Combat

A flying boulder does not read peace treaties.

TL;DR: Battles unfold in five phases -- calculated entirely on the server.

- Naval battle, harbor defense, land combat, siege, looting

- Losses are permanent -- destroyed units and ships are gone

- Combat reports show the exact course of each phase

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How Combat Works #

When your fleet reaches an enemy island, combat is automatically resolved in five consecutive phases:

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Naval Battle -> Harbor -> Land Combat -> Siege -> Looting

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Each phase must be won by the attacker to advance to the next. The defender can halt the attack at any phase.

The Five Phases #

Phase 1 -- Naval Battle #

Long before the coast comes into view, the warships of both sides clash on the open water. It is a duel of firepower at sea. Whoever loses here sees their invasion end before it even began. Trade ships do not participate in naval combat -- they wait behind the front line.

Phase 2 -- Harbor Defense #

The surviving attacker ships must pass the enemy's shipping lane. The defender's harbor hurls fire pots at the invaders. The higher the harbor level, the fiercer the resistance. Even without a fleet, a defender has a chance here.

Phase 3 -- Land Combat #

In the wet sand of the coast, war turns archaic. Attacking troops leap from their boats into the surf while defenders hold behind their walls. The stone wall provides a substantial defensive bonus. Research (Spear, Shield, Bow) heavily influences the combat strength of both sides.

Phase 4 -- Siege #

If the attacker wins the land battle and brought catapults, these can damage chosen defensive structures and reduce their levels.

Siege Reform: catapults are pure siege weapons. They shatter walls, harbors and the town hall — workshops, warehouses and economy buildings remain untouched. A siege battery must be larger the higher the defense level: the next level demands at least as many catapults as it already counts.

Phase 5 -- Looting and Colonization #

The victorious troops storm the storerooms. They take what they can carry -- the cargo is split evenly between Gold, Stone and Wood. Whatever the warehouse protects remains untouched.

From v0.35 a winning attacker can additionally plunder knowledge plans from the defender's island. The size of the cut depends on the strength ratio — a clear victory yields more than a narrow one. See the chapter "Knowledge Plans" for details.

If the attacker brought a colony ship and the town hall has been reduced to a low enough level, the island can be colonized -- it changes ownership.

Reading Combat Reports #

After every battle, both attacker and defender receive a detailed report showing the course of all phases: which ships sank, which troops fell, and what was looted.

Tips for Attackers #

• Overwhelming force pays off -- the stronger your attack compared to the defense, the fewer troops you lose
• Send scouts ahead to learn about the target's defenses -- avoid nasty surprises
• Always bring more warships than the defender appears to have
• Catapults are expensive, but without them you cannot damage buildings
• Weakly defended islands are profitable to raid when you attack with enough troops

Tips for Defenders #

• Walls are your best friend -- they cost little and deliver much
• Always keep some troops on the island, even if you expect no attacks
• A high watchtower warns you early
• Never store important resources above your warehouse's loot protection

Capitulation #

Sometimes the only honourable answer to an overwhelming force is to lower the sword. When a defender faces vastly superior power, the crew yields quickly rather than dying for nothing. The plunder proceeds as usual -- but troop and ship losses on both sides are significantly reduced. Hulls stay whole, crews live on.

Important: capitulation applies only to inhabited player islands whose crew can choose between death and surrender. Uninhabited shores and Old Empire ruins make no such choice -- their fanatics fight to the last, no matter how overwhelming your force.

Floatsam #

When ships go down in a battle, part of their timber drifts on the water -- the floatsam. The victorious player salvages it in addition to the regular plunder. Both phases in which ships can be lost (naval battle and harbor defense) produce floatsam. Like regular plunder, it is subject to the victor's warehouse capacity -- anything that cannot be stored is lost.

Wild Shores and Ancient Ruins #

Uninhabited islands are rarely masterless. Natives, wild clans, or the remnants of old admiralties defend the land with their own means. An attacker who thinks easy prey awaits will run into real resistance. The longer an Old Empire ruin has been abandoned, the more resolute its defense becomes -- the fanatics of fresh ruins are nothing compared to the veterans of decades-old sites.

Allied Reinforcements #

Allied reinforcements can help defend an island. Each stationed garrison fights with its own sender's research, and losses are distributed proportionally across all parties. Details: chapter "Fleet Dispatch".

Retribution #

Whoever is plundered carries an open score -- and the sea does not forget. For a limited time, the victim holds a retribution claim against the attacker: if the counterstrike against one of the raider's islands succeeds, the fleet may carry home more loot than its holds would normally allow -- up to what was taken. Nothing new is created; only what was lost is reclaimed. The claim is single-use: once spent, the score is settled -- no matter how much the counterstrike actually brought back. There is no retribution within an alliance.