Siege Warfare
War here is scheduled, scored and decisive. Plant a banner, win the battle sessions, and the town is yours to occupy or plunder.
Schedule
Sieges can be started on any day. The fighting that decides them happens in battle sessions: three a day, every day, each lasting 15 minutes. All times are UTC; the bar at the top of every page counts down to the next one in your local time.
03:00 UTC
03:00–03:15. Night raid.
11:00 UTC
11:00–11:15. Midday clash.
19:00 UTC
19:00–19:15. Prime time.
A siege, start to finish
Declare
A king or nation assistant places a banner just outside an enemy town. The attacking nation pays a war chest into the siege, and a 200-block siege zone appears on the map.
Fight seven sessions
Each battle session, both sides score points by holding the banner and by killing enemy soldiers. Whoever wins a session adds its margin to the running siege balance.
Resolve
After the seventh session the siege ends. A positive balance means the attackers win and can invade or plunder; otherwise the defenders keep their town and the war chest.
Live with it
The town gets 7 days of siege immunity. An occupied town pays its occupier, and can later rise up with a revolt siege once its 72-hour revolt cooldown passes.
Starting a siege
Requirements
- You must be the king or a nation assistant of a nation.
- The target town must belong to another nation or be independent, must not be peaceful, and must be past its 7-day immunity.
- Your nation may have at most 3 sieges running as attacker.
- The nation bank must cover the war chest: $20 per claimed chunk of the target town.
Placing the banner
- Use any coloured (non-white) banner.
- Place it in the wilderness, within one chunk of the town's border, standing on solid ground with open sky above.
- No command is needed. The siege starts the moment the banner is placed.
- A beacon beam marks the banner for both sides.
Battle points
Every battle session is a fresh scoreboard. Turn on the HUD with /sw hud <town> to watch it live.
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| Capture banner control | Stand near the banner for 7 minutes without leaving or dying. Your side then gains control and scores 10 points per controlling soldier on each scoring tick. |
| Flip control from the enemy | A ×3 reversal bonus on banner-control points for the side that took it back. |
| Kill an enemy soldier | The enemy's death gives your side 150 points. Dying near the banner also drops you from banner control. |
| Win the session | The winning side's margin is added to the siege balance. The balance is capped at ±20,000. |
Victory size is judged by the final balance: 15,000 or more is a crushing victory, 5,000 or more is decisive.
Siege zone rules
For fighters
- No keep-inventory. Die in a siege zone and you drop everything, like anywhere else. Bring gear you can afford to lose.
- Town PvP toggles don't apply inside the zone. Walls won't save anyone.
- Players with no side in the siege who loiter in the zone during a session get sick, after a 20-second warning.
- General chat may be muted for fighters during sessions. Use /nc or /ac.
No cheese
- In wilderness inside a siege zone you can't place obsidian or ice, or empty water, lava or fish buckets.
- Primed TNT and TNT minecarts don't break wilderness blocks there.
- Around the banner, terrain changes are limited near the surface, so nobody can bury it or wall it off.
- Logging out mid-fight still kills you. The combat-log rules apply.
Victory & defeat
| Result | What happens |
|---|---|
| Attackers win | The king can invade: the town becomes occupied by the attacking nation. A king or assistant can also plunder: $40 per chunk is taken from the town bank. The war chest returns to the attackers. |
| Defenders win | The town stays free and the defenders receive the attackers' war chest. |
| Attackers abandon | Counts as a defender victory. |
| Town surrenders | The mayor can surrender at any time. Counts as an attacker victory. |
- Occupation: an occupied town is part of the occupier's nation and pays it an occupation tax of up to $1 per chunk per day. It can't unclaim land while occupied.
- Plunder comes out of the town bank. A bank that can't cover it can bankrupt the town.
- After any siege, the town gets 7 days of siege immunity.
Revolt
An occupied town's mayor can strike back with a revolt siege: place a banner outside your own town to start it. It plays out like a normal siege with the occupier defending. Win, and the town is free. A revolt can only be started 72 hours after the last siege on the town ended.
Peaceful towns
Going peaceful
- The mayor toggles it with /sw town togglepeaceful.
- It takes 7 days to confirm, or 2 days for a brand-new town. It's free.
- Peaceful towns can't be besieged and their residents can't hold military ranks.
The catch
- Peaceful towns can be subverted: a nation with enough military towns within 1,200 blocks can take one over without a fight.
- Peaceful residents can't fight in sieges.
- Dropping peaceful status also takes the confirmation period.
Who can do what
| Role | Siege powers |
|---|---|
| Everyone | Fight and earn battle points, check sessions, set preferences, collect a military salary. |
| Mayor | Start a revolt siege, surrender, toggle peaceful. |
| Nation assistant | Start a conquest siege, abandon a siege, plunder, pay soldiers. |
| King | All of the above for the nation, plus invade (occupy) a defeated town. |
Commands
/sw nation and /sw town; type them in game for the exact options available to you.