Rally Coordination

Quick answers

How many players can join an alliance in Iron Realms?: An alliance opens at fifty lords and its hall grows with the banner's collective might: six tiers raise the cap from 50 to 75, 95, 115, 135 and finally 156 members at the top. Alliance tags are 2 to 6 letters and must be unique within your kingdom.
What do alliances do in Iron Realms?: Alliances hold forts and Seats of Power, declare phased wars, run weekly bounty boards, reinforce each other's walls, and share alliance technology funded by member donations.
Is Iron Realms free to play?: Yes. Iron Realms is free to play in any browser with no download. Play offline with no account, or sign in to join the live realm. Nothing is for sale during the Alpha; when purchases open they will buy speed and cosmetics, never a higher ceiling.
Does spending money make you stronger in Iron Realms?: No. Nothing purchasable raises your power ceiling. A charter audit runs on every build and fails it if any offer would sell power. During the Alpha nothing is for sale at all — better than that, the store gives its goods away: everything in it is free to take, once a day per item, while the realm is being built. When payments do open, spending will compress time only: it clears timers, it never raises the summit.
How long does it take to max a keep in Iron Realms?: Keeps cap at level 45 and troops at tier 13 — the same summit for everyone, and it is a campaign: about seven months of steady play at half an hour a day, counting keep 45 and the nineteen plots that gate it. The Fair Play ledger inside the game reads that figure straight out of the shipped constants, so it is never a month behind the build.

One army arrives and dies. Ten armies arriving in the same minute break a wall and win a seat. Here is how to turn a mob into a coordinated strike.

Step 1: Draw the Battle Plan

An officer pins one target and a strike hour. Every banner-mate who attacks inside the window fights with a coordination bonus. The plan turns "everyone hits whoever, whenever" into an appointment the whole alliance keeps.

Step 2: Paint the focus target

Focus-fire marks stack: the more allies that strike the same painted target inside the window, the harder each strike lands (capped, so turnout is rewarded without a mega-alliance becoming unbeatable). Announce the mark in chat and hold fire until the horns.

Step 3: Time the waves

Vanguard — the biggest army leads to soak the defense.
Main body — the bulk lands together inside the window.

Step 4: Stagger march times

Because marches take different times from different distances, count back from the strike hour and launch each army so they arrive together. A rally that lands in one clump beats the same armies dribbling in one at a time.

Quick recap

Pin one target and a strike hour; everyone keeps the appointment
Focus-fire marks stack with turnout
Count back from the strike hour so armies arrive together, not launch together