In the annual specials, the game takes place on a map of Ancient Europe divided into 87 regions. In 2021 special, Tides of Conquest, Victory Points are stored in villages and can be gained or lost.

Regions, settling and control

Each of 87 independent regions can be controlled by an alliance, giving its villages in the region Victory Points over time. In addition, the alliance members can use the ancient power (artefact) of the region.

So, how can you take over a region? First, it has to be unlocked. This happens once the top 5 biggest alliances in the region have at least 4,000 population altogether in the region. The population of other alliances, players without an alliance, on vacation or banned, as well as Natar villages, is not taken into account. Once the region is unlocked, it cannot be locked again; however, if the population drops below 4k, then the region stops producing victory points, and the regional power will deactivate.

It is only possible to settle new villages in regions that are unlocked or are neighbouring unlocked regions. The only exception to this rule are a few regions near the center of the world, where new players are spawned and where it is always possible to settle new villages.

If one alliance manage to have over 50% of the population in the region (only the top 5 alliance villages in the region are counted), the alliance will start taking control of the region. This takes 24 hours on regular servers, 16 hours on x2 and 12 on x3 speed. If they manage to hold the majority, they will control the region.

Information about the population of the region and the top 5 alliance shares is shown in the Statistics > Region tab and in any Embassy located in the region. Keep in mind that the column "Regional population" in the statistics shows the population of the top 1 alliance in the region, not the total population in the region.

Here's an overview of regional mechanics:

Region status	How to achieve	Effects
Locked	All regions start locked.	Cannot be settled unless it neighbours an unlocked region. A few starting regions are an exception. It is also always possible to settle a second village in a region where you have your capital.
Unlocked	Top5 alliances in the region have to achieve a total of 4,000 population in the region.	Can be settled and contested. Cannot be locked again.
Contested	One of the alliances has to achieve over 50% population in the region. Only the population of the top 5 alliances count.	Can degrade to unlocked if the alliance loses the majority.
Secured	The alliance has to hold the majority for over 24 hours continuously.	Members of the controlling alliance can activate the ancient power of the region (if it has one) and their villages in the region receive victory points, as long as region population is still over 4,000.

Ancient powers and victory points

The alliance controlling region gets access to the ancient power of the region if it has one. Any player of that alliance may activate the ancient power. In order to do it, the player needs to have a Treasury at level 10 (for small, village-related powers) or 20 (for account-related powers). You can activate the power in any village; it doesn't have to be located in the same region as the power.

You can activate one power in each village, but only one of the powers can be used for the whole account. Once activated, the power lasts for 24 hours (regardless of server speed); afterwards, it can be reactivated if the alliance still has access to the power. One activation is free each day; each additional activation costs 5 (for village powers) or 10 (for account powers) Gold.

The power can also be deactivated under the following circumstances:

If you quit your alliance
If you lost the village where it was activated
If your alliance lost access to the power

Ancient powers, although very useful, are not the only benefit of controlling regions. If you want to win, your alliance needs to gather victory points. Every day an alliance controls a region, it earns victory points. The amount depends on the region:

Unique power – 400 points per day
Big power – 1200 points per day
Small power – 1000 points per day
No power – 2000 or 4000 points per day

Furthermore, the Victory Points earned by the alliance from a region are split into the villages of that alliance in that region. Each village gets a proportional amount of points based on its population compared to the total population of the alliance in the region. This means, the bigger the village and the lower the total population of the alliance in that region, the more Victory Points that village gets. However, the total amount of Victory Points gained by the whole alliance is still the same.

The alliance that gathers the most victory points at the end of the game wins.

Tides of Conquest lasts 180 days on x1, 120 days on x2 speed and 80 days on x3 speed.

Gaining or losing Victory Points

Victory Points are attached to the village and cannot be moved, but the villages can switch alliances and so the Victory Points can move between alliances. They can also be destroyed.

Changing alliance:

When the player leaves an alliance, 50% of VPs in his villages are lost.
Joining an alliance doesn’t affect the player’s stored VPs.

Since alliance VPs is the sum of its players VPs, when a player switches to another alliance, his old alliance loses all of his VPs and the new alliance gets 50% of them.

Conquering a village:

When a village is conquered from the same alliance, all VPs are kept in the village and the new owner now owns them.
When a village is conquered by someone not from the same alliance, 25% of VPs are destroyed. The new owner gets the village with the remaining 75% of VPs. So conquering a village from another alliance (even if it’s in the same coalition) means 25% will get lost.

Destroying a village:

When the village is destroyed, all VPs are destroyed.

Deleting account:

When player deletes their account, all their Victory Points are deleted as well. This includes a situation when the Natars take over the deleted player’s village. Natar villages do not have Victory Points.

Regional population drop

If the regional population drops below 4000, the region stops producing VP and doesn't offer the regional power.

The region is still conquerable / unlocked/conquered/secured, the mechanics of conquering cooldowns is unaffected. The only change is that VP-production stops and the powers of that region are not visible in treasuries.

Example 1:

The region is unlocked but drops below 4000 population again

While below 4000 population, an alliance achieves >50% regional control
The conquer cooldown starts. Still the regional message of "too low population" is shown
4000 population is achieved again.
The conquer cooldown is visible now.

Example 2:

The region is unlocked.
Alliance A conquered the region.
Player B uses ancient power.
Region drops below 4000 population.
Alliance A do not get VP from that region, and the players cannot use the ancient power of that region.
Player B still has ancient power active; it is not cancelled. He just cannot reactivate it after the effect runs out.
Region emerges above 4000 population.
Alliance A start to get VP production again and the alliance players can activate ancient powers again.

Overview Map

Click the map to open bigger version of it.

The map above shows the battlefield of annual special servers. It is ancient Europe, divided into regions. The map shows all regions colour-coded by their ancient power. Each power type is shown in a different colour, with slight differences between small, big and unique versions, for better readability. The map also notes the Victory Points production per day of each region.

We have used short names for the ancient powers, here's an explanation of what they mean:

Architect – stronger buildings
Boots – faster troops
Confusion – cranny + random aim
Diet – less hungry troops
Eyes – better spies
Storage – great warehouse and great granary plans
Trainer – faster troop training

See the details about ancient powers in the artefact effects article. The effects are the same, however Annual Special servers do not have an artefact of the fool (random) power.