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 grow more rewarding with time, but also better defended. And every week the corsairs raise their fortress over one ocean — bait for alliances.

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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.
• But they are also better defended — the sea gives nothing without exchange.
• Beyond a certain age they also pay out forgotten gold on top of the loot.

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

Salvage and the Toll of the Ruins #

Salvage is back: stranded and rising captains in the lower ranking tiers once again find salvage in the rubble when plundering old-empire ruins.

The yield follows the commitment: salvage rewards the fight. Those who arrive with a lean, daring force and risk real losses recover the most — an effortless victory won by crushing superiority frees up next to nothing. As a rule of thumb: the salvage is always worth more than what you stake, yet it makes no one rich overnight.

Each day a captain's crews can only salvage so much — after that, the only option is to come back tomorrow.

Ruins run dry: every successful salvage leaves the ruin noticeably leaner, and it recovers only slowly over several days. Whoever scouts first sees in the spy report how much a ruin still has to give.

For established captains higher up the rankings, the classic rules apply at ruins: old ruins defend themselves stubbornly, and the stores hold only what is truly left. There is no salvage for them.

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.

• Each week, one Corsair Fortress appears per ocean.
• 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 cannonballs. 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: after a while it falls back to the corsairs, ready for the next assault.

The hold bonus and the spoils #

While your alliance holds the fortress, its members on the same ocean gain an ocean-wide bonus. The bonus is reassigned randomly each week with the new fortress — you do not pick it. Possible bonuses are faster fleets, faster scouts, or sharper watchtower vision. Spy a fortress to see which bonus is currently active — that tells you what conquering it earns this week.

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

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 loot — the prize is the bonus and control, not gold.

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 warning time is the travel time of the enemy fleets — use it. Reinforce the garrison by moving more troops there.
• If your garrison withstands the storm, the attackers return home with losses. If it does not, the fortress falls — and becomes the others' prize.
• If you fail to reinforce in time, the fortress may also fall back to the corsairs entirely, ready for the next storm.

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.

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.

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."