War between nations runs on sieges. The most important thing about it is the timetable.
saturday 03:00 11:00 19:00 sunday 03:00 11:00 19:00 monday 03:00 tuesday to friday nothing
Those times are UTC. That is the server's clock, and every time on this site uses it. Each session lasts sixty minutes, and a session is cancelled if no siege is running. So fighting is possible for at most seven hours a week, at fixed times. Outside those windows nothing happens.
Starting one
A siege can only be started on a Thursday. You start one by placing a banner near the town you are attacking. There is no assembly phase, so the banner is the declaration.
The attacker puts up a warchest of 20 per plot. If you win, plunder is 40 per plot.
A siege runs for seven battle sessions, which is one full set of windows, Saturday to Monday. A nation can run three sieges at once. Banner control sessions last seven minutes.
What is protected
- A new town is safe from siege for 168 hours, which is seven days.
- A town is safe for another seven days after a siege ends.
- A revolt can break through that protection, and gives 72 hours of its own.
- A nation's capital cannot be invaded.
- A town can declare itself peaceful and be completely safe from attack. The cost is that its residents cannot hold military rank, and that it can be subverted instead.
During a battle session, town plot protection is switched off inside the siege zone, which reaches 200 blocks out from the banner. Your claim does not protect you while a session is running. Friendly fire protection stays on.
If you die inside a siege zone you keep your inventory, but your tools lose five per cent of their durability.
What ends up in the record
Sieges starting and ending, towns conquered, freed and plundered, and every declaration of war, alliance and refusal between nations. See Nations for why refusals are in there too.