A State of War (SoW) is the scheduled siege of a guild province — the only way to take another guild's castle. It happens at a fixed, published time, so provinces can't be night-raided or offline-raided: an attacker has to show up when the defender can too. This is the endgame the whole guild trains for; the tactical side of sieges — engines, ballistas, holding the breach — is covered in the Combat wiki, and this guide is the strategic layer that sits on top of it.

The path to take a province

1. 1Unlock a province slot. A slot is the right to token or own one province (a second slot can be unlocked for a larger fee).
2. 2Token the enemy province. A guild officer or higher buys a token from the province flag on the world map — only during that province's siege-preparations window.
3. 3Complete siege preparations. Push the prep bar to 100% by fighting outside the walls (below).
4. 4Siege the province the next day at its State of War time.
5. 5Capture the flag at the top of the bastion.
6. 6Defend the flag for the rest of the window.
7. 7Win the final battle — the short overtime that locks the result in.

State of War timers

Every guild province has one State of War time — the only time it can be directly attacked. Each server offers two timer options, three hours apart (an early and a late slot); a province's owner picks one at the Architect's Table in the bastion. You can't change the timer while a token is active on the province, and a guild that owns two provinces must keep both on the same timer (the game syncs them).

• A State of War lasts a maximum of 1 hour 15 minutes.
• Pick a timer your core roster can reliably field — a province you can't defend at its own timer is a province you'll lose.

Siege preparations & the tokening window

Tokens can only be bought during the siege-preparations window: the four hours running from two hours before the province's timer to two hours after. Once your token is down, preparation begins immediately — you raise a progress bar to 100% by killing players and NPCs outside the province walls, and the tokening guild has to take part in each kill for it to count.

• Undefended, prep usually takes about 30–45 minutes of steady fighting.
• If your guild is pushed out or leaves, the bar drains — let it hit 0% and the attempt fails.
• Prep isn't a real siege: you can't capture the flag or harm the castle during it.
• Reach 100% and the State of War activates the following day at the province's timer.
• Prep that's still running at Nightlock fails — start early enough in the window to finish.

The siege & the flag

On the day, the State of War runs at the province's timer for up to 1 hour 15 minutes. It's an open-world event, not instanced or party-capped — players from all three nations and any level can join, and parties have run 100+ per nation. You'll need siege tents and engines to break in.

• The flag sits on the top floor of the bastion; capturing it takes about a minute of uninterrupted progress.
• After a capture the war continues until the timer runs out or attacker activity drops to 0%, and the flag can change hands repeatedly between token-holding enemy guilds.
• Defending is easier than attacking — respawns, guards, ballistas and walls all favour the holder. Plan every attack as the uphill fight it is.

Open Saturday

Every Saturday, an Open Saturday State of War is triggered (set the Friday before) at guild provinces — no preparation required, though attackers still pay for a token to capture. A guild can prevent its Open Saturday by filling a 3,000-point deactivation bar during the week — except on the last Saturday of every month, when every guild province has an unavoidable State of War.