Attacking another lord's village is the richest way to get resources, and the riskiest. Combat follows the rules in Combat and the triangle, with the defense boosted by the home advantage and the Wall.
Who can be attacked
- Novice protection: every new account is protected for 3 days. During that time nobody can attack it, and it can't attack players either. Neutral targets stay open. You can give up the protection early under More › System, but there is no going back. Details in Novice protection.
- Peace Pact: protection for the whole account, bought as charges from the Merchant and activated whenever you want under More › System. Each activation lasts 8 hours and adds to the time still left, with a cap on activations per week. While the Pact is active, you can't attack players either.
- Protection is checked when the march is sent. An attack that has already left still lands even if the target activates the Pact afterwards.
You only see rival villages within a radius around your active village. To get back to a target without hunting for it on the map, save it to a list under Targets.
What a raid takes
If you win, your surviving troops plunder the defender's warehouse:
- Of each resource, the raid takes up to 85% of the stock.
- The total has to fit in the cargo of the surviving troops, plus the hero's if they come back alive. Each unit's cargo is on its page, and a hero carries more with higher title and level.
- Cargo fills in the order wood, stone, iron and gold. When cargo runs short, gold is the first thing left behind.
- Attacking the same lord several times in a short span yields less and less, and the report tells you when the plunder was cut for that reason.
- Guild bonuses on the defender's side, such as the Order Tree's Deep Vault, reduce the share you take.
- A defeat plunders nothing.
The plunder only reaches your warehouse when the army gets home. It doesn't count toward the weekly resource cap on neutral targets (PvE targets).
What it costs in troops
Both sides lose troops in proportion to the other's strength, but in PvP the attacker has a loss curve of its own. In a crushing win, when the defense is far smaller than your attack, you lose much less than you would in an even fight. In balanced fights, or when you are the weaker side, the math is the usual one.
In practice, cheap raiding means scouting first and attacking with a wide margin. Attacking a target your own size blind is expensive even when it works.
Attack, scouting and siege
There are three kinds of march against players:
- Attack: fights and plunders.
- Scouting: scouts only, reading the defense without fighting.
- Siege: rams and catapults only, knocking down the Wall and buildings without plundering.
The last two are covered in Scouting and sieges.
The report
Both attacker and defender get a report. When you win, you see the defense you faced: troops, losses, Wall level, the defender hero and the plunder. When you lose, the fog of war hides the defender's composition, and you only learn how many losses you caused.
The defender sees who attacked, both sides' losses, the enemy hero and what was taken. Attacks and sieges show up for them before they land, so expect a defense that may have prepared (Defending your village).