The _Elf_ Clan:
Founded in January 2003, the _Elf_ clan is a clan built on strength through skill, not numbers. Why do we believe this? Well, basically because, unless we're in fighting, the most players we need to fill a game is 3. Obviously, we have to take in to account that not everyone is strong at the same game types, and that not everyone is on at the same time. So a small amount of leverage is needed to be able to still have 3 players on, who like the same game type at the same time. Having said that, who plays 3v3 much anyway? That is why we believe that we don't need 50+ members to be 'strong'. It's much better to have 7 or 8 really good players, who can span several game types than to have 50 '1337 xpertz' who know nothing more than the cheap strategies and discover that they're lost without their masses of heliopolis's or Hittite heavy cats.
So for that reason, we look for experts, not '1337 xpertz', players who know how to play, can adapt and understand the principles of strategy.
We are also happy to take on players who may be new to the game, but show promise to become proper players with a bit of practice.
And now for some other stuff past the clan philosophy. The clan is run by _Gurkha_Elf_ and Mysterious_Elf_, long time players with an eye for strategy and weeding out the cheese. Our web address is http://www.geocities.com/mysterious_elf_107, and the email is [email protected], but then you probably knew that.
We also like to stick to principles, which is why we have rules and expect people to keep to them, Gurkha is also very fussy about the state of HTML coding on the site, which is why, if you click [view] [source] you won't find it full or garbage and meta tags telling you that the page was made in word (which it wasn't) and divulging all his personal information. Important (although this is mentioned on the rules page) it is not for the ordinary members to do tryouts, or offer places in the clan, that is for Gurkha and Mysterious to decide - by all means recommend names to US and tell the recommendees that you're doing that, but don't go around telling people that they are in.
For the time being, we are an Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome clan exclusively, but we may broaden our scope if enough members (and at least one leader) plays another game.
As far, there are only two clan ranks, leaders and members, this may change in the future if there are enough members to require a hierarchy to lead them.
We welcome suggestions from anyone on ways to improve our site etc. CONSTRUCTIVE criticism is also welcomed.
Why are we using Geocities and bravenet? Because we can't afford to run a website if we've got to make an outlay and we're gonna have no income returning to us, and we have no intention of charging clan subscriptions fees. :-)
Why is there so little on the page? We've only been started since January, please stay with us and we will be putting some on gradually. What do we mean by gradually? Kinda like as we write it. Strategy submissions are also welcome. Note that our anti-cheese policy in the game also holds for strategy that we may host. We intend to make the website a strategy compendium for Age of Empires players the world over not just the home for a clan. You mean you're not hiding it behind a password for members only? No, 1) It wouldn't take a genius to crack it, and I'm not going to try spending my entire life keeping one step ahead of the 12 year olds who'd want to spread or password just for their daily jollies, and 2) it would make us snobs if we expected people to join our clan to access the strategies. 3) It's against another of Gurkha's principles (he's the webmaster, so in the end it comes down to him), that the internet should be a free resource for everyone and to that extend passwording of ordinary things such as game strategies shouldn't exist - It doesn't need to be kept confidential, so it shouldn't be. And yes, he is the same Gurkha_DS_ who ran the cheaters list.