We had that mindset in SDSU OOC, against the rest of O44. Yes its a strategy many would aspire to.
Unfortunately we were seen as a "rising threat" and got out-golded (no, this is not me complaining against gold use, just stating a fact) and HT went for the jugular before a talented bunch of fighters even really stood a chance to get established. And fair play to you all, I would have done the exact same....
So what do you do when "plan A" doesnt work out? You go for "Plan B"....or quit....
There are many players like me, who arent big gold spenders, who are "slow starters"... but over time catch up. And we dont roll over, we've seen the hard times and losing cities = more slots to come back stronger.
HTs attitude to the players like me was "search and destroy". . and send to the rim. TF however sees the long term potential in players and gives them a second chance to rebuild into the players they can be.
So NO.... am not personally playing for the win.... first and foremost am playing for fun with a great group of players.... but what drives me to improve IS the fact that HT (I would argue, arrogantly) dismissed players like me as little more than "food". And thats a powerful inspiration to prove you all wrong
I think the difference is that HT will go head to head with a team, try to beat them, and if beaten offer homes to those who showed promise--
if we have room in the alliance. Our approach shows players respect, as a worthy opponent is then asked to become a teammate. Those invited here fought well and were just on the other side of circumstance. TF waits for other people to weaken teams and then rushes in with offers of a better life. The end game is the same-- TF wants the same 5 players HT wants-- but just takes em all, then weeds the others out and they leave the game or are eaten, or sit in a secondary alliance and buff up the front lines. If players want to learn the game they can do that without being used to buff up the main team. To truly be a "benefactor" to newer players, one would instead take them to some rim fights and focus on true skill building fighting their own wars, completely independent of the main war, keeping them interested. (I keep saying my next server will be this.) I don't fault TF for that though, they aren't here to create good rim players, they're here to further their own cause, just like everyone else. But if you look at the remaining SDSU roster in TF/PC... it's the same end as it would've been otherwise. It's just easier to "feel better" about the optics. If you want to remain a full separate team, instead of joining another alliance, you move as a team and create a new core from which to keep fighting-- that's what HH/Dogs have done, adjusted and moved and stuck to their independence. The full merger approach is when people want to both keep their team intact and also win... so they pretend they are meeting both of those goals, which just isn't possible in domination.
It's a strategy, I'm not going to say it doesn't work-- but it's kind of the lazy-man's way... only attacking those already weakened, choosing to "absorb" instead of fight, etc... TF doesn't choose wars unless they've already lopsided things in their favor through player/city count (or having their defense in TF cities lol). It's teams like HT that will go offensively against challenging targets that make the game fun for all and challenge both sides to get better. (Before anyone gets mad at that statement, it comes from knowing TF on many servers-- and "getting attacked" by a team is not choosing a war... I mean, choosing to attack a strong, difficult opponent of similar size and city count who isn't already weakened by other wars.)
We went after SDSU early on because it was fun, as you had skill (well, that's why I did, I haven't had as much fun since then attacking on this server). It's fun to have to send multiple CSs and well-timed attacks to hopefully land a city. It's no fun to just bully through with pounds of gold as we've often been accused of. (In fact, the biggest golder on the server resides in TF... or is it mercs... or TF... ahhh I can't recall where he is these days...)
I HATE the gold feature, but if it's part of the game, we can all choose to use it how we think best. I personally use it to enhance gameplay (e.g., gold out two CSs for better anti-snipe timing, or gold out some bir to snipe lazily-launched OLU, which is "fun" for me). But you'll never see me gold in an event (insert long rant on how much I hate events and what they've done to gameplay). Though what I say is light gold use... could that be considered heavy gold use for non-golders? I think so. Problem is that even non-golders have golding friends (Lana does too
)-- so golden snipes will be coming in to kill my CSs... wait, now I need more gold! I think the moral of the gold story is that unless the game changes, we all need to find us some rich friends.