Ask for an alliance

In this guide, we will learn how to ask another player for an alliance, equivalent to right-clicking a player's territory and selecting "Request Alliance" in the game. We will use the Controller.request_alliance method.

The request_alliance method takes a PlayerID.

A simple pattern is to:

• Pick a neighboring player
• Avoid sending duplicate requests
• Avoid requesting alliance with players you are already allied with

In the example below, we request an alliance with our strongest real neighbor (ignoring None/null empty territory).

Python

# Request one alliance if we do not already have one or a pending outgoing request.
if len(state.me.alliances) == 0 and len(state.me.outgoingAllianceRequests) == 0:
	neighbors = [n for n in state.me.neighbors if n is not None and n in state.players]

	if len(neighbors) > 0:
		strongest_neighbor_id = max(
			neighbors,
			key=lambda pid: state.players[pid].totalTroops,
		)
		await controller.request_alliance(strongest_neighbor_id)

Java

// Request one alliance if we do not already have one or a pending outgoing request.
if (state.me.alliances.isEmpty() && state.me.outgoingAllianceRequests.isEmpty()) {
	PlayerID strongestNeighborId = null;
	double maxTroops = -1;

	for (PlayerID neighborId : state.me.neighbors) {
		if (neighborId != null && state.players.containsKey(neighborId)) {
			double troops = state.players.get(neighborId).totalTroops;
			if (troops > maxTroops) {
				maxTroops = troops;
				strongestNeighborId = neighborId;
			}
		}
	}

	if (strongestNeighborId != null) {
		controller.requestAlliance(strongestNeighborId);
	}
}

Possible improvements:

• Prefer neighbors who are stronger than you (deterrence) or weaker than you (safer backline), depending on your strategy.
• Use quick chat right after sending a request (for example help.alliance) to increase acceptance chances.
• Add cooldowns so you do not repeatedly target the same player every loop.

Further reading:

• SimplifiedAlliance