Castle siege — Castle Siege
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General information
Only clans of level 4 and above can take part in sieges and try to become a castle owner or, on the contrary, keep other clans from capturing a castle.
A clan leader can register the clan either to attack a castle or to defend it. But you can register for defense only if the castle doesn't belong to NPC, i.e. isn't neutral. A clan can't be registered for sieges of several castles at once. You can find out the siege start time from NPC Herold.
To register a clan for a siege on one side or the other:
- No later than 24 hours before the siege starts, the clan leader must visit NPC Herold, who is on the road leading to the castle.
- Choose whether the clan will defend the castle — DEFEND, or try to capture it — ATTACK.
During a siege, the leader of an attacking clan can set up a clan flag, near which clan members will respawn when they die (and they'll die more than once). If no flag is set up, players on the attacking side respawn in the town belonging to the besieged castle. Setting up a flag costs 300 Gemstone C Grade. The defending side can destroy the attackers' flag.
Rules in effect during a siege
- When a siege starts, teleports to the towns belonging to the besieged castles stop working.
- When a siege starts, all players not registered for the siege who are near the castle are moved to the town belonging to that castle.
- A siege lasts only 2 hours; after that, if the castle hasn't been captured, it stays with its previous owner until the next siege.
The attacking side's main task is to break into the castle by destroying the outer and inner gates. Once inside, the clan leader must find the "Heart of the Castle", a magic crystal, and cast 
Blessing of Protection on it.
The outer gates can be broken down by the whole clan's efforts. Or you can summon a siege golem: its mighty blows easily tear through the gates' strong steel and break through the thick stone walls. Only a Warsmith can summon a siege golem. Summoning a siege golem costs 300 Crystal: C Grade and requires 70 Gemstone: C Grade for every minute of its life.
The dwarven artisan can also summon a large mortar, which can bombard the castle courtyard and walls, and can also be used to break gates and destroy castle walls, though not as effectively. It's indispensable against archers and mages dug in on the walls. Summoning a mortar costs 120 Crystal: B Grade and requires 30 Gemstone: B Grade for every minute of its life.
Besides the mortar, the dwarven artisan can summon kamikaze golems, which deal huge area damage when they die. Very useful against big enemy crowds and for destroying the "Crystals of Protection" and attacking clans' flags. Summoning a kamikaze golem costs 1 Crystal D Grade.
A dwarven artisan can control no more than 1 golem, so decide in advance whether you need to summon them. The golem disappears if the summoner doesn't have enough crystals to maintain it, if the golem is killed, or if the summoner is killed.
Once in the castle courtyard, the attacking clan has to break the castle's inner gates. They're much weaker than the outer gates, but there are far more castle guards near them.
You can use a golem to break the inner gates if it can get through the broken outer gates — which is only possible in the largest castles. A small, mobile mortar, on the other hand, easily rolls into the inner courtyard, but you'll have to protect not only it but also its owner: mobility comes at the price of vulnerability.
The attackers' next target is the room with the "Heart of the Castle". Each castle has its own layout, and you'll have to find out by experience where the "Heart of the Castle" and "Crystals of Protection" are.
Casting the "Seal of Ruler" takes 5 minutes, and every castle guard attacks only the clan leader, ignoring the other players. If the spell is interrupted, the cast must be started over, and there may simply not be enough time.
Clan members must at all costs keep the clan leader from dying while casting the "Seal of Ruler". To do this, you can destroy all the castle guards that don't respawn, and then deal with the "Crystals of Protection".
Destroying each of these crystals increases the respawn time of the castle guards. If you destroy all 4 crystals, you can practically capture the castle unhindered. But in practice, destroying the "Crystals of Protection" is a hard task. The castle defenders don't sleep!
The defending side's main task is to keep the attacking clan's leader from casting the "Seal of Ruler" at any cost.
When they die, players on the defending side respawn in the rooms adjacent to the "Heart of the Castle" crystal.
Both the attacking and defending sides must be vigilant: by concentrating all forces in one place, you can miss an enemy sortie and lose the battle before it has properly begun.
If the attacking clan's leader manages to cast the "Seal of Ruler", the siege doesn't end. This is a so-called interim victory: the castle still has to be held until the siege time runs out.
- All players near the castle who don't belong to the winning clan are moved to the town belonging to the besieged castle.
- The winning clan becomes the defending side.
- Clans in an alliance with the winning clan become the defending side.
- All clans registered to defend the castle before the siege began become the attacking side.
- All clans registered on the attacking side before the siege began remain on the attacking side.
- Clans that haven't set up siege camps yet can do so.
When the siege time runs out, a warning is issued, and all siege participants except members of the clan that owns the castle are moved to the town belonging to the castle.
Player guide
A few more words about sieges. For Aden the details differ — the castle layout is different there, but the basics are the same.
There's a castle. Behind its throne room is the heart of the castle with a statue, where during an assault the attacking clan's leader can use a special ownership spell. Cast it — and the castle changes owner (then attackers and defenders swap places).
There are 4 crystals along the castle walls. The number of them still standing determines the respawn speed of the defenders (people and NPC).
There's a pvp zone around the castle, also called the siege zone, the siege zone, etc.
The attackers' task is to get their leader to the heart of the castle and keep him safe while he casts the ownership spell.
On the way, the attackers have to break the castle gate or wall. Bonus tasks: setting up a flag in the siege zone, breaking the castle's inner gates (the entrance to the throne room, behind which is the heart of the castle), destroying the castle's life crystals, killing defenders.
The defenders' task is exactly the opposite.
The attacking clan's leader can set up a flag in the siege zone (this costs 300 C gemstone — roughly a million adena). After that, dead defenders respawn not in a distant town but next to the flag. Since C3, a flag can be set up any number of times (before, only once per siege).
The flag has lots of HP, doesn't hit back and can't be healed (heal is useless). Defenders often run out into the siege zone and destroy the attackers' flags (a flag rush). Rushes are usually done by melee (tanks, daggers, melee DDs). Archers and mages support the rush by shooting down defenders. But they can break flags too.
Siege golems (Siege Golem) and siege cannons (Wild Hog Cannon) are used to break gates. Only dwarves summon them, for c and b crystals. Castle walls are often broken with cannons — it's a bit safer, with fewer casualties. You can also pound the gates with physical attacks (except bows) or magic.
The defenders stand on the walls and kill the attackers with ranged weapons — mostly archers and mages work here, since their magic/shooting range is greater than that of other classes.
The gates are separated from the ground by a bridge, and people can only break the gates from the bridge (or almost from the bridge). To the right and left of the gates are two open towers with NPC guards. Together with the defenders, they shoot down those trying to break the gates.
Behind the gates is a narrow zone (the gauntlet) held by melee defenders after the gates are broken. Overlord and Warlord work very well there, mages throw area spells...
Breaking through the gauntlet is quite hard, and melee are needed — for numbers, as meat. If the attackers manage to wipe out the defenders quickly, they can take the castle courtyard and push on into the throne room.
The gates to the throne room are harder for defenders — there are no towers. So defense happens either from the courtyard or in the passage after the gates are broken. There are passages to the throne room along the castle walls, but they're narrow and it's a long run.
In the throne room, and inside the castle generally, melee matter — again it's a solid meat grinder. But mages and overlords, as usual, are beyond compare.
The throne room is usually broken into only after total superiority over the enemy; once the crystals are taken out, a dead defender takes up to a couple of minutes to respawn.
Defenders have another option: from the very start of the siege, don't let the attackers set up flags. The defenders stand in the siege zone in a tight front and kill everyone who tries to approach. This usually gives the defense, if not victory, then a decent head start.
Buffers stand at the respawn points (by the flags or in the throne room/on the walls) and do their job. Healers try to heal those taking damage from the enemy. Archers kill whoever they can. Mages kill whoever they can. Tanks and melee act as meat and try to kill whoever they can reach.
During a siege, the attacking and defending clans are in a (temporary) clan war. That is, they can kill each other without PK anywhere except peace zones (like towns).
In the siege zone, XP loss on death is 1/4 of normal, and resurrection (res) doesn't work. Outside the siege zone, XP loss seems to be full (but res works).
