Event Teaser: Attack of the shapeshifter

A full moon rises and with it the whispers of a terrifying new threat to the Great Empire. Masked cultists have crossed our borders in search of blood needed to perform their dark summoning rituals. Our spies are calling them Shapeshifters, and swear to have seen them assume the identities of castle lords throughout the kingdom. They must be stopped! These evil cultists are cunning strategists and will use the armies of the empire’s castle lords to trigger a terrible and bloody war. Watchmen on the castle towers are already reporting enemy armies appearing outside our walls. Clearly, these are not times for the faint-hearted, so sharpen your swords and prepare for battle. If the cultists gather the blood they need for their dark rituals, who knows what vicious beasts they will summon to our lands…

  Attack of the Shapeshifters event is on its way… Make some noise!

• Attack of the Shapeshifters is a new Player versus Player event where you can use different strategies in order to win great rewards.
• All players level 30 and above can participate in this event.
• The path to these mangled castles is treacherous and hard to follow, so although these castles will appear near your main castle, they will actually be at a travel distance of 150. 
• These castles are reflections/live copies of other players from your server. Once you attack a Shapeshifter totem, the attack will be reflected for the player who represents this totem. This can happen to you if someone attacks the Shapeshifter totem which reflects your castle too!
• You can change the defense set-up, change equipment and make other adjustments necessary to win the battle against the incoming attack, and all these adjustments will be reflected for your enemy. But remember that when you’re the attacker, the Shapeshifter totem owner can also change their defense setup.
• There will be two types of currencies in the Attack of the Shapeshifter event, which you can redeem for great rewards :
• Shapeshifter charms
• Shapeshifter insignias

Until now it all sounds like real Player versus player battles, but as it is a new event and a new system we will have some very important features to make it even more fun:

• Players will not see the name of the Shapeshifter reflection; neither you nor your opponent will see the name of the attacker/defender. The incoming attack movement will be anonymized for the player receiving the attack.
• All units will wear specific masks. Spying the totem you will not see specific units, but only the type of units: Shapeshifter sharpshooter (range) or legionnaire (melee) units. For example, all ranged offense and defense units will be combined under new Shapeshifter ranged units, but every specific unit will keep his strength during the battle.
• It is possible to attack each Shapeshifter totem only once a day. Be careful because opponents around your castle swap at the beginning of the next day.
• Alliance members will not be able to help you to defend the castle. Support troops from your brothers in arms will not be included in the defense during the battle with Shapeshifter. As a player you'll have access to the Shapeshifter view in order to properly set up your event defenses.
• One of the most interesting aspects of this event lies in the consequences players will face after battles. After the battle the defender will keep his/her troops, tools or resources, his/her buildings will not be burned or destroyed, even if the defender loses the battle.
• From the other side, the attacker will also keep his/her units after a successful or unsuccessful attack. The attacker will get an opportunity to enter Hard mode. In this mode, you can enable additional difficulties for a higher event point gain, but in return, troops of the attacker will be lost when they die during the attack on the Shapeshifter totem.
• There is a matchmaking system in place that tries to match you with players of similar strength.
• Attacking the Shapeshifters will bring you event points, out of a brand new point system, just for this event.

We understand that you have tonnes of questions about this new event. This is just an early teaser about the attack of the Shapeshifter. We will collect all your questions and try to answer them as far as possible. Remember, that some information we would still like to keep secret to give you the freedom to fully experience the event, trying different strategies and tactics and we really hope that we can give you a lot of freedom in this new event.

We plan to introduce the event in the game with one of the next updates - most likely in January 2018. More information on this topic will follow later.