This is something that is currently driving me up the wall on au2, so I would like to take a moment to lay out the basic skeleton of yer IGM to yer alliance cap'n.
For starters: include a useful topic! "h3lp" or the infamous "no subject" means that yer IGM is likely to be seen, but not read until the cap'n has finished on whatever part of their account they were working on. "Defence Request" is simple, obvious and will typically get yer cap'n dropping what they're doing to at least consider messaging the alliance for defence.
The dot points are covered in lone ranger's very good guide on defence, but I will outline them here as well for those too lazy to follow links.
- Village Name and co-ordinates to be defended
- Attacker's name and the village(s and their co-ordinates) attacking.
- Type of attack (if it's a pillage, ye really shouldn't be requesting an alliance level defence bar in a few exceptional circumstances)
- Time first wave lands - in server time. Tell the cap'n it's in server time as well.
- If there are subsequent waves on different times, please include a list of how many waves are landing and at what times e.g "First 3 waves at 10:11:00, 2 at 10:11:01, 5 at 10:11:02, last 3 at 10:11:03 (all server time)" If the wave lands on a day different to the current one, also include the day and date that it is landing!
- Speed of attack - i.e. does it contain catapults or chiefains. Don't forget to check for speed artefacts in place! If ye have only just logged on to see the attack, please say that ye therefore don't know and ye last checked the account for attacks x hours ago.
- How many sailors can ye feed? If it is less than the amount needed, please also request for grub to be sent, including the size of yer granary.
- What type of village is it? If it's a hammer village, the rough size of the hammer. If it's a 15c capital, what level are the fields at? If it is a supply village, why does it need urgent defence (perhaps it's an artefact storing village)?
In essence, ye are creating a message that performs two functions:
- It allows the cap'n to decide if the village warrants defending. If there are other attacks incoming on other accounts, then this allows the cap'n to prioritise defence.
- If done correctly, the IGM should pretty be much able to be copy and pasted directly into an alliance MM, minus the details about yer hammer size/field levels etc. This saves a huge amount of time and increases the time in which defence can arrive.
So please, no more messages that just read "I need sailors!"
Competition:
Key: official.
Clue: ye may agree or disagree. Everyone has an opinion.
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