What is the purpose of an alliance?

if you are allied with A, and B attacks you, unless A and B are allies, A wil declare on B in defens of you.

if you are allied with A, and B attacks you, unless A and B are allies, A wil declare on B in defens of you

this is a big thing cause the B will also factor in A when he decided to attack you. Your less likely to get attacked if you have alliances.

Also alied civs trade techs for very very cheep.
Allied civs are more likely to give you ships to defend your self
Allied civs have a greater chance of attacking people that you attack.
Allied civs will not un-allie with you unless you choose to
Allied civs help you win since thats 1 less enemy.

The thing i hate is when you allie with civ A and B and then A attacks B cause you loose 1 allie at the least.

i wish civs that you are allied with are more likely to allie with each other.

Plus allied victory of course

Well, you know that an ally won't start a war with you. And, if they are attacked you will be asked to join in their war.
Your ally may start a war with another race, but I have never been asked to join in a war that the ally started. My allies have jumped in to help me in both wars that I have started and in wars where I was attacked first.

There is an "attack" option in the trade window on both sides. But sometimes you may have to bribe even an ally to attack. Give them something useful and they may do it after all. Never take the first no as a final answer. Try a couple different combinations. Sometimes a new weapon will get them to agree, sometimes a trade good, sometimes something like Xeno Entertainment will do it.

But in my experience they are usually willing, if the enemy is not too strong for them.

Another purpose for an alliance is the alliance victory. Make a few alliances and wipe out the rest.

My allies have jumped in to help me in both wars that I have started and in wars where I was attacked first.

I reckon they only join in wars you start because you've already weakened the opponent and they want some of the planets... Nothing to do with your alliance at all. Just normally they don't claim to be joining in for your benifit.

I thought it ann ally would only join in if YOU are attacked.

If you ally with race A, and attack race B, race A does not automatically declare war on race B.

However, as soon as race B attacks you, race A joins in.

So basically you can't really get an ally to help you in an offensive war, only a defensive war - unless of course you share a common enemy.

No, allies help you in an offensive war if it's of value to them. I have the Arceans, who I supply with tech, jumping into wars to help me because a) I pay for their colonies AND most of their military production (worked it at max espionage) I keep them technologically advanced and c) I never have my own proper army, just a couple of powerful ships floating around.

So I often get messages telling me they're going to attack my enemy.

I pay for their colonies AND most of their military production (worked it at max espionage

What do you mean? By gifting them cash? What does the mmax espionage thing have to do with it?

BTW is there an easy way to follow posts I have made? I am logged in but when I go to "your posts" I see nothing. Of course, this means I will probably never find this post again.....

If you ally with race A, and attack race B, race A does not automatically declare war on race B. However, as soon as race B attacks you, race A joins in.

thats not true at all. unless B attacks you when your not at war. Your allies only will 100% join in when the enemy attacks you first and your not at war. If you start a war the AI doesnt care if you get attacked.

MoratLyssander- hit the watch button at the top. It will put this post on the watch list, just click the button at the top to get to it.