New Features in Factions - I am n00b :D

Perhaps I have not read my manual all of the way through or maybe I just missed something.

How does one participate in the following aspects of Guild Wars?

Scrimmages - 1v1, 4v4, etc.

Elite Missions

Lastly, what exactly is the alliance system about? If my guild is part of an alliance, does my guild contribute to the overall faction of the lead alliance for control of outposts? What is the point to joining an alliance?

If there are other forum topics about this stuff, please be polite and stay away from the search button comments. I am sure that I am not the only one in the GW world who wants to know about this stuff but is completely clueless.

Thanks
Kybos

The scrimmages are done against members of your guild or guests of your guildhall. You simply go to the hall, and 1 member (officer, maybe) clicks the button on the bottom of the party box. This brings up a window where one option is to host a scrimmage. The opponent then clicks the same button on the party menu, selects the appropriate scrimmage, and viola.

Elite missions are only accessable to members of the alliance who holds the appropriate town. I am not experienced there, however, so I'll let others correct me and add more to answer your question.

Alliances:

Alliance is a feature that was rolled out with Guild Wars Factions, though as a feature and not a content, it is also be available to players who only own the Prophecies Campaign only the leader of the guilds can make alliances.

Alliances are formed between guilds. Each alliance can be comprised up to 10 guilds. Only the Leader and officers of the guilds may talk on the alliance chat channel. All members of the alliance and can visit each other's Guild Hall and participate in scrimmages. Players who own Guild Wars Factions can also participate in Alliance Battles in Cantha.

Alliances can control outposts, strongholds, and even the Capitol City of the Luxons or the Kurzicks (depending on the faction the guild is allied with) in the game. Control is based on accumulating Faction. Possibilities of control include that the highest alliance rating on a particular side gets the "capital" (Cavalon, House zu Heltzer), and the next highest alliances get the next farthest away buildings from the capital. If you own a town you will get reduced prices on items that you buy from that town.

There were some technical issues which the developers needed to work out at the last minute, so the Alliance feature was not avalable for the Guild Wars Factions premier, as originally planned. The feature was implemented on May 1, 2006.

Alliance can only be formed with a guild of the same Faction (Luxon or Kurzick).

Thanks for the info guys!

I will check out the scrimmage stuff later.

It seems that the only way one can enjoy the full content of the Factions stand alone is to get absorbed into a very large guild. Is this correct?