Dear <New Member>, Welcome to the Elves of Moria! We are excited to have you as a member.

I am <Officer Name>, an Officer of the Alliance. As an Alliance, we aspire to be in the top 2 of the leader-board and to achieve it through mutual support and sharing. We currently have friendly diplomatic relations with a number of other Alliances-including WAR and Canada--and ask that you respect that in all your dealings with other players. Our principle enemies at the moment are the Mauraders and the Phantoms. Alliance members actively share resources and you are expected to do the same. The best way to do so is to come to Alliance chat instead of sending a mail message. There are usually a number of members around who can help you. A major feature of our Alliance is a 'banking system' for excess resources. The current coordinates of the bank is a city of Vice Regent Yannik: 753,33. If you have resources in excess of your vault capacity, please send them to the bank, 24 hours/7 days. In turn, Yannik or one of the other Officers will hand out resources as requested. As a more junior member, we know you will probably ask for more than you give. The opposite is true of more senior members. Informal sharing between players in chat is also normal behavior. The best way to use Alliance shared resources is to build Might. The highest quality Might comes from building troop numbers in your cities. Wall defenders are generally discouraged, especially for more junior players, as they cannot be hidden and are easily destroyed by attackers. Gold and food are in abundance across high Might members. You should freely ask for both these resources to keep a research project constantly bubbling in the background. ===part 2 You should generally keep your troops hidden to avoid them being wiped out by players who are farming, let alone enemies. Significant troop losses from farmers attacking you is a bad mistake. Unhiding troops at the last minute to destroy incoming enemies can be an effective gambit for both you and them. You, as they might be surprised they are unhidden. Them, as they might flash attack you to exploit the time window of unhidden troops. Use this double-edged defensive move with care.

When we attack enemies we often coordinate efforts with several players involved, often to play the attacker in the gambit just described. You are encouraged to help in these coordinated efforts. Please listen carefully to the instructions of the War Chiefs or other leading members as we mount an attack. In addition to making sure timing is precise--often within seconds--it is important that players from our side do not signal our intentions by sending unnecessary scouts or uncoordinated sorties. Remember to use Alliance Reports to see the results of earlier scouts and battles. You are welcome to coordinate your own attack against an Alliance enemy or a personal enemy **provided you do so with good odds**. It is a waste of your resources and Alliance resources to mount an attack against superior forces. Poorly planned attacks in the past have lead to significant losses and massive differences in loss of might in the enemy's favor. Under current new member guidelines you should already have 500,000 of Might. With this base, you should invest in a second city if you have not done so already. If you like, talk to us about this as we have found a configuration of first and second cities which we believe to be close to optimal. Among other things, a second city offers an elegant solution to the 'food problem' of a large army. Welcome again and we all look forward to seeing you in Alliance Chat. Cheers, <Officer Name> and the whole leadership team