Counters

General

The game has a 72 hour memory of attack history. Particularly attacks of the last 24 hours are important when you want to counter an attack. Within that timeframe, the game helps mages take revenge for an attack by countering: such attacks on self-proclaimed enemies are less limited than attacks on innocent new targets. The battles related to your kingdom that appear in the Chronicle of Terra may give you some reminders of which counters still are to be expected, and which still to take. Note that a counter attack is an attack on its own, just like any other attack, and therefore returns similar counter benefits to the attacked mage (in other words, countering may lead to counter-counter and counter-counter-counter attacks).

Benefits for countering mages are:

• Mages can attack regardless of net power differences (i.e. the attack limitation, 125%-50% of target, does not apply);
  • Remember that you have to be within 200% power of your victim, to take home land and booties. Otherwise your army loses it on the way, and your attack just lead to destruction.
• Mages can attack regardless of 'Damaged' protection status ("D" in the ranklist).
• Some (partial) knowledge on the stacks to expect

Countering mechanics

Counters are based on calculating net power loss over the last 24 hours (moving time window). You have a counter on all mages that dealt more damage to you in the last 24 hours, than you did to them. For each defended attack (land loss or not), a mage is granted the opportunity to take at least one retaliating attack with the counter-benefits. Counter benefits apply until an even amount of damage (the same % power loss) has been dealt as was suffered originally.

• Counters inevitably time out in exactly 24 hours. After that, attacking a mage in retaliation of an earlier attack is technically not a counter: It becomes an attack with normal attack limitations.
• If your first counter attack deals little damage, you can counter again.
• Soon as you dealt more damage than you suffered in the original attack, your enemy gets a counter on you.
• On servers with 'land counters', the attacker can deal new damage with Regular and Siege attacks, as long as the defendent took more land from the attacker than was reclaimed in the last 24 hours. On these servers it is possible that Mage A has a land counter on Mage B while Mage B has a pillage-power counter on mage A.

Most counter attacks result from earlier attacks Regular, Siege, Pillage, but there are other circumstances that can grant counters. These are related to offensive use of items and spells(i.e. ‘You receive a wink from the Goddess of Revenge’ message). A hallucinated attack does not give a counter.