How to capture and enemy holding.

[ArchmagusArcana]

Ive been in a lot of fort battles, and lately, in Alsius, we just plain suck, absolutely miserably, so im going to write this little guide here in the hopes of not wasting 3 hours of my life trying to take back a fort with people that dont seem to know what to do.

1: DONT skirmish with the ranged on the walls. its a waste of time, they have cover (can jump down at any time), and have (usually) conjus to quickly heal them. Run right to the door if you can.

2: DONT stand in the center of the door FFS, we need to see who comes out and neutralize them if at all possible, even a meteor, will domain, or any CC spell can effectively counter a sortie.

3: DO use mod and MP at the door, it helps to stop people rushing out and using areas, and MP (Mana Pylon) can really help to mitigate some of the damage.

4: FFS, DONT stand out so far that they can sultar us, ESP in alsius, we have not nearly as many locks as the other two realms (a direct reason why i made mine), hug the door, then they have to come to us if they want to hurt is, and if you notice item 3, we can reduce the risk of that happening.

5: IF there are enough people, leave some marks and hunters with CC skills a bit off the fort so that they can cover the entrance to the fort and prevent people from rejoining the battle that we may have killed; a few good archers can pick of reinforcements one by one if they are few, and give us a heads up if there is a large group so we dont get sultared from behind.

6: Assuming that we have one, post a hunter at the nearest bridge to give intel (usually only worthwhile at very large battles, of which horus has few), one hunter will not be missed attacking the door, and their intel on reinforcements can very well mean the difference between taking the fort and getting slaughtered.

7. If the force holding the fort is much larger than ours (a common thing during the times that i play horus alsius), DONT get too close, let them come out and thus negate the advantage of a fort, if they want the RP, they will have to earn them, and it also gives us a chance to pick off priority targets one at a time as they leave.

8: DO target mages first, always, if at all possible. Mages are the key to battles, healing, CC, and high damage spells, they often pave the way for warrior rushes, or soften up targets for archers to pick off. Locks are far more important to defending a fort than taking down a door, so locks and conj should be your very first target if you have the chance, not that you should not take the time to finish off any mostly dead enemy.

9. DONT got overeager, be patient. This means dont just charge in, take a second to make a plan, gather your troops, and attack in a tactical manner. If faced with a large fort battle, even using DS on a lock can be enough to remove him from a fight long enough for the rest of your force to charge in.

10. Dont be afraid to try new things; i have had great success taking forts by circling around the back and sultaring all the mages that hang back, it gives the warriors a chance to come in and area them, and other ranged to pick them off, even a smaller numeric force can easily succeed if you are smarted and manage to catch the enemy with its pants down.

11. Designate a few people to worry about sorties, that way the bulk of the force can worry about taking down the door, you dont have to kill them when they rush out, just stop them from messing with your troops that are attacking the door.

12. Once the door is down, ALWAYS protect your mages, you may not get rp for it, but even 1 conj or lock can sometimes turn the tide of battle, dont get so hungry for rp that you just rush in leaving our mages exposed, at least one knight (preferably with HP or DB) should stay back to hurt the barbs that rush out, and if we have a few barbs of our own, thats even better.

13. DONT underestimate spells, even a deafening roar as soon as the door goes down (when the bad guys are inevitably clustered in front of it), can really be a nice setup for areas and make the whole process a lot easier. I like to use roar as soon as i see people try to leave, it is very effective to disrupt a group charge.

14. ALWAYS think of the team first, not just yourself, team play and communication are what win wars, not individual valor, though that may often be the catalyst to get things going.

Thank you for your time in reading this, i want fort wars to be more fun and exciting, i dont want to waste 3 hours at a go trying to take a fort with people that dont know how to do it. I hope this helps some people with tactics and helps everyone to have a better time at war.

Please add other suggestions and tactics that you use here as well if you wish.