Kampfinsel

Kampfinsel Handbook — How to Play & Wiki

The Art of War

A captain does not choose what he fights with — he chooses how.

TL;DR: The War Academy unlocks the Art of War: each of your islands chooses one of three sea doctrines — Broadside, Boarding or Fireship. Every doctrine counters another and gives your fleet a character of its own. You earn training points through the levels of the academy and in real battles against active captains — defeats count too. None of it can be bought. The sea doctrine takes effect in the naval battle.

What the War Academy is #

The War Academy is a building for captains who have already built their harbour up a long way. Here your crews learn how they fight at sea — not what with. The building unlocks the Art of War page and the sea doctrines, and every further level opens the training tree a little wider.

Two things are worth knowing up front. First: for the training tree and the training points, only the highest academy level among all your islands counts. Two academies at level 3 are worth no more than one — several academies never pay twice. Second: every island that is to carry a sea doctrine of its own needs its own War Academy; the first level is enough for that.

The Art of War Page #

Everything about the academy lives on the "Art of War" page in the "More" menu. There you see the counter circle, the three doctrines with their character, your points account including the weekly limit, the training tree with all its nodes — and the list of your islands, where you choose or change the doctrine for each island. If a rebuild window happens to be open, the page shows that as well.

The Three Sea Doctrines #

A sea doctrine is the way an island leads its warships. There are three, and they are meant to be equals — none is "the best", each has a character of its own and one opponent it counters especially well.

Broadside #

A standing line that shatters at range whatever comes too close — and keeps its discipline even in victory. Its character: when a Broadside side wins the naval battle, its own losses are currently 12 percent lower. That also applies when you hold your coast as the defender. The Signal Chain, moreover, only works for Broadside islands.

Boarding #

Fast hulls that catch the enemy before he gathers way. Its character: everything that sails from a Boarding island for the purposes of war — attacks, colonisation fleets, relocations and scouts — currently sails 12 percent faster, on the way out and on the way back. Trade runs are untouched by this; they sail as fast as they always have.

Fireship #

Fire ships drift into the enemy order. Everything around them burns hotter — your own victory included. Its character: whenever a Fireship side takes part in a naval battle, the victor currently pays 12 percent more losses — no matter who wins. A Fireship attacker therefore makes your held victory more expensive too, and a Fireship defender makes every victory over him dearer. If both sides sail Fireship, it still burns hotter only once; the surcharge does not double.

The Counter Circle #

The three doctrines form a closed circle:

When two identical doctrines meet, the duel is neutral: nobody counters. And because each doctrine beats exactly one other, only one counter can ever take hold in a naval battle — either yours or your opponent's, never both.

A counter makes the countering side stronger in the naval battle. The defender has the edge here: if the doctrine of a defended island counters the attacker's order, the defence currently fights with 20 percent more strength. If the attacker's order counters the defender's doctrine, the attack currently fights with 10 percent more strength — and with only 5 percent if the order was improvised (more on that below).

The rule to remember: The sea doctrine takes effect in the naval battle. It acts in the first phase of a fight and nowhere else — not in land combat, not in production, not in trade. Doctrines decide close fights: a fleet twice as strong still wins, doctrine or no doctrine.

Choosing and Changing a Doctrine #

You choose the doctrine per island on the Art of War page — as soon as you have unlocked the first node of the tree, "Sea Doctrine", and the island carries a War Academy. Different islands may sail different doctrines.

The lock is deliberate: a doctrine is an identity, not a switch you flip before every fight.

Attack and Defence #

Defence: when one of your islands is attacked, its naval defence always fights with the doctrine the island carries at that moment — even if you are not online. You need to confirm nothing and prepare nothing.

Attack: an attack carries the doctrine of the island it sets out from as its order — once you have unlocked the "Flag Discipline" node. The order is frozen at the moment of sending: a fleet that is at sea never changes its colours again, whatever you switch on the home island afterwards. Whoever holds several islands with different doctrines therefore decides, by choosing the island of departure, under which order an attack sails.

Without Flag Discipline your attacks sail without an order: they cannot be countered by the defender, but they counter nothing themselves either — and the character of Broadside or Fireship then acts only in your defence. The Boarding pace, by contrast, hangs on the "Doctrine Drill" node alone and applies before that.

Flexible Order: with the node of that name you may choose, for a single attack, an order other than the home doctrine. You find the field for it in the fleet dispatch form; the home doctrine is always preselected. A deviating order counts as improvised — it is only given at sea and counters at only half strength: currently 5 instead of 10 percent more strength. The character of a Broadside or Fireship order, on the other hand, applies in full even when improvised, and the Boarding pace always hangs on the island of departure, never on the order. Whoever switches course after scouting is not without a chance, then — but a drilled doctrine beats an improvised order.

The Tree: Three Rings #

The training tree has three rings. Every node costs training points and demands a certain academy level, and the nodes build on one another — the second ring only opens once the first is complete.

First Ring #

Second Ring #

What Comes After #

The third ring shows three silhouettes: the Destroyer of Broadside, the Boarding Brig of Boarding and the Firebrand of Fireship. They are an outlook, not a goal — not yet buildable, without numbers, without effect. The academy shows you what is coming; it reveals no more than that yet.

The tree is finite: all five nodes together currently cost 33 points. There are no nodes that can be bought again and again — whoever has the full tree is done. A lead in skill saturates; ships do not.

Training Points #

Training points are the currency of the tree. They belong to you as a captain, not to an island, and they come from exactly two sources. They can never be bought, never be given away, and they do not expire.

Source A: The Academy #

Every new highest level of your War Academy pays points once — no battle required. At present:

That is 22 points in total. The whole first ring — 9 points — is therefore reachable without a single battle, and even one node of the second ring works out from the academy alone. What counts is the highest level across all your islands; a second academy at the same level pays nothing.

Source B: Real Battles #

A serious battle against an active captain pays one point — win or loss, for both sides. A defeat teaches too. So that this cannot be gamed, conditions apply:

The weekly limit is a ceiling, not an obligation: whoever does not fight for a week loses nothing.

Rebuilding the Nodes #

Normally there is no rebuild: an unlocked node stays unlocked, and the points are spent. Only in announced windows — say, at the opening of the academy or after a balance change — can you reset all nodes at once and get the full points back. Whether a window is currently open, you see on the Art of War page. A rebuild can never be bought. An island's doctrine, by contrast, you can change at any time — subject to the lock described above.

Spy Report, Combat Report and Calculator #

Spy report: whoever spies on a player island sees its defensive doctrine as a line of its own in the report. For an Old Empire ruin with a garrison, the report states the formation in which the garrison fights. The order of an attack is never seen in advance — it only appears in the combat report.

Combat report: after every naval battle the report tells you in one sentence which doctrine took effect — whether a counter took hold, whether both sides held their order, whether an order was improvised or whether a joint attack arrived without a common order. Both sides see order, doctrine and the outcome of the counter. The report names no numbers; instead it always carries the note: the sea doctrine takes effect in the naval battle.

Combat Calculator: the calculator knows the doctrines. You pick your own and the enemy doctrine from two lists and tick "improvised" if needed. If you import one of your own spy reports, the calculator takes over the doctrine recorded there as well.

Joint Attacks and Foreign Garrisons #

A joint attack sails without a common order. The fleets come from different islands and different captains; they arrive unaligned. That is why, in a joint attack, there is neither an attacker counter nor an attacker character — that is the price for the joint attack already being the strongest tool of attack there is. The defender's doctrine, by contrast, takes effect with its character; its counter does not bite against a joint attack, because there is no common order it could counter. The one exception: if a joint attack consists of exactly one participant, his order counts as in a solo attack — and then the counter bites again, on both sides. The combat report explains this in a sentence of its own. The Boarding pace hangs on the island of departure and applies in a joint attack too, for every fleet that sails from a Boarding island.

Foreign garrisons — ships and troops that allies have relocated to you — fight under the doctrine of the island they stand on. Whoever keeps watch with you fights by your school.

The Signal Chain #

The Signal Chain is the node of the Broadside school. Your own watchtowers in the same ocean that have each other in sight form a chain — provided the towers are actually built and the islands sail Broadside. For every additional link the chain currently reaches 10 percent further, up to 20 percent at most.

What matters is what "reaching further" means here: the chain concerns solely the passing-on of watchtower reports — how far a tower carries when it comes to who gets told about a fleet movement. Your alliance learns of it sooner and from further away — without an alliance the chain has no effect. Your own view of threats to your islands does not change; you see those without a chain anyway. Everything else stays as it is:

The Guards of the Ruins #

The garrisons of the Old Empire ruins follow fixed doctrines of their own. A ruin with a garrison announces its doctrine in the spy report — and then really fights with it: announcement and battle read the same truth. Because the ruins are spread across all three doctrines, they are the training ground for the counter circle: scout, pick the matching island of departure or order, and read in the report whether your counter took hold.

Two limits: a ruin without a garrison follows no doctrine — there is nobody there who could have one. And Corsair Fortresses never follow a sea doctrine, for their defence is a land battle around the walls.

And the most important thing: there are no training points against ruins and fortresses. You can practise there — you earn only against active captains.

Do I Have to Take Part? #

No. Without a War Academy your fleet fights by the previous rules: it has no doctrine, cannot be countered and counters nothing. The report then merely says that one side sailed without an order of its own.

But your opponents' doctrines take effect regardless. A Fireship attacker makes your held victory more expensive too. A Broadside attacker loses fewer ships against you as the victor. A Boarding attacker stands off your coast sooner. Whoever leaves the academy alone loses nothing he has today — he only forgoes the answer.

And for perspective: doctrines decide close fights. A fleet twice as strong still wins, doctrine or no doctrine; the counter circle shifts losses and tips duels that were on a knife's edge anyway.

Quest and Achievements #

In the military path of the quests waits the optional step "Choose your sea doctrine": build a War Academy, unlock the Sea Doctrine and decide how your island fights. Optional means: the path can be completed without it.

On top of that there is an achievement family for the training tree — bronze at the first unlocked node ("Student of the Art of War"), silver at three nodes ("Doctrine Instructor"), gold at five nodes ("Master of the Sea Doctrine").

Which Doctrine Suits Me? #

The rule for the circle: Broadside beats Boarding, Boarding beats Fireship, Fireship beats Broadside. All three are meant to be equals. Should one doctrine prove too strong, it will be adjusted — and then there will be a rebuild window in which you can redistribute your nodes free of charge.

Frequently Asked Questions #

Can I sail different doctrines on different islands? Yes. Every island with its own War Academy chooses for itself. For attacks, the island of departure determines the order.

What happens if I change the doctrine while my fleet is under way? Nothing — for that fleet. Its order was frozen when it was sent and stays as it was until it returns. Your island's defence, on the other hand, follows the new doctrine immediately.

Do battles against ruins count for points? No. Points are paid only for battles against active captains with a genuine stake on both sides — a naval battle is not required, a land battle counts just the same. Ruins are there for practice.

Does my opponent see my doctrine? Whoever spies on your island sees its defensive doctrine. The order of your attacks he only sees in the combat report.

What is an improvised order? An order that deviates from the doctrine of the island of departure — possible with the "Flexible Order" node. It counters at only half strength.

What does "weekly limit" mean? From battles you currently get at most 3 points per rolling 7 days. Once a battle drops out of that window, its slot frees up again. The academy points are independent of this.

Does the doctrine act in land combat? No. The sea doctrine takes effect in the naval battle — and only there.

What happens to my nodes if I lose the island with the academy? Nodes and points belong to you and stay with you; what you have unlocked keeps working. New nodes, however, again demand the matching academy level somewhere in your realm — and the lost island itself loses its doctrine.

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