...You have NAP with them and problem with us...
Mate this is a sad statement. If you truly believe that, then there really is no chance for smaller factions to play independently this game. Making trade with others is then been seen to support the enemy, having not even trade but no aggression versus each other already counts as taking sides, i guess even more if they don't have then also NAP with you. As i see it
live and let live and at some point there may be war and then there also may be piece again, without wiping someone out so they wouldn't be able anymore to play or get back on their feet. Aslong people don't indulge into bluntly insulting each other, this could be quite enjoyable. But often i see all this raging and flaming propaganda stuff and also then on the map the ganking. As the blue dudes i call them Liberators, which themselves stated, they would be against any big block or alliance, would have stayed out of your hair, they may have just decided to attack eastern block at some point. Also i do see ^^ your geopolitcal reasons. As i started strategus in strat 2.0, i also wanted to be a mercenary clan, able to merc and lead armies for different factions and then retreat to my small keep to eat some grilled pork ^^ . My strat 2.0 experience though teached me, you can't survive alone, but you can survive with more people better, still there are others who have even more ^^. That lead to a oversized 100 member wolves clan in strat 4.0 where i was more of a company manager and less of a friend to my clan mates. In the end i didn't enjoy it anymore and didn't quite worked out for the wolves, and now i started again, but i will stop recruitment, when i have like 20 really active guys. A number where you still have it easy to organize people and make some nice teamplay. I just don't get it how DRZ or all the other megafactions/clans can do this without loosing fun and friendships in this game. For myself i know in strat 4.0 i took it much too serious. In terms of fairness and getting something out of this game, how can anyone be proud of accomplishments, if they either know they have had overwhelming numbers or may have used ... other methods. In any case, if this game doesn't develop a balancing system to get rid of mega blocks or at least make it really difficult and inefficent for them to exist, as i heard it now from 4 other clans, i am speaking of a playerbase of over 300 players, i will be out of strat after this round, too. The UIF can then go play with themselves, hold hands or whatever gives them a boner.(EDIT:same for eastern block)
Might as well keep trading and dump all my money to the mercs, I just want to see the UIF lose.
+9000
from now on 50 players will be homeless , and all we can do is to produce troops and attack every village(UIFs) we can, meaning we will block trading and buying/selling options. so enjoy having 50 battles every 2-3 days we will make sure that u have battles spread from 00:00 to 00:00
good luck with that, you will need to have a good organization for that within your faction, with a lot of very active members to make this work. Have a look at Wataga.