Military alliance - useless?

[Apophis]

So I have a military alliance with syracuse and I'm getting hammered from all sides from other nations. Isn't syracuse supposed to help me out? I am playing on legendary if that makes a difference.

[Mexican Rambo]

Military/Defensive Alliance just means you get help from said allies when someone else declares war on you or when you declare war on someone else.

If you get an alliance of any type while in the middle of the war, chances are the ally won't join in unless they are already at war with that same faction.

[Aeternum]

You can set a war target on an enemy city to direct your allies if they are also at war with that enemy.

[Pennalba]

military alliance only works if YOU declare an enemy and the ally is your ally at that moment, defensive alliance works if you GET DECLARED ON by another faction and your ally is the ally at the moment, which should be stuck in the names, military and defensive. hope this helps.

[Narwhals"oh mein gott Anhalte!]

yeah also use the set war target in the diplomacy map, that helps a great deal to direct ur allies to what armies/navies to destroy

[CaptainChronic]

It also depends what your AI ally is up to, if they are at war with other factions they will focus on that but if they have a couple stack armies standing around doing nothing and you've allowed them military access to your lands theres a good chance they'll have a wander around your territory and maybe camp up near your undefended cities, but this has only happened for me when me and my allies are in good positions with nobody challenging us too much.

[Narwhals"oh mein gott Anhalte!]

yeah taht too, they tend too defend ur cities

[Pennalba]

yep, i do wonder when AI became so good? they really strategise and think for themself nowadays, gotta hand it to them

[bansheeonfife]

it depends on two things; did you have the allience before the war and how well is your relation to syracuse? the default setting if the former is true is asking them to join, if the lattter is very good it means syracuse will accept. so unless you didn't have an alliance when the war started, the relationship s too bad or you somehow did not ask syracuse to join they should be with you.