Raids, sieges and conquest

Raid requirements

To send a raid against a holding:

• Phase: Founding must be over. During Founding, no march can be sent against holdings (Founding).
• Declaration of war: you need a declaration of war in force against that player, or an alliance war in force between your two alliances (Declaration of war).
• Protection: both sides must be past their protected start.
• Raid charge: you need at least one raid charge (Raid charges).
• Alliances and pacts: you can't raid an ally; an army sent there becomes a reinforcement. You also can't raid a player you have a non-aggression pact with.

Units that never leave their holding (Watchman, Naphtha Thrower) can't go on a march.

Declaration of war

A raid starts with a declaration:

• The player you declare on is notified; in an alliance war, every member of the target alliance is.
• A declaration of war is one-way: the declaring player can raid the target. If the target wants to strike back, they declare their own.
• An alliance war opens raiding between every member of both alliances.
• You can't declare on an ally, on a protected player or on a player you have a non-aggression pact with.

Raid charges

Every raid spends a raid charge:

• Raid charges per day: 5. They refill continuously and stack up to 6.
• A raid on a holding costs 1 charge; a raid on a holding that was successfully raided in the last 24 hours costs 2 charges.
• An interception also costs 1 charge. Scouting and reinforcements cost none.
• The War Camp raises your daily raid charges by 1; the Raid Writ adds 2 on the spot (the stacking limit still applies).

Marches on altars use a separate charge: the altar charge (Altar charges).

When a raid reaches a holding

When a raid reaches a holding, events resolve in this order:

1. Sortie: if the defender chose a sortie in the response window, half of their garrison meets the raid in front of the Wall. If the raid is destroyed here, it never reaches the holding.
2. Naphtha: every 2 Naphtha Throwers in the defender's holding burn one of the raid's siege engines, starting with the most expensive.
3. Volley: every 5 archers in the defender's holding bring down one attacking infantry unit.
4. Ram: rams break levels off the Wall (Siege).
5. Trebuchet: if the Wall is down to zero and the raid is in Assault mode, trebuchets tear down a building.
6. Wall gate: if the Wall stands, the garrison fights from the battlements; if it's down, the clash happens inside the City (The Wall gate).
7. Outcome: the winner is decided, loot is taken, the queue is broken, loyalty drops.

The Wall gate

The Wall is your holding's gate, and it changes the outcome of a raid completely:

• Wall standing (outer raid): the gates to the City and the treasury are shut. The raider can only reach the produce piled up outside the Wall. The garrison fights from the battlements with 3% more power for each remaining Wall level, but only if it would win. If it wouldn't, it shuts the gates and the raider takes what's outside without losses. An outer raid doesn't break the queue, lower loyalty or tear down buildings.
• Wall down (inner raid): the whole garrison and every reinforcement fight. A winning raider reaches the entire storehouse, breaks the last job in the build queue and, in Assault mode, lowers loyalty with governors.

Produce outside the walls

With the Wall standing, the raider can find whatever production has piled up outside since the last successful raid (or since the start of the Age), but no more than the Wall's outer granary window. The higher the Wall, the shorter the window; at Wall level 8, the Inner granary cuts the window in half.

Loot

• A raid can carry as much as the sum of its units' carry values.
• What raises carry capacity: the Causeway by 80%, the Barracks' Supply wagons and the Sawmill's Wainwright specializations, and the single-raid Ox Cart by 50%. They all multiply, and they are calculated from the holding the army left from.
• Loot is taken from the four resources in proportion. With the Wall down, the whole stock is in reach; with it standing, only the produce outside.
• Loot enters the storehouse when the raider gets home; whatever doesn't fit is lost.

Siege

Rams and the Wall

Rams break Wall levels before the clash, whatever the outcome of the battle. One Wall level takes 3 rams; the defender's hardening raises that number, and the attacker's Siegecraft specialization counts each ram as 50% more.

Broken levels stay broken until the defender rebuilds them. Naphtha Throwers can burn rams before they reach the Wall, and a sortie meets them before they get there.

Trebuchets and buildings

If the Wall is down to zero and the raid is in Assault mode, trebuchets knock levels off a random standard building: one level for every 2 trebuchets. The Workshop's Demolition line and the Quarry's Trebuchet shot specializations make the damage bigger. The Palace never drops below level 1, and auction buildings are never touched. Demolition also happens whatever the outcome of the battle.

Conquest

A holding passes to its conqueror when its loyalty reaches zero.

• Every holding starts at 100% loyalty and recovers 2% per hour.
• Only the Governor lowers loyalty: in Assault mode, on a holding whose Wall is down, every governor who survives a won raid lowers loyalty by up to 25%.
• How hard a governor strikes depends on how overwhelming the raid was:

• When loyalty reaches zero, the holding changes hands.

When a holding changes hands

• The Palace drops to half its level (at least 1).
• The garrison is emptied; allied reinforcements go home.
• Build and training queues, market orders and committed resources are lost.
• The holding's name is reset, and its loyalty starts at 25%.
• Deeds and specializations go with the holding to the new owner; if the conqueror already has the same auction building, the one in the holding burns.
• The conqueror's army doesn't stay in the holding; it returns to its own.

There is no limit to how many holdings you can take by conquest.

The last holding

A player's last holding can only be taken during the Reign phase. Before that, even if its loyalty reaches zero, the holding doesn't change hands; the raider sees in the report when it can be taken. A player who loses their last holding in Reign withdraws from the Age (Withdrawing from the Age).