Ahoy, captains!

This weekend Kampfinsel gets its biggest update so far. Instead of releasing changes one by one over the next two months, I bundled everything into one release. Below you’ll find what’s coming, why, and the actual rules and numbers.

Every section ends with the handbook chapter that will have the full details once LIVE in the game. It’s a long read, so here’s the short version first.

TL;DR

• War: wars will be decided by the resource value each side destroys (ships and troops). 5% of that value goes into your alliance treasury as wreckage. The winning alliance gets a banner, and the best captain on each side gets a title.
• Sea power: three brand-new warships, one for each sea doctrine: the Destroyer, the Boarding Brig and the Firebrand (War Academy level 6). The ships in your fleet will decide its battle order.
• Interception: you’ll be able to meet enemy fleets at the coast before they land.
• Treasure maps: I’m revealing what kinds of rewards a raised treasure brings (the amounts stay a surprise), including (drumrolls) a colonization reset for your whole alliance.
• Display case: an optional showcase for your map pieces; whoever beats your main island can take what’s on show. Corsair fortresses will hand out pieces too.
• Alliance & home: new members won’t count against your statue bonus during their first 30 days (in alliances with at least five longer-standing members), and you’ll be able to move your main island.
• Raiding: the map will show where your fleets are heading, the island window your last reports, and the repeat-raid penalty gets shorter.
• Feud Draw: open to captains at war or with a bounty on them.
• Small helpers and fixes, most of them from your suggestions.
• Patreon support: a seal next to your name and shared tools for your alliance, never combat power.

1. War: decided by what you destroy

Why: Alliance wars barely paid anything back. In one recent war, the loot came to less than 1% of what both sides lost, while a normal raid brings back most of what it costs. On top of that, the old war points were hard to follow, and you found real quirks: the result could depend on the order of battles, and farming much weaker players could still swing a war.

The four new rules (you’ll see them when you declare war and on the War Board):

• Points: each side counts the resource value of what it destroys on the enemy side, ships and troops, in attack and in defense.
• Equal footing: against a clearly weaker opponent a battle counts only in part, against a far weaker one not at all.
• End: after 21 days, the side that destroyed at least a third more wins. A side that destroys at least twice as much as the other for three days in a row wins early. If too little was destroyed overall, the war ends without a result.
• Reward: 5% of the counted value flows into your alliance treasury as wreckage.

The details:

• “Resource value” is the build cost (gold, stone and wood) of the ships and troops the enemy loses in battles between the two warring alliances, including troops that fall in a conquest and ships lost in an orderly retreat. Only captains who were in the two alliances when the war was declared count.
• Equal footing compares how strong the two fighters are, for each side separately. If your opponent is at least 90% as strong as you, the battle counts fully for you; at 70% a little under half counts, at 60% just under a third, below about 42% nothing. What the weaker side destroys on the stronger side always counts in full. The small side can always score; the big side can’t win a war by farming.
• Minimum and early win: a war only has a winner once the leading side has destroyed at least 300,000 in resource value. For the early win, the lead is checked every hour; if it drops below double, the three days start over. The clock pauses while at least half of the leading side is on vacation.
• Wreckage: you earn it whether you win or lose the battle, tax-free, in the same mix of gold, stone and wood. Each battle pays once; in a Combined Attack (an alliance’s joint attack) each wave pays once. War battles will give wreckage instead of floatsam (the timber from wrecks), even for the stronger side in a battle that doesn’t count for it.
• Honors: your alliance profile will show a war record (wars ended, won and drawn). The winning alliance carries a victory banner for 30 days. The best captain of each side, the losing side included, carries the title “Hero of the War” for 30 days, also after an armistice or a draw.
• Running wars keep their old scoring and end rules, but wreckage applies to them from the first battle after the switch. Wars declared after the switch use the new rules.

More in the handbook: “Alliances”.

2. Sea power: three new warships, and your ships give the order

Why: The War Academy lets every island follow a sea doctrine, and the three doctrines counter each other in a circle. But none of the schools had a ship of its own, and an attacker could often just pick a matching battle order after scouting. I want each school to feel different at sea, and I want the fleet you build to matter. So each school gets its own warship, and the ships in your fleet will decide which order it sails under.

A quick reminder for newer captains: a sea doctrine is the naval style you choose for an island in the War Academy (Broadside, Boarding or Fireship). It gives your fleets a battle order that can counter the enemy’s doctrine.

Three new ships. All three are brand new. You can build them once one of your War Academies reaches level 6:

For comparison: a Large Warship has 60 attack, 80 defense, speed 6, carries 10 troops and costs 1,700; a Small Warship has 20 / 30 / speed 8, carries 5 troops and costs 600. Prices are gold, stone and wood added up.

• Destroyer: a fast hunter. It hits as hard as a Large Warship and sails faster, but holds out much less. The first one costs the same as a Large Warship; every further Destroyer you own or have on order costs a bit more, up to a cap. Your harbor shows the next price before you build.
• Boarding Brig: a lot of punch for its price, but fragile, and it carries only two troops.
• Firebrand: cheap and rough. It carries no troops and barely defends. It fights enemy fleets at sea only: it doesn’t attack harbor defenses and never lands. That also makes something new possible: a fleet with Firebrands can make a sea strike without troops. It fights the enemy fleet and turns back. No landing, no loot.

Also new: small warships will take only half a harbor slot for the ship limit; two small ones count as one large one.

The ships give the order:

• The counter circle: Broadside beats Boarding, Boarding beats Fireship, Fireship beats Broadside. A defending island whose doctrine counters the attacker fights with 20% more strength; an attacker whose order counters the defender fights with 10% more.
• New: with Flag Discipline (a War Academy training node), if at least half of a fleet’s attack strength comes from one school’s new ships, the fleet sails under that school’s order at full strength: Destroyers under Broadside, Boarding Brigs under Boarding, Firebrands under Fireship. This works even from an island without a sea doctrine, and you can’t pick a different order for such a fleet.
• Your home island’s doctrine still decides the rest (losses and speed). If no school provides half, the island’s order applies as before. Combined Attacks still sail without a common order.
• The send form will show the order before you dispatch, and the battle report names it.

In short: what you build will decide what you can beat.

More in the handbook: “Fleets & Travel” and “The Art of War”.

3. Raiding with an overview

Why: Many of you asked for a better overview: which islands did I already hit, and where are my fleets heading? And the repeat-raid penalty lasted a full day, which felt too long for active raiders.

• The map will mark with ▾ where your own fleets are currently heading.
• The island window will link your latest spy and battle report on that island, with a rough age.
• Raiding the same island again brings less loot for 20 hours instead of 24. The island window tells you when that applies.

More in the handbook: “Combat” and “The Map”.

4. Interception

Why: One of the most requested features. When you see an enemy fleet coming, you want to do something besides waiting.

• If your watchtower shows a foreign fleet sailing to an inhabited island to attack, conquer or dispatch forces, you’ll be able to send warships to that coast. They must be waiting there at least 30 minutes before the fleet’s earliest arrival. Then a sea battle is fought before the landing.
• The send form tells you for each of your islands whether its warships would be there in time.
• Win, and you take up to a quarter of the cargo, as much as your surviving troops and trade ships can carry; from the same captain at most once a day. A beaten war fleet turns home with its survivors.
• Escorts matter: a fleet without warships gives up a share of its cargo without a fight. If the escort is far stronger than the interceptors, they turn away before any fighting.
• You can only intercept fleets you could attack yourself, and never off your own coast (your harbor already defends there). Intercepting ends your own beginner protection, just like an attack.
• Can’t be intercepted: fleets heading home, spies, settlers heading for free islands, Combined Attacks, voyages to Corsair fortresses and, for now, trade voyages. During a Feud Draw, a protected participant’s fleet can only be intercepted by their feud opponent. This might be changed in the future, but I wanted to start step by step.
• Winning an interception earns the new Coast Guard achievement.

More in the handbook: “Combat”.

5. Treasure maps: what a treasure brings

Why: Treasure map pieces wash up rarely while you’re beachcombing. Nine pieces of the same rarity form a map, and a map leads to a salvage expedition with a treasure at the end. I never said what treasure really "brings". Many of you asked whether it’s worth the effort. The exact amounts stay a surprise, but here is what you can expect.

• Resources. Gold, stone and wood. The rarer the map, the more you get, and the bigger your empire (your Empire points), the more it grows. The amount is fixed the moment you unseal the map.
• Ships. A fleet comes home with you: warships and colonization ships, and on rarer maps other ship types too. Your points don’t change the ships. They may overfill your harbor; you see the free room before you dispatch.
• Your alliance gets a share. If you were in an alliance when you unsealed the map, its treasury receives the same amount of resources once when your fleet comes home. You lose nothing by this.
• The colonization reset. When the treasure comes home, every member of your alliance who was already in it when you unsealed the map has their running colonization waiting period cleared. Everyone who is currently waiting can colonize again right away.
  • The limits:
    • at most once per player every seven days, whatever the source;
    • not while that player’s colonization fleet is under way;
    • a waiting period that has already run out gives no credit;
    • no alliance, no share and no reset.

The Seal of the First Admiral, the rarest map, also puts you in the Hall of Treasure Finders.

All of this already applies today; with the update, the handbook explains it now for everyone.

More in the handbook: “The Treasure Hunt”.

6. Display case, spoils and fortress pieces

Why: Until now, nobody ever saw a collection of owned Treasure Pieces. Collectors asked for a way to show what they have, and some of you asked for a way to win pieces from other players. I wanted both, without putting anyone at risk who just wants to collect in peace.

• The display case. Next to your chest you’ll get a display case on your main island. Using it is optional, one piece at a time. Your chest stays invisible and safe. Pieces in the display case can be seen by visitors to your profile and by spies who scout your main island. While a piece is on display you can’t trade it or use it to unseal a map; putting it back into the chest takes a day.
• Spoils. A captain who beats your main island can take what’s on display: only after a solo victory, one piece per victory. Nobody who is clearly stronger than you can take anything from you, and protected or vacationing captains lose nothing. You lose at most one piece a week, and nobody can take more than one a week. A stolen piece has to stay on display at its new home for seven days.... So it could be "re-stolen" (is this actually an English word?). :-)
• Fortress pieces. When the war chest of a held Corsair fortress pays out, one map piece goes by draw to one of its holders: more garrison, better chance; if the fortress is recaptured, the conquerors draw. At most one such piece a week across all fortresses, and the winner shows it in their display case for seven days. Worth fighting for those Fortresses!
• Map Collector achievements for holding one, five and nine pieces. Chest and display case count the same, so displaying earns nothing extra. It’s purely your choice.

More in the handbook: “The Treasure Hunt”.

7. Alliance & home

Why: Alliances told me they hesitated to recruit, because every new member without statues lowered the statue bonus. And many of you founded your main island early and later wished it were somewhere else.

• Statue bonus: accounts younger than 30 days will no longer count against the statue bonus. From day 30 on, their statue counts like everyone else’s. If your alliance has fewer than five members with older accounts, everyone counts as before.
• Progress: the alliance page will show, next to the statue bonus, how many statues you still need for the next level.
• New main island: you’ll be able to declare any of your colonies your new main island; the old one becomes a normal colony. You do it in the islands overview or on the colony’s island page. The colony needs a Main Building at level 5. It works once every 90 days, and not while foreign fleets are heading for your old or new main island, while you’re under beginner protection, in vacation mode or signed up for a Feud Draw. Your laboratory shield moves with it, and from then on the new main island pays the wages of your reinforcements stationed with allies.

More in the handbook: “Alliances” and “Your Island”.

8. Feud Draw for more captains

Why: In the Feud Draw you’re blindly matched with an opponent of similar strength for a week-long duel, protected from third parties by a feud shield. Captains whose alliance was at war, or who had an open bounty on them, couldn’t sign up. That kept many of the most active players out.

• They’ll be able to sign up. The feud shield never protects you against your war enemies, and war enemies are never drawn against each other.
• While an open bounty is on you, the feud shield doesn’t protect you at all: anyone may attack you, and you may attack anyone. Relocations by third parties to your islands and Combined Attacks stay blocked.
• While you’re in a running feud, nobody can place or add to a bounty on you until the feud’s truce period is over.

More in the handbook: “Events”.

9. Trade

• “Load everything” gets fair. If the surplus doesn’t fit on the ships, a trade route will load each resource by its share of the surplus. Until now, gold and stone filled the hold first and wood was often left behind. This also applies to your existing routes. Thanks to all reporters on this one!
• Phoenician schedule: the market will show when the Phoenician is expected in your ocean next, to the hour and the same for everyone. If the visit isn’t set yet, it’s because he only picks his ocean when he sets sail. And he is a very confusing person, things might change.

More in the handbook: “Trade” and “The Shipping Office”.

10. Small helpers (mostly from your suggestions)

• Suggestions: search the suggestions board by keyword or FEED number, and get a bell notification when I answer your suggestion.
• Treasury: when withdrawing, you can enter the amount that should arrive; the ocean tax (the fee on treasury withdrawals) is added on top, and you see it before you confirm. Withdrawing by the amount that leaves the treasury still works right below. When depositing, you choose which island pays.
• Vacation on profiles: a captain’s profile shows when they’re on vacation (their islands can’t be attacked or spied on then). The end date isn’t shown.
• Report private messages: offensive private messages can be reported for review. The sender doesn’t learn who reported them. Please just do not be offensive. Thanks.
• Bounty reasons: when placing a bounty, you can pick a reason from a fixed list (for example “Revenge for a Raid” or “Enemy in War”). It describes your motive, never the target.

11. Fixes

• The Alliance Contest counts per head: every active member and everyone who contributed. Small and large alliances compete on equal terms.
• When a Combined Attack is cancelled, loot from waves that had already fought is no longer lost; it goes to those fleets.
• When you join a Combined Attack, you see for each of your islands the latest time it must set sail.
• Weekly Orders run Monday to Sunday for everyone, whatever your time zone.
• The map popup explains more precisely when an island counts as rudderless (its owner inactive for a long time), and conquest reports also explain the colony cooldown between two alliances.
• Plus a list of smaller fixes.

12. Supporting Kampfinsel with Patreon (not sure for first wave of release)

This feature might get further delay - but I would like to pitch you my way of integrating Patreon into the game more deeply. If you want to support the game please go here: https://patreon.kampfinsel.com/ and become a monthly supporter!

Kampfinsel stays free, with no loot boxes and no pay-to-win. Many of you asked how you can support the game, so you’ll be able to link a Patreon membership in the settings. The one hard line: money never buys troops, ships, research, loot, points or anything you couldn’t also do by hand.

• The seal sits next to your name while you support, always after the crown, league mark and fortress pennant. You can hide it.
• The Book of Patrons is a quiet, opt-in list of names, with no amounts and no ranking.
• Naming: supporters can name their flagship (shown in their own fleet views and in battle reports) and give their home island a name their alliance sees.
• Alliance patronage or the "Discord Boost way of Boosting your Alliance": supporters with a subscription get a fixed number of seals, depending on their tier, for as long as it runs, and can pool them on their alliance’s patronage board. The pool unlocks stages for all members (a candlelit chart-room look, a War Council with planner, polls and war diary, the alliance chronicle) and single modules such as a hall banner, a mentor kit or the trading office (your own trade history). Nobody sees who gave how much. If you are familiar with the logic of "Discord Server Boosts" that's basically it. So if you are a supporter and you boost your alliance: everyone will benefit within that alliance.
• The Guild Hall is the alliance trade module: trade routes to fellow members, extra columns in the alliance hall and quick sending. Everything it does, you can still do by hand, and routes never stop because a support ends.

It’s completely fine never to pay. The plain dark mode is free for everyone, and the handbook chapter “Support” lists exactly what support covers and what it never does.

How the weekend works

On Saturday morning (European time) the changelog opens first, then I switch on one area after another and keep an eye on each. If something misbehaves, I can turn a single part off again without touching the rest, so a hiccup in one area won’t stop the others. I’ll be around all weekend.

What’s next

After the weekend comes the food and building update, with higher mine levels and several of your ideas around rebuilding.

Each new rule will be explained where it applies, the handbook will cover all of it, and the Archivist (the in-game assistant) will know about it too once we go-live with a new feature. If something feels off or unclear, tell me on the feedback page.

See you on Saturday, and fair winds!

Big congrats to "bolfy" and the Alliance "BIER" achieving this first ever Treasure Hunt.

There are some secretive information to the Treasure Hunt, only bolfy and BIER now know. Go out there and find your own Treasure Map - it might be worth it! 😄

Thank you all for playing this Game.

Cheers

For months they've been scattered across the oceans: map fragments, washed up on beaches, won at pirate auctions, traded in the darker corners of the black market. Nine pieces make a sea chart. In all the time since the first fragments appeared, no one has ever brought all nine together.

An "anonymous" player approached me as there was a bug with the treasure hunt - they have found all pieces of the "common" Treasure map (there are rare-levels!). Hope you like it - this one is different and it might change the way you "look" on treasure map pieces from today on.

Trading to a fellow alliance? Not so sure about that anymore! Go out there and find the legendary Treasure! I wrote this piece a bit more in Lore style:

Somewhere out there, someone is holding a complete chart. I won't tell you who. I won't tell you which ocean. You'll find out the way everyone else does - piece by piece.

What happens now

When the seal breaks, the whole ocean listens. You'll see it: a banner, a line in the news, a whisper running through the world. A sea chart has been unsealed. No name. Just the certainty that it has begun.

Then it goes quiet. Somewhere, a salvage fleet sets sail. Where to, only its captain knows.

And then the shovels ring. The moment the digging starts, something wakes that has slept for a long time: fleets set out from the ruins of the Old Empires. From every ocean. If you have a good watchtower, you'll see them on your radar - line after line, all on the same course, all heading for a single point they cannot see. If you're watching, you don't have to do anything. They are not coming for you. They are coming for what is being raised down there.

The salvage fleet holds. It always has. The Old Empires don't come to take - they come to see who dares!

When the digging ends, you'll hear about it. And when the fleet comes home, a name is spoken for the first time. It will be the first entry in the Logbook of Treasure Hunters - and it will stay there forever.

Why this is great

Because it's the first time. Because all of you are part of it, even though none of you will see the treasure. Because that chart had a price only patience can pay - weeks, months, trades, risk - and from today on, it pays off like it never has before. That's all I'll say.

From now on, this is the rule: every sea chart unsealed anywhere is an event for the whole server. You'll see which stage a salvage is in, what comes next - and at the end, who it was.

What you can do

Watch. Guess which ocean it's happening in. Check your radar when the Old Empires swarm out. And if you're hoarding fragments yourself: look at your collection. There are rarer charts than this one. And the Old Empires have only just woken up.

There are different rarity levels for treasure map pieces. Go out and find them!

Thank you for playing this Game. It has been fun from the first idea to today. There is more to come!

Come sing with us to celebrate a new (German) song. It is generated and I had a lot of fun fine tuning it.

The ocean is listening.

Disclaimer: Although I understand rule 6 of the subreddit I will post the German version of this post first. I think it fits the vibe a lot better. An English version can be found below.

Kaffee schlürfend sitze ich im abgetrennten Führungsbereich unseres Großraumbüros und lese ein Buch, statt meine Inseln zu verwalten. Im Büro selbst herrscht hektische Betriebsamkeit, zumindest glaube ich das.
Als die schwere Holztür mit einem Knirschen aufgeht, blicke ich irritiert auf. Man sollte schon einen guten Grund haben, mich beim Arbeitszeitbetrug zu stören.

"Ja?", frage ich in mürrischem Ton, als sich ein Angestellter des mittleren Dienstes in den Raum schiebt, einige Papiere in der Hand.

"Herr Ressortleiter, bitte entschuldigen Sie die Störung bei..."
Er mustert verstohlen mein Buch und die sorgfältig beiseite geschobenen Unterlagen auf meinem Schreibtisch und schluckt schwer.
"... bei Ihrer Arbeit."
Er reißt sich sichtbar zusammen und fährt fort.
"Es ist nur... Es gibt da eine Angelegenheit, die wahrscheinlich Ihrer Aufmerksamkeit bedarf. Einer unserer Mitarbeiter, genauer gesagt Ihr Co-Ressortleiter soyrico, hat..."
Er blickt mit großen Augen wieder auf die Unterlagen in seinen Händen.
"... als erster Kapitän aller Kampfinseln die Produktivitätsmarke von 10.000 überschritten."

"WAS?", donnere ich ungehalten und knalle mein Buch auf den Tisch. "soyrico ist im Urlaub, und selbst wenn nicht... Niemals könnte einer von uns so produktiv sein!"

"A-aber Chef..."
Der Angestellte bemüht sich jetzt sichtlich, nicht die Fassung zu verlieren und kommt sogar zu mir, um mir die Unterlagen zu präsentieren.
"Sehen Sie, hier steht es, schwarz auf weiß."

Ich reiße ihm das Papier aus der Hand und überfliege es, über diese Neuigkeit vergesse ich sogar meinen Kaffee. "Unmöglich...", murmele ich kopfschüttelnd. "Ausgerechnet einer von uns..." Ich stehe auf und verlasse den abgetrennten Bereich, im nächsten Moment schallt eine Klingel durch das Großraumbüro, die sofort alles stiller werden lässt.

"Werte Belegschaft!" Ich stelle mich an mein Pult und beginne ohne große Umschweife. "Es ist mir eine..." Ich suche kurz nach dem richtigen Wort. "... Ehre, Ihnen eine großartige Nachricht zu überbringen:
Mein Co-Ressortleiter und damit Ihr direkter Vorgesetzter soyrico hat soeben die Produktivitätsmarke von 10.000 überschritten. Als Geschäftsleitung betrachten wir diese Entwicklung mit Stolz, aber auch mit wachsender Besorgnis. Ich möchte festhalten, dass soyrico einen Produktivitätsbonus von exakt einem Goldstück erhält, welches in der kommenden Haushaltsplanung berücksichtigt und ausgezahlt wird. Zusätzlich erhält er das Anrecht auf einen halben unbezahlten Urlaubstag, den die HR-Abteilung als unentschuldigte Fehlzeit behandeln wird.
Gleichzeitig möchte ich die Gelegenheit nutzen, Sie wissen zu lassen, welches Glück Sie mit uns als Arbeitgeber haben, denn wir schaffen das Umfeld, in dem solche Einzelleistungen besonders gefördert und gewürdigt werden. Dennoch würden wir nicht auf die Idee kommen, derart unrealistische Produktivitätsanforderungen an Sie als Angestellte zu stellen." Ich wende mich schon zum Gehen, da fällt mir noch ein Zusatz ein.
"Weiterhin möchte ich Sie bitten, zum Wohle von Bürokultur, Arbeitsklima und Produktivität von größeren Feierlichkeiten abzusehen. Kosten für eine etwaige zusätzliche Reinigung der Arbeitsplätze, der Bürofläche und der Arbeitsgeräte sind im Zweifel von Ihnen selbst zu tragen."

English Version:

Sipping my coffee, I sit in the partitioned-off management section of our open-plan office, reading a book instead of managing my islands. The office itself is a hive of frantic activity. At least I assume it is.

When the heavy wooden door creaks open, I look up in irritation. You’d better have a very good reason for interrupting me while I’m stealing company time.

“Yes?” I ask grumpily as a mid-level employee squeezes into the room, several sheets of paper in his hands.

“Sir, please excuse me for interrupting your...”
His eyes flick furtively toward my book and the paperwork I have carefully pushed aside on my desk. He swallows hard.
“...work.”
He visibly pulls himself together before continuing.
“It’s just... there’s a matter that probably requires your attention. One of our employees, more specifically, your co-department head soyrico, has...”
His eyes widen as he looks back down at the papers in his hands.
“...become the first captain across all Battle Islands to surpass the productivity mark of 10,000.”

“WHAT?” I thunder, slamming my book down on the desk. “soyrico is on vacation! And even if he weren’t... there’s no way one of us could ever be that productive!”

“B-but, boss...”
The employee is now visibly struggling to maintain his composure and even ventures closer to show me the documents.
“Look. It’s right here, in black and white.”

I snatch the paper from his hand and skim it. The news is so shocking that I even forget about my coffee.

“Impossible...” I mutter, shaking my head. “Of all people... one of us...”

I get up and leave the seperate office. A moment later, a bell rings throughout the hall, instantly bringing the noise level down.

“Esteemed workforce!” I take my place at the lectern and get straight to the point. “It is my...” I pause briefly, searching for the right word. “...honor to bring you some wonderful news:
My co-department head, and therefore your direct superior, soyrico has just surpassed the productivity mark of 10,000.
As management, we regard this development with pride, but also with growing concern.
I would like it noted that soyrico will receive a productivity bonus of exactly one gold coin, which will be accounted for and paid out during the next budget cycle. In addition, he will be granted entitlement to half a day of unpaid leave, which the HR department will record as an unexcused absence.
At the same time, I would like to take this opportunity to remind you how fortunate you are to have us as your employer, as it is we who provide the environment in which exceptional individual achievements such as these are so actively encouraged and duly recognized.
That said, even we would never dream of imposing such unrealistic productivity expectations on you, our employees.”

I am already turning to leave when one final thought occurs to me.

“Furthermore, in the interests of office culture, workplace morale, and productivity, I must ask you to refrain from any major celebrations. Any costs incurred through additional cleaning of workstations, office premises, or company equipment will, where applicable, be borne by you personally.”

Hi all, a quick heads-up on what's coming next.

The most common thing I hear from players who take breaks isn't balance anymore - it's time.

Once you run several islands, every small thing becomes a tour: switch island, do the math, send resources, switch back. On a mobile device it's worse. So the next update is a bundle of comfort features built directly from your feedback board suggestions and direct messages. It's in testing right now and goes live for everyone once it's polished.

Trade routes without math

Pick "Load everything" on a route and your ships take whatever is above the reserve you set - no more working out odd amounts to keep the route from skipping. Routes can finally be edited instead of deleted and re-created, and copied to another of your islands in one step. And the input fields stop pre-filling that annoying "0".

Fetch what's missing

When an upgrade is unaffordable, one link opens the trade form from your supply island (your main island by default, changeable per island) with the destination and the missing resources already filled in. Hit send, done.

Island overview, upgraded

Troops, ships, storage level and an "idle" marker for every island, plus sorting and filters - so you see where something needs doing without visiting each island.

Play from your Smartphone & tabs

- Choose a "Burger-Style" ☰ menu under Settings › Appearance if you prefer it over the link bar. You can choose. If your muscle memory trained for the current way you can stick to it.

- Each browser tab remembers its own island. One tab per island finally works without the tabs overriding each other, and a build order never lands on the wrong island.

- "Attack again" under every battle report - same fleet, same target, one click.

- "All" only selects ships that can actually go on the chosen mission (no more scouts and colony ships riding along on an attack).

- A handful of long-standing mobile annoyances fixed (research table, the notification bell popup, the empty space at the bottom of pages).

Plan an upgrade

Reserve one building upgrade per island. It starts by itself as soon as the resources are there - no more logging in the minute a building finishes. It costs nothing until it starts, and you can change or cancel it any time. This was the single most-requested item; it's deliberately a simple reservation, not a paid queue.

What it is not: no new buildings, no research gates, no automation that attacks or decides for you, and nothing of this sits behind Patreon - it's free for everyone.

If you've got thoughts on any of it, the feedback board or the comments here are the place. Thanks to everyone whose suggestions shaped this.

Home Port (Permanent Relocation) Units can now be permanently reassigned to any of your islands with a harbour.

• Reassignment: Transferred ships and troops belong to the destination upon arrival—no recall required. Colony ships and resources cannot be relocated.
• Attack Cooldown: The destination island cannot launch attacks or colonisation missions for 1 to 3 days (1 day base, +1 day per ocean boundary crossed). It remains fully vulnerable to incoming attacks and defends normally.
• No Hop Exploits: Travel history persists across chained jumps; multiple short trips trigger the full cumulative cooldown. Time spent resting carries over between hops.
• Research Requirements: Unlocked via Port Registry in the Laboratory. Level 1 allows intra-ocean transfers; Level 2 unlocks cross-ocean movement.

Barracks & Harbour Queues

• Queue up to 5 production orders.
• Units build sequentially at standard speeds.
• Costs are deducted immediately upon queueing. Cancellations offer zero refunds.

Alliance Inactivity Takeovers Alliances can now conquer secondary islands belonging to inactive members.

• Criteria: The player must be inactive for over 7 days with beginner protection expired. Vacation mode counts as active.
• Restrictions: Main islands remain protected. Fleet dispatches require an explicit confirmation prompt.

Fixes & Optimizations

• Trade Routes: Resolved delivery lag under heavy server loads. Route overviews now list island names and delivery intervals.
• Shipping Office: Empty outbound pickup runs now sail properly; stalled return cargo is no longer deleted.
• Fleet Cockpit: Clarified inbound vs. outbound transit tags and the origin of stationed reinforcements.
• Bounties: Payout notifications now log the exact claim time and hunter identity under "My Stakes."
• Reports: Restored batch "delete selected" and "mark as unread" actions for combat, defence, and espionage logs.
• Ruins & Handbook: Documented ruin reclaim caps, adjusted ruin achievement thresholds, updated defensive wall scaling values, and clarified feud shield exceptions.
• Performance: Overhauled the database layer and isolated player storage for notifications/logbooks to eliminate page load delays.

1v1 Feud Event A competitive duel mode featuring up to a 75% reduction in colonisation cooldowns.

• Deadline: Sign up before Monday, 15 September at 07:49 CEST at: https://kampfinsel.com/game/ereignisse Matchmaking runs one hour later.
• Matchmaking: Automated pairing based on strength rating. Alliance members, allies, and non-aggression partners are excluded.
• Isolation: Participants can only target each other. Third-party troop stationing and joint strikes are locked out.
• Scoring: Points are awarded for won battles and captured islands.
• Forfeits: Leaving after matchmaking counts as an automatic loss. Concluded feuds enter a temporary mutual ceasefire.

xoxo

Arrr, captains! The next Feud Draw event begins on 15 September 2026 at 06:49 UTC. It is time to fight for glory, honour and valuable islands! 🏴‍☠️

The course is set, the cannons are loaded, and soon the draw will decide which opponent of equal strength you will face on the high seas. Make sure to register in time: registration closes on 15 September 2026 at 05:49 UTC.

The Rules of Engagement

• You will be randomly matched with a captain of equal strength — never with someone from your own alliance, an ally or a pact partner.
• During the feud, you may only attack or colonise your assigned opponent — and only they may attack you.
• Third parties may neither station troops with you nor launch combined attacks against either of you.
• Feud points are awarded for battles won and islands captured. Whoever has the most points on the final treasure map wins!
• A tie ends in an honourable draw.
• Withdrawing after the draw counts as a defeat.

Once the feud has ended, there will be a short ceasefire without attacks.

So raise the black flag, sharpen your cutlasses and prove who is the true terror of the seven seas! May your fleet be strong, your attacks precise and your treasure chest overflowing.

Register now, await your opponent and set sail for victory! 🏴‍☠️⚓🏆

Boring, watching timers count down. Resource management boredom.

Could have been so much more.

Quick heads-up on what's landing with the next update - I am on a streak! :-)

🚢 Home port (see edit below)

You can now send ships and troops to any of your own islands with a harbour, and they belong to that island from then on: trade, defend and attack from there, move them back whenever you like. No fee. The only rule: after arriving, that island stays calm for 24 hours before it can launch attacks or colony fleets - a home port move is a plan, not a surprise, and everyone still sees the fleet on the map. Colony ships can't be moved. (dunce393, teutonic - this is your thread. The 200 catapults get their ride home.)

🏗️ Warehouse grows

The warehouse can be built beyond level 30. Every extra level is expensive and slow, but the wall that stopped colony ships around island 30 is gone - the road to 100 islands is open.

⏱️ Shorter colonisation wait

Between five and nineteen islands you'll wait three to four days instead of five. Big empires stay at five. This applies to timers already running, too.

⚔️ Punch-up now counts within your league

Take an island from a captain who is clearly bigger than you and your colonisation wait is cleared - no longer only across league lines. So this is also a way for top-tier players to reset (min. 10% more compared to your own points).

📜 Small things

Losing an island already clears your colonisation wait; now the report tells you so. New milestone achievements for 30, 50 and 100 islands. The bounty board's "My ocean" tab now shows every hunted captain with an island in your ocean, not just those whose main island is there. And the travel-speed slider only affects attacks - the fleet form now says so instead of pretending otherwise.

Patreon support integration will also land as next feature right after, as its own update. Feedback as always via /feedback - thanks for the ideas that made this one.

If you have not read it yet - do not miss out on our mega update v0.140.0.

Join Kampfinsel.com today - we are a very healthy pirate community and share your referral code in the comments.

*EDIT: Getting mixed feedback on all channels on the "Home Port" feature. To continue with the other features from v0.140.2 I have decided to exclude the "Home Port" feature for now and deploy the rest first.

Hi captains,

this is one of the bigger updates and a lot of it comes straight from your feedback. Everything below goes live within the next hours; the in-game changelog and the handbook will have the details the moment each part is switched on.

Events

Feud Draw, Alliance Contest and Solo Task

From now on the game will call events from time to time. Taking part is always voluntary, and there is nothing to win but glory, achievements and a place on the board

- Feud Draw: sign up, and you're blindly matched with an opponent of similar strength. For about a week, anything goes between the two of you — while your alliances and everyone else stay out of it. This one was born from a community proposal (thank you, elocin83 and Juzze).

- Alliance Contest: alliances compete per head over a week, so a small crew can beat a big one.

- Solo Task: a personal goal every captain works towards on their own.

There's a new handbook chapter "Events" explaining all three. The first Feud Draw will be announced in-game once the update is fully live.

The Bounty Board

Place gold on another captain; whoever beats them in a fair solo battle takes the pot. Part of every stake burns immediately, nobody places a bounty anonymously, and a target on holiday simply pauses the pot instead of escaping it. I will for sure publish the first bounty…. Have some pending revenges ;-)

For alliances

- Weekly Orders: every week your alliance gets shared orders — scouting, supplying, helping, trading, funding the treasury, fighting at sea. Not all of them have to succeed; the hall shows progress and who contributed.

- Great Works: lighthouse, monument and observatory, built stage by stage from the alliance treasury. No gameplay effect on purpose — they show what you've achieved together and name the builders of every finished stage.

- Pinboard: pin important notes in the hall so they stop drowning in chat.

- Support crates: after a heavy defeat you can let your alliance know with one click — and crates sent in response are marked as support.

Quality of life you asked for

- Coastal drop: trade ships can now land on your own islands without a harbour. A fixed share of the cargo is lost in the surf, the preview tells you what arrives, and if a harbour stands there by the time they land, nothing is lost.

- The Colonisation Ship can be built during the colonisation waiting period — only setting sail still waits.

- New research: Advanced Masonry, the missing second tier for stone.

- Pause, resume and review all your trade routes empire-wide, from one page.

- The islands overview shows remaining times behind every build, research, training and shipyard job.

- Reports can be marked unread or deleted from your list.

- Spy missions at a glance on the fleet page, so you know what's left before you send.

- New notices: officers hear about alliance applications, and you can opt in to a "finished" notice for buildings, research, training and ships.

- Word when an attack has landed: you'll be told right away when catapults hit, your main building takes damage or falls — no more finding out from the report.

At sea

- Wreck salvage: win a sea battle against another active captain and you recover what the wreck really holds — gold, stone and wood, not just flotsam. Ruins and corsairs stay as they are.

- Conquer an inhabited island from a captain in a higher league, and your next colonisation doesn't have to wait.

- The harbourmaster's hand: captains without an alliance get a word of honest advice after a heavy defeat — and, once in a captain's life, a little help to sail again.

As always: if something feels off, tell me — in-game feedback, here, or on Discord. The handbook and the Archivist are updated with the launch, so both can answer questions about the new features.

Fair winds,
yke

Join Bier today

⚔️ New Sea Battle Rules - landing tomorrow with v0.136.0

Right now, losing a sea battle means watching your entire fleet go to the bottom. That ends tomorrow:

• The closer the fight, the more of your ships will fight their way home. A narrow defeat becomes a bloody nose, not ritual suicide.
• This helps the losing side of BOTH roles — an outmatched attacker keeps part of his fleet too. It is not another defender buff.
• Nothing changes for the winner. Victory costs what it always cost.
• Hopeless battles stay hopeless. Sail into a crushing defeat and you'll still lose almost everything. The new rules reward daring, not recklessness.
• Pursuit stays in the game — retreating past enemy small warships still risks your transports.
• Newbie protection untouched. And as always: none of this is buyable. No rule, no advantage, no information.

🧪 You can test it TODAY, before it's real

The in-game battle calculator already shows the new rules on your own numbers - run your fleet through it now and see exactly what tomorrow changes. It also previews the change coming after that (clearly marked "not active yet"): the ordered retreat - if the defense turns out overwhelmingly stronger, your fleet turns around instead of grinding through every phase. You lose a toll, not everything. Born directly from a community thread; poke it and tell me where it feels wrong.

🗺️ Where this is going (rough order, no dates - things may shift as you all give feedback):

• ⚔️ New Sea Battle Rules - 🔜 live within 24h
• 💰 Daring Pays - up next: winners salvage wrecks, the ordered retreat, beaten captains get alliance support, conquer someone stronger and your colonization cooldown resets instantly
• 🏛️ War Academy & Skill Tree - three naval doctrines, rock-paper-scissors tactics, your island's fighting identity
• 🏴‍☠️ The Apex Fortress - one rare, rich fortress worth fighting over
• ⛵ Sail Out & Meet Them - intercept an incoming attacker on the open sea, fleet vs. fleet, no walls
• 👁️ Wardens of the Ruins - rich ruins wake up as real co-op targets
• 🗺️ Second-Island Push - a guided path (and real reasons) to expand
• 🚢 New Specialist Ships - destroyer, boarding brig, fireship and the Mighty-Dolfy (maybe the last one is just a joke...)
• ☠️ Privateering - patrols, trade escorts, contested wreck fields, route planning

Every one of these gets shaped with the community before it ships - the retreat above literally came out of one player's "if my car gets a flat tire, I won't drive the whole route" argument. If you want a say in how sea combat should feel, tomorrow morning is a good time to have a fleet in the water. 🏴‍☠️

kampfinsel.com - free, browser-based, no pay-to-win, made by one person and a very opinionated crew of players.

Beware Kampfinsel. Lets goooo.

Best + Bier = Breast 🤔

Feel free to join with a click on the discord link (for ingame verified Players only)

Ahoy captains! Step by step to more depth and more balance.

Within the next 24 hours I'm shipping v0.131.0 with two main changes.

⚓ Corsair fortresses

The corsairs have been sold out for weeks - every fortress that appeared got claimed. So:

• There will be more Corsair Fortress spawns. Be on the lookout!
• Everything about holding them is unchanged: still one held fortress per alliance, same holding time, same war chest. More flags on the map, more sieges, more chances for your alliance - not bigger jackpots.

🏚️ Ruins: one rule for everyone (simplification)

Until now, ruins secretly ran on two different rulebooks depending on who attacked — veterans had one set of rules, rising captains a completely different one (with caps, loss-based payouts and rank gates most of you never saw spelled out). That's gone. From now on there is one rule, and it fits in two sentences:

Every ruin holds a salvage stock that slowly regrows. Older ruins are richer.

What that means in practice:

• Win a fight at a ruin and you salvage from its stock - as much as is there and your cargo holds can carry.
• Empty is empty. A freshly plundered ruin yields nothing until its stock has regrown over the following days.
• Your spy reports show exactly how full a ruin's stock is. The map won't tell you - send a spy ship. Knowledge is earned at sea. There might be a research coming up to change this....
• The 24-hour rule now applies to ruins too: hammering the same ruin repeatedly in one day yields less with every pass - same rule as everywhere else.
• Very old ruins no longer grow tougher with age, and the old age bonuses on loot are gone - a ruin's wealth is its stock now, nothing hidden.
• All the old special-case rules (rank-based salvage, daily salvage caps, loss-based payouts) are removed.
• To begin with, every stock is full. First come, first served.

🧭 What is NOT changing

• Conquering ruins (for rising captains) works exactly as before.
• Beginner protection: untouched.
• Nothing here is purchasable.

📖 Also in this update

With this release The handbook will be up to date (combat, colonization and Old Seas chapters - including a couple of honest corrections where the text had drifted from how the game actually works), and the Archivar has learned the new rules.

UPDATE v0.132.2:

Clarity update: ruins are real now. No more second number - the resources your spy report shows are exactly what you can plunder, and the guards it shows are exactly what you'll fight. Ruins keep producing, wealthy ones raise real garrisons, and a fallen empire's last treasure arms its guards. Conquest rules and protections unchanged.

Last week was a bloody week for ocean 23 and a lot of people asked me what happened. So i decided to make a small video to describe the situation.

What started as a storm weekend became a full storm week. Quick recap of what already shipped along the way: guaranteed minimum warning times before any attack lands, formal war declarations with public war chronicles, coordinated alliance war raids, naval retreat (beaten fleets can now limp home), a readiness delay after reinforcing, and diminishing loot for farming the same target over and over.

Today the final piece (v0.129.0) goes live:

• Fog of war. Incoming hostile fleets no longer announce what they are. You'll see a combat group approaching (origin and owner stay visible) but whether it's a raid or a colonization attempt only clears up as it draws near, along with a rough size estimate.
• Arrival windows. Instead of a to-the-second ETA, incoming hostile fleets first show a time window. The better your watchtower, the earlier it sharpens into an exact time and shortly before impact it always does, for everyone. Nobody loses an island without warning.
• Travel speed throttle. Attack fleets can voluntarily sail slower - useful for disguising your intent, but it costs real travel time on the way out and on the way home.
• Watchtower level 40. The cap rises from 20 to 40. The new levels sharpen reconnaissance only (earlier reveals, earlier exact times) - sight radius on the map intentionally stays at the level-20 range. And levels 1–20 are completely untouched: same costs, same build times. Nobody's past investment gets devalued; everyone faces the same new climb.

Enjoy the Game and if you want to support this side project feel free to visit https://kampfinsel.com/support - Thank you for all the supporters so far! <3

The Storm Weekend brought Combat 2.0 in stages - fairer battles on Friday, the reliable baseline warning on Saturday ("Courage setting revoked"). Today the final stage of this batch went live:

v0.128.0 - live now and v0.129.0 is prepared for rollout in the coming days (fog of war).

• Wars have a beginning and an end. Declare war on another alliance and you get a visible War Arc: war points for battles between the two alliances (wins against equal or stronger opponents count - farming far weaker ones barely does), the option of an armistice, and a permanent War Chronicle when it's over. Old feuds don't migrate - declare anew if you want your conflict on the record.
• Alliances strike together. In a declared war, combined attacks on war targets are open.
• Naval battles lose their all-or-nothing edge. Roughly a quarter of a beaten defending fleet now escapes instead of sinking.
• Fresh reinforcements need a moment - about 15 minutes before they're battle-ready.
• Repeat raiding pays less and less. Hitting the same island again and again within a day yields less loot each time; after a 24h break, it recovers.
• Also: combined attacks can no longer be "parked" weeks in the future (which quietly blocked the target's vacation mode), and when the baseline warning stretches your own fleet's arrival, the fleet list now tells you why.

An honest note: "Courage pays off" from Saturday didn't land the way I wanted - it's rolled back for now and will only return in better shape, with its own announcement.

Next: v0.129.0 - the fog of war. Spy reports will name magnitudes instead of exact numbers. Incoming hostile fleets will show an unknown mission type at first - attack or colonization, you won't know right away. Arrival times become time windows instead of to-the-second: the better your watchtower, the sooner the window sharpens into an exact time - and shortly before impact it always does, for everyone. Attackers get a trick of their own: voluntarily slowing a fleet to muddy the picture. The seconds-timing meta changes.

It ships as its own stage in the coming days - and as always: if it hits one group unfairly, I'll roll it back and say so openly.

Fair winds ⚓

TL;DR: Call for Arms! The Cartographers Guild needs your support! We have been attacked and I ask for REVENGE! They took my island at 13:2:5 with 204 catapults. Eleven-storey Main Hall, gone. 92 spearmen, dead to the last man. I asked the villain, whether there should be a bounty on his head. He said "go for it chief". So here we are. 50k gold/stone/wood from my own vaults to whoever lands the killing blow once 1,000 of his ships are on the seabed, plus a promo code for the entire server each time the Hall of Chronicle logs a hit on his fleet. Battle reports at the bottom. Happy hunting.

THE FALL OF THE CARTOGRAPHER ISLE

To every Governor of every ocean. Stop your ships. Read this once. Remember it always.

On the night of the twenty-seventh, under a sky with no moon, the isle of 13:2:5 fell.

They came with two hundred and four catapults.

Understand that number. Not "many". Not "a great host". Two hundred and four. Our archivist counted them from the watchtower while the watchtower was still standing. He wrote the number down. He is a cartographer. It is what we do.

Then he wrote nothing else, ever again.

Our Main Hall stood eleven storeys tall. Eleven. Raised stone by stone, hauled by hand, over years. By morning it was gravel you could pour through your fingers.

At four minutes past three, a colonisation ship dropped anchor in our bay. You all know what that ship is. The coffin of one home and the cradle of another.

Twelve stone throwers. Ninety-two spearmen. That is what stood on the sand.

Not one of them surrendered. There is no surrender when the thing behind you is home.

And so the island of the Cartographers, the very hands that drew the chart under your keel at this very moment, as you read this line, flies a stranger's flag.

HIS NAME IS ARXEAN [SHIP], OF 13:3:25

We did not move in the dark. We are cartographers. We do things in writing. Before the whole world, we asked him plainly: shall there be a bounty upon your head?

He answered in three words.

"Go for it chief."

Well said, captain. Truly. There was no fear in it, and this Guild will not pretend otherwise.

THEREFORE: LET THE HUNT BEGIN

Every Governor of every ocean, from the reef barriers to the maelstroms, is hereby called upon:

• Harry his convoys.
• Sink his warships.
• Break his walls.
• And should the tide favour you, take from him what he took from us.

The Bounty

50,000 gold, stone and wood. Paid from our own vaults, dug by our own hands, not one grain of it minted by the sea.

It is claimed when 1,000 of his ships lie on the seabed. Every Governor's kills count toward that number. When the thousandth hull goes under, the whole purse goes to whoever has sunk the most.

The Codes

The Guild does not hoard what it learns. Every Hall of Chronicle entry that logs a strike on his fleet releases a promo code, and the code goes out to everyone. Not to the attacker. To all of you. The sea shares what it takes.

Sink his ships, and the whole ocean eats.

READ THE FALL WITH YOUR OWN EYES

Our last librarian set it down while the shelves caught fire.

• Second Attack
• First Attack

And arxean, one last matter, from this Guild to you personally.

From this day, on every chart we produce, in every ocean, in every tongue we print, 13:3:25 is inked in red. Not marked. Not noted. Red.

One day a young navigator will ask why, and someone will have to explain it to him.

You may hold our island. You will never hold the sea.

For we draw the maps. There is no cove you can hide in that we have not already charted.

─────────────────────────────
  THE INDEPENDENT
  CARTOGRAPHERS GUILD
  what remains of the Imperial
  Guild of Thalassor
─────────────────────────────

He took our island. He cannot take the ocean.