Party, family, alliance

A party is the community players act together in. Cities are held by parties, wars are declared by parties, income gathers in the party treasury. You start as a small family and grow all the way to an empire. Most of the game runs through parties.

What a party is

You can play alone: work, open businesses, dig mines. But owning a city, declaring war and reaching big incomes are party work.

The Parties tab holds the list of every party, sorted by strength. A party's strength comes from its members' strength; so as you grow stronger, your party climbs the list.

The tier ladder

Every party stands on a rung of a ladder. There are four rungs:

1. Family — every party starts here.
2. Party
3. State
4. Empire — the top of the ladder.

Climbing a tier costs money and shows in the party's name: the name of your current tier is appended to it. As you climb, the number of members the party can hold and what it can do both grow.

How you join

Every party chooses how it opens its door. You can see which door it is in the list:

• Open — you tap, you are in. No need to ask anyone.
• Password — whoever knows the password gets in. Groups of friends usually do this.
• Invite — only the invited get in.
• Application — you apply, and an authorised member accepts or declines.

If you are new, joining an open party is the easiest route. If you do not like it, you can leave and try another.

Founding your own party

You can found your own party too. There are two conditions: reaching a certain level and paying the founding cost. The cost comes out of your own pocket. It is cheaper if you are VIP.

Founding your own is harder than joining an established one: you start with zero members, no strength to take a city, and an empty treasury. Early in the game, joining a ready party is almost always smarter.

Ranks and permissions

Not everyone in a party can do the same things. Every party has its own list of ranks, arranged by the leader.

Two ranks are fixed in every party: the Leader at the top and the Member rank newcomers receive at the bottom. You can put as many ranks as you like in between.

Each rank is given permissions separately:

• Kicking members
• Editing ranks
• Declaring war
• Managing the city (tax, construction)
• Viewing treasury movements
• Moderating chat
• Deciding on membership applications

A permission alone is not enough; order matters too. You can only act on ranks below your own. So an officer cannot kick someone at their own level. This stops a party being taken over from inside.

The treasury

A party has a shared treasury. Money arrives in it from three places:

• Tax from the cities you own
• The licence share from businesses opened in those cities
• The deed share from homes built in those cities

Money leaves the treasury for three things: war declarations, construction projects, and the daily expense of your cities.

If the treasury empties, the cities fall under lien and the bonuses are cut. Watching the treasury is therefore one of a leader's most important jobs. Treasury movements are recorded; members with the permission can look.

Alliances

Parties can form an alliance. The leader makes the offer and the other party's leader accepts.

• A party can hold at most 3 active alliances at a time.
• If an alliance breaks, the same two parties cannot re-form it for a while.
• Sending offers has a waiting time too; you cannot spam proposals.

Alliances are the game's diplomacy: three parties can come together against one you could never beat alone.

Chat

There are three kinds of chat in the game:

• General chat — everyone sees it.
• Party chat — only the party's members see it.
• Private messages — between two people. Private messages are stored encrypted.

Chat opens from every screen: the bubble in the corner on a phone, the side panel on a computer.

You can block anyone who bothers you; you will not see their messages and they cannot write to you. If a rule has been broken, you can report it.

Tips

• Join early. Half the game happens inside a party; playing alone means progressing slowly.
• Pick an active party. A crowded but silent party earns you less than a small but fighting one.
• As a leader, keep permissions narrow. The "declare war" permission means spending the party treasury; it is not for everyone.
• Do not leave the treasury empty. A lien is the quietest way a party dies: bonuses drop, people move away, cities weaken.
• An alliance is the only way to close a strength gap. There is no point staying alone against a party you cannot beat.