War

Optional. A town is only at risk once its mayor says so.

Last updated: 2026-08-28 12:07 PM EST.

Sieging is optional

By default every town is peaceful and cannot be sieged or subverted. Nobody is signed up by accident: only your own mayor can end that protection, and until they do, no nation can attack you.

If your town does take part, a war here is a siege. One nation attacks a single town, and the two sides fight over a banner planted at that town's border. The battle runs during set hours across one weekend, and then the siege ends. The rest of this page follows a war in order.

Step 1 · Deciding to take part

Only the mayor can make this choice, and it is one command:

/sw town togglepeaceful

The change takes seven days to confirm, both ways. A town founded less than a week ago is the exception — it can change its mind at once, while it is still new.

Staying peaceful costs your town two small things. Your residents cannot hold military ranks, and you cannot move your homeblock. Your claims, shops, coin and brewing all carry on exactly as before.

A nation capital may be peaceful too, so a king can keep a whole realm out of every war and still lead it.

Step 2 · Giving your people ranks

Sort this out in advance. A player with no military rank cannot take part in a siege at all. They score nothing, and the battle simply carries on around them.

A king hands out nation ranks, from private up to general:

/n rank add <player> private

A mayor can give town members the guard rank instead:

/t rank add <player> guard

Only a king or a general may start a siege, surrender one, or take a beaten town. Everyone else fights, and cannot make those calls.

Step 3 · Declaring the war

Wars may only be declared on a Thursday. The king or general plants a coloured banner in the wilderness at the border of the town they mean to attack. That banner is the siege.

A siege costs nothing. There is no war chest, no entry fee and no prize money. A nation may run only one attack at a time.

Step 4 · The battle sessions

The fighting follows a published timetable. A siege is seven battle sessions of one hour each, spread across the weekend, so players in different time zones all get a fair go. Between sessions the siege pauses completely.

/sw nextsession tells you when the next one starts, and /sw spawn <town> sends you to your side's commander once a session is running.

You can follow a war from Discord too. Every siege update is posted in the combat channel: when a siege begins, how each session ends, and who wins. Player kills appear there as well, so it is the quickest way to see what is happening while you are away from the game.

There are two ways to score during a session:

• Hold the banner. Stand near it for seven minutes and it becomes yours. Your side then scores every minute you keep it.
• Beat the enemy soldiers. Killing a ranked player on the other side scores too.

Chat changes on purpose while a session runs. General chat, local chat and private messages are switched off until ten minutes after the session ends. Town, nation and ally channels carry on as normal.

Step 5 · How a siege ends

After the seventh session, whichever side has more points has won. Either side may finish sooner by placing a plain white banner outside the town: the attacker gives up the attack, or the defender surrenders. Surrender is often the wiser move, and it is meant to be.

If the defenders win, nothing changes for them, and the town cannot be attacked again for a week. If the attackers win, they may take the town into their nation.

Step 6 · Life after a defeat

A captured town is occupied, never destroyed and never sold. It keeps every block, every chest and every claim, and it pays its occupier nothing at all.

Occupation is not permanent either. The mayor may place a banner outside their own town to start a revolt, which is the same siege the other way round. Win it, and the town is free again.

What a war can never do

• Nobody can break your town's blocks. A siege cannot burn, break or blow up anything you have built.
• Nobody can open your chests. There is no looting of buildings and no stealing of items.
• You keep your inventory when you die. Your gear loses a little durability, and that is all.
• No coin is involved anywhere. Attacking is free, losing costs nothing, and there is no plunder, no ransom, no soldier's pay and no tax on a captured town.
• A nation capital can never be captured.

The only real damage is the ground players dig up outside the walls. Obsidian, ice, lava, water, TNT and every other explosive are refused inside a war zone, and so are the blocks used to build traps.

Commands