Siege warfare

Castle sieges were the highest-stakes content in the original ArcheAge. Guilds built castles on Auroria and defended them every four weeks against challengers. Controlling a castle meant collecting all taxes from properties in that territory and deciding who could build there.

The four territories

Auroria contained four claimable siege territories:

• Nuimari - Located in the northwest of Auroria

• Calmlands - A central territory with access to key trade routes

• Heedmar - A territory in the eastern region of the continent

• Marcala - The southern territory closest to Diamond Shores, the gateway zone

Each territory had a designated castle location. The ruling guild set tax rates and controlled building permissions for all properties within their domain.

Siege mechanics

Sieges pitted 70 attackers against 50 defenders, with defenders receiving 20 reinforcements after 30 minutes. Attackers had to breach castle walls and destroy the crystal inside, which flipped respawn points. They then channeled the victory tower for five uninterrupted minutes to claim ownership.

Siege weapons included catapults for long-range bombardment (slow to fire and vulnerable to rushes), battering rams for gate breaching, and ladders for wall scaling. Defenders manned fixed cannons activated with Blood Archeum Crystals. Castles were modular, so each defending guild designed their own wall layout, chokepoint placement, and cannon positioning to maximize defensive advantage.

Political economy

Owning a castle was more than a PvP trophy. Territory lords collected real gold income from every tax payment made by players who built homes or farms on their land. This made sieges an economic fight as much as a military one. Cross-territory alliances between guilds were common, often backed by secret gold-sharing agreements. Betrayals during sieges, where an allied guild switched sides mid-battle, became legendary server drama.

Status in Chronicles

ArcheAge Chronicles has removed large-scale open-world PvP and siege warfare. The developers shifted focus away from competitive territorial warfare toward a "more approachable, story-driven experience." PvP in Chronicles is structured and opt-in through arenas, battlegrounds, and zone-based events, with the 40-player faction PvP mode being the largest scale.

This change is one of the most debated decisions among franchise veterans. Many players considered sieges the game's defining endgame content, and their removal fundamentally alters what ArcheAge means to that audience. The developers have acknowledged the concern but maintained that the new PvP systems offer comparable intensity in more controlled settings.