Building troops and going to war is important in Gunship Battle: Crypto Conflict, but what’s more important is joining a good alliance. The game tutorial urges you to join an alliance fairly early, as these are one of the most important aspects of the game. 

Warfare can be among two admirals, but they’ll seem like skirmishes compared to what battles between alliances can bring. Also, a lot of the content is targeted at alliances, such as Armada Strike Groups, Armada Blitz Groups, and city conquers. Big alliances settle around cities with titanium mines for fast progression.

Establishing and managing alliances isn’t simple. The leaders have to expand and form unions with other alliances while they still have to increase their own base. They also have to keep in mind the city conquests, set up strategies to conquer them, and manage the cities as well. Here are some tips you can consider while expanding your alliance.

1. Don't fight, become allies

Don’t get too trigger-happy when you first start building an alliance. When seeing a smaller enemy that looks easy to take out (or worse, an equal-sized enemy), don’t go in guns-blazing thinking that you can grab a quick victory. For the most part — especially early on — fights are bad for the health and security of your alliance. Only once you’ve built a very effective force should you consider battling weaker opponents.

If you encounter opponents, it’s more effective to try to get them to join your alliance, or at least work somewhat in proximity to one another. Diplomacy shouldn’t be too difficult, even with players or alliances from other countries, the translator the game offers works decently. 

2. Expand the alliance through research and buildings

Expanding the strength of your alliance through means of research and buildings is one of the most effective ways to build up strength. The more the better, really. Of course, everyone will build an Alliance Base or an Alliance Depot, but it’s also important to take advantage of more overlooked items — such as the Naval Mines and Radar Base.

It’s crucial to have the research going on 24/7 as all alliance members have to pitch in. Obviously, members would be reluctant to donate titanium, but the required resources will be filled in eventually. There are a few categories that are very important in Alliance Research, which should be researched as soon as possible. They are Resource Collection Speed and Boost Membership. Resource Collection Speed increases the speed you collect resources including titanium, so it’s extremely important. Boost Membership is for when you want to increase the max number of alliance members.

3. Keep track of city conquests

City conquests occur once a week, and each city has different buffs. Alliances that conquered the cities can gain silver from the trades that went through that city. Cities with titanium mine islands should be the most popular as the alliance that conquered the city can gain titanium taxes.

There are specific time slots where alliances can attempt to conquer the city. If there's conflict among different alliances, this means war. Obviously, this is information that you want to make sure you keep a very watchful eye over. Although it can be annoying to consider constantly, in the long run, this will save you a lot of stress and resources should another alliance come into conflict with you.

The time slots are as follows:

Wed. 

11:00 — Vancouver, Shanghai, Djibouti, Suez

19:00 — Hamburg, Barcelona, Istanbul

Thu.

03:00 — Tokyo, Kaohsiung, Melbourne

11:00 — Lima, Marseille, Genoa, Thessaloniki

19:00 — Veracruz, Buenos Aires, Mumbai, Rotterdam

Fri.

03:00 — Vladivostok, Dubai, Casablanca

11:00 — San Diego, Panama City, Busan, Hong Kong

Sun.

15:00 — Rio de Janeiro, Jakarta, Portsmouth

4. Detect Armada raids

Detecting Armada raids is another important preventative measure you should take to expand your alliance. There are two alliance raids: Armada Strike Group and Blitz Defense. The Armada Strike Group is a fleet where it continuously attacks the alliance members. To prevent that from happening, you need to take it out as soon as possible. You need to gather up alliance members and attack the group as soon as it’s detected. A series of airstrikes before rallying is important. If you successfully defeat an Armada Strike Group, you’ll be able to claim rewards — including Medals of Merit, which you’ll need in researching the War category.

Blitz Defense is a different kind of raid. When an Armada Blitz Group is detected, you can’t attack the group — you have to defend your base through waves of attacks. Once you fail to defend your base, the attack will cease, and you will receive a reward for how many waves you successfully defeated.

5. Keep the alliance members happy

John Maxwell once said, “The single biggest way to impact an organization is to focus on leadership development. There is almost no limit to the potential of an organization that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders, and continually develops them." The same applies to being the leader of an alliance. You want to make sure throughout your time in the game that you are very active as a leader — a ghost that never communicates or tries to work with their alliance members will not hold the build together long.

Checking in and keeping your alliance members engaged will no doubt keep things much more in order. Make sure that you share as much of your information and knowledge of the game with them as possible — a strong guild is a happy guild. And of course, as guild leader, be aware that many times you have to make sacrifices in order to satisfy the alliance overall.