Two kinds of fight

A battle is fought over a peaceful town. A siege is fought over a fort — a town that is not peaceful. Everything else works the same way; a siege just happens somewhere harder.

Only one battle per town can be running at a time, and a forward operating base can never be attacked at all.

Starting a fight

You start a battle with /battles start, standing in the ring of land around the target town — not inside the town itself. There is no town argument: the target is always the town whose outskirts you are standing in.

A start is refused when any of these is true:

• it is not Saturday or Sunday, or the time is outside 00:00–23:59 server time;
• a battle is already running at that town;
• the town is a forward operating base;
• you do not hold a rank that may start battles — king, coleader or general;
• the ground where the banner would stand is not natural, flat and solid enough;
• you are not in the outermost ring of the target town’s outskirts;
• for a siege, no valid pair of positions can be found for the two extra banners — try more open ground;
• the town belongs to you or your nation;
• the target nation is inside its invulnerability window.

A refusal costs you nothing. If the fight cannot be set up after the fee has been taken, it is refunded in full. {.is-info}

What starting costs you

$20 for every claim the target town holds, the same rate for a battle and for a siege. A sprawling town is an expensive fight.

The money comes out of the bank of whatever government you attack with — your nation bank if your nation is attacking, your town bank if your town is. If you cannot afford it, the fight does not start.

Every dollar you pay becomes the first money in the battle’s war chest.

What happens when it starts

The battlefield covers a 12-chunk radius around the town. The target town and the land inside the ring become breakable and buildable for the length of the battle, and are put back as they were when it ends.

A banner is raised on the spot you started from. It stands on a solid platform 8 blocks across.

Taking the banner

Standing inside the capture zone around the banner — the platform’s own footprint, up to 7 blocks above the banner and 1 block below it — uncontested, banks capture progress for you.

A capture needs 7 minutes of that. Twenty seconds of uncontested presence is one step of progress, and there are 21 steps.

If you are knocked off the banner you have 3 seconds to get back before your progress is lost.

A capture is contested the moment both sides stand in the zone, and no progress is made until one side leaves.

Sinking ships and vehicles

Points and money are both awarded for a sink near the banner. Which amount applies depends on what went down.

The money only lands in the chest for a real enemy kill. Deaths to the environment, to yourself, or to your own side still cost you the points, but nothing is paid out. {.is-warning}

Sessions — when points actually count

A battle runs in sessions: 90 minutes of live fighting, then 90 minutes quiet, repeating for 24 sessions — roughly two days in total.

Points are only scored during the live half. During the quiet half you can still move, build and prepare; nothing counts for it. Battles already running are not affected by the Saturday/Sunday rule — that rule is only about starting.

• /battles session — is a session live right now, and how long until it changes.
• /battles info <town> — both sides’ points, the balance, sessions completed out of the total, who holds the banner, the war chest, and the session clock.
• /battles list — every running battle: town, both sides, the point balance, and whether it is active or dormant.
• /battles hud <town> — the same information as a sidebar, while you fight. Run it again on the same town to take it away, or use /battles hud off.

Bringing your allies

An ally that has joined your war can join an individual battle with:

/battles reinforce <town>

Your nation must already be fighting in that war on that side. You cannot reinforce a battle your nation is already a principal party to, you cannot reinforce if your nation is on both sides of the same war, and if your nation is not in the war at all it cannot reinforce. Reinforcing is free.

There is a 60-second wait before your nation can switch sides in a battle.

Invulnerability

Every nation has a daily window of 8 hours during which none of its towns can be attacked. The hour you set is the UTC hour the window opens, and it runs for eight hours from there.

• /battles invulnerability set <hour> — the hour is a number from 0 to 23.
• king or coleader may set it.
• You confirm the change with /towny confirm.
• You may only change it once every 42 days.
• A new nation starts on 00:00–08:00 UTC unless you change it — which you can do immediately, since the cooldown does not apply to your first setting.

War sickness

Stand inside a live battlefield while not being part of the fight and you will go nauseous, slow, weak and half-blind, and be unable to mine properly. It is not damage and it cannot kill you — its purpose is to make sure the war is fought by the nations that came for it. Reinforce and it clears within seconds.

When the battle ends

The side with the most points wins, and takes the entire war chest into its nation bank — the attacker’s own start fee included, so winning your own fight pays that money straight back to you.

A win also moves the war itself: an attacking win occupies the town, a defending win liberates it back to its owners, and either way the war score shifts by 4 in the winner’s favour. See Score, Occupation & Peace.

A battle cannot be settled by peace while it is still running. Finish the fight first. {.is-warning}

See also: Justify & Declare · Score, Occupation & Peace · Commands