National Army Alliance and International United Armies were two of the most prominent and impactful alliances of 2019 and 2020. Despite their impact, their story is almost lost and forgotten.
NOTE: The following information was put together using posts from limited, available links from former league sites thus may not accurately reflect the whole story.
National Army Alliance [NAA] was created in February 2019, originally consisting of Aliens, Crimson Guardians, Help Force, Royals, Soccer Players (Athletes) and Sinners. Together, these armies united to improve their standings and help small-medium armies develop and gain attendance during battles. They accomplished their goal with the major army leaders mentoring leaders of smaller armies and encouraging troops to attend other small-medium army events.
The goals these armies set for themselves were ambitious. Nonetheless, they managed to fulfill them, and all armies within the NAA saw a rise in event quality and troops. This improvement came at the cost of the terms of joining, which may be pretty controversial compared to the alliance terms we see today. Smaller armies had very little authority and were considered colonies. Violating any of the terms resulted in a war declaration by the entire NAA on the said army.
The opinions about the pact varied wildly, and there was a rise in internal dissent, especially after the war against Light Troops, Pirates and the Templars. Ironically, the very terms that enforced Spotty to become an administrator in alliance armies is the same tactic Epic101 used. Regardless, opposition grew, and issues arose regarding the terms of joining. Several leaders also grew dissatisfied with the Help Force’s behavior, labeling them as a tyrannical army.
The National Army Alliance fell in December 2019 due to the Helpers leaving Club Penguin Online and encouraging their allies to join them. Whether the disassembling of NAA was caused purely by their leaving is debatable and a bit unclear.
Club Penguin Armies reached out to Spotty for a statement on the alliance:
Okay so the National Army Alliance was created predominantly by Ayan. It involved armies such as Help Force [HF] [as] the leader of the alliance alongside Aliens, Royals and loads others. Our purpose was to show a united front as such and help the smaller armies. I think it was used against the Pirates a lot, and I think Templars too. At one point, the NAA was the most powerful alliance on Club Penguin Online. The joining terms actually encouraged loads of small armies to join the alliance as they were able to benefit a lot from troops. People ended up swapping armies throughout the alliance. Armies like Aliens were helped with their leadership battle wise. To be fair, all armies were, as they were helped by major army leaders.
From the ashes of the National Army Alliance grew a new alliance, the International United Armies [IUA]. They formally began on December 19, 2019, consisting of Adventurers, Aliens, Athletes, Royals, Skaters, Sky Troops and Tree Cult. Their goal was similar to that of NAA by helping small-medium armies, and this time with greater equality. IUA saw the departure of several founding armies over time but continued to thrive and develop.
The first cracks in their reign began to show with their declaration of war against the Ice Warriors on April 9, 2020. Warriors proved themselves to be a formidable foe, resulting in severe losses on the IUA side. Tree Cult and Sky Troops both left the alliance. Many leadership changes occurred afterwards.
The final nail in the coffin was the enforced treaty by the Dark Warriors on April 10, 2020. On May 11, only 31 days later, the International United Armies held their final event thereby shutting down. The leaders felt like IUA didn’t fulfill its purpose of helping armies grow, and their events as IUA did not count towards the Top Ten.
In an interview after their disassembling, AustinFraud stated that IUA was unable to help with maxes and was only able to make armies official. He also expressed that it was hectic for the Aliens and Athletes to handle the entire IUA community due to its magnitude.
Club Penguin Armies was able to receive a statement from AustinFraud reflecting on the IUA. AustinFraud led the Athletes during their time in the alliance.
All of the founders of IUA were previously members of NAA. The IUA was formed solely because Help Force [HF] behaved like a tyrant army, taking advantage of all of the alliance’s armies. I don’t want to slander the HF leaders who led the alliance at the time but there was no equality. IUA was founded by the main leaders of Aliens, Athletes, and many other armies that I honestly forgot was present at the time to escape Help Force’s tyranny.
Even though I didn’t like how NAA was run, the way warfare worked in NAA was really cool. Armies that are not major will be labeled as a colony of the NAA, and major armies will have authority over small armies. If we violated any of the terms of the colony pact, the NAA would declare war on the smaller armies, causing the smaller armies to refuse to separate from the NAA. I’m sure armies right now will absolutely mock all the armies who joined NAA back then in taking a look at the terms of joining.
However, as previously pointed out, the IUA was formed in order to escape the tyranny of the Help Force, with the goal of granting equal rights to all armies. The NAA obviously frowned upon the creation of IUA, but if I recall correctly, Help Force was later banned from the game. The alliance remained strong and was able to provide a solid foundation for the newer small armies.
Being a part of the IUA and NAA was an invaluable experience for me. Because my army was small at the time and was labeled as an NAA colony, which meant I had no say in anything unless my army was a major army, Spotty required admin in my army so she could ping our armies to participate in NAA events. The truth is that the Help Force were tyrants, but it was thanks to the Help Force that the NAA saw success in wars, which I will not deny. To be honest, I hated NAA at the time because there was no equality, but that was a long time ago, and at present, I miss the warfare in 2019, which we will never see in modern times. Personally, I was very excited to join NAA because I had strong ties to all of the NAA armies. Nowadays, I ping Spotty and reminisce about the good old NAA days.
Despite their endings, both alliances were incredibly influential during their time. They helped many armies to begin and grow in size. They showed the entire community that a united small-medium association can be incredibly strong and shape the army landscape. Whether their methods were optimal is up to you, the reader. Regardless, there are still many that fondly remember both of these alliances. Are they underrated? Did the allied armies realize the power of a united small-medium front, as we should? Would such an alliance truly be able to dominate the army scene?
Woah! That’s a big alliance. I wasn’t around in 2019, thank the force.