The rules of war

Information

Everything you need to know before you raise your banner.

IThe War

This server runs one war at a time. Two factions fight over towns, and the game does nothing else.

Survival and geopolitics need constant upkeep and give players little to do together. Here, scheduled battles replace both. There is no survival loop, no economy and no town management in-game. You log in, take command of your squad and fight.

Only war. The server is there purely for the wars. There is no building, no practice and nothing to do in game between war windows. Nothing is bought, sold or crafted either: the only scarce thing is which squads you may field, and that is decided by the towns your faction holds.

2Factions

6Clans

11Locations

11Squad types

It is not a survival server, a roleplay-first server or an economy sim. Everything outside the fighting, from orders to diplomacy, happens on Discord. This website only shows the map, the clan buffs and how the campaign is going.

IIFactions & Clans

Each campaign is one war between two factions, and each faction is split into three clans. Campaign I is Gondor against Mordor. Later campaigns can change the pairing and the map, for example Rohan against Isengard, while the rules stay the same.

Faction	Clan	Clan buff
Gondor	Anorien	Better infantry
Gondor	Dol Amroth	Better cavalry
Gondor	Blackroot Vale	Better archers
Mordor	Gorgoroth	Better infantry
Mordor	Harad	Better cavalry
Mordor	Morgul	Better archers

Clans give you a small group of 2 to 5 players to play with. Every clan fields its own version of each squad type, and its buff decides what that version is better at: Blackroot Vale's archers outshoot Anorien's, while Dol Amroth's cavalry beats Blackroot Vale's. The exact strengths live in game. Both sides mirror each other, so every buff has an equal on the enemy side.

Clan command. Every clan has a clan leader. The three leaders of a faction work together as its command and decide which town the faction attacks.

IIICaptains & Squads

Every player is a captain: you, in full Middle-earth gear with a banner. You lead one squad at a time. Your troops follow you and take simple orders: follow, hold, charge, focus target.

Levy

Spearmen without shields. Always available to every captain.

Town squads

Every town your faction holds adds squads to the pool, for example one heavy shield infantry and one light cavalry. First come, first served.

Your clan's version

You field your clan's version of every squad, so your clan's buff makes some of your squads stronger.

Experience. Every kill earns your squad experience. Experience carries over from battle to battle and levels your units up, until the campaign ends and everything resets.

Switching. You can switch squad type between rounds of a siege, never during a round. A town lost to the enemy takes its squads with it from the next round.

IVTowns & Routes

Eleven locations decide the war: two capitals and nine contested towns joined in a web, so there is never a single route to a capital. Both sides start in their capital. A contested town gives the faction holding it squads and nothing else.

Town	Squads given to the holder	Borders
Cair Andros	1 × Heavy shield infantry 1 × Crossbows	Minas Tirith, Henneth Annûn
Osgiliath	1 × Medium shield infantry 1 × Shock infantry	Minas Tirith, The Crossroads, Emyn Arnen
Pelargir	1 × Longbows 1 × Light shield infantry	Minas Tirith, Emyn Arnen, Harondor
Henneth Annûn	1 × Archers 1 × Light shield infantry	Cair Andros, The Crossroads, Dead Marshes
Emyn Arnen	1 × Medium shield infantry 1 × Archers	Osgiliath, The Crossroads, Pelargir, Harondor
The Crossroads	1 × Light cavalry 1 × Heavy cavalry	Osgiliath, Henneth Annûn, Emyn Arnen, Cirith Ungol
Dead Marshes	1 × Light shield infantry 1 × Archers	Henneth Annûn, Barad-dûr
Cirith Ungol	1 × Heavy shock infantry 1 × Heavy shield infantry	The Crossroads, Barad-dûr
Harondor	1 × Light cavalry 1 × Shock infantry	Emyn Arnen, Pelargir, Barad-dûr

Rule of the road. A siege can only target a town that borders the attacker's capital or a town the attacker already holds.

Rule of the siege. A town only changes hands when a siege ends, and its squads move to the new owner from the next round.

Open the war map

VSquad Types

There are 11 squad types in three groups. Every clan has its own version of each one, and the clans with a buff for that group field the strongest version.

Squad type	Group	Given by	Strongest in
Levy Spearmen without shields. Always available.	Infantry	Every captain	Anorien, Gorgoroth
Light shield infantry	Infantry	Pelargir, Henneth Annûn, Dead Marshes	Anorien, Gorgoroth
Medium shield infantry	Infantry	Osgiliath, Emyn Arnen	Anorien, Gorgoroth
Heavy shield infantry	Infantry	Cair Andros, Cirith Ungol	Anorien, Gorgoroth
Shock infantry	Infantry	Osgiliath, Harondor	Anorien, Gorgoroth
Heavy shock infantry	Infantry	Cirith Ungol	Anorien, Gorgoroth
Light cavalry	Cavalry	The Crossroads, Harondor	Dol Amroth, Harad
Heavy cavalry	Cavalry	The Crossroads	Dol Amroth, Harad
Archers	Archers	Henneth Annûn, Emyn Arnen, Dead Marshes	Blackroot Vale, Morgul
Crossbows	Archers	Cair Andros	Blackroot Vale, Morgul
Longbows	Archers	Pelargir	Blackroot Vale, Morgul

VIThe Siege

Sieges happen only in scheduled war windows: two a week, about two hours each, announced on Discord. One town per siege, best of 5 rounds, no respawns. Every siege is fought in the same siege arena: a walled town with a gate, a courtyard and a final capture point, whichever town is attacked.

The week opens with an initiative dice roll, announced on Discord. The winner attacks in the first window, the other faction in the second.
The attacking clan leaders agree on Discord on a target that borders their capital or a town they hold.
Before each round, captains pick their squad.
Attackers must capture three points in order: the gate, then the courtyard, then the final point, while a round timer runs.
No respawns. Defenders win the round by killing every attacker, captains and squads, or when the timer runs out.
When a captain dies, their squad charges the nearest enemy without orders until it falls too.
Roles stay fixed for the whole siege. The first side to win 3 rounds wins it; if the attackers win, the town changes hands.
The arena resets after every round. When the siege ends, the result is announced on Discord and the map here is updated.

Bo5Rounds per siege

0Respawns

3Capture points

A few minutes (to be decided)Round timer

Parley. If real life gets in the way, the clan leaders of both factions can agree on Discord to move a siege to the next window.

VIICampaign Lifecycle

A campaign moves through stages after signup and always ends with a winner, a reset and a recap.

Before the war

Signup

Pick a faction and clan. Clans name their commanders.

Stage I

The Front

Contested towns only. Race for squads.

Stage II

Escalation

More squads in the field. Capitals protected.

Stage III

The Siege

Capitals attackable once a side holds 5 towns. The war is decided.

The gate. A capital can only be attacked during Stage III, The Siege, and only by a side that holds 5 of the 9 contested towns.

Victory

The side that wins a siege against the enemy capital wins the war. If nobody has taken a capital when the final stage closes, the side holding more contested towns wins, and a tie goes to the side with more siege wins.

After the final siege the map resets, and so does every squad's experience. Players keep a cosmetic title for the campaign (for example Veteran of the Siege of Minas Tirith), the result goes into the Chronicle, and the next campaign opens with a new signup. You may switch faction between campaigns.

VIIIHow to Join

Join the Discord. War windows, results and orders are announced there. Open the invite.
Install the modpack. The Middle-earth mod and our troop mod are needed on your client. Use the one-click launcher: download.
Sign up on Discord during signup. Pick your faction and clan, and get your Minecraft account whitelisted.
Show up for the war windows. Connect to play.example.net, raise your banner and follow your clan leader.

Enlist on Discord