Squads

Squads in Allegiance are community recognised groups of players who play regular "Squad Games" against each other. They are similar in many ways to "Clans" in other games. A list of members in squads is here.

What is a Squad?

In Allegiance, a squad is group of players who have organised themselves into a unit for a higher level of competitive play. Each squad has a unique tag which it's members can have after their nicks. This tag takes the form of an @ followed by a short version of the squad name. So players in the Palidor's Knights squad have @PK after their nick.

Squad Games (or SGs) are games played between two squads or teams of multiple squads facing off against each other. Only players from those squads get to play in these games. Squad Games usually take place on Sundays at 15:00 Eastern Time.

While Allegiance squads are essentially the same thing as clans or guilds in other online games, they differ in three important aspects:

• Allegiance is a relatively old game, and so are its squads. Squads generally have a long history behind them. *Players in a squad have often known each other for years.
• Allegiance emphasizes teamwork like no other game we know of. Squad cohesion and trust are essential attributes, if a squad plans to avoid getting butchered at every SG. These things take a lot of very hard work to build.
• Squads are recognized institutions in the FreeAllegiance Organization. Recognized squads get the squad-tag mentioned above and a private forum on freeallegiance.org.

Given these differences, players who wish to start their own squad are often met with words of caution (and often skepticism) when they announce their plans on the boards, especially if they are new to the game. This community has seen many failed attempts at starting up a new squad, even by veteran players. The perks mentioned above involve the FAO volunteer staff, and they are, quite understandably, not willing to spend their time on every spur-of-the-moment startup that may crop up.

Forming a squad isn't about forming some elite group. Any squad that tests people and only accepts the most elite will fail. Anyone who thinks they have reached their end game in allegiance, who knows all there is to know and deems themselves elite is blind to what this game is. Rather, all they are is stagnant. Being in a squad is about learning more and discovering more about the game, while doing it with like minded others and pushing your team work as far as it can go.

Rules on forming a squad

1. The squad must have at least 15 members who are not also a member of another squad.
2. The squad must have at least 15 members who have lost their 'newbie' status.
3. The squad must have played at least 3 games against a recognized squad, in which at least 10 players on each side participated.

Players that wish to start a new squad should heed the following advice:

1. If you are new, stop thinking about forming a new squad for a while. Focus on learning to play and getting to know people. Gathering people is more important than thinking up a name, making websites, and designing squad banners, logo's, etc... Wasting your energy on those things, while you have yet to find people to form your squad with, merely demonstrates impatience.
2. Don't recruit until you already have some players. If this seems like a chicken and egg-problem to you, you are going about starting up your squad the wrong way. You see, it's not 'your' squad. It belongs to the people you play with. You start it up together, as a team. Think about it: which sounds better: 'hi, i want to start a new squad, who wants to join me?' or: 'hi, Bob, Peter, Mary and I have decided to start a new squad together. Who wants to join us?'.
3. You and your friends might decide to become visible in-game to the community, to help your recruiting. If you do not meet the criteria for an official @TAG, you can create an alternative callsign on the ASGS pages to go with your chosen squad name. There are plenty of separators on your keyboard, e.g: "callsign_TAG", "callsign-TAG", etc. After all, this is how clan tags work in most other online games.
4. Start thinking about official recognition only after it looks like you will meet the criteria for said recognition. Until then, just play together and concentrate on having fun as a group.

A squad that wishes to be officially recognized as such, must meet the 3 criteria above.

• Advice & Info on creating a squad

Current squads

Black Shadow

Black Shadow is the oldest squad that has never disbanded. Usually keeping to their namesake, you won't see many @BS online regularly, and if you do, they won't be too vocal... but their members are legendary for being among the best in the game.

German Borg

The Borgs were found in 2000 as a German-speaking squad. They have started to accept non German speaking players in the past couple of years.

Palidor's Knights

Guardians of the Old School™

Rolling Thunder

Started as a newbie squad, RT has grown in both numbers and skill over the years.

Slipshod Research & Mining

Founded by Rat and Mouse, this squad has gone through alot lately.

Steel Fury

Resurrected in early 2006 by Striker, Steel Fury has today grown to be the most active squadron in Allegiance.

System X

Enter Brief Squad Description Here

WildCards

"To be the squad everyone looks up to"

XenoTech

Angry!

Other Squadlike Organizations

In addition to the squads listed above Allegiance has some organizations that are administered like squads but do not participate in Squad Games.

@Alleg

The teachers and enforcers of the Allegiance Community. Consisting of veteran players from across the community. Administered by the Enforcement Zone Lead.

Cadet

New players that join cadet can fly under a cadet tag as they learn. (@CDT-A or @CDT-B)

ACS

Allegiance Command School.

Currently Forming Squads

This is a page where people starting new squads can explain who they are and what they represent.

Past squads

Fatal Shadows

Enter Brief Squad Description Here

Luxury Whore Mongering Sluts

Enter Brief Squad Description Here

Piranhas

Founded in 2000 as FZ squad, merged with the German Borg in 2001.

Z fighters

Enter Brief Squad Description Here

Muffins of Mayhem

Enter Brief Squad Description Here

Killers For Hire

Enter Brief Squad Description Here

Belters/Jihaad/Shifters

This squad, led by Gemini, had an almost-unbeatable winning streak at the end of the Microsoft-hosted beta, and throughout the first few months of the Allegiance Zone.

The Collective

Enter Brief Squad Description Here

External Links

Archive.org - AZ squads

The Allegiance Squad System	About: Squads · Squad leaders · Joining a squad · Creating a squad Events: Squad events · League · Tournament · Doubles tournament Active: Z · END · Xexy · Elem Disbanded: ACE · DSM · FS · GB · J/S · KFH · LWMS · MoM · PI · SRM · SPQR · TRA · TC · XT · ZBS · MEC · NI · PK · RT · SF · SysX Organisations: Flight School · Command School · @Alleg · Zone Leads

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