Old Seas & Corsair Fortresses

"Where the wind carries the names of forgotten captains across open reefs, there wealth and danger lie side by side."

— From the travel journals of an anonymous chronicler

TL;DR: Very old ruins are richer — plundering follows the same rule as everywhere: from a stock that slowly regrows. And time and again the corsairs raise a fortress somewhere — when one rises, it becomes the prize alliances fight over.

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Old Seas #

An Old Empire ruin that has lain long enough begins to give back to the sea what the sea once took from it. Scouts report forgotten stores that wash ashore as if from nowhere. Walls that no one tends any more grow strangely — as if the wind itself were reshaping them.

On the map, you can spot such islands by the anchor symbol. The older the ruin, the more pronounced the symbol.

• Very old ruins are more rewarding for raiders than fresh ones.
• Every ruin has a stock — empty is empty until it regrows; a spy report tells you how full it is.

Watch for the anchor symbol — that is your silent invitation. Anyone who goes there should go prepared.

The Stock of the Ruins #

Ruins hold a stock that slowly regrows. Older ruins are richer.

That is the whole rule, and it applies to every captain alike. Whoever plunders an old-empire ruin victoriously salvages from that stock — as much as is there and the cargo holds can carry. Afterwards the ruin is empty for a while and refills on its own over days. How full the stock is, a spy report will tell: what it says is truly there to take.

Whoever calls at the same ruin several times in one day salvages less with every pass — the familiar rule against relentless plundering applies here too. And salvage is work for single fleets: a Combined Attack digs nothing out of the rubble.

The ruin's warehouse stores remain untouched by all of this — they belong to the site itself and only change hands on a takeover.

One more difference: stranded and rising captains in the lower ranking tiers can not only plunder some old-empire ruins but take them over outright and settle them anew — established captains cannot. See the chapter "Colonization" for more.

Corsair Fortresses #

When an aged island has gone untouched for a particularly long time, the corsairs raise a fortress there. A black flag above cliff-fastened walls — a target that calls an alliance to arms.

• Corsair Fortresses keep appearing across the seas — where the next black flag rises, nobody knows. When one rises, it becomes the prize every alliance fights over.
• It never attacks on its own. It waits.

An alliance objective — no solo conquest #

A Corsair Fortress cannot be taken by a single captain alone. It requires at least two members of the same alliance — real coordination, not a solo ride.

It does not matter which ocean you attack from — fleets from distant waters count fully too. Only the captured bonus later applies in the fortress's ocean.

Land troops decide — ships only transport #

The fortress does not fall to bombardment from the sea. This is a land assault: your troops fight for the walls, your ships merely carry them there. Anyone who sends no troops contributes nothing to the assault.

The shared assault deadline #

Your fleets gather at the fortress. The decision falls at the deadline — once, together, for the entire alliance. No single player storms ahead early or late.

A combined attack on a fortress deliberately schedules a longer approach window — so allies from distant oceans can reach the storm in time as well.

If the attack falls just short, each participant bears their share of the losses — no single player loses everything. Those who committed troops share risk and reward equally.

Holding with a garrison #

After conquest, your alliance holds the fortress with stationed troops. If the garrison drops below a critical threshold, loss of the fortress threatens after a grace period. A warning appears on the alliance fortress page.

No alliance holds a fortress forever: sooner or later it decays — the corsairs move on, and the fortress vanishes.

The hold bonus and the spoils #

While your alliance holds the fortress, its members on the same ocean gain an ocean-wide bonus. Each fortress is assigned its bonus at random when it appears — you do not pick it. Possible bonuses are faster fleets, faster scouts, or sharper watchtower vision. Spy a fortress to see which bonus it carries — that tells you what conquering it earns.

The spoils of the assault go to the active participants — those who sent troops share. Those who did not, watch.

The War Chest #

A held Corsair Fortress is the great prize alliances vie over — and it grants more than the ocean-wide bonus alone. As long as your garrison holds the walls, a War Chest quietly fills. The longer you hold, the richer it grows — up to the maximum hold time, which no alliance can exceed: it is also the ceiling of the War Chest. Whoever stands the full term has taken everything there was to take.

The spoils of the storm itself you still receive at once, the moment you take the fortress. The War Chest is something else: it accrues across the whole holding period and is only paid out when the fortress slips from your grasp — whether through a rival alliance's recapture, because your garrison falls below the hold threshold, or because the maximum hold time runs out.

In that moment your homebound crew carries the haul to your islands in a visible convoy — you will see it sailing home on the map. Whatever no longer fits in your stores flows into the alliance treasury.

A share goes to whoever still holds their own troops in the garrison when the fortress falls. The split favours the smaller contributions out of proportion — a modest commitment earns relatively more than the same fraction of the total force. Whoever contributes nothing or withdraws their troops beforehand comes away empty-handed — and withdrawn troops cannot return, because the garrison cannot be refilled. If all holders pull their troops out before the fortress falls, the entire War Chest is forfeited to the corsairs.

On a recapture the War Chest is split. The ousted holder keeps the lion's share — what is earned stays earned. A portion, however, goes to the victorious conquerors, limited by the carrying capacity of their homeward troops; whatever they cannot carry off stays with the holder. When a fortress falls instead through decay or the hold time running out, the entire War Chest stays with the holders who still garrison it at that moment.

Keeping an eye on the fortress event #

A world banner appears in your logbook, drawing attention to the active Corsair Fortresses and leading you to the fortress page — where you see every active Corsair Fortress at a glance. The banner can be dismissed, and it returns on its own when something meaningful changes: a new fortress appears, an alliance captures one, or a held fortress falls.

On the fortress page — also reachable from the map — you find, for each fortress, holder, hold deadline, active bonus, and War Chest level at a glance, everything you need to decide whether the storm is worth it this week.

Fortress Lord #

Those who hold fortresses especially long and stubbornly are honoured as a Fortress Lord — an achievement awarded in three tiers for the most tenacious holders. It is not the size of your garrison that counts, but the sum of days you have spent across your whole career in a held fortress.

Fortress Stormer #

The counterpart to the sitting Fortress Lord: those who recapture fortresses are honoured as a Fortress Stormer — an achievement in three tiers for the most successful re-conquerors. Every successful recapture across your whole career is counted.

Recapture — the fight over an occupied fortress #

Together, conquering, holding and recapturing a fortress form the Capture the Fortress game mode.

A held fortress is not safe property. Rival alliances can recapture it — and your own alliance can do the same to foreign fortresses. The fortress changes hands when the attacking force overwhelms the holding garrison.

When you attack:

• Pick a fortress held by another alliance (you cannot attack your own).
• Gather a Combined Attack just like any fortress storm — again, at least two members — from any ocean, land troops decide, ships only transport.
• This time you are not fighting corsairs but the stationed garrison of the holding alliance. If your pooled strength is large enough, the fortress falls to you — you inherit the fortress's currently active bonus and station your surviving troops as the new garrison.
• A freshly captured fortress is protected for a while — you cannot immediately attack it again. That gives the new holder time to settle in.
• A recapture yields no assault loot the way a win over the Corsairs does — but the conquerors do claim a share of the ousted holder's War Chest (see "The War Chest").

When you defend:

• When a rival alliance attacks your fortress, a warning appears in alliance chat, and the fortress page shows it as "under attack".
• The garrison is fixed with the storm: it is made up of the troops that survived the original conquest, and it cannot be manually reinforced — there is no way to move more troops into a held fortress.
• Defending therefore means repelling or deterring recapture attacks. When you repel a storm, the attackers return home with losses — but your garrison also erodes a little. If it falls below the critical threshold, a grace window opens during which the fortress is especially vulnerable; if a storm overwhelms it entirely, the fortress falls to the other alliance.
• If you lose the fortress to decay, that is final: the corsairs move on, the fortress vanishes — it does not become a stormable bastion again. New fortresses appear only with new spawn waves on other islands (see "What happens on expiry").

How many fortresses may an alliance hold? #

An alliance can hold only a limited number of fortresses at once. If you are already at the limit, you must give one up before you can capture another. That keeps more fortresses contested among more alliances — and stops any single alliance from locking up every ocean.

This holds true mid-storm, too: if your Combined Attack wins the fight for another fortress while your alliance is already at the limit, the fortress is not captured — you won the battle, but there is no free slot. Your fleets turn about and return home unharmed, with no losses; the battle report tells you plainly that only the fortress limit stood between you and victory. To take this fortress, give up a held one first.

Note: Anyone who joins a recapture storm forfeits their newbie protection — this is genuine player versus player.

Visibility #

On the map you can see which alliance currently holds a fortress. Your alliance page shows held fortresses with garrison strength, hold deadline, and danger warning at a glance.

The battle report after an assault shows the pooled attack strength of all participants against the fortress defence.

An active Korsaren fortress appears on the map in every ocean — not just its home ocean. Clicking the fortress cell shows the holder and available actions; surrounding islands remain fog- or Kartographie-gated as usual. When a new fortress rises or an alliance captures one, all active players receive a brief world rumour in their logbook — an anonymous echo that something has shifted in a distant ocean.

What happens on expiry #

Those who wait, lose. A Corsair Fortress does not hold forever — if no one breaks it, the Corsairs move on and take everything of value with them.

Spying #

You can scout fortresses with spy ships. Scouts report bastion strength, expected loot, and the time remaining before decay. For a fortress held by an alliance, the spy report also shows the defence strength a recapture must overcome, along with the stationed garrison — so you can judge how strong your Combined Attack needs to be.

Race-Conditions #

If the fortress falls to another alliance while your fleet is still en route, your ships return home unharmed — no battle, no loot.

"You do not raze a fortress for yourself. You raze it for seven crews, and the sea divides the share."