I think it depends on the seriousness of the alliances that are merging.
We had an alliance merge in with us about 4 or 5 months ago, and its been great. Their leader reached out and we had discussions about our alliances and how strict each were. We both have active members who use all war flags and hit titans, but neither alliance in the merger have any notion that we are going to be Top 100, or even 500 for that matter. We are just a group that enjoys the game together and understands real life.
Did I say we had group leaders of their friends who just wanted to dump their āfriendsā on us just cause it would be awkward for them to say they want more/different thing? Oh yeah, that is a thing.
Ofcourse when people realised that the one who 'brought" them took a break/āwent around from flower to flowerā they got the memo and just left one by one.
We both got rid of our 15 weakest and now we compete with the top 3 alliances. It has some growing pains but were getting there. We shall see next week on the Mythic Titan if e beat the Avengers!
A bunch of very naĆÆve real life friends had a falling out with their first alliance and decided to strike out and make their own alliance. I convinced more real life friends and family to join. We rocketed to 30 relatively quickly. We even had some very experienced players join and offer amazing advice. They gave me line channels to recruit and one gave us wise goat. The community as a whole has been great to us. It was all great until family and friends grew bored of the game and we found ourselves at 20 in a short span. Most of it wasnāt done from people being upset with how things were run, although maybe 2 or 3 were (not family or friends members). Recruiting 10 felt like a chore, so I opted for a merger. I found what I thought were a great group of people and they merged with us. Itās been about 18 months since that merge and we only have 3 left from it. Because of those 3 relationships alone, I call the merge a success. One gave up the game about 4 months ago. The other 4 or 5 left because of a falling out. They were more casual than us. It was too casual for us and it caused friction.
Iāve been fortunate to maintain 27 or more since then and havenāt had a need to merge again (although Iām not opposed to it). Iām pretty blessed with the people we have. We very rarely miss war flags. I do tend to turn a blind eye to titans unless it becomes egregious. Itās doubtful weāll ever be in the game for 13 or 14 star titans, but itās a good atmosphere with good people that have found the level of devotion they want to give to this game.
My previous alliance had a couple of merges. In both cases, it worked very well to start with. We even renamed the alliance the first time to make it feel like a new alliance, rather than a takeover.
However, in both cases, the smaller alliance that merged in both just gradually drifted away from the game. In the end there was only one member from the second alliance left. There were never any arguments or drama. Nobody ever gave their reasons, they just either eventually left the alliance or became inactive and had to be kicked. My read on it was that for the smaller alliance, it ājust didnāt feel the same any moreā. As I said, nobody ever gave their reasons, but that was how it seemed. Gradually becoming less chatty and less active in general.
Neither was a total failure, but they werenāt rip roaring successes either. They both helped our alliance grow at the time.
Plucking this bit out because I think itās the most crucial part of alliance mergers (or even just single players joining an established alliance).
From personal experience any merger, or individual joining, only works if both have very similar expectations of play; or understood levels of participation. My predecessor oversaw a merger (my old alliance joined current). Iāve only ever recruited via the forums. While this has resulted in one group joining, most who do are individuals. Weāve been pretty stable for the last year, with a core of around 22 players.
If there are enough differences in expectations, then it leads to friction. It happens, and sometimes takes a while for such things to be known depending on individual tolerances and whether such dissatisfaction is mentioned.
