Some Thoughts on Clan Swapping

Jonathan hates clan swapping. He also admits that there isn't any way to stop it from happening. Therefore all clan swappers must rename their new clan and take the points penalty. The most common reason for a swap is that one member of an alliance will get tired of the game or have some RL reason for quitting. The other members of the alliance might be in the middle of a war, and losing one member of the alliance would jeopardize the other clans. They usually then find another player to swap into the leaving players clan.

So, here are Cosmo's recommendations for swapping clans.

• Don't.
• You've built your clan from day one, stick with it to the end. Live with your mistakes, hopefully you've learned from them. Take pride in your hard work. Besides, if you swap you'll have to live with someone else's mistakes.
• If your younger clan disapears from the sphere, your younger allies and enemies will have one less friend or foe that's about the same age. It's not fun to be the only clan of a certain age and have to always choose between fighting older clans and mostly loosing, or fighting younger clans and being a bully. Take time to think about how your swap would affect the entire game.
• You're probably being asked to swap because an older clan's player is leaving the game and that clan's allies are in the middle of a battle. Of course they don't want to loose, but will one less clan in thier alliance realy make the difference? In the short term it will hurt, but maybe they can keep playing the turns for the leaving player for a couple of weeks while they redistribute thier forces to cover areas where the leaving player was fighting.
• OK, so your RL friend has convinced you that they really need your help because the guy who's leaving is doing so because he physically can't continue, he's bedridden with terminal cancer, and the entire alliance would be at great risk of losing all of their halls if the leaving player's clan is destructed. That's a pretty good reason to swap. Now some guidelines for the swap.
  1. Destruct your old clan. No good reason for letting another clan swap up to your old clan. OK, maybe you'd be leaving your old alliance in a bind. Possible solutions:
     • Help them find another existing clan to join the alliance, or
     • Let them find a replacement player for your old clan, or
     • Continue fighting (with Jonathan's approval, but not more than two tourney's) until they're out of danger or have at least been able to move forces around to cover where your clan was fighting.
  2. Be honest with Jonathan. Tell him you're swapping and why. Tell him when you're going to change the name of your new clan. Most people wait until about 3-4 days before the end of a tournament to minimize the effects of the associated clan size penalty.
  3. Be a good sport. Honor all of your new alliance's allies and enemies. Do not use your new higher tech to go after clans that you were fighting with your previous clan. This will build resentment of all players on the sphere and the offended clan could either build an alliance to come after you, or swap up to a clan with higher tech than your new clan and then come after you. Whether you announce on the cry that you are swapping or not, any and all other clans that can see your new titans should not notice a change in behavior (like suddenly being shot at when they were not previously), just a change in player style (like favoring high tech shields vice no shields).