Sovereign
Inhouse Community Manager
Hello Kings and Queens,
Today it is now possible to try out our new guild versus guild feature, in which guilds can battle to gain control over territory, thus increasing their guild level and obtaining bonuses for the guild. Please be aware that the feature is as yet incomplete, the current version is still in "Alpha" stage, meaning that it is not in the final testing stages, but still requires work to bring it closer to release-ready. Some features have limited functionality and other features may be missing at this point in time.
Due to the size of the guild warfare feature, we want to give you, our players, a chance to try it out, give us feedback and let us know what you think (feedback thread).
Due to the lack of helper tooltips at this current stage of development, we strongly recommend that you refer to the user guide below to help you get started.
We also have a Bugs and issues mission (with diamond rewards) to sit with this feature. Please click here to go to the mission thread.
We look forward to reading your bugs and feedback!
Sincerely,
The Forge of Empires team.
The aim
Your guild is fighting against others for power and survival. Your Goal is to expand your guild's territory and hold on to it, to level up your guild and gain bonuses and glory for all its members.
How
Each day begins and ends with a countdown timer, which is at the top left of the Guild Province Map. During the countdown, your guilds should conquer new sectors and defend the sectors it already has under its control. When the countdown reaches zero, the day ends, Aggressive NPCs on the map will make their move and, after that, guild experience is calculated which contributes to the guild's level, which in turn provides its own bonuses.
Getting into the action
To get involved in the action, you first need to be part of a guild. Whether you are in a small guild or a large one, you can still participate.
Click the bottom right button in your menu to access the Guild Continent Map:
The Guild continent map
All action takes place in the Guild Continent Map, which is a special extra map, designed for inter-guild battles and warfare. The map is split up into provinces, which you can see are separated by rivers and mountain borders. Each area represents a different age, and there is also a province for open warfare (any age).
To access a province, click it in the Guild Continent map to go to the province view.
Beta consideration: Only the Iron Age is currently accessible. The map is also missing helpers, such as highlights and tooltips.
Guild Province Map
The Guild province map is where you can view information about sectors, see the results of recent events and battles, place defense - and it is from here you are able to lay siege to a sector and launch attacks on them, along with your guild members.
Sectors
Each sector is represented by one of the hexes on the province map. Your guild must conquer sectors - and defend them from invasion - to expand its territory. Conquering a sector is in two stages - laying siege, and attack!
Landing zone
When you open the Guild province map, you will notice that some of the map is dark, which indicates unexplored, unclaimed territory. The active area is where you can land your first army and establish your Guild headquarters.
Sector status
You can see in the map above which sectors are under siege, as they have an icon with crossed swords above it. On the left side of the map is a sector with a shield icon above it - this means that the sector was recently conquered and cannot currently be attacked.
Sector information
You can view information about a sector by hovering your mouse over it. When you control a sector, you gain "power" which you can see in the sector information. Different sectors provide more or less power, and as you gain power, this converts to experience points for your guild, which are used to increase your guild level.
HINT: A sector that contains a lot of trees gives more power than a sector with fewer trees.
Beta consideration: Guild level and ranking is currently not implemented, however we are already keeping track of guild advancement, so your efforts in hard-won battles will not be lost!
In the tooltip above , you can see that the sector is controlled by a "Peaceful NPC". Another guild could also control a sector, or it could be owned by an aggressive NPC. This will be explained in more detail later.
Conquering a sector
Enter the sector by clicking its hex, and this will take you to the army management screen. At the top right of the screen you will now see an additional space, where you can deploy armies to the sector. There are two possible options for deploying armies: siege army (if you don't own the sector), and defense armies (if you do). As we are trying to conquer the sector, in this case you would want to deploy a siege army.
Beta consideration: If you click a sector controlled by a guild you get a popup with various options. Currently, only the "view sector" option is operational.
Deploying a siege army
Before you can begin attacking, you first need to stake a claim to the sector you want to conquer.
Deploying your guild's first siege army is free. After that, however, there is a goods cost, which is shown when you hover over the deployment button. Once you deploy a siege army, those units are removed from your unit pool, they belong to your guild and you cannot get them back!
Attacking a sector
Once you have laid claim to the sector you want, and deployed your siege army, the attacks can begin to conquer it! One single attack is unlikely to be enough and it may take many successive attacks to gain control of a sector. You need to use your own army to attack... you cannot attack with the siege army.
Click the red defensive icon in the army management screen to view your enemy's defensive armies.
It's possible to have up to 8 armies defending a sector, and you need to defeat them all to gain control of the sector. Luckily, in this case there is only one defending army. Below the army icon however, you can see the army's health bar. But beware - you need to defeat an army multiple times for it to be completely destroyed. Each time you attack, your army will fight against a random defending army (you cannot choose which army to attack).
When you have killed all of your opponent's defending armies, your siege army moves in and becomes the sector's first defending army.
The army shown above has 10 health, which means it needs to be defeated 10 times in battle to be destroyed and removed from your opponent's defending armies.
HINT: After you have won against a defending army, the units in the army become visible when you hover your mouse over the army's icon in the army management screen. Once the army has received damage, the units in that army are visible to everyone.
Another guild has laid siege to the sector I want
You may find that another rival guild has laid claim to a sector you want, and placed a siege army there. All is not lost! You can attack and destroy your enemies' siege armies, in much the same manner as you destroy defending armies. But to attack a siege army instead of a defending army, choose the green attack icon before you attack, and this make your army attack the siege army:
After you win a sector
After you have gained control of a sector, it is protected from attack for a period of time, until the end of the "day", which is indicated by a countdown timer at the top left of the province map. When the countdown reaches zero, the day ends and scores are calculated for the previous day. It's in your interests to hold on to a sector until the timer runs out! The army you used as a siege army now becomes the sector's first defending army.
Defending a sector
Every day when the countdown runs out, scores are calculated for the previous day. You need to be holding on to a sector when the timer runs out for it to count! So, it's in your interests to hold on to a sector for as long as you can, or at least until the timer reaches zero.
When you conquer a sector you start with only one defending army (which was formerly your siege army). You can place up to seven additional armies in the empty slots, making a total of eight. But you need to pay goods to unlock each army slot, and the cost increases with every slot you unlock. As with siege armies, units deployed to defensive armies belong to your guild and cannot be retrieved.
Beta consideration: Placing defending armies and unlocking defensive slots in currently a work in progress, so some unusual behaviour is to be expected.
Sector colours
Sectors are coloured according to who owns them:
Red - Enemy guild.
Green - Your guild.
White - Neutral (Peaceful NPCs).
Orange - Aggressive NPCs. Before the daily calculation, when the countdown reaches zero, neighboring Aggressive NPCs in sectors adjacent to your guild's sectors will "attack" and deal 1 point of damage to an army in that your sector. So, if you have Aggressive NPCs in two adjacent sectors to one of your own, after the countdown reaches zero (but before the daily calculation!), your defending armies would receive 2 points of damage. Make sure you don't lose your sectors to aggressive NPCs at the end of the daily countdown!
Which sectors to attack
When you initially enter a province map, you are able to attack any of the sectors in the landing zone. However, the orange hexes (belonging to Aggressive NPCs) are just outside of the landing area, and can only be attacked in you control an adjacent hex. This means that any guild wishing to expand beyond their landing area must contend with Aggressive NPCs as they increase their territory.
Support pool
Every guild has a "support pool", which can provide support bonuses in guild battles and warfare. A guild's Support Pool is calculated from the guild's level and any defensive Great Buildings that its members have. It gives a percentage bonus to the attack and defense of all units of that guild in this sector.
The support pool is distributed among sectors controlled by a guild, with the guild HQ taking precedence, before adjacent sectors receive a bonus, and then sectors further away after that.
You can see a support bonus by hovering your mouse over an army. Defending armies and attacking armies can have a support bonus if they are in range. The support pool is recalculated every day, when the countdown ends.
HINT: Your guild HQ has a maximum support bonus of 75%, while adjacent sectors to your HQ can reach a maximum support bonus of 50%, reducing the further away you get from your HQ.
Event log
You can access an event log from the Guild Province Map by clicking the event log button in the menu at the bottom left of the screen.
Three different tabs are available in the log:
Clicking on a tab will show recent events and where the event took place (with co-ordinates):
Beta consideration: The event log is not currently logging anything.
Missing/incomplete features
(please do not reports these as bugs/issues)
Ages - only the Iron Age is currently accessible.
Guild Continent Map - currently unfinished. Please do not report missing tooltips, highlights etc. on the map.
Sector hex menu - If you click a sector controlled by a guild you get a popup with various options. Currently, only the "view sector" option is operational.
Guild rankings - We are collecting data from each daily calculation, however currently there is no ingame ranking or display for this.
Guild level - currently not available.
Attack/defense icons over sectors - currently all icons are coloured gold. In the future these will be coloured to indicate whether your own guild or an enemy is laying siege to a sector, for example.
Guild Province Map - Fog (dark area) is not completed.
Guild Province Map - Menu at the bottom left of the screen is not a final version.
Event log - not currently logging anything.
Today it is now possible to try out our new guild versus guild feature, in which guilds can battle to gain control over territory, thus increasing their guild level and obtaining bonuses for the guild. Please be aware that the feature is as yet incomplete, the current version is still in "Alpha" stage, meaning that it is not in the final testing stages, but still requires work to bring it closer to release-ready. Some features have limited functionality and other features may be missing at this point in time.
Due to the size of the guild warfare feature, we want to give you, our players, a chance to try it out, give us feedback and let us know what you think (feedback thread).
Due to the lack of helper tooltips at this current stage of development, we strongly recommend that you refer to the user guide below to help you get started.
We also have a Bugs and issues mission (with diamond rewards) to sit with this feature. Please click here to go to the mission thread.
We look forward to reading your bugs and feedback!
Sincerely,
The Forge of Empires team.
User guide
The aim
Your guild is fighting against others for power and survival. Your Goal is to expand your guild's territory and hold on to it, to level up your guild and gain bonuses and glory for all its members.
How
Each day begins and ends with a countdown timer, which is at the top left of the Guild Province Map. During the countdown, your guilds should conquer new sectors and defend the sectors it already has under its control. When the countdown reaches zero, the day ends, Aggressive NPCs on the map will make their move and, after that, guild experience is calculated which contributes to the guild's level, which in turn provides its own bonuses.
Getting into the action
To get involved in the action, you first need to be part of a guild. Whether you are in a small guild or a large one, you can still participate.
Click the bottom right button in your menu to access the Guild Continent Map:
The Guild continent map
All action takes place in the Guild Continent Map, which is a special extra map, designed for inter-guild battles and warfare. The map is split up into provinces, which you can see are separated by rivers and mountain borders. Each area represents a different age, and there is also a province for open warfare (any age).
To access a province, click it in the Guild Continent map to go to the province view.
Beta consideration: Only the Iron Age is currently accessible. The map is also missing helpers, such as highlights and tooltips.
Guild Province Map
The Guild province map is where you can view information about sectors, see the results of recent events and battles, place defense - and it is from here you are able to lay siege to a sector and launch attacks on them, along with your guild members.
Sectors
Each sector is represented by one of the hexes on the province map. Your guild must conquer sectors - and defend them from invasion - to expand its territory. Conquering a sector is in two stages - laying siege, and attack!
Landing zone
When you open the Guild province map, you will notice that some of the map is dark, which indicates unexplored, unclaimed territory. The active area is where you can land your first army and establish your Guild headquarters.
Sector status
You can see in the map above which sectors are under siege, as they have an icon with crossed swords above it. On the left side of the map is a sector with a shield icon above it - this means that the sector was recently conquered and cannot currently be attacked.
Sector information
You can view information about a sector by hovering your mouse over it. When you control a sector, you gain "power" which you can see in the sector information. Different sectors provide more or less power, and as you gain power, this converts to experience points for your guild, which are used to increase your guild level.
HINT: A sector that contains a lot of trees gives more power than a sector with fewer trees.
Beta consideration: Guild level and ranking is currently not implemented, however we are already keeping track of guild advancement, so your efforts in hard-won battles will not be lost!
In the tooltip above , you can see that the sector is controlled by a "Peaceful NPC". Another guild could also control a sector, or it could be owned by an aggressive NPC. This will be explained in more detail later.
Conquering a sector
Enter the sector by clicking its hex, and this will take you to the army management screen. At the top right of the screen you will now see an additional space, where you can deploy armies to the sector. There are two possible options for deploying armies: siege army (if you don't own the sector), and defense armies (if you do). As we are trying to conquer the sector, in this case you would want to deploy a siege army.
Beta consideration: If you click a sector controlled by a guild you get a popup with various options. Currently, only the "view sector" option is operational.
Deploying a siege army
Before you can begin attacking, you first need to stake a claim to the sector you want to conquer.
Deploying your guild's first siege army is free. After that, however, there is a goods cost, which is shown when you hover over the deployment button. Once you deploy a siege army, those units are removed from your unit pool, they belong to your guild and you cannot get them back!
Attacking a sector
Once you have laid claim to the sector you want, and deployed your siege army, the attacks can begin to conquer it! One single attack is unlikely to be enough and it may take many successive attacks to gain control of a sector. You need to use your own army to attack... you cannot attack with the siege army.
Click the red defensive icon in the army management screen to view your enemy's defensive armies.
It's possible to have up to 8 armies defending a sector, and you need to defeat them all to gain control of the sector. Luckily, in this case there is only one defending army. Below the army icon however, you can see the army's health bar. But beware - you need to defeat an army multiple times for it to be completely destroyed. Each time you attack, your army will fight against a random defending army (you cannot choose which army to attack).
When you have killed all of your opponent's defending armies, your siege army moves in and becomes the sector's first defending army.
The army shown above has 10 health, which means it needs to be defeated 10 times in battle to be destroyed and removed from your opponent's defending armies.
HINT: After you have won against a defending army, the units in the army become visible when you hover your mouse over the army's icon in the army management screen. Once the army has received damage, the units in that army are visible to everyone.
Another guild has laid siege to the sector I want
You may find that another rival guild has laid claim to a sector you want, and placed a siege army there. All is not lost! You can attack and destroy your enemies' siege armies, in much the same manner as you destroy defending armies. But to attack a siege army instead of a defending army, choose the green attack icon before you attack, and this make your army attack the siege army:
After you win a sector
After you have gained control of a sector, it is protected from attack for a period of time, until the end of the "day", which is indicated by a countdown timer at the top left of the province map. When the countdown reaches zero, the day ends and scores are calculated for the previous day. It's in your interests to hold on to a sector until the timer runs out! The army you used as a siege army now becomes the sector's first defending army.
Defending a sector
Every day when the countdown runs out, scores are calculated for the previous day. You need to be holding on to a sector when the timer runs out for it to count! So, it's in your interests to hold on to a sector for as long as you can, or at least until the timer reaches zero.
When you conquer a sector you start with only one defending army (which was formerly your siege army). You can place up to seven additional armies in the empty slots, making a total of eight. But you need to pay goods to unlock each army slot, and the cost increases with every slot you unlock. As with siege armies, units deployed to defensive armies belong to your guild and cannot be retrieved.
Beta consideration: Placing defending armies and unlocking defensive slots in currently a work in progress, so some unusual behaviour is to be expected.
Sector colours
Sectors are coloured according to who owns them:
Red - Enemy guild.
Green - Your guild.
White - Neutral (Peaceful NPCs).
Orange - Aggressive NPCs. Before the daily calculation, when the countdown reaches zero, neighboring Aggressive NPCs in sectors adjacent to your guild's sectors will "attack" and deal 1 point of damage to an army in that your sector. So, if you have Aggressive NPCs in two adjacent sectors to one of your own, after the countdown reaches zero (but before the daily calculation!), your defending armies would receive 2 points of damage. Make sure you don't lose your sectors to aggressive NPCs at the end of the daily countdown!
Which sectors to attack
When you initially enter a province map, you are able to attack any of the sectors in the landing zone. However, the orange hexes (belonging to Aggressive NPCs) are just outside of the landing area, and can only be attacked in you control an adjacent hex. This means that any guild wishing to expand beyond their landing area must contend with Aggressive NPCs as they increase their territory.
Support pool
Every guild has a "support pool", which can provide support bonuses in guild battles and warfare. A guild's Support Pool is calculated from the guild's level and any defensive Great Buildings that its members have. It gives a percentage bonus to the attack and defense of all units of that guild in this sector.
The support pool is distributed among sectors controlled by a guild, with the guild HQ taking precedence, before adjacent sectors receive a bonus, and then sectors further away after that.
You can see a support bonus by hovering your mouse over an army. Defending armies and attacking armies can have a support bonus if they are in range. The support pool is recalculated every day, when the countdown ends.
HINT: Your guild HQ has a maximum support bonus of 75%, while adjacent sectors to your HQ can reach a maximum support bonus of 50%, reducing the further away you get from your HQ.
Event log
You can access an event log from the Guild Province Map by clicking the event log button in the menu at the bottom left of the screen.
Three different tabs are available in the log:
- Important events
- Your guild actions
- Enemy guild actions
Clicking on a tab will show recent events and where the event took place (with co-ordinates):
Missing/incomplete features
(please do not reports these as bugs/issues)
Ages - only the Iron Age is currently accessible.
Guild Continent Map - currently unfinished. Please do not report missing tooltips, highlights etc. on the map.
Sector hex menu - If you click a sector controlled by a guild you get a popup with various options. Currently, only the "view sector" option is operational.
Guild rankings - We are collecting data from each daily calculation, however currently there is no ingame ranking or display for this.
Guild level - currently not available.
Attack/defense icons over sectors - currently all icons are coloured gold. In the future these will be coloured to indicate whether your own guild or an enemy is laying siege to a sector, for example.
Guild Province Map - Fog (dark area) is not completed.
Guild Province Map - Menu at the bottom left of the screen is not a final version.
Event log - not currently logging anything.