Game Definitions (Unofficial)
These are terms that I have come across in the boards and in game play. I have done my best to phrase them accurately. Updates, clarifications and Suggestions are always welcome and encouraged.
10 Minute Game Grace Period:
Every time you log off, your account stays active for 10 additional minutes. This 10 minutes lowers your Bucket Time. If you log on for 5 minutes, 12 times a day, you are using more than 60 minutes of your bucket time, (5m*12t), you are using 180 minutes, ((5m+10m)*12t). Though it affects players on any device. This Grace Period is added so that players using Smartphones are not attacked when they are briefly disconnected due to service provider issues.
Advanced Scouting: Boost, 2nd level of Kizhi Pogost, assists with attack by allowing you to see during the Scout phase, all fire traps and caltrops of the Keep you attacking. Once you go into the actual attack they are hidden again.
Alliance: A group of up to 50 players that participate in Alliance Leagues, help each other with defending the keep by sending Relief Forces work and working together to complete Wonders and then Wonder Boosts. An alliance member can be one of three levels, Noble, Lord, and Emperor.
Alliance Pack: A group of alliances working together by trading players, resources and knowledge.
Announcements Tab: If a player is in an alliance, the Announcements tab is located in the Communication Center. This tab is used by the Emperor and Lords to communicate with the rest of the alliance. It should only be used for messages of high importance that need to be available for a long period of time. The Announcements tab also displays an automated message when the Wonder or Alliance Settings are changed.
Basilica of San Vitale: Wonder, boosts are Trade Envoy, Expropriation & Expansion.
Battle Chests: Located in the lower section of the left hand side of the
Empire screen. The Battle Chests icon opens the Battle Chests screen. The Battle Chests screen displays 9 chests representing additional bonuses for doing well in battle. Each player can earn the ability to open up to 9 Battle Chests every 24 hours. There are 4 different levels of Battle Chests, Bronze, Silver, Gold and Royal. How many chests of each level that a player gets each 24 hour period is random. The majority of chests will be of the lower levels and only a few will be of the higher levels. A legend to the right of the chests show how many chests of each level remains to be opened. The Battle Chests give players the chance to earn resources, loot, honor items as well as exclusive honor items only available in the chest just for battling in the game. To open a chest, a player must earn a key. Keys are earned in battle. A player can earn up to 2 keys per attack. The first key is earned at 20% empire destruction and the second key is earned at 60% destruction. Though you do not have to open chests after every battle where a key is earned, it is recommended. If you would like to accumulate your keys, you may, however, every 24 hours the battle chests and the keys reset. So if you have not opened chests with your available keys before the reset, the keys will disappear and cannot be kept from day to day hoping for better chests to open.
Age of Empires Battle Chest Announcement
Battle Logs:
Battle Shield: Located in the upper left corner of the empire screen the battle shield indicates whether the player has battled yet this league season as well as which league the player is placed in. If the player has yet to battle the shield is grey with a question mark. If the player has battled than the shield will indicate the league that the player is placed in. A graphic of the various shields can be found by selecting the information button on the Leagues tab of the Leaderboards.
Boosts:
Applies to Wonders. boosts are the benefits that you can activate once your alliance completes a Wonder as well as any additional upgrades and research for level 2 boosts. For you to have access to the boosts your alliance has completed, you have to have been in the alliance a minimum of 3 days, as well as have an embassy for 1st level boosts, a 2nd level embassy for 2nd level boosts, as well as have built the wonder building. Each boost a different activation fee and period of time the activation lasts. 1st level boosts are Brace the Walls, Kizhi Pogost; Trade Envoy, Basilica of San Vitale; Raise the Colors, Tower of London. 2nd level boosts are Advanced Scouting & Sound the Alarm, Kizhi Pogost; Expropriation & Expansion, Basilica of San Vitale; Poison the Well & Reserve Force, Tower of London.
Brace the Walls: Boost, 1st level Kizhi Pogost, assists defense by increasing wall strength 40% for 3 days. The activation cost is 30,000 Stone or 60 Gold.
Bucket Time: Each players gets 480 minutes (8 hours) of online time each day where they will not be attacked while online. Once a player has been online for 480 minutes their bucket is empty and they may be attacked even if logged on. If attacked while in the middle of a battle, you will be logged off in the middle of the battle and most likely lose. If attacked while in the middle of redesigning your Empire layout, your defenses may be easily overrun. Your bucket empties while you are online, however once you log off and the 10 minute game grace period ends, it begins to refill again. If your bucket is full when you log on and you are online for 90 minutes then log off. After the 10 minute game grace period, your Bucket Time has been reduced by 100 minutes or is at 380 minutes. For every minute you are offline your bucket time refills. If you log back on 30 minutes after logging off. Your Bucket Time has replenished 20 minutes and is now at 400 minutes. Don't forget to always include the 10 minute game grace period.
Building Line of Sight: Each building has a line of sight and attacking units cannot spawn within this line of sight. To see potential holes in your buildings' line of sight. Pick up a building, move it slightly and set it back in its original position. The Line of Sight for all buildings will be displayed for a few moments. Some buildings have less or no Line of Sight, i.e. army camps, roads, walls, caltrops, and fire traps.
Cav Cat Patch: From the AOE Forums, ""There used to be a loophole where low age players (often done in Age 5) could stop upgrading and grind enough crowns to grow to such a number that they'd appear on the top 200 leaderboard. (One guy, Cavalry Cat , reached first place this way.) Due to the high player population in lower ages, it is very rare to get attacked. And because high age players could not attack low age players, those grinding low age players were essentially immune to ever losing crowns. To constrain this a new rule was introduced. Basically for each age there is an unknown crown cap, that once exceeded opens your castle up to attack from higher age players. The "Cleverly Cat Flag" you can buy as an honor item in game is also a reference to Cavalry Cat's clever strategy. Should you find yourself falling under the "Cav Cat rule," aging up your castle will get you rid of those high age bullies."" See Andy P's post in the AOE forums
Collection of Guides
Chat Tab: If a player is in an alliance, the chat tab is located in the Communication Center. This tab is used for general alliance discussion between players, posting replays, requesting relief troops as well as system messages when players are invited to, join, are promoted, are demoted, leave or are kicked out of the alliance.
Civilization: There are six different civilizations in Age of Empires: Castle Siege. The Civilization selected at the beginning of the game determines which type of Pennant your empire generates. Pennants are required to do research at the University and Cathedral/Church as well as leveling up Special Units and Heroes. Though all civilizations can do any research and obtain any special unit or hero, obtaining these are usually easier when you are generating the pennants instead of collecting them through conquest. A player may change their civilization at any time as many times as they want, the cost is 500 gold each time. Select the Keep and then the Switch Civilization button.
Communication Center: The icon located in the middle of the far left hand edge of the
Empire screen. Based on whether you are currently in an alliance or not. If you are not currently in an alliance, when opened it will show any pending invites or display an icon to take you to the Alliances screen to find an alliance. If you are in an alliance, when opened it will display three tabs, Chat, Notifications, and Announcements.
Empire screen: Main screen when you log into the game.
Picture and icon descriptions
Expansion: Boost, 2nd level of Basilica of San Vitale, assists economy, increases the production of farms, mills and quarries while active.
Expropriation: Boost, 2nd level of Basilica of San Vitale, assists economy, by increasing the number of pennants looted from Research Buildings and the Keep (additional Pennants come from the pennant pool, not the defender), thus research, special units and heroes can be completed faster.
Kizhi Pogost: Wonder, boosts are Brace the Walls, Advanced Scouting & Sound the Alarm
Kiting: Running defending troops around the map without killing them. This is useful with troops coming from the Guardhouse and the Watch Signal. As long as troops from these builds remain alive on the battle field, the buildings cannot deploy more troops.
Notifications Tab: If a player is in an alliance, the Notifications tab is located in the Communication Center. This tab is a log of troop contributions and displays which players have sent relief troops, who the relief troops were sent to as well as what troops were sent and when.
Peace Treaty: Players receive Peace Treaties after their Empire has been attacked. The duration of the Peace Treaty is based on the percentage of their empire that was destroyed. The larger the loss during attack the longer the Peace Treaty. Researching Diplomacy at the cathedral\church will increase the duration of each Peace Treaty. Players cannot be attacked while under a Peace Treaty. However, the remaining Peace Treaty is forfeited, if players choose to battle while under a Peace Treaty.
Pennant: Each civilization has it's own pennant. Pennants are generated at the University and the Church/Cathedral. They are stored in both of these buildings as well as the Keep. Your civilization age determines how many pennants of each civilization you can store at one time. Pennants are used to research
Poison the Well: Boost, 2nd level of Tower of London
Power Level: Is used in Match Making to determine which players you will be matched up against. It is based on the upgrades you’ve purchased both for units and buildings, and the number of people close to your power level who are currently available to be attacked. Your castle's power level is the sum of the power of its offense and defense. It does not correspond with your castle's age nor your siege results. You can raise your power level by upgrading buildings, walls, defenses and troops. You cannot lower your power level. Each building you build/upgrade and each troop you upgrade irreversibly adds a little bit to your overall power level. We do not know how much each building/upgrade attributes to your power level. Crowns are now included in power level to ensure that a lower age player cannot make it to the top pf the leader board's due to no other players wanting to attack. See Cav Cat Patch. You cannot see what your power level is anywhere, just be aware any Military or Fortification upgrade or level up will increase your power level. Activating Wonders do not increase your power level.
Raise the Colors: Boost, 1st level Tower of London, assists attack by giving you a decoy object that attracts defending troops within its radius. If it survives until the attack is completed, it becomes a statue that is visible to other players and cannot be removed for 24 hours. This boost is active for 1 day/ 24 hours and the activation cost is 35,000 Stone or 70 Gold.
Ram Rush: Attack strategy using the hero, Conrad the Elder, and his Siege Rush special Ability. Considered ineffective in the lower ages as the ability only lasts a short time. However it is very effective in the upper ages with a fully upgraded Conrad.
Reserve Force: Boost, 2nd level of Tower of London
Sister Alliance: An alliance that is affiliated with another alliance. Alliances trade players and resources as well as gaming strategy and tips.
Sniper Attack: An attack where the attacker is not trying to get a 1 star win and is looking for resources only. Snipers send in only a few troops, usually archers or resource gathers. They take what they need and leave, possibly leaving a few crowns in the process. Since these attacks give you a short Peace Treaty and do not take crowns, it is common courtesy not to revenge attack.
Sound the Alarm: Boost, 2nd level of Kizhi Pogost
: Putting a high health unit that can withstand a lot of punishment in front of a weaker health unit. Such as, blue infantry in front of pike men or purple archers when taking down a tower.
Tower of London: Wonder, boosts are Raise the Colors, Poison the Well & Reserve Force
Trade Envoy: Boost, 1st level of Basilica of San Vitale
Tribute: Putting a highly desired resource in an easily accessible place to encourage snipers to take the resource. The intention is that less than 50% of your empire will be destroyed and leave you with a short Peace Treaty, well as a few crowns. Tributes should not be protected by towers or other defending troops. If the tribute is respected and the attacking team only takes the tribute. It is common courtesy not to revenge attack.
Tribute Keep: Putting the Keep in a fully exposed position, not behind any walls, and no Towers or other defending troops in range. This will result in a loss as well as a loss of crowns, however you will get a longer Peace Treaty and fewer resources if Protection is fully researched. If the Tribute Keep is respected and they attacking team does not go for your other resources as well, it is common courtesy not to revenge attack.
Wonders: Additional buildings, sometimes referred to as monuments, that can only be built after the alliance completes the tasks required to unlock the wonder. These buildings provide additional boosts to the players that build and activate them. Wonders are unlocked by the alliance as a team. A player must have an Embassy to contribute to the Wonder. There are two ways to contribute to an in progress wonder, passively (Destroying Archer Towers or other resources during battle as specified by tasks button at the Embassy) or actively (Contributing your own resources or pennants to the wonder, as specified by the tasks button at the Embassy). Both contribution methods require the contributing player to have an Embassy. Once a Wonder has been unlocked, each player with an embassy in the alliance can build the building representing that Wonder. Wonders are located in the Market, under Boosts, each Wonder costs 100,000 wood. Once a player builds the Wonder, as long as they have been in the alliance for a minimum of 3 days, they may activate the wonder. If they have not been in the alliance for at least three days, after they have been in the alliance for three days they will be allowed to activate the wonder. Each wonder has an activation fee with a specific duration. Once unlocked, the wonder can be upgraded to a level 2 wonder by the alliance. When the upgrade is complete, the alliance may then research two additional boosts for each level 2 wonder. There are three Wonders and each has its own specialty, Kizhi Pogost (Defense), Basilica of San Vitale (Economy), and Tower of London (Attack). Though any alliance member with an embassy can contribute to the in progress wonder. Only the Emperor may change the Wonder in progress. If the alliance wants to upgrade a completed level 1 wonder, the Emperor must have a level 2 Embassy. Any player with a level 1 Embassy may contribute to a level 2 Wonder. However once research of the level 2 Boosts has been completed, a player needs a level 2 Embassy to activate the 2nd level boost. Activating Wonders does not increase a player's Power Level.
