AI-Generated

Watchfires 🔥

Watchfires are temporary map objectives that appear during special events. Alliances claim them, reinforce them, and fight other alliances for control. The longer your alliance holds Watchfires, the more progress you make toward Watchfire Blessings. Watchfires were added in update 24/07 and reworked on 10/08.

  • Watchfires recur roughly every week (with some randomness).
  • The event plays like king-of-the-hill: claim a Watchfire and keep it fueled and defended.

Claiming

  • Watchfires start neutral and contain no Ancient troops. The first player to send a reinforcement or attack to a Watchfire claims it for their alliance. Once claimed, any alliance member can send reinforcements to defend it.
  • After being claimed, a Watchfire needs 15 minutes to “attune” before it starts generating points.
  • If you send a reinforcement to a Watchfire but someone else claims it first, your troops simply return home (they do not convert into an attack).

Rules Q&A (authoritative)

Developer-confirmed mechanics:

  • Do winning attackers capture it? Yes — surviving attackers that clear all defenders become the new stationed defenders and take control.
  • Do you still have to feed stationed troops? Yes (via Food supply — see below).
  • Can you build defensive structures at a Watchfire? No.
  • Does the Wilder-Site defense research apply at Watchfires? No.
  • Can players on Beginner Protection participate? Yes — but attacking a controlled Watchfire ends your BP.

Capturing an enemy Watchfire

  • Enemy-controlled Watchfires can be attacked normally. If all defenders are defeated, the surviving attackers take control and remain there, and a new 15-minute attunement begins.
  • A Watchfire left without any troops becomes neutral again.

Supplying Watchfires

Stationed troops need supplies. Every attack or reinforcement can carry one resource type (Food, Lumber, Stone, or Metal). The amount a mission can carry, and the amount a Watchfire can store, equals 6× the upkeep of the troops. Each resource has a purpose:

  • Food — keeps troops stationed. If Food runs out, all troops return home and the Watchfire goes neutral.
  • Lumber — keeps the Watchfire burning. Without Lumber it stays controlled but stops generating points.
  • Stone — supports the Watchfire’s infantry defenses.
  • Metal — supports the Watchfire’s cavalry defenses.

All four are continuously consumed based on the size of the defending army, so larger armies are stronger but much harder to maintain. Supplies left behind are captured along with the Watchfire if another alliance takes it.

Watchfire Points & reward chests

Once attuned and fueled with Lumber, a Watchfire continuously generates points for the controlling alliance. Your alliance’s total Watchfire points determine which reward chest you unlock; higher-tier chests contain stronger Watchfire Blessings.

Watchfire Blessings

Blessings are one-use rewards you can store and activate whenever you choose. Access them via the “Inventory” button (top-left of the screen). Blessings cannot be stacked for a double effect. Each player individually chooses their own reward from the chest (it is not the same reward for the whole alliance). They are not permanent: a chest expires after 7 days, and a blessing itself expires after 14 days (values as of early August; the developer has tuned blessing values since). Examples:

Combat & casualty refunds

Fighting at Watchfires reduces the cost of participating: after the event, participants get 20% of the resource cost of troops lost in Watchfire battles back. Your alliance increases this through two separate rankings — the Watchfire points ranking and the Combat ranking:

  • #3: +5% · #2: +10% · #1: +15%

These apply separately to each ranking, for a maximum 50% refund. So both holding the objectives and actively fighting over them matter.

See also