News & updates

• A Game Master merit now exists for the person running the realm, granted from the admin panel.

• Merits: permanent badges shown on your profile. Some are earned automatically at milestones as you play (attacking, expanding, building, diplomacy, trading, sailing), and some are awarded by the team for contests or other reasons - keep an eye out for the Founder merit if you're one of the playtesters. Choose up to 3 to showcase next to your name from Edit profile; every merit you hold is listed on your profile too.
• Rank: a title next to your name (Bloodthirsty, Pioneer, Architect, Diplomat, Merchant, Voyager) that reflects how you've actually been playing *lately*, not a permanent label - it fades over roughly two weeks if you change how you play, and resets with the round like your score does. It also shows on the Kings Table.
• Achievements (first building, first conquest, and so on) still pay Gems exactly as before; you'll now hear about them through your Events feed rather than a list on your profile, which is used for Merits instead.

• Envoys on the Alliance page: a new "Envoys" list shows every player in your alliance who has appointed one, their Envoy's Diplomacy, and what each contributes to the alliance-wide attack and march-speed bonus (with a note if you've already hit the cap).

• Burial Grounds: fallen heirs now move to a separate Burial Grounds section on your Dynasty page instead of cluttering your family list. They already free up room for a new heir to be born; now that's easy to see.
• Find your Knights and Governors on the map: a small banner now appears on the island map over any tile where one of your Knights or Governors is stationed, and hovering it (or the plot itself) shows who and their state. Knights are now always stationed at your Castle when made, instead of a seemingly random tile.
• Envoys help the whole alliance: an Envoy now also gives every member of your alliance a small attack and march-speed bonus, scaling with the Envoy's Diplomacy and summed across all your alliance's Envoys.
• Clickable names in Events: player names mentioned in your Events feed now link straight to that player's profile.

The whole game, and the welcome site, now use the Montserrat typeface, so everything reads cleaner and more modern.

Your dynasty now outlasts the round.

• Continue as an heir: when a new round begins you can carry on as any of your living heirs. You keep your name, profile and crest; your ruler becomes that heir, with their race, gender and skills (martial, stewardship, diplomacy and intrigue).
• Mixed-race rulers: heirs with parents of different races are Half-Orcs, Orc-Elves and so on. Rule as one and you get an even blend of both races' strengths and weaknesses, plus a little extra production from both bloodlines. Continuing as an heir is the only way to become mixed.
• Or start fresh: you can still choose one of the four races as before.
• What stays with you: Gems, achievements, round trophies, unlocked crest parts and any shield you bought all carry over into the next round. Trophies and achievements now show on your profile.

Your heirs now carry the blood of their parents, and they are named accordingly.

• Heirs have a race: a child of two Orcs is an Orc, and so on. If the parents are of different races the child is mixed (a Half-Orc, an Orc-Elf, a Half-Dwarf...) with a blend of both bloodlines and a little extra vigour.
• Strengths and weaknesses: Orcs lean martial and sly but are poor at diplomacy and stewardship; Elves lean diplomatic and sly but are weaker in battle; Dwarves lean stewardly and martial but are poor diplomats; Humans are balanced. Hover an heir's race badge on the Dynasty page or the Heir Market to see it.
• Bloodline perks: knights and nobles get a small bonus from their blood. Orc knights hit harder, Elf knights march faster, Dwarf knights defend better, Dwarf Stewards train troops faster and Human Governors get more out of their tile. Mixed heirs get half of each.
• Names that fit: new heirs are named from their race (Grukk and Ushka, Thalion and Aelwen, Thorin and Helja...); mixed heirs take a name from either parent's people. Heirs you already have keep their names.
• On the market: adopted children and dowry spouses keep their bloodline, so the Heir Market shows their race too.

Sending a bug report now opens a proper ticket and keeps you in the loop.

• Ticket confirmation: as soon as you send a report you get a mail with your ticket number.
• Replies by mail: when the team answers your report, the reply arrives in your in-game mail.
• Status updates by mail: when the status of your ticket changes (confirmed, in progress, fixed, and so on) you get a mail about that too. All of it also appears in your Events.

Claiming free land is now cheap, and harder land asks for more troops.

• Easy early land: about 15 militia are enough to take plains or grassland, and you lose only one or two soldiers, even if you send far more.
• Harder terrain needs bigger armies: roughly 30 militia for coastal land and forest, 40 for desert and 55 for mountains. The losses grow a little with the difficulty (around 2 to 5 soldiers), and never get anywhere near what a real battle costs.
• Know before you go: the attack panel shows your chance of taking the plot and the losses to expect, so you can pick the right army size.
• If the land holds out you lose 30% of the attackers and the rest march home.

Taking free land is now much easier on your army.

• Gentler conquests: when you conquer unclaimed land, the troops you lose now depend on how strong you are compared to the terrain: the stronger your army, the fewer you lose. Fighting other players is unchanged.
• Failed conquests are not a disaster: if the terrain holds out, the survivors march home instead of the whole army being wiped out.
• Kings Table: administrator accounts no longer appear on the leaderboard.
• Fixed: population could show one person more than you really had, so training said you did not have enough. What you see is now exactly what you can recruit, and the barracks shows how many people are available.