Capital Cities of WAR  

In Warhammer Online, a capital city is the headquarters and the main source of the war effort for each army. Capital cities can be attacked, temporarily raided and even partially razed through the campaigns. Capital city zones are in the fourth and final tier of the campaign map, according to the advancement of characters through the game. The 'King' or leader of each army will be resident in their capital city, and it will be possible to fight and capture an armies King during a city siege.

Capital Cities

• Order of the Griffon: Altdorf
• Raven Host: The Inevitable City
• Oathbearers: Karaz-a-Karak (NOT included at launch)
• Bloody Sun Boyz: Karak Eight Peaks (NOT included at launch)
• Shining Guard: Lothern (NOT included at launch)
• House Uthorin: Fist of Malekith (NOT included at launch)

Quests

There are many quests in each city. Access to these quests are unlocked by the City Rank. Completing the quests will further advance the City Rank. See the city's zone page for a list of these quests.

Public Quests

There are a number of Public Quests in each Capital City. They are unlocked by the City Rank and completing them will further advance the City Rank. See the city's zone page for a list of these public quests.

Capturing Capital Cities

Several stages are required to be completed before a capital city can be captured.

• When the Tier 4 zone of a particular army falls during a campaign, their capital city zone becomes "attack eligible"

• The attacking realm can then enter the Outer City, which is a RvR zone, to fight against players of the defending realm and capture control objectives.

• Players on both sides will respawn in the Outer City until the battle is won or lost.

• If the attacking realm wins, the Outer City closes and they advance to the Inner City to fight NPCs and other defending players that may have survived the initial battle.

• Defending players still in the Inner City will not be able to respawn once killed.

• Attacking players will then have several hours of uninterrupted time to loot, pillage, quest, fight the king, etc.

• After this period of time has ended, the Outer City will re-open for RvR combat and the defending realm may attempt to re-take this area

• Should the defending realm succeed, they can then enter the Inner City to clear out the forces of the attacking realm (who will no longer respawn in this area once killed)

• The city will then revert to its original state of peace.

Please note that the city siege itself will be population limited (size to be determined) and could play out over several different instances.

Capturing the King

The killing/capturing of a King is slated to temporarily give both offensive and defensive bonuses to the winning realm, Order or Destruction, when fighting against a member of an opposing army (Dwarf, Chaos, etc.) that just lost its leader. This is designed to help spur the racial hatred between opposing armies in WAR. If you're a Chaos or Dark Elf player, you'll get these bonuses against Dwarfs when the Greenskins kill/capture High King Thorgrim Grudgebearer.

Capital cities will contain a fortified area which will remain safe for home players throughout the duration of a siege. This area will include vital locations such as the bank and auction house, and some of the more important NPC merchants who operate out of the city.

There will also be a range of iconic landmarks within each city known as Marvels. These will be important buildings that dominate the skyline of the city, and will likely be areas where players can carry out special quests during a city siege.

Pillage and Looting

Public Quests, Quests, Dungeons, looting, pillaging, and eventually King are unlocked to the attacker. When an opposing capital is sacked, that a player will be able to loot and pillage the city. Attacking players will be able to break down doors, attack the inhabitants, loot their possessions, and set buildings on fire. There will be landmark buildings to pillage and special NPCs to fight. Many of these encounters will only be available once, thus the ones who actually take part in the initial War Quarter attack and who do most of the work capturing the city will be first on the scene and will have the first shot at some of these one-off encounters.

Capital cities will contain a fortified area which will remain safe for home players throughout the duration of a siege. This area will include vital locations such as the bank and auction house, and some of the more important NPC merchants who operate out of the city. However, once a capital city is captured, players must rely on a "black market" for goods and services, meaning that everything costs more.

Living Cities

Cities in WAR are considered "Living Cities", a term used to describe how cities dynamically grow and improve over time according to their relative success in the RvR conflict.

City Rank

A city will, at the beginning of a server begin as a Poor city, and may eventually become Prosperous. This is considered the city's Rank. Currently, cities can attain ranks from 1 to 5, although the names and benefits of these ranks are mostly unknown. Leveling to rank 5 is estimated to take a significant amount of time (months not weeks).

The rank of a capital city is proportional to the success of the players. City rank contributions are determined by what zone players adventure in, not by their army. A city's rank is tied into WAR's campaign system, as well as PvE achievements, and other factors such as crafting. The more you achieve, the richer your city becomes; gaining victory points in the campaign and successfully completing PvE quests all helps to create a thriving economy, causing capitals to become more prosperous. This will change the look of the city (a poor city might mostly be a slum covered in garbage, while a prosperous city will mostly be rich & clean neighborhoods). City guards will also level up with your city, so at rank 1 a guard will be a peasant drafted into the army and at rank 5 you will have well armored knights defending the city. Additional quests and features within the city will also open up when your city gains rank. For example, while Altdorf is poor, a player may overhear a peasant talking about seeing a giant "rat man"; as the city becomes more and more prosperous the culmination of the story will reveal Skaven tunnels under the city, allowing for players to explore new territory.

In addition to providing friendly players with special events, and new quests, prosperous cities are a source of wealth and opportunity to enemy looters. Capturing a city allows the attackers to take part in the events and quests that are available within the city, meaning that rank 5 cities are a much more valuable target to the opposing realm. By opening up the World Map, a player can then see the rank of a city, and see what events are taking place in the city at this time. This allows for greater coordination among players of a realm for offensive pushes in the campaign.

Player Statues

Inside the city there will be statues of players who have acquired the most renown for a given time period. When a city is sacked by an enemy these statues can be destroyed.

Calender Events

Several festivals and holidays will occur in capital cities on certain in-game dates. Examples of these are: Day of the Dead style festival, carnivals, festival days, and Pie week.

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