Online Conquests - A Guide to Attacking Forts

What you need to consider when besieging the enemy fort online, (tips can also be useful for the single player forts to).

Introduction

So a few days ago I maxed out my assault rating for all four regions and thought I'd share some of the useful tips along the way.
Note: This is without spending a penny on in-game currency.

As proof here's a screenshot of my online ratings:
(Yes it max's out at 1000 for attacking)

Here's a playlist of me attacking some forts to get to my rating:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOMZ0hcDKdskt6UfnaGcO7I6PrKPLqTDS

And here's the build that I run most of the time:
https://imgur.com/a/pE7rI

Overall Guide, Tips and Mechanics

1. Quite an obvious one, but make sure you go in with your guys at the highest level you can. You might as well maximise efficiency. A few pit fights should it.

2. Always equip the Spoils of War booster if you intend to go on a session of attacking. The Spoil of War Chests always guarantees a Legendary Orc.

3. Bodyguards of your Orcs will not join you. Just your assault leaders.

4. In the preview screen, don't be afraid of weird levels of orcs. Check them out and see if they have any weaknesses you can exploit. When you start the game they'll be back down to level 65.

5. Prepare for the siege, check out the enemies weaknesses. If they bring beasts, take Hunters. If they use Fire Archers/Flaming Captains/Spouts, don't bring your vulnerable to fire captains.

6. Overpower is a lot better than Inspiring Banners when going for Gold. If you're up against a fort
you're just happy to win against, then Inspiring Banners will come in useful.

7. If they're not using Spiked Walls, be warned you're more likely to lose a captain(s) to a wall falling down so in slots 4-6 use ones you're not so worried about or don't use sappers/Olag-Hai. You can also use mounted captains so they get over the wall a lot quicker.
Yes, if an orc dies in attack they will die in your main game (same does not apply for the defense).

8. Berserker savages are probably the best option for attacking. They get enraged by a lot, and their rabid/thrice attacks demolish opposing orcs. Tanks, Slayers, and Demolisher's are pretty useful to.

9. Use a Graug to smash down the door, a normal door will take 3 hits, while an Iron Door will take 5 but it makes getting your Captains in so much quicker. You can also hit the walls (metal takes 5, not sure on the others).
You have multiple ways of doing this to; summon your own and mount, equip one as part of the siege or dominate one of the Graugs shooting at you.


10. When you're fighting enemy captains, brand them and get them to fight for you. The more you have, the quicker you take the zones, the quicker you win.


11. Use the enemy captains vulnerabilities against them, again if you can terrify them or just out right brand/kill them, it increases your chances of getting the gold.

12. Poison/Dark Set seems to do an insane amount of DPS to captains. I recommend it highly to anything not poison-proof. Couple it with the Warmonger Cloak/Armor for some balefire shenanigans to. Don't forget you can get your sword to level 65 by dying to a Olag-Hai Captain as they'll break your sword.

13. Some forts have some very useful features, e.g. you can loot the treasure in marauder forts / feral forts have bait hanging around / dark have alchemy tables that are explosive.

14. When you enter the Overlord's chamber and are stuck just walking, pause, and unpause the game while pressing the button to sprint. Saves a few precious seconds.

15. Fancy a one-on-one with the Overlord? If he's not Arrow-Proof get on top of the ledges and use the Shadow Pull ability (under Ranged) to get him up there with you for easy dispatching.


16. Graugs are your friends. As well as bashing down doors, you can summon them in the throne room to bash down on the Overlord.

17. As well as summoning a Graug in the throne room, you can also summon your own bodyguard to do your dirty work.

My Strategy

So if you passed on watching any of the gameplay videos that I've uploaded I've detailed what I aim to do each time I start a siege. This will overlap to the above tips, and mechanics for now.

1. Before starting, I'll see what my opponent has chosen. If they don't have spiked walls I'll use mounted captains in slots 4-6 and instead of Olag-Hais or Sappers I bring Mounted Calvary. Once the preparation is done, start.

2. Take out the siege beasts on top of the garrison and dominate one. Free it, mount the Graug and climb back to the outside so you can start whaling on the wall to get your captains in.

3. Aim to take out the enemy captains as quickly as possible, enraging your guys and exploiting any weaknesses the enemy captains have. Once broken, recruit so you can dominate the battlefield quicker. Sometimes it's also worthwhile changing your gear/abilities mid-battle to optimise your efficiency.

4. Once you get to the inner citadel and claimed point D, summon a Graug/grab one of the siege beasts again to bash down the door.

5. At this point you should be walking into the throne room and you have options. If they're not beast-proof you can summon a Graug in there and smack the Overlord to oblivion and you can do this within 30 seconds. Secondly as mentioned in the tips, get onto the ledge and shadow-pull the Overlord up there with you for a 1 on 1.
If you're running the build I mentioned earlier, I quite like going straight at the Overlord using a poison elven light to get the dot and to build up my might meter again.

Good example below of attacking a fort:

Conclusion

Thank you for reading and I hope this has been useful to you. If there's anything I've missed, please let me know so I can add it!

And finally, have fun in Mordor and I look forward to seeing you attack my forts.

P.S. This is my first guide I've wrote up on Steam. If anyone wants to help with adding pictures/layout and general niceties, drop me a message/comment.

[GreenDragonGo]

Why am I reading this in 2024

[YEE]

i heard that you lose rating if your fort gets breached, is this true?

[twitch.tv/colorado_viking_420]

funny i can apparently attack myself online

[ShamHambler]

Why am i reading this in 2020

[=THB= MajOr Knochen]

uhm sry to butt in here like that but i always see that people write ´´570 is the max deff rating´´ and i wanted to help clear that up, yes its the max ´´basic´´ rating for your army, once someone attacks your fortress and your troops manage to repell them you will get points to the deff rating most likely also toping at 1000
thats all hope that will help some people

[Danwulfe]

New tip added:
14. When you enter the Overlord's chamber and are stuck just walking, pause, and unpause the game while pressing the button to sprint. Saves a few precious seconds.

[Danwulfe]

It's just a bug and will goes back when you visit that region. Fingers crossed they patch it.

[TCxMR. Rysse]

and i can show you what i mean
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1203768087
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1203768030

[TCxMR. Rysse]

its does show 570 in the army but not in the online rating there is shows as 480 and it count the 480 rating so i dont get the right rating feelsbadman

[Danwulfe]

TCxMR. Rysse: It's a visual glitch. If you go to the city, it should fix it and go to 570 :)