scorer, & I would have liked to have received a reward that acknowledged that achievement. It’s not a total buzz-kill (well, yeah it is, really), but I can foresee a waning of enthusiasm from my alliance mates presented with a diet of paltry rewards war after war when we’re the victors.
Final takeaway: Alliance Wars was a challenging, fun event that will snag my comrades interest over the next few weeks. Thanks SG for your efforts. Keep tweaking AW based on what the player community suggests & I think you’ll have a game component that becomes a staple of the E&P experience like Titans and challenge events.
