About the use of Coalitions

AOE Team,

Below is an article about the use of coalitions in DomiNations. Excellent summary what you should consider and how you should do it.

If you have any questions, as always, ask your alliance leadership team and your alliance team members. They will be glad to help!

Remark: "O" in the article below refers to "Offensive Coalition(s)", and "D" refers to "Defensive Coalition(s)". For example, 3O means 3 offensive coalitions, and 1O2D means 1 offensive coalition and 2 defensive coalitions.

______From a Reddit conversation_____

This response is Global Age and above specific. Industrial should use American 100% of the time, and base other decisions on the alliance's goal that war. Aztecs and Mongols are good in earlier ages.

The most common coalition combinations:


 * 3O: American, Ethiopian, Aztecs
 * 2O1D: American, Ethiopian, Filipino (this is the most common)

Of course it depends on your troops. There's no sense using, say, Ethiopian if you don't use factory troops (which would be two mistakes in one). Point is, coalitions depend on the attacker and opponent; and the least important part is the troops coalitions themselves provide.

Next depends on your base design, upgraded defenses, and likely opponent attack style, but:


 * 1O2D: American, Filipino, Russian
 * 3D: Filipino, Russian, Egyptians

So there are many factors. I didn't add Maori but it's clearly good too but most prioritize air defense above all else. I'm not a defensive player so shouldn't be speaking to this part, but there are certainly situations where Maori is better than, say, Egyptians on defense.

Plus there's also level. Is a level 1 Filipino better than, say, a level 5 Maori? Probably not.

Lastly, many folks use defensive coalitions despite having weak defenses. This is often a mistake. Often this is "well, I have these national trade goods so shrug guess I'll pick these" and this rarely works out. Coalition usage should not be an afterthought; a oh-whatever-they-don't-matter... they matter a lot. Like, A LOT.

Lastly for real, coalition choices affect attack targets in war. A rough example: a 3D SA player might attack a CW player in war; while a 3O SA player might attack a DA player in war. Yes, they make this big of difference. Apply this rough logic as you make your choices. Alliances with decent war planners will assign coalitions to each member and attack targets accordingly. For example, if your alliance war planner says "go 3O" then you know what to do.