Knighthood Tutorials

When you first Gather your Armies ensure you have a good few hours so you can play the game. If you only have 3 or 4 Knights and Ladies and a few squirrels and gather your armies but don't have time to play, you could very well find yourself with no knights or ladies when you next turn on your PC.

When you click the Attack menu tab you will be presented with a list of opponents in your Attack Bracket with options to Raid, Seize a Vassal, Conquer or Pillage Weapons. You raid for gold, seize vassals, conquer your opponent if they don't have a Liege, and pillage for weapons. Beside each opponent's name and avatar is their Power, the number of vassals they have and their current alarm.

Don't just attack the first person you see, spend some time checking through your opponents, looking for the easiest targets. Someone with only 3 or 4 Knights and Ladies and a bunch of 10s will be far easier to raid, pillage and seize from than someone with say twenty Knights and Ladies. Also, look at their alarm. If someones alarm is higher than their TAS they are difficult to seize from unless you know what you're doing so it is a waste of healing gold trying. Just a cursory glance at the above example shows us that Baroness Lee is the weakest link here! Not only is her alarm lower than anyone else, but she has far more vassals than Baron Jd, Baron Panagiotis and Baroness Nicole. As she's in the same attack bracket, this suggests she has dozens of squirrels and might only have a few Knights and Ladies. Well worth a look!

Also check their activity logs to see if they're online. If they've been active in the last few minutes, avoid attacking them as they will be able to heal as you attack and you'll never get through if they have enough gold to keep healing. Look for someone who looks as if they're not at their computer. When you've selected someone you wish to attack, click the Raid button. It's usual to raid for gold or pillage for weapons first to test and weaken their defences before attempting a seize. You can raid and pillage from any of the three main defence columns. However, as most players have trappers these days, raid the Watchtower. If you lose a vassal to a trapper it will go to their Court. As you will most likely be rescuing from their Watchtower column (if they're not online and haven't moved your vassal) it makes sense to weaken that column when you first raid or pillage.

When you hit an attack button you will be presented with this screen. Add your attackers, using a squirrel as your lowest attacker if you're not sure if they have a trapper or not, and attack the Watchtower.

If your 10 power squirrel doesn't get trapped, you can be sure they don't have an active trapper. However, keep raiding with your squirrel until you have a successful raid, remembering to heal and rearm after each attack. When successful, raid a few times to get your gold stocks up and then try for a seize from the Watchtower. As you attempt to seize, keep an eye on the messages after each attack. If you see a message that you couldn't find the vassal there, this means the defences are right down but that the vassal is in another defence column. Switch to another vassal and try to seize it from the Watchtower. There is no point trying to break down another defence column at this stage. You may have to go through the list of available vassals until you find one in that column and seize it.

If your very first raid on the Watchtower is successful this means they probably don't have any vassals in their Watchtower. In this instance you can try raiding their Wall or Palisade. When you find a defended structure that indicates vassals are there, raid until successful, get your gold and then try a seize.

If you lose a vassal to a trapper it can be quite traumatic if you only have 3 or 4 Knights and Ladies so always start an attack with a squirrel in your line up. If you lose a squirrel it's no big deal because when the squirrel leaves the realm 2 weeks after you recruited them you will be able to recruit them again. Or use a freeman. This is the dreaded screen that appears when you lose a vassal to a trapper.

Don't panic! This can be a very good thing! If your opponent isn't on line you can now do a rescue. So go to your Attack screen and click the Rescue your Vassals link at the top.

This will present you with a list of your seized and trapped vassals. Trappers can't trap vassals when rescuing so use your best vassals and arm them up, healing after each attack.

If after 8 rescues your rescue is still unsuccessful, do another raid for gold on the Watchtower, again using a 10 power squirrel in your line up and when it is trapped go back to your Rescue your Vassals screen and start rescueing your second lost squirrel.

Repeat this with a third squirrel if necessary. When you have a successful rescue, then go back and rescue your other squirrels which will still have 2 rescue attempts left each.

After rescuing a squirrel from the Watchtower you know your opponents Watchtower defences are down so go and raid their Watchtower for gold. You won't be able to seize for 10 minutes after a rescue, so be patient. Raid for gold and pillage for axes in the Watchtower at least a further 10 to 15 times even if you're not getting any gold to make sure their defences are weakened sufficiently to attempt a seize. However, also keep an eye on their alarm. If it goes too high, don't risk it as alarm is added to their defences and seizes become much harder. If you start by attacking someone with a low alarm of 0 to 15, their alarm shouldn't be much higher than 20 to 35 before your seize attempt, which is fine. You can seize from folks with much higher alarms, yes, but while learning keep things simple for yourself.

Tips for Playing in War Mode