Aug 3rd 2013, 9:14:39
It is how the game was developed: on alliance they decided to enforce the retal rules, since it's quicker and easier to punish someone breaking it, but it's a bunch of players addon to the game mechanics.
On primary it's a bit more difficult to grab and play in general, since coordinated play is strictly forbidden and can actually get you banned: grabbing the early days might take you to major losses later on, when the tiny country you grabbed for 200 acres the 4th day, evolves into a force of nature able to retal you for 4k acres.
You have to keep growing, picking your targets carefully, watching not to grab anyone twice (or do it at your own risk), and trying to always pick tagrts you think won't be able to retal later.
If they do retal a month later, there is no alliance to cover you, it's simply a decision: ror him or not? If you RoR you better have a perfectly shaped country, able to eat missiles, spy ops, AB runs and stuff, and generally you also waste your set, since rarely 1v1 wars end with a kill, therefor they last the whole set, negating each other's ability to still grow.
This is why i generally never RoR: my country usually is net oriented and if someone i grabbed is able to retal me at any point of the set, it's my mystake, cause i didn't use their land at my advantage to outgrow them enough.
On primary the retal window is all set long, live with it or never net :)