Kampfinsel

Kampfinsel Handbook — How to Play & Wiki

Who May Attack Whom?

The sea knows many laws — and every captain asks the same question before setting sail: am I allowed to?

In short: Attacks and colonization follow protection rules; spying and trade have rules of their own. Beginner protection, vacation, confirmed alliance treaties and the points barrier can block new attacks. Absence and voluntary departure change this protection; an ongoing feud may still apply. This page gathers the rules — details are in the chapters at the end.

Whom may I attack? #

In principle, any inhabited island of another captain — unless a rule on this page prevents it. Attack restrictions check Attack and Colonization. Spying and trade have their own limits, including spy allowances, receiving limits and vacation mode. Spying does not end beginner protection. Dispatching fleets follows its own rules (chapter “Fleet Dispatch”).

You may attack across ocean borders as well, as soon as an ocean is open. Only colonization from foreign waters is blocked for a time after an ocean has been freshly opened — attack, trade and espionage are not.

Clicking an island in your ocean on the map may show an estimate of whether attacking or colonizing is possible. Some restrictions leave it blank. The binding check happens when you send; if the game rejects the order, it tells you why.

Who may attack me? #

The same rules apply in reverse. During your first fourteen days, nobody attacks or colonizes you. Your beginner protection ends early if you attack an active captain, or create or join a Combined Attack against a player or a fortress held by players. Departing captains are leaving the world but count as active until deletion: attacking them also ends it. Before each such action, the game warns you: your beginner protection ends with this action and does not return. Only your confirmation ends it at dispatch or joining — in the browser, without JavaScript and in the app; never upon arrival or combat resolution. Colonization or an individual attack on slumbering or rudderless captains, ruins or unheld Corsair Fortresses does not end it. Afterwards, the points barrier, alliance and treaty protection and feud rules still apply, with the exceptions below. A smaller attacker must also respect the other protections. A Frontier Respawn starts a new fourteen-day period of beginner protection.

Your island warns you of approaching attacks; a higher watchtower shows them earlier. After substantial plundering by an individual attack, you hold retribution against the raider for a short time. A successful individual counterattack can carry home more than your holds normally fit, up to what was stolen. Your next individual attack on the raider consumes the claim at departure, even if recalled or defeated. An open claim can pierce alliance and treaty restrictions and an armistice cooling-off period. The game rules stand above all mechanics: repeatedly overrunning much weaker captains is bashing and is forbidden.

What about much stronger or weaker captains? #

The points barrier protects downwards: a captain who has grown overwhelmingly strong can neither attack nor colonize clearly weaker captains; the measure is the total score of the rankings. Upwards there is no limit — smaller captains may take on larger ones at any time, and whoever has no points at all yet meets no barrier.

The barrier does not apply to slumbering, rudderless or departing captains. Slumbering captains keep their beginner protection, and a treaty still protects them; what else falls away for rudderless and departing captains is explained further below. Striking upwards is rewarded: take an inhabited island from an awake captain of a higher league — or of your own league, if they hold noticeably more points than you — and you receive a colonization permit as a gift. And whoever raids the same island again and again in quick succession carries away less each time.

Old Empire, rudderless islands, ruins — what applies? #

An empire whose captain falls silent loses its protection in stages: slumbering from seven days, rudderless from fourteen, Old Empire ruin from thirty. The map shows you the state of every island.

Slumbering — Plunderable without the points barrier; secondary islands colonizable, the main island stays protected. A pact or non-aggression treaty still protects a slumbering captain, and their beginner protection remains. Only their own alliance may reach for a comrade once they have taken no action for more than a week — with an explicit confirmation at departure.
Rudderless — Attacks stand open, main and secondary islands alike: no barrier, no treaty, no alliance protection any more. Only the secondary islands can be conquered.
Old Empire ruin — No captain any longer, part of the world. Anyone may plunder it, but it defends itself with guards of its own, knows neither retreat nor capitulation, and what its stores hold is shown by the spy report. Any captain may conquer it, under the usual colonization rules. Ruins do not appear in the rankings.

Against sleepers and the rudderless you gain loot, attack points and an island eligible for conquest, but no bounty. The combat report shows whether a conquest grants a colonization permit; the conditions are below.

A captain who requests deletion appears as departing for seven days. Voluntary departure removes the points barrier, their beginner protection and alliance and treaty protection; the main island becomes conquerable too. A feud shield against third parties or a feud truce may still apply. Departing captains count as active until deletion when your attack decides whether your own beginner protection ends. A barred account keeps beginner protection as well as main-island, alliance and treaty protection.

Main island or colony — does it make a difference? #

It makes a difference for conquest. The main island of an awake, slumbering or rudderless captain can never be colonized. As long as their account exists, nobody can take it — not even after a long break. Their secondary islands you can take over if you fight their main building down far enough and bring a colony ship. The main island only becomes free once the captain leaves of their own accord or the account turns into an Old Empire Ruin after thirty days without action.

The spy report tells you whether an island is its owner’s main island.

Alliance, treaties, feud, combined attack #

Own alliance — The game rejects new attacks on awake comrades. You can attack a slumbering comrade after seven days without action, with explicit confirmation, if their beginner protection has ended. Rudderless captains, Old Empire ruins and voluntarily departing captains are also reachable; feud restrictions may still apply. A feud pair and an open retribution claim also create exceptions.
Pact and non-aggression treaty — A confirmed treaty between your alliances blocks new attacks in both directions. After a cancellation or an armistice a cooling-off period still binds both sides. It binds everyone who was a member of either alliance at the time of the cancellation or the acceptance: whoever joins later is free, and whoever left before is not protected. Whoever instead declares war on a treaty partner wears the Oathbreaker Seal afterwards. The rudderless, ruins and voluntarily departing captains remain attackable despite a treaty. A feud pair can bypass the treaty; an open retribution claim can also pierce an armistice restriction.
Feud Draw — Between you and your opponent, pacts, treaties, shared alliance and the points barrier are lifted; beginner protection remains. A later cooling-off period may still bind you. In a declared war, the usual war rules apply instead, including the points barrier. Otherwise only your opponent attacks you, and you only them; third parties are rejected at dispatch and may not station forces on your islands. War enemies, Corsair Fortresses, rudderless captains, Old Empire ruins and voluntarily departing captains remain reachable targets unless their own feud shield or truce blocks this. Spying and trade follow their usual rules; afterwards all participants currently have a 48-hour truce.
Combined attack — Several captains of one alliance against one target: meant for corsair fortresses. Against player islands only if your alliances have officially declared war on each other — without a war, only the single attack remains against other captains.

Corsair fortresses #

An unheld Corsair Fortress belongs to no captain, and no barrier, treaty or feud protects it. Anyone may attack it from any ocean; only a Combined Attack from one alliance can conquer it. A captain alone fights immediately alone and loses troops, but can neither weaken nor conquer the fortress and receives no loot.

Once an alliance holds the fortress, it is only a target for recapture: by a combined attack of another alliance, never by a single attack — the game refuses that at dispatch. A freshly conquered fortress is protected for a while, and an alliance does not attack its own fortress.

Home port, shield, vacation — when am I safe? #

Beginner protection — Fourteen days from registration or a Frontier Respawn. Nobody attacks or colonizes you; spying is still allowed. Your beginner protection ends early if you attack an active captain, or create or join a Combined Attack against a player or a fortress held by players. Departing captains are leaving the world but count as active until deletion: attacking them also ends it. Before each such action, the game warns you: your beginner protection ends with this action and does not return. Only your confirmation ends it at dispatch or joining — in the browser, without JavaScript and in the app; never upon arrival or combat resolution. Colonization or an individual attack on slumbering or rudderless captains, ruins or unheld Corsair Fortresses does not end it.
Vacation mode — Once active, attacks and scouts bounce without losses and your absence clock stops. You schedule your vacation on the vacation page. It begins only after a lead time that the page tells you, and it protects you only from then on. An approaching attack may delay the start. During the lead time, actions such as your own attacks, colonization, spying or treasure salvage can cancel the booking. The page also shows minimum and maximum duration and your remaining vacation allowance.
Feud shield — While your feud runs, only your opponent attacks you (war enemies excepted). Whoever gives up or goes on vacation loses the feud and the shield.
Feud, war and bounty — The feud shield does not protect against war enemies. An open bounty removes the participant’s restriction on individual attacks. Other protections, other participants’ feud shields and their truces still apply. Combined Attacks by or against this participant and third-party forces stationed on their islands remain blocked.
Home port — Does not make you safe, it holds you in place: after a move the target island currently rests for a day, one day longer per ocean border crossed, three at most — during that time it may neither attack nor colonize nor join a combined attack. It stays attackable, and the moved ships and troops may defend at once.

How do I get a colonization permit as a gift? #

Four things put a colonization permit into your colony account as a gift: losing an inhabited island, a strike upwards, a treasure homecoming in your alliance and a promo code. The strike upwards: take an inhabited island from an awake captain of a higher league — or of your own league, if they hold noticeably more points than you — and you receive a colonization permit as a gift at once, and the battle report tells you so on the spot. If your colony account is already full, none is added. For this gift, status changes take effect with the next daily update, often only the following day. Opponents already recorded as slumbering or rudderless, Old Empire ruins, Corsair Fortresses and empty islands do not grant it, nor do comrades of your alliance, treaty partners or your feud opponent; between the same two captains it works only once in thirty days, and the Admiralty grants nobody more than three waivers in thirty days. The other way round, you also receive a colonization permit as a gift if you yourself lose an inhabited island to an opponent — except to your feud opponent, or if the conquest counts as a strike upwards for your opponent: each conquest brings at most one gift. You may build a new colony ship at any time; it sails with a permit from your colony account. Everything else is in the chapter "Colonization".

A treasure homecoming and a strike upwards do not rule each other out: each of these gifts puts its own colonization permit into your colony account, as long as a slot is free there.

At a glance: target by target #

Awake captain, main island — Attack: yes, if protection, barrier and treaties allow it · Spying: yes · Conquest: never · Plunder: yes
Awake captain, secondary island — Attack: yes, under the same conditions · Spying: yes · Conquest: yes, once the main building is down to level 1 or lower · Plunder: yes
Beginner protection — Attack: no · Spying: yes · Conquest: no · Plunder: none
Slumbering — Attack: yes, without the points barrier · Spying: yes · Conquest: secondary islands yes, main island no · Plunder: yes
Rudderless — Attack: yes, even across treaties · Spying: yes · Conquest: secondary islands yes, main island no · Plunder: yes
Departing (voluntarily) — Attack: yes, without the points barrier, but feud restrictions still apply · Spying: yes · Conquest: yes, the main island too · Loot: yes — barred accounts keep beginner, main-island, alliance and treaty protection
Old Empire ruin — Attack: yes, against guards of its own · Spying: yes · Conquest: yes, for any captain · Plunder: whatever the stores hold
Corsair fortress — Attack: yes, from any ocean · Spying: yes, reveals the bonus · Conquest: only in a combined attack, a held one only by recapture · Plunder: for the participants of the storm
Vacation — Attack: bounces · Spying: bounces · Conquest: no · Plunder: none
Feud opponent — Attack: only the two of you · Spying: anyone · Conquest: only the two of you, the main island stays off-limits · Plunder: yes
Empty island — Attack: not applicable · Spying: yes · Conquest: yes, with troops against the basic defense · Plunder: none

Plunder against a slumbering, rudderless or departing captain, or an Old Empire ruin, includes a map piece too: a won solo attack on the main island that reaches the plunder phase takes one displayed piece from the display case — one per battle. Whoever is under beginner protection or on vacation, or has been barred, loses none. More in chapter "The Treasure Hunt".