This page owns the alliance lifecycle and the choice between natural expiry and betrayal. Use the first-match guide for opening priorities, diplomacy strategy for live tradeoffs, and economy mechanics when embargo changes your income.
Alliance Core Data
- Alliance duration
- Default 3000 ticks ≈ 5 minutes; lobby setting 1–15 minutes, 0 disables alliances
- Renewal warning
- Both parties notified 300 ticks (30s) before expiry
- Renewal rules
- Mutual consent auto-renews; single-party consent enters renewal window
- Betrayal immediate effect
- Triggers automatic embargo; defense ×0.5, speed ×0.8, duration 300 ticks
Alliance Lifecycle
- Request: Either player clicks opponent's portrait → Request Alliance.
- Accept: Opponent accepts = alliance established, countdown 3000 ticks (5 minutes).
- Renewal prompt: 300 ticks (30 seconds) before expiry, both receive "Extend" prompt.
- Both agree: Renewed for another 5 minutes.
- Only one agrees: Enters "extension window", other party still has time to respond; if neither responds by expiry, alliance naturally ends (not betrayal).
Cost of Betrayal
⚠ Breaking alliance = entering traitor state
- Defense ×0.5 (take double damage)
- Advance speed ×0.8
- Lasts 300 ticks (30 seconds)
- Auto-embargo from former ally + some other players
- UI shows red "Betrayed" banner, v24 adds red border warning (devalnor)
Embargo
- Temporary embargo: Auto-triggered by attack, lasts 300 ticks.
- Permanent embargo: Manually set, persists until player removes it.
- Embargoed pairs don't spawn trade ships between them; multiple embargoes can cripple gold income.
- Bots don't trade, so embargoing Bots is pointless.
Hidden Alliance Benefits
- Trains passing ally cities: 35k (vs Team 25k / Self 10k)—ally rail networks are the biggest economic multiplier.
- Allies can see your troop/building details (shared vision).
- Nuclear friendly fire has alliance protection but doesn't grant immunity—large nukes still hit ally territory.
✦ Three Principles for Choosing Allies
- Find players with common enemies: if you both want to attack the same person, the relationship is most stable.
- Find geographically close but non-adjacent players: enables trade ships and trains without border friction.
- Avoid obviously weaker players: they may break alliance to save themselves when attacked, worsening your position.
When Betrayal Makes Sense
Few scenarios justify breaking alliance:
- Opponent has no nuclear shield and you have hydrogen bomb ready—30-second traitor window is enough for nuke + ground push to capture core.
- Opponent near maxTroops cap, you're population-saturated—0.8× speed penalty matters less when you're already slow.
- In a 3-way alliance where you're falling behind—betray the stronger ally to grab third party's territory.
In all other cases, letting alliance expire naturally is better than betrayal: no debuffs, no auto-embargo, just non-renewal.
Facing a Nation? Read the Nation AI decision guide to see how v0.33.7 Nations choose alliance and betrayal candidates.