Clan Wars

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Clan Wars area

A single player waiting to battle a far superior clan.

A message showing that your clan was victorious in battle

the message displayed when a clan reaches the max kill count set.

Clan Wars Option

Depending on the settings chosen, it is possible that you will lose your items if you die during this minigame.

Clan Wars is a minigame that was released on 10 December 2007. It is available to all players, both free players and members, and is located in level 20 Wilderness. The minigame allows clans consisting of anywhere from 1 to 100 members to fight each other. If you have ever wanted to fight as a team with fellow players, this is the place for you. After entering the clan wars challenge hall which is south west of the clan wars arena, a player ranked as a captain or higher on a chat channel can right-click challenge another person ranked captain or higher in a different clan. This minigame received a major expansion on 9 September 2008 with the addition of new fighting options, a new messaging option, new clan-vs-clan maps, and new free-for-all arenas.

Once the challenge has been accepted the challenging player and the accepting player will both be teleported into the arena, the rest of the clan will then have two minutes to enter the arena through one of the portals located in the north and south end clan wars challenge hall, if they fail to make it into the portal by this time they will be sent to the viewing area and will be forced to watch. You can leave the viewing area via portal.

If a player is not in a clan, but has friends with someone fighting in a clan war, the player can enter their name and you will be sent to the viewing area where you can watch the war. There is a bank west of the challenge hall, (slightly east of Bounty Hunter) but be warned it involves traveling through a stretch of Wilderness, so one should be wary of Revenants. The easiest way to reach clan wars is using the Games necklace or via the Ancient Magicks spell "Carrallangar Teleport" (level 84), which puts the player in the Graveyard of Shadows, right next to the the Clan Wars.

It is advisable for the player to get everyone on their team to wear the same team cape or have everyone added each other to their respective friend's lists, as this makes identifying friends and foes easier. Once all of the clan has entered the arena, they will be separated by a wall of spikes that spans the middle of the Clan Wars arena. After two minutes have passed, the wall will be slowly lowered and the clan war will begin. The two minute delay is a good time for the clan leaders to organize tactics on their separate channels, giving the opportunity make a short plan and to get ready. The delay also allows clan members (especially those who are banking at Bounty Hunter) time to get into the arena.

Clan Wars has become more popular after the 9 September updates. It allows players to have different fighting arenas and many more options while fighting. There are new portals allowing players to go into a safe arena with free for all fighting. There is also another portal where players will drop all their items upon death. It is like the safe arena, with the only difference being that all items are dropped upon death. The best tactic is to make full use of the combat triangle, rangers take on mages, mages take on warriors and warriors take on rangers, once the wall is about half way down rangers and magic will be able to fire projectiles/spells at the other clan, this is a very big advantage to them as the melee players have to wait for the wall to be lowered. It is worth noting that in clan wars, a disorganized larger or higher leveled clan can easily be beaten by a smaller or lower leveled clan that is organized. A common strategy is to group together near the back of arena to pick off a few targets before the main force arrives. However, it is not uncommon to see smaller, high leveled clans win against much larger, lower leveled clans

If a clan wins, then a scroll on the screen will display, "Your clan was victorious"; or, if you are not in the war, a message will show up in your chatbox saying, "Your clan has triumphed in battle". If a player's clan loses, a message will say, "Your clan was defeated"; the same message will be displayed in the chatbox even when you are not in the war.

The messages will appear sometimes even when you are very far away.

[edit] Portals

There are three portals in the clan wars building. A purple portal is located in the southern part of the building while a white portal and a red portal are located in the northern part of the building.

[edit] Purple Portal

This portal is the main portal through which most organized clan wars are held. After two clans have agreed to the conditions of battle, members of each respective clan must step through this portal to reach the chosen battlefield.

[edit] White Portal

The safe free-for-all portal in the Clan Wars Challenge Hall.

This portal was added as part of the clan wars update of 9 September 2008. A Safe free-for-all combat arena is found upon entering the portal. If a player dies while in this arena, he/she will not lose any items. A strip of land to the very south of the arena (including the exit portal) is designated as combat-free, where players may prepare before entering the fight. Immediately north of the combat-free area is a single-way combat area where players of any combat level may fight each other. The northern part of the large arena is multi-combat and whole clans (preferablely wearing Team capes) may organize fights.

[edit] Red Portal

This portal was added as part of the clan wars update of 9 September 2008. A Dangerous free-for-all combat arena is found upon entering the portal. If a player dies while in this arena, he/she will lose all items unless the Protect Item prayer is used. There are no gravestones in the dangerous arena, so it is probably safer to only take items you are not especially attached to. A strip of land to the very south of the arena (including the exit portal) is designated as combat-free, where players may wait for the right moment before joining the fray.

[edit] Arenas

Since the 9 September 2008 update, there are seven Clan Wars arenas. Each arena offers a different type of landscape that gives different combat styles and different war strategies an advantage.

[edit] Clan Wars Classic

The original map used since the release of Clan Wars, although some areas of it have become single-way combat zones. This map features a varied landscape of lava pools, rocks, dead trees, fortifications, and different elevations. The entire map was previously multi-combat. Mages and rangers may use the fortifications to their advantage as meleers often get trapped behind the side walls while in pursuit. However, the dead forests may offer meleers limited protection from mages and rangers as they cannot attack through the trees.

[edit] Plateau

A barren desert-like battlefield with almost no obstacles. This arena obviously favors meleers, who will not have to run around barriers to attack mages and rangers. The only obstacles come in the form of curved bones lying on the ground, and they cannot be shot over.

[edit] Forsaken Mine

A vast grey mine full of rocks with two abandoned sheds located in the middle. The middle of the arena is multi-way combat, but near the portals, it is all single-way combat. This greatly reduces the chance of a clan getting knocked out if the clan retreats.

[edit] Blasted Forest

A map full of dead trees. The majority of the map is single-way combat, meaning that large clans cannot make use of their size. Often, the clan with the greater number of high leveled players will win, as piling cannot be used.

[edit] Turrets

The centre of the map a short while before the match begins.

A grassy plain with stone turrets scattered throughout the Map of the Battlefield. Mages and rangers receive a large advantage in this map as melee's can be pinned by crossfire from two or even three turrets. If the melee was to decide to attack the shooter in another turret, he/she would have to run a good distance before reaching the other target. All arrows fired are automatically collected and will be returned when either the player leaves the arena or the battle is over. The entire map is multi-way combat.

[edit] Free-for-all (Safe)

This map consists of both single-way and multi-combat areas. Its terrain looks similar to that of the wilderness.

[edit] Free-for-all (Dangerous)

Although like the safe version in most aspects, this map carries the penalty of item loss upon death. Unbroken arrows will be returned after leaving, whether you were alive or not!

[edit] Strategies

• Advertising - See "Recruitment".
• Berserking - Useful in large clans, most or all of the clan charge against the enemy. This is normally the default strategy, because of the bad leadership and clan chats not allowing talking. But is ironically effective and can turn a battle against more powerful enemies.
• Binding - This is one of the most often used tactics in Clan Wars, and many recruiters do not mind if the player who can use this tactic in their clan is lower than the clan's Combat level requirement. Players can simply use binding and freezing spells such as Entangle and Ice Barrage on their opponents so they cannot move. The other clan members can simply finish off the binded player before the effect wears off. This strategy is also useful if a clan wants to keep an opponent that is a high threat away while they are defeated.
• Communication – Talking in the player's clan chat whilst waiting for the wall to go down is very helpful for teamwork. Talking about who to attack or what strategy to use helps the team know what to do.
• Diversion/Distraction - As a defensive maneuver rather than the standard offencive, a player may try to get the attention of enemies, getting them to chase after them. The distractor usually puts on defencive prayers to stay alive longer. If the distractor runs away from the main frey with their prey in pursuit, they are helping their team by softening up the enemy team. What might have been a 10 vs. 10 battle could be turned into a 9 vs. 6 battle.
• Food – Food may or may not be allowed in Clan Wars. It is up to each individual whether they want to bring food into Clan Wars though. Many players will negatively remark at eaters, claiming it's unfair and/or a waste of money.
• Falling back - See "Running/Falling back" below.
• Hit-and-Run - Attacking an enemy then running off helps dillute the enemy team's assault force. It can be useful as most people wear armour, but on the downside, it uses up a lot of run energy and can only be effectively used in numbers.
• Luring – One clan will hide in a specific spot and/or do a "death dot" (abbreviated as "dd", all of the clan will stand on the same square). Then a designated scout from the clan will go to the centre and wait until the match is about to or has just started. In most cases, a great majority of the other clan will chase after the tanker, who will run to where their clan was hiding to ambush the other clan.
• One versus One (abbreviated as "1v1") - Some players in Clan Wars may wish to duel another player on the opposing side without any interference. If a player does wish to have a one on one fight, he either says "1v1 anyone?", and waits for someone to answer, or says "[insert name/level here], 1v1?". If the challenger accepts, they move to an isolated area. When the war is started, the players begin to fight, and when one is defeated, the winner moves on to other players and proceeds to fight.
• Piling – Piling is when two or more players attack the same person. This tactic works very well if the team attacking uses two or more of the combat styles, as the victim will not be able to protect from everyone.
• Recruitment - This tactic is used by most clans. In Clan Wars, the more members in a clan, the better. The main way to gain more members is to asks friends to join, or- the more popular way -, publically ask all nearby players to join. Common phrases include, but are not limited to: "Join me", "Join [Clan Chat name]", "All Join [Clan Chat name]", and "[Combat level]+ [Clan Chat name]".
  • Clan Chat hijacking - This tactic is severely frowned upon. In an attempt to recruit for one's clan, recruiters may go to other chats, advertizing their own clan, usually getting kicked in the process.
• Running/Falling back – Clan Wars is about surviving for the longest. If needed, running can be a very good thing to do. If being piled (see above), running can shake some of the attackers off, and keep the runner alive longer.
• Sneaking - Hiding out of the view of the other clan on either edge of the map and then rushing to the opponents' side of the map as soon as the stone wall lowers can be benificial. The sneaking clan can then wait in the opponents' side to ambush any opponents that may have ventured back alone to investigate. Many times, by the time that the sneaking clan is found, their opponents are low/out of run energy. This tactic does not work sometimes as more experienced clans will have watchers on all fronts of the stone wall.
• Smaller clans - Smaller clans have an advantage over larger clans, as smaller clans are easier to organize and can quickly relay a strategy to its members, whereas larger clans tend to be disorganized and cluttered.
• Spying - Very rarely, the enemy leader uses a friend as a spy, this is great for intercepting enemy clan chat and turn the battle to your favor.
• Suicide Bombing - If a player's Prayer is high enough, they can use Retribution (Members only) and let themself get killed to damage your opponents. This works better if there are more opponents in the direct vicinity when the prayer goes into effect.
• Tagging - In single-way combat zones, the player being attacked may switch off auto-retaliate when in a losing fight so that one of his team mates can attack the enemy player. This greatly increases the chance of winning the fight.
• Tanking - This is not an often used tactic, but can be effective if done properly. This method is usually done if the clan is severely outnumbered by the opposing clan. Players tend to kill mages first because of their low defensive bonuses. Therefore, the player who tanks is usually a mage with high defensive bonuses and still keep a decent magic attack bonus. The tank is often a high leveled player with a very high magic, defence and hitpoints with a decent prayer level. The mage tank will usually cast a combination of burst or barrage spells (most notably Blood Barrage), as they all have a useful effect to help the mage survive. The tank can also just stick to using potions and food, but that will decrease the effectiveness of this method.

[edit] Music

• Clan Wars - Music will not unlock while waiting inside the arena; you have to wait for the actual fight.

[edit] Trivia

• There was a glitchy space both in the North-west and North-east and Southern areas of Clan Wars. It allowed you to "drop" into the floor. Mysteriously, players could attack while under the ground. In addition, if you dropped an item in one of the glitched spaces, you could not pick it back up again. Many players used this glitch to hide from the other clan although they could be still seen on the minimap. This has been fixed as of 29 January 2008.
• Some players may have an "attack" option on other players outside of Clan Wars, despite not being able to attack anyone. This is especially likely to occur in a crowded world or if the clan wars challenge arena is crowded.

The inaccurate member-count glitch. Only three players are listed, but there are at least four alive in the arena.

Another screenshot of the inaccurate member-count glitch. The opposing team is listed as having no members, yet two can easily be seen.

• There is also a glitch that the upper-right box that displays the number of clan members on the field is inaccurate. There still may be multiple members of one side alive on the field, but that side may reach to be listed as having no players, making them lose. The cause is unknown, and this happens rarely.
• Calladin is the mighty warrior who watches over the arena.
• Sometimes clans would get what are called "split wars". It is one part of that clan is in one war while, another half, usually a single person, is in another. The cause is unknown.

On 14th of October 2008,The Wise Old Man appeared in Clan Wars telling people that gravestones will not appear in free for all(dangerous).

[edit] References

• RuneScape Game Guide - Clan Wars