[PLAYER GUIDE] Alliance Bank (Updated on 2022/11/23)

Introduction

A bank in Gotwic is a place to store resources. We are talking about Grain, Iron, Stone, Wood and Gold here. There are two ways to have a bank, an alt or an alliance bank (could still be an alt 😉 ).

“Why is that even important? I can store it all on my account.” … well you are right, you can do that. One of the problems with that is just that your production stops as soon as you reach your maximum capacity. The game shows you when you reach the limit by turning the corresponding numbers yellow.

Here is a short example of why that might be important for you:

Let’s say you produce one million wood per hour. You can store up to 10 million wood. After you are at your max, no more wood will be added to your storage. It might not be immediately obvious but at this point you “lose” one million wood per hour. It is not gone but it will not be added … therefore a loss.

That can be remedied with a bank. You send the excess resources there and when you need them, you just send them back. So far so good for a single player.

We are talking about an alliance bank here though. Yes, every player could have an alt account as a bank but either you would need to cycle them into the alliance when needed and out again afterwards, or you would end up with way more alts than you might be comfortable with.

The solution: An alliance bank. An account that is dedicated to storing resources for the alliance and sending them out when needed. And the best part? You even get a log for the bank transactions, if set up correctly!

Interlude: How to read the transport log

Reading the transport log is not that hard.

Members -> the name of the member

Resource -> what kind of resource are we talking about (grain, iron, stone, wood, gold)

Ship me -> what that member delivered TO the bank

Deliver -> what the member GOT from the bank (or what has been delivered to the member)

Numbers in white indicate the total amount, numbers in green the amount from that day.

If a player leaves the alliance for more than one reset period, his records should be cleared.

How to setup the alliance bank

You decide on the player/account to be the bank. That account will then be appointed to the financial adviser position by the Duke of the alliance. With that done you have access to the transport log. In here you can see the number of resources readily available in the bank and who sent how much to or received from the bank.

And that’s it? Well … yes and no. Now you have a bank in place and you get access to the corresponding log, good. The next question is, is the account adequately developed to do the job.

Especially when sending out big amounts of resources, you want that done fast. That means either you have a lot of armies available or a big transport capacity (guess what … having both is even better!).

How do we achieve that?

Here are the needed steps, keep in mind that the order in which you can do them is not set in stone, however some things need to be done in a certain order, for example you need the correct level of the Maester’s Tower to do the research.

1. Build the bank account up to a lvl 25 castle.

2. Get the market to level 25.

3. Get the research regarding transportation (check formations, great city military and strangely-garbed-army research) that are viable for you, most likely formations, and extra army slots done.

After your initial setup is done,        

- your bank should have a tax rate below 8%, preferably lower (minimum is 7%).

- your bank should have at least 5 army slots (maximum is 8 army slots).

- your transport capacity should be at a decent level (7.5 million per transport, before tax, is nice, believe me! And it is not max…)

And don’t forget to inform your alliance that there is a bank. A bank without customers is … well … a waste 😉

!!!Important!!!

Under no circumstance should you allow the truce on the alliance bank to drop. You really don’t want others stealing all the resources your alliance saved up!

Thoughts on alliance banks – uses and ideas on how to run them

Here are a few more things you might find interesting regarding alliance banks. While all the above things are well established, the following info might be controversial. Just keep in mind that you play the game the way you want. These are just suggestions.

You could upgrade the embassy to level 25. Why? For example during KvK the bank can follow your players around to store the plundered resources and at the same time be available to shelter troops. Even without the embassy at level 25 you can follow the others when fighting to have resources readily available.

You really don’t need all internal buildings on 25. Some, yes, so you can upgrade the necessary buildings. For resource production buildings I would still suggest farmlands. The reason behind that is quite silly … you can have troops (not many, but still) that way. You can gather with them, you can help in alliance events … it is not the best use but not the worst either.

Just having an alliance bank is not enough. Yes you want a certain amount of resources in there at all times but then again, if the bank is not used, it is a waste. You will have to come up with a system that works for your alliance regarding how to get people to give resources and at the same time make them comfortable with requesting those. While that might sound strange, why would we want to get our players to request the resources … it does make sense. You need a certain amount of T4 for events. While some have a surplus, others will take ages without help to get there. One of the best ways to do that is using a bank for the resources.

Are there other things that might be worth mentioning? Most likely hundreds but at some point you should really stop planning and start doing. Build up your own bank, your alliance bank or just contribute to it!