Fief Acquisition & Defense in Territory Wars

 

A large part of the Conqueror's Blade end-game is Territory Wars. Every Tuesday and Saturday for an hour a half the world is engulfed in battle. Cohorts, Houses, and Alliance face off against each other in a winner takes all battle to the death. These wars are fought on many fronts including diplomacy, economically, and through combat. 

Territory Wars Timelines

Event Cloudwing Valley
(NA West)
Eagle Range
(NA East)
Crystal Sea
(EU1)
Sicania
(EU2)
Imperial Restoration War Rally 17:45 PT 20:45 ET 19:45 CET 19:45 CET
Imperial Restoration Battle March 17:50 PT 20:50 ET 19:50 CET 19:50 CET
Territory Wars Begins 18:00 PT 21:00 ET 20:00 CET 20:00 CET
Imperial Restoration War Rally 18:45 PT 21:45 ET 20:45 CET 20:45 CET
Imperial Restoration Battle March 18:50 PT 21:50 ET 20:50 CET 20:50 CET
Final Call for New Battles 19:00 PT 22:00 ET 21:00 CET 21:00 CET
Territory Wars Conclusion 19:30 PT 22:30 ET 21:30 CET 21:30 CET

Capturing a Fief

The first step to owning a Fief is by capturing one. If this is your first time trying to secure your own Fief you need to know a few things. The first and foremost are the requirements to enter battle.

House Reputation

Every fief in the game has a required House Reputation requirement for entry into battle. If your house does not have the necessary reputation it will be unable to start the battle. If an allied house (Green) does meet the requirements, they will then be able to begin that battle. Only one house in each alliance must meet the qualifiers to be able to launch the battle.

You will gain and lose your house reputation by performing certain tasks. The primary way of gaining House Reputation is by completing your House Quests accessible through the second icon on your house window. As your House levels up more quests will become available allowing you to increase your Reputation faster. Each Quest item contains 3 tiers of completion awarding decreasing amounts of reputation.

Positive Reputation Factors

  • Successfully Defending a Fief - You will receive Reputation points for any fief you successfully defend in battle as well as a small amount for any fief you own at the end of territory wars depending on the level and type of fief.
  • Successfully Capturing a Fief - You will be awarded a scaling amount of Reputation points for capturing land based on the level of the fief you are capturing and the type of fief you captured.
  • Upgrading a Fief - By upgrading fiefs through fief quests you gain a large chunk of reputation instantly and it will raise the number of Reputation points you receive for owning the fief at the end of every territory war.
  • Completing House Quests - Each quest will award reputation points based upon the tier of the quest. (200, 150, 100)

Negative Reputation Factors

  • Declaring War on a Fief - This starts at a low cost to your reputation and increases as your territory expands. The more land you govern the greater the reputation hit for declaring.
  • Failing to Appear - If your house does not start the battle within 3 minutes of being named the ruling house you will lose reputation and forefeet your Ruling House status.
  • Failing to Succeed - If your house declares on a fief and becomes the ruling house you must win the fight or suffer a heavy blow to your reputation.
  • Losing a Fief - Losing any fief you own will cost you reputation based on the number of fiefs you own. The larger your territory the more reputation you will lose.

House Level

The second metric that fiefs use as a qualifier is your house level. To attack certain fiefs you will need to have at least one house in your alliance meet the requirements to open the battle. In addition, if your house does not meet the requirements, they will not be able to declare war to gain the Ruling House status.


Declaring War for Ruling House

It is a common misconception that you must declare war on a Fief before attacking it. It has not been required since season one as the developers felt it made the battlefield too predictable. 

It does still exist for the sheer part of helping establish a Ruling House for the battle.  War declarations can be made for the next two territory wars and cost a varying amount of prestige depending on the time of declaration, location, Fief type, and level of the Fief. If you declare one or more days before the war you have a greatly reduced prestige cost. Declaring war on a Fief is only required for the most sought-after locations where you plan to partake in the Pre-War to gain priority for taking the Fief.

Ruling House

In season 9 they rebuilt the Ruling House mechanic to be simpler to understand. Currently, the house with the highest Reputation will gain Ruling House in the war on a fief. If multiple houses declare on a fief, they will be ranked in order of highest to lowest Reputation. After the first House wins or loses the next house will become the ruling house in the war for that fief.


Preparing For The Battle

There are a few things you should know before going into a battle. If the objective is defended and has walls it is best to build a Field Camp before starting the siege. Your officers will be able to buy Trebuchets, Siege Rams, and Siege Towers from the Field Camp giving you a fighting shot of getting over or through the walls. These are game-changers and should not be ignored. Additionally, your members can purchase green and blue siege from a Field Camp, heal their units and resupply their food.


The Battle

Every leader has their own theory crafting of what's best for each battle. For the purposes of this guide, I'm going to focus on what is finite and part of the whole territory battle mechanic. I'll leave the strategy up to you. 

The Battle is fought over 3 control points. One home base for each side and one center point. The center point must be captured before the final point can be contested. There are several resupply huts sprinkled across the map that are also excellent points to keep in your possession. 

The first and most important thing to realize is that Fief battles do not function like siege Battles. The capture points will first need to be flipped to your color, however, once they are flipped and begin pulsating they will keep ticking even if enemy players are on the point. It will not stop ticking until the other side captures it in their favor. Some people *cough* Gaiscioch *cough* have been burned because they killed all of the invaders only to have the fief capture in the defeated side's favor because nobody remembered to recapture the final point.

Once you have the capture point under your control it will take 1 minute for the point to capture if uncontested. Players do not need to continue standing on the capture point for it to continue ticking. It simply needs to remain in your side's favor. While your home base capture point is ticking in enemy favor, you will not be able to restore the midway point until you re-secure your home base.

The battle ends when either the home base capture point is captured or if the time runs out. If the time runs out the fief will lose 10 prosperity and may downgrade. If the fief is captured, it will lose 40 prosperity, and if it falls below 0 the fief will downgrade. Fief battles can only be launched in the hour-long territory wars window however if the battle is opened before the tick of the final minute it will remain open for the duration of the fight.


Defending a Fief

Defending a fief is far less involved than assaulting one. For the most part, you just need to join the fight and make sure the enemy doesn't capture all your control points. You can't use trebuchets and don't need the ruling house to defend so there is little need to partake in the pre-war endeavors other than to weaken your opponent's claim on your fief. You can build your strategy any way you like, however, I will provide you some things to think about.

  1. Units without food can not enter fights.
  2. Each time a player is defeated he loses a third of his units across the board. Not just the ones they used in the fight.
  3. There is 1 hour where your fief can be engaged. It is important to keep that in mind and manage your clock to your best advantage.
  4. After your fief is defended there will be 5 minutes before it can be attacked again. When you capture a fief you have 9 minutes before it can be attacked again.
  5. You can only use troops and siege that you have in your Warband unless you are defending your Camp.
  6. If you do not drive your opponents out and secure the final point in the allocated time your fief will lose 10 prosperity.
  7. Higher-level fiefs add tougher AI units to the fight. 
    • Level 1: Rustic Era Units
    • Level 3: Chivalric Era Units
    • Level 5: Silver Era Units
    • Level 7: Heroic Era Units
    • Level 8+: Golden Era Units

The Imperial Restorationists & Tyrant's Army (Cohorts)

One of the more unique features of Conqueror's Blade is the balance between Player Driven houses and Ai Driven Cohorts. These AI-Driven legions are filled with real players who seek to escape the politics required of the house system.

In Season 9, Conqueror's Blade introduced a new system to help drive more structured activity towards the territory war scene. Instead of typical AI defended fiefs, where 3 to 5 heroes respawn over and over again with Heroic and Chivratic era troops, the new Tyrant's Army AI, will amass a solid 10-15 troops all wielding Gold and Purple era units. These fiefs are Conquered through the new Battle March System. 

Stage 1: The War Rally

15 minutes before the start and conclusion of territory wars, a Cohort Army will muster to march on nearby fiefs. These armies will appear as a Horse on the map. Players and Cohorts will have 5 minutes to rally to that location to join in the march. 

Stage 2: The Battle March

Once the rally phase is complete the commander will march to its target. Along the way, players may openly engage this Warband which can be a 5 AI Warlord party or a 15 AI Warlord Army. If players from the Cohort faction rallied to the Battle March they will be in the battle in place of the AI variant. The AI units include a random assortment of purple and gold units. It is important to note that 2 enemy AI will defend their capture point while the rest will attempt to capture the attacking team's home point. 

If the assault of the War March is successful the March will disband. If the defense is successful the March will be immune to attack for 3 minutes which is more than enough time to set up their field camp. 

Stage 3: The Siege Camp

Players may assault the siege camp set up by the AI Battle March in a typical field camp map. The AI will at this point have 15 gold and purple unit wielding warlords and also act as a fast travel point for actual cohort players. At this point expect real players to be air-dropping into battle. 

Stage 4: The Siege

Once the siege camp is set up (after 5 minutes from being built) the cohort Army will amass an assault on the fief. The onslaught will continue as long as the siege camp is open. At this point, you can expect an endless onslaught of real players and AI until the battle is won or lost.

Attacking A Garrisoned Fief

Garrisoned fiefs are not your typical AI-owned fief. They are defended by a much more difficult AI force and can be joined by real players. By default 10 AI Warlords will enter the battle noted by the prefix Warlond in their name. Real Cohort players may also answer the call of battle and "AirDrop" into the fief as well. As the AI unit is wiped out more players will begin to join. 

The defenses of the AI unit will be Gold and Purple era based and will feature seasonal units such as Pavise Crossbowmen, Stalwarts, and Berserkers. In addition, they will use unit abilities such as pike brace. Additionally, while traditional AI wouldn't try to cap the final objective, the Garrisoned army will. They will even sally out of keeps to try to take the final objective while you scale the walls. Do not take these fights lightly or you may find yourself on the embarrassing scramble back to the home point.

Written By: Foghladha of Gaiscioch | Last Update: March 27th, 2024 at 4:18PM PDT