New rules

This update changes how you score, how you cast spells and how much time you have to answer an attack. These are the changes you will feel first.

Renown is the score

Everything you build adds to your score, and so does everything you destroy.

Your buildings and research add to Built. It follows what they are worth over the last few days, so a city you lose fades out of it over a few days. Killing enemy troops adds to Destroyed. So does knocking down enemy buildings, in a capture or with an Earthquake, but a city that changed hands in the last few days earns nothing when you sack it again.

Built and Destroyed add up to Renown. The leaderboard shows where you would finish if the round ended now. Land, Conquest and Loot are gone.

Magic comes from your towers

Spellcasters are gone. You cast every spell from a city with a Mage Tower, at targets within its reach.

Once you research Magic, your towers make mana the way Farms make food. Your store fills in a few days, so spend it before it overflows.

Higher Magic levels unlock more spells, and three are new. Prosperity makes a city of yours or a guildmate's produce more of everything for half a day or longer. Earthquake knocks a level off an enemy city's most valuable buildings. Stonesong hurries the building going up in one of your cities.

Spells cost more mana against a target that resists more, and a big army resists more than a small one. A Ward makes every enemy spell on what it guards cost more.

Time to answer

Armies march slower. Each troop type now shows how long it takes to cross a hex instead of a speed number. An army's size no longer slows it. Its troops and the ground set its pace, so a column you spot can be met before it arrives.

Sieges take longer before the storm. That gives your guildmates time to send help.

After a battle

More of your troops survive a close defeat. A crushing defeat still costs you most of the army.

A captured city loses the top levels of its large buildings. Its small buildings keep theirs.

A won raid now carries off gold as well as food, wood and iron. Your stores are shared between your cities by the size of their Warehouses, so a city with a small Warehouse has little to lose.

Race changes

Each race now marches at its own pace over the ground. Elves move faster through woodland and forest. Orcs are quicker across grassland, tundra and steppe. Dwarves cross hills and mountains fastest, but march a little slower everywhere else.

Races also differ in what they make and spend. Elven Mage Towers make more mana, and Dwarven mines dig more iron. Orcs pay less for Military science. Undead cities store more mana, and their troops eat less.

Rounds are four weeks

A round now lasts 28 days. When it ends, the world's next round opens on a freshly drawn map. Returning guilds keep their places and their side of the front.

The Guide explains the new rules. Tap or hover over an underlined game word to see what it means. The full list of changes is in the update below this post.