[New] War Overview

Armed conflict is one of the many ways United Lands allow players to interact with each other and expand their sphere of influence.

As with most things, this systems is completely optional. You are never required to be open to attack at any point if you do not want to - however you may miss out on some fun mechanics and other rewards.

This is a long page, use the navigation bar on the right ➡️ to select a topic.

Neutrality

Only towns and nations with their neutrality status set to off can send or receive declarations of war. This can be toggled with the command /t toggle neutral or /n toggle neutral. If your neutrality is on, you should see a '(Peaceful)' tag on your town or nation's home screen.

As are most mechanics, neutrality is dynamic and context dependent. Below are three common situations most players are in and what toggles mean for them:

Mobilisation

Mobilisation is a form of currency used to declare wars. It describes how prepared your town or nation is for a potential armed conflict.

War Goals

War Goals are the primary method of declaring wars, they determine the objective, scope, and severity of each war. This is a flexible system designed to keep wars dynamic, deliberate, and focused.

Declaring Wars

To start a war, you must first choose a valid war goal and war target. Use the following steps to start a war:

1. Create a declaration of war book with /t war book [Target Town/Nation] [War Goal].

2. Open the book and type in a longer explanation for the war, this is purely for flavour and does not impact the actual conflict.

3. Sign the book and title it the desired name of the war.

4. With the war book in hand, type /t war declare to send it, this will start a countdown.

5. Once the countdown is complete, the war will begin and scoring will be active.

To ensure a war declaration is valid, there are a few checks to make:

Points and Scoring

Points are how you win wars, every action you take during a conflict should be geared towards scoring. There are three main categories of point scoring: Activity, Combat, and Sieging. See the info boxes below for more information, as each category has multiple actions to earn points.

Keep in mind: war events that occur randomly during a war might modify the amount of points gained or disable a method entirely. Ensure you're always informed about the state of the conflict and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Sieges

Sieging is a point-earning activity that sees an attacker occupying town blocks. When a war starts, each town block is given a health value, depending on the type of chunk.

When combatants are in a hostile town block, the health gradually depletes to zero. Once all health has been removed, the chunk is now occupied and points are earned. If defenders outnumber the attackers, then health begins to regenerate except in occupied chunks. The bigger the difference between attackers and defenders in a chunk, the greater the health change.

Townblocks must be attacked from the outside in. Sieges can only start if a chunk borders the wilderness or an occupied zone.

During sieges, there are two different types of townblocks that can help you as a defender or attacker - the fortress or the war camp.

Events

War events are semi-random occurrences that happen during the course of a conflict. These serve to change up the dynamic of a war without being too predictable, they come with a range of effects from doubling certain points or enabling perma-death. Always ensure your information is up to date and learn to leverage the ever-changing conditions on the battlefield!

Every 6 hours there is a 50% chance of an event starting. If an event successfully triggers, a 1 hour warmup phase will begin, then the event will last 12 hours. Check the ongoing event with /t war event.

Lives and Graves

Fighting is risky business, if you die you might lose your stuff! Unlike most war systems, United Lands favours a contextual inventory drop system. This is a self-balancing system that favours both attackers and defenders by allowing people to sort themselves into their preferred level of risk without choosing it for them.

All war participants are given five lives per war. If the number of deaths exceed this amount they will be removed from the war, turning them into a civilian temporarily.

Allies and Calls to Arms

Wars are not an individual endeavour, if you have allies they can assist you in a fight!

Civilians and Military Ranks

When your town is at war, everyone has a different role to fill - but not all are required to be sent to the front lines. On United Lands, warfare is a profession in which you opt-in. Town residents are split into two categories, civilian and military.

Civilian residents have no military use, they provide no points when killed and cannot earn any either. Use this for players who do not want to fight (or know how).

Only military-related residents can participate in wars. There are multiple levels of ranks to select from, and these generally reflect the skill of the combatant. Higher military ranks are worth more points to the enemy if killed, but can also earn more points through point-gain modifiers.

👨‍🌾 Civilian

🛡️ Militia

⚔️ Soldier

💂 Officer

🤴 General

Civilians are considered as anyone without a specifically assigned military rank. They do not face any war restrictions, but in return they cannot or do not:

• Participate in sieges.

• Score points from PvP.

• Gain activity points.

• Count as an online enemy for sieges.

• Be hired as a mercenary.

The militia are a step up from civilians, users who know which direction to point a sword but not much better. They provide the least amount of points when killed but are useful as a last resort if your main army has already been eliminated.

• PvP point gain is modified by -10%.

Soldiers are your common warrior, the backbone of your military. These are experienced players who know how to fight.

• Provides no PvP point gain modifier.

Officers are your most experienced soldiers, they are veterans of war and are highly skilled in all areas of PvP. These are usually entrusted to plan out military tactics and lead a group of soldiers to victory.

• PvP point gain is modified by +10%.

The general is your most important wartime user. They are either the most experienced combatant or a brilliant military strategist. There can only be one general at a time and the rank is assigned at a nation level. This resident is the commander of the whole military and only reports to the nation leader (if they aren't also the general).

• PvP point gain is modified by +20%.

To assign someone a military rank, use the command /t rank add [Player] [Rank]. for town-level military ranks and /n rank add [Player] [Rank] for nation-level ranks.

Mercenaries

Too much money and not enough soldiers? Mercenaries can help! Mercenaries are players that are not a member of a warring town that are paid to participate in a war.

To recruit a mercenary, send a player with a military rank an invite with /t war addmercenary [War Name] [Player Name]. They will then be prompted to accept the proposal with /t war acceptinvite [War Name] . Mercenaries are treated the exact same as a normal war participant, they can score points and have war lives.

Generally, acquiring mercenaries is a paid service, people wont fight for free. To reflect the real world risks of using hired individuals to fight for you, payments are done outside of the system with player-to-player agreements.