Hall of Wisdom: PvP Battles at Towers

PvP Battles at Towers

In the previous two articles, we learned how to expand territory with Towers, claim supplies, and generate Orbs. All important aspects that make the Towers so valuable and desirable targets. In this third article about Towers, we will learn how to defend our Towers while raiding our neighbors and claiming their lands.

Sending your troops to Towers

Every Tower within your own Realm can be used to station Warlords there. When Warlords with troops are stationed at a Tower, they will automatically protect the Tower and initiate a battle if an opposing army arrives. So it makes sense to have your most valuable Towers protected, be it because of the amount of Orbs they are holding, because of their strategic position, the supplies they are covering, or other reasons.

Clicking on a Tower within the own Realm will open a radial menu with four options:

• “Show details” (eye icon): Will show all Tower details, including which Warlords and troops are stationed there.
• “Support” (shield icon): Allows you to send Warlords to this Tower
• “Send on Watch” (crown icon): Send Warlords to this Tower with permission for your Realm Leaders to relocate them if needed, even while you are offline.
• “Set a pin” (Pin icon): Leave a note at this tower for your Realm members to read.

The journey to a Tower

When starting a mission to a Tower (no matter if it is a Tower from the own Realm or an enemy Tower), you can choose the Warlords you want to send on that mission. Consider that Warlords have different speed values. Some are fast, others are slow, so each Warlord has a different traveling time. When you send a group of Warlords to a Tower the group will be only as fast as the slowest Warlord of the group. Traveling times marked in red mean that selecting this Warlord for the mission would slow down the traveling time of the Warlord group even more. At the bottom of the selection screen, you can see the traveling time needed for the group and the hour the Warlords arrive at their destination Tower.

Example: We selected the Warlords Cerulean, Robinian, and Cicatrix. Cicatrix has the longest traveling time (02:40:37), so all 3 Warlords will take this time to arrive at the Tower. If we now added the Warlord Ceras to the group, the journey would take even longer, hence his traveling time is marked red.

Assembly time

A mission needs preparation time, called 'Assembly time'. The length of the assembly time depends on the mission type. During the assembly time, other Warlords can join in the mission. Warlords with high speed values assemble faster. But if they are slower than the Warlord who initiated the attack they can only join in up to the point in time that they would not delay the mission.

Attack missions

Troops can also be sent on attack missions to enemy Towers. Clicking on an enemy Tower the radial menu will offer you the two types of attacks you can perform:

• “Attack” (sword icon): Also known as “Raid”. Send Warlords to steal the Orbs from the enemy Tower.
  This action can be performed only if the diplomatic status with the respective Realm is either "Neutral" or "War". If the status is "neutral" you can raid only 50% of Orbs stored in the enemy's Tower. If the status is "war", you can raid 100%. Attacks are not possible during the status "NAP" and neither during the Truce period after a war.
• “Conquer” (red ram icon): Send Warlords to either destroy or take over the enemy Tower.
  This action can be performed only when your Realm is at war with the other Realm. Conquering is not possible during the status "NAP" and neither during the Truce period after a war.

However, before attacking your enemy, there are a few basics you should consider:

Observing enemy Towers

Avoid making blind attacks. Observe the situation of your enemies, before sending your troops to war. Under every Tower, you will find two numbers. One of them indicates how many Orbs are stored in that Tower. The other one indicates the power of the army in the Tower (fighting strength).

Example: The Tower has only 71 Orbs, but it is covering territory with a Rare Supply next to it, making it an important base. A fighting strength of 7.9 million is concentrated in the Tower, making it quite difficult to conquer.

Tower distance to the Ark or Portal

Even if there are no troops stationed at an enemy Tower, consider that the enemy Realm will see your attack and react in time. Towers close to the Ark (the home of all Warlords) or a Portal, can be occupied by Warlords very fast due to the short travel distance.

Example: In the scenario below, each of the three Towers holds thousands of Orbs. The Ark in the middle indicates a total fighting strength of 21 million, of which 17 million are currently in the Ark, ready to protect any of the surrounding Towers at any time.

Other tactical details to consider before dispatching troops:

• Once an attack/conquer mission is initiated, the Warlords sent on that mission won’t be available to defend your Realm when needed. Consider that it can take a lot of time for Warlords to march to a target, perform the raid/conquering, and then march back again. These steps cannot be skipped or interrupted (unless the player gets removed from the Realm or leaves).
• In times of War timing is crucial. When your Realm mates send their Warlords on a mission, and you want to add your own Warlords to the group, remember that the travel speed of the group is as fast as the slowest Warlord. Avoid adding a Warlord that would delay the mission in a situation when being fast is essential. Otherwise, the army might arrive too late.
• Fighting strength is not the only factor to win a battle between two armies. Different Warlords have different skills that give your army bonuses and advantages in certain situations. Both, Warlords and the troops attached to them have different strengths. An elven army that has a higher fighting strength than their opponents might still lose if the opponent's army arrives with a lot of anti-elf troops. Observe the types of troops and skills of your enemies before setting up your attack. If an army consists of many cavalry troops, you can set up an attack with lots of troops that have an advantage against cavalry troops. You can observe troops stationed at every target as well as incoming troops by clicking on the eye-icon.

Attack together

When the cumulated fighting strength of your Warlords is not enough to successfully attack a target, you can (and should) work together with your Realm. After selecting the Warlords you want to send on an attack- or conquer-mission, you can set up a minimum required fighting strength for the mission. Your Realm members can then add their own Warlords to that mission, adding up to the total fighting strength of the army. Once the required fighting strength is reached, the army begins the march to the target Tower, again with the speed of the slowest Warlord of the group.

Example: The enemy has 6 Warlords with a fighting strength of 850K stationed at the target Tower. The attacker who sets up the mission has only 616K. He decides to wait for other Realm members to add their Warlords. The attack begins only once a total fighting strength of 1.1m is gathered.

The process of Tower Raids

Now that you looked at some tactical details, let’s initiate an attack/raid to a Tower to steal all its Orbs. The steps of a raid are as follows:

• Choose the target Tower, select “attack” and choose the Warlords you want to send on the mission.
• Once the attack begins, the army starts marching towards the target Tower. Movements on the map are displayed by arrows, visible for everyone on the map (movements of the own Realm are colored blue. Enemy movements are colored red).
• If your army arrives at a Tower with enemy troops stationed there, a fight between both armies is calculated (details of the fight can be seen in the battle reports that you can find in the menu at the bottom of your screen).
  • If the defending army wins: The attacker walks back home with the surviving troops. The survivors of the defending army stay stationed at the target Tower.
  • If the attacking army wins: The defending Warlords that were already stationed there prior to the attack are teleported back to their Ark (if defending Warlords arrived only when the attacker was already at the Tower and failed to kick out the attacker, the defeated Warlords will not be teleported but will have to walk back). The attacking army stays at the target Tower, initiating the raid.
• If your army arrives at a Tower without enemy troops stationed there, no fight takes place and the raid is initiated.
• Once a raid is initiated a 1-hour timer begins. During this hour, the defending Realm can still send another army to kick out the attacker. If they manage to send support that arrives within the hour of the raid, a new fight between the two armies is calculated.
• If the attacking army managed to stay at the target Tower for 1 hour without being kicked out, all Orbs are stolen from the target Tower and transferred to the Towers of the attacking Realm. The attackers proudly walk back home and the target Tower remains with 0 Orbs.
  • If the raid is interrupted because the attacking army got kicked out, the timer resets, meaning that a repeated raid would last 1 hour again.

Example: 1.6m defending troops are stationed at the Tower and the defender sends 2 further armies (608K and 1.2m) for defense (from the south). But the enemy approaches with an army of 5.1m from the north and will probably dominate this battle.

Conquering Towers

Conquering a Tower is only possible during the diplomatic status "war" and means, taking the Tower away from the enemy. Every Tower has 100 Hitpoints. Once the Hitpoints of a Tower reach the 0 mark, the owner loses control over it, Orbs in the Tower get transferred to the attacker and the Tower turns into a ruin with a 12-hours timer. During this time, a player from the victorious Realm can claim it, providing he or she still has a free Tower slot. In that case, the conquering Realm becomes the new owner of the Tower, taking over its influence, territory, and supplies in that territory. If the ruin is not claimed within 12 hours, it disappears from the map.

Disclaimer: During the Endgame (last 2 weeks of a round), Towers are claimed by default, and troops that successfully conquer a Tower remain stationed at the Tower.

The process of conquering Towers

The attack process for conquering missions is the same as for Raid missions, except, when the attacking army arrives at the Tower and defeats the defenders, the timer for conquering is not 1 hour, but longer. Troops arriving at an enemy Tower in conquering mission start dealing damage to the Tower, reducing its Hitpoints over time. The amount of Hitpoints dealt to the target Tower depends on the island on which the conquering takes place:

This means, if an army in conquering mission is located at an enemy Tower consecutively without being kicked out by the defender, the destruction is finished after:

• 6h:15min on Midiata
• 4h:10min on Tragonos
• 3h:08min on Panselon

During this time, the defender can send support troops to kick out the attacking army and interrupt the conquering.

A Tower that was damaged by an army in conquer mission can recover. If the defender manages to fight back the attacker, the damaged Tower regenerates 1 Hitpoint every hour.

Defending Towers of your Realm:

If your Towers are attractive targets, enemies will try to raid or conquer them. It is recommended to have those Towers well protected:

• Towers with high levels will hold more Orbs, making them attractive targets for raids. Keep those high-level Towers in locations where you can protect them easily:
  • Close to the Ark
  • Close to a Portal
  • If not close to the Ark or Portal, have troops stationed in the Tower, or at a nearby Tower.
• Towers close to an important location (Rare Supply, Ascension Gate, Eternal Anvil, territories with many troop supplies, etc.) are also attractive targets as well and your enemies may want to claim them and use them as a base for their own troops.
• There are Warlords and troops that grant bonuses for attacking, others grant bonuses for defending. Observe the abilities of your units and choose your troops and Warlords wisely to defend your most valuable Towers.

And there might be more smart (or wicked) strategies in Arkheim.

We wish you the best of luck in discovering them, outplay other Realms, and pave your way to victory.