KOTH: the open siege

King of the Hill, SiegeWar style: a battle session where every side attacks and nobody defends. A flag goes up in the wilderness, every federation, nation and nationless town that turns up fights for it, and the side with the most battle points after 45 minutes wins (or the first side to hold the flag for 20 minutes straight).

Sieges only run at weekends. KOTH brings big fights to weekdays: three battle sessions a week, at the busiest time of day, open to any nation, federation or nationless town. It plays like a SiegeWar battle session: flag control, battle points, death points and reversals, with the same chat messages. You keep your inventory while you fight, and everything built or broken is put back afterwards.

Jump to: Guide for leaders · Guide for fighters · Questions

When it runs

Times are UK time; the last column shows them in your own time.

Schedule details

• Every weekMonday 20:00, Wednesday 17:30 and Friday 17:30, UK time. They're at the server's busiest time of day, Europe's evening.
• FridayOnce sieges are open, the Friday session moves 2 hours earlier, to 15:30, to make room for the siege battle sessions.
• WeekendsNo KOTH: weekends belong to sieges.
• RemindersAnnounced in game 30, 10 and 1 minutes before, and the flag's coordinates are given 15 minutes before. /koth shows the next session at any time. Big sessions are also announced on Discord.

Sides

Sides are decided the way SiegeWar decides an attacking side, except that every side attacks.

How sides work

• One side, one campEvery side gets exactly one camp. Only sides with a camp can fight: anyone else in the zone during the battle can't hurt anyone, and gets SiegeWar's war sickness if they don't leave within 20 seconds.
• Sides lock at the startJoining or leaving a nation or federation during a session changes nothing until the next one.
• No limitAny number of sides can take part. A session runs even if only one side turns up.
• Diplomacy is pausedWhile your side has a camp, its make-up is frozen until the session ends: no towns join, leave or are kicked from your nations, no nations join or leave your federation, a nationless town can't join or found a nation, and nothing merges, is deleted or changes enemies. Players joining and leaving towns is fine.
• Backing outA side's leaders can pull out with /koth camp delete: everyone on the side gets a vote, and if more vote yes than no the camp comes down and the side is out. It can't set a new camp for 15 minutes; its points are kept if it comes back.

Before the start: the race for camps

1. 1
   The flag goes up

   15 minutes before the start, the flag goes up at a fairly flat, open spot in the wilderness, far from any town: a tall banner flag with white cloth that turns the colour of whichever side holds it. The flag can't be broken or changed by anyone. A red particle border marks the 130-block battle zone around it. The coordinates are announced, and the zone shows on the web map.

2. 2
   Leaders head out

   A side's leaders type /koth scout: it drops them at a random spot a few blocks outside the red border, facing the flag. Leaders are a nation's leader, its generals and assistants (from any nation of a federation), or a nationless town's mayor and assistants. It works from the moment the flag goes up, has a 30-second cooldown, and stops working once your side has a camp.

3. 3
   Find a spot and hold it

   Until the battle session starts there's normal PvP in the zone, but you keep your items if you die in it, and once your side has a camp you respawn there. Rival leaders are looking for camp spots too, so come geared and ready to fight them off.

4. 4
   Set the camp

   Walk in and stand just inside the red border: camps go on the outskirts of the zone, so the whole camp has to fit inside the border with its edge no more than 15 blocks in from it (the game tells you the exact range from the flag). Stay at least 50 blocks from any other camp, and type /koth camp set. Your side's flag goes up two blocks in front of you, its cloth in your side's colour (the wool closest to your nation or federation's map colour; nationless towns use their town colour). The camp is centred on the flag's pole. Choose carefully: a camp can't be moved.

5. 5
   Bring your army

   As soon as your camp exists, everyone on your side can join: /koth tp takes you to the camp (stand still for 5 seconds), and /koth ghasttp brings your whole Happy Ghast crew, arriving in the air above the camp. Both are free, with a 30-second cooldown.

Your camp

• SizeAround the camp's flag, its edge outlined in particles in your side's colour. The radius is 8 blocks for a side of up to 20 people (counting everyone, offline too), 1 more for every 10 more people, up to 12.
• The flagThe camp's flag can't be broken, burned, blown up or changed, not even by your own side's leaders. Everything else in the camp follows your camp's permissions.
• SafeNobody can be hurt inside a camp, and other sides can't build, break, burn, flood or blow up anything in it. That holds even mid-fight: combat tag doesn't matter inside a camp.
• Who can buildIt works like a Towny plot. Your side's leaders can always build and break there; they decide what everyone else on the side can do (see Managing your camp). By default only leaders build and break, and everyone on the side can use doors, chests and the like.
• No extra protection outsideThe camp itself is the safe area. Step out and you're in the fight.
• Your way in and outYour camp is where you arrive and where you leave from. Camps are the only places in the zone where teleporting out works, and that includes other sides' camps, so nobody gets trapped in an enemy camp.
• Late to the party?A side can set its camp at any time, even after the battle session has started (/koth scout, then /koth camp set); it just starts behind on points.

Managing your camp

• Who manages itYour side's leaders: nation leaders, generals and assistants (any nation of a federation), or for a nationless town its mayor and assistants. They can always build and break in the camp.
• The permissions menu/koth camp perm gui opens a menu to choose what town mayors & assistants and residents on your side may do: build, destroy, switch (doors, chests, buttons) and itemuse (buckets, flint and steel), and to turn fire, explosions and PvP on in the camp.
• By commandLike /plot set perm: /koth camp set perm residents build on, /koth camp set perm staff off, /koth camp set perm reset. /koth camp perm shows the current settings.
• Trusting a player/koth trust add <player> lets one player on your side build and break in the camp; /koth trust remove <player> and /koth trust list.
• Toggles/koth camp toggle fire, explosion or pvp. They're off by default; turning PvP on means the camp is no longer a safe zone.

The battle session

When it starts, the zone inside the red border works like a SiegeWar siege zone during a battle session.

Rules in the zone

• Keep inventoryDying keeps your items (tools lose 5% durability), and you respawn at your side's camp.
• No cobwebsCobwebs can't be placed anywhere in the KOTH zone, camps included.
• No teleportingEvery teleport is blocked inside the zone during the battle, /koth tp and /koth ghasttp included, and nothing can teleport you in apart from those two. To leave, walk back into a camp (or out over the red border): from any camp, yours or another side's, you can teleport anywhere. Ender pearls still work; chorus fruit doesn't.
• War sicknessOnly participants (players on a side with a camp) can fight in the zone during the battle. Anyone else can't hurt players there, is warned, and after 20 seconds gets SiegeWar's war sickness: blindness, poison, weakness, slowness and mining fatigue, with health dropped to half a heart, until they leave the zone.
• No totems or elytraTotems of undying don't save you, and elytra don't work in the zone. Happy Ghasts can still drop crews at your camp.
• No hostile mobsThe zone is cleared of hostile mobs when the battle starts, and none spawn in it.
• Build and break anythingForts, pillars, tunnels, bridges: everywhere in the zone, and it's all put back after the session. Two exceptions: the flag area (below), and other sides' camps.
• The flag area is protectedThe 10 blocks around the flag, marked by the particle outline, can't be changed by anyone, at any height: no breaking, building, explosions, fire, lava or water, or pistons. You fight on the ground as it is.
• No dupingBlocks that were there before the session drop nothing when broken, and chests and other containers that were already there can't be opened.

Flag control

• CapturingEvery player has their own capture time, like SiegeWar's banner control sessions. Stand in the flag area (inside the particle outline) with nobody from any other side in it, and your time builds up. When anyone on your side reaches 45 seconds, your side takes control. The bossbar fills in your side's colour with your side's best time. The more of your side stand in the flag area, the faster everyone's time builds: up to 3 players count, each extra one adding 25% speed (2 players: 36 seconds, 3 or more: 30).
• Stepping outLeave the flag area (or die) and your capture time doesn't vanish: it drains away, slowly at first, and faster for every player from another side standing in the flag area. Get back in time and you keep what's left.
• Taking controlWhen the minute is up, your side gains flag control: the flag's cloth and the outline turn your colour, and everyone at the battle is told.
• Contested!If two or more sides are in the flag area, it's contested: everyone's capture time pauses, and the holder gets only its holding points until one side is left.
• Taking it from someoneWhile another side is capturing the flag, the holder only gets its holding points, not the bonus for players on the flag. If they finish, control is stolen: a reversal. Reversals don't multiply points.
• GlowingOn each side capturing the flag, the player with the most capture time glows, so you know who to stop. Players of the side holding the flag glow while they're in the flag area.
• FailingIf your capture time drains all the way to nothing, your capture session fails and you start again from zero.

Kills earn most of the points; the flag makes them worth more and adds a steady trickle on top. Two equal sides where one holds the flag all session and the other wins the fights 2 to 1 should end about level.

Outnumbered? Your kills count for more

Every kill is multiplied by the square root of (the victim's side's fighters ÷ your side's fighters), between ⅓× and 3×. Fighters are the players of a side who've been in the zone in the last 3 minutes, so people who never turn up don't count. For example, 5 against 15: each kill by the 5 is worth about 173, each kill by the 15 about 58. If both sides fight equally well, the 15 get three times as many kills and the two sides end level, so a smaller side wins by fighting better, not by having more people. Chat shows the multiplier on each kill.

The underdog boost is small on purpose: a side that turns up 10–15 minutes late can still catch up if it fights well, but it can't win just by being behind. It applies to kills and flag points, never to the leading side.

What you'll see

• The red borderParticles trace the edge of the battle zone in red, on top of the ground.
• The flag areaIts edge is traced in particles: white while nobody holds the flag, then the holder's colour.
• Camp outlinesEvery camp's edge is traced in its side's colour for the whole session.
• The bossbarInside the zone during the battle: "The flag is unclaimed", "[side] is capturing the flag" (filling up in the capturer's colour), "[side] holds the flag" (full, in the holder's colour), "[side]'s capture is fading" or "Contested!". After the battle it counts down the time left to leave the zone.
• The scoreboardInside the zone, under Ping: the time left, then every side with its battle points, best first. The holder has a ⚑.
• ChatSiegeWar-style messages: the battle session starting and ending, every camp set, flag control gained or stolen, every death with the points it gave, and killstreaks (3 in a row is a killing spree, then dominating, unstoppable, godlike…), including when one is ended.
• NametagsInside the zone, every player's name shows in their side's colour (the nearest colour a nametag can show), so you know who you're fighting. It goes back to normal as soon as they leave.
• The web mapThe battle zone (a red circle), the flag (a flag icon in the middle of the gold flag area) and every camp (in its side's colour) show on the live map as soon as the flag goes up, in both the globe and the flat view. Toggle them with KOTH in the map's layers. The last winner's capital gets a crown.

The end

1. 1
   Fireworks

   When time runs out, the battle session ends, scoring stops and fireworks go off over the flag. The side with the most battle points wins. Or win early: a side that holds the flag for 20 minutes without anyone taking it wins on the spot, whatever the points, and the wind-down starts. The bossbar shows how long until the holder wins.

2. 2
   The crown

   The final battle points are announced in game and on Discord. The winning side's capital gets a crown on the web map until the next session, everyone who fought for the winning side gets a KOTH Crate, and the winning side's bank starts earning 5 gold an hour.

3. 3
   5 minutes to get out

   Leave the zone before it closes: walk out over the red border, or go to your camp and teleport home from there. The bossbar counts down the time left. You can still fight, but it scores nothing, and dying now sends you to your own spawn point or town instead of the camp. Warnings go out at 5 and 1 minutes.

4. 4
   The zone closes

   The zone and the camps disappear and the area is normal wilderness again. If you're still there, dying means your loot drops.

5. 5
   Rollback

   Every block placed or broken in the zone and the camps since the flag went up is put back. Anything you built there, including chests and what's in them, is gone, so don't leave loot behind.

Stats and rewards

• Your recordEvery session counts towards your KOTH stats: sessions played, kills, deaths, time at the flag, captures and wins. See yours with /koth stats, and on your player card on the stats website, along with a history of every session.
• KOTH CrateEveryone who fought for the winning side (was in the zone during the battle for it) gets one KOTH Crate, however big the side is. It goes in your inventory, or your ender chest if that's full, or you get it the next time you join. A draw gives no crates. Right-click it to spin for netherite armour and tools with the best enchantments (no Thorns, no Knockback), a bow, 32 or 64 golden carrots, golden apples, 2 or 3 shulker shells, ender pearls, bottles o' enchanting, a netherite upgrade template, and rare drops: netherite ingots, a nether star, an enchanted golden apple, rare armour trims and the KOTH Champion's Shield.
• Runner-up CrateEveryone who fought for the side that came second gets a KOTH Runner-up Crate, delivered the same way. It's a step down from the winners' crate: diamond armour and tools with good enchantments, a bow and arrows, golden carrots and apples, a shulker shell, ender pearls, bottles o' enchanting, and rare drops of netherite scrap and armour trims. No champion's shield.
• 5 gold an hourThe winning side's bank (its federation's, its nation's, or a nationless town's) gets 5 gold every hour from its win until the next KOTH battle ends, even across restarts. It's the same 5 gold for any size of side, so a small side that wins gets far more per player. A draw ends the income; a session nobody fights in doesn't, so the champions keep earning. Federations see it in /fed bank.
• GloryThe crown on the map, the announcement, and your name in the stats.

Guide for leaders

You're a leader if you're your nation's leader, one of its generals or assistants (any nation of a federation counts), or, for a town with no nation, its mayor or an assistant. Your side can't fight without a camp, and only leaders can set one, so at least one of you needs to be online.

1. 1
   Before the day

   Agree who goes out to set the camp and who backs them up. Gear up properly: the camp race before the battle is open PvP. You keep your items if you die inside the red border, but not on the way there. Bring armour, food, ender pearls and blocks.

2. 2
   30 minutes before

   The session is announced in chat and on Discord. Get online, get geared, and tell your side to be ready.

3. 3
   15 minutes before: the flag goes up

   Chat gives the flag's coordinates. Type /koth scout: you land just outside the red border, facing the flag, and walk in from there. You can scout again after 30 seconds if you don't like where you landed.

4. 4
   Find your spot

   Camps go on the outskirts: just inside the red border, with the whole camp inside it and its edge no more than 15 blocks in from it, at least 50 blocks from any other side's camp, on solid ground. Every side is the same distance from the flag, so pick your spot for the ground: cover, high ground, and the way in to the flag. Rival leaders are doing the same, so watch your back.

5. 5
   Set the camp

   Stand on the spot and type /koth camp set. Your side's flag goes up two blocks in front of you (the camp is centred on its pole), the camp's edge is outlined in particles, everyone is told, and your side is messaged that the camp is ready. The spot is final: a camp can't be moved. From now on your camp is safe, and your side's diplomacy is paused until the session ends.

6. 6
   Set who can build

   By default only leaders build and break in the camp. Open /koth camp perm gui to let town mayors and assistants, or all residents, build too, or trust single players with /koth trust add <player>.

7. 7
   Rally your side

   Tell everyone to /koth tp (or /koth ghasttp with a Happy Ghast). Use the time before the start to build walls, a staging area and supply chests in the camp.

8. 8
   Lead the fight

   You fight like everyone else once the battle session starts. Your side respawns at your camp, so the camp is your rally point.

9. 9
   Bring everyone home

   When it ends, you have 5 minutes. Get your side back to the camp to teleport home (or out over the border), and empty any chests: everything in the zone and the camps is rolled back.

Leaders: good to know

• Running late?You can set your camp at any time during the session, the same way: /koth scout, then /koth camp set. Your side just starts behind on points.
• Already have a camp?/koth scout stops working once your side has a camp. Use /koth tp like everyone else.
• FederationsA federation is one side with one camp. Any leader from any of its nations can set it, and the first one to do it sets it for everyone.
• Camp colourThe flag's cloth is the wool colour closest to your nation's map colour (your federation's colour if you're in one, or your town's for a nationless town).
• Camp sizeBigger sides get bigger camps: radius 8 up to 20 people, +1 per 10 more, up to 12. Everyone counts, offline players included.
• Backing out/koth camp delete, then /koth camp delete confirm, starts a vote for your whole side (60 seconds, click YES or NO in chat). If more vote yes, the camp comes down and your side is out of the battle, and can't set a new camp for 15 minutes.

Guide for fighters

Everyone in a town can fight for their side: your federation, your nation, or your town if it has no nation. You don't need a rank.

1. 1
   Be in a town

   Players without a town can't take part, and neither can a side without a camp. Anyone like that in the zone during the battle can't fight, and gets war sickness after 20 seconds.

2. 2
   Gear up

   Bring your best: armour, weapons, potions, food and blocks for cover. In the zone you keep your inventory when you die, but tools lose a little durability.

3. 3
   Wait for your camp

   Once a leader sets your side's camp, you get a message. Type /koth tp and stand still for 5 seconds (it's cancelled if you move or get hurt, and doesn't work while you're in combat). Riding a Happy Ghast? /koth ghasttp brings it and everyone riding it to above the camp. Both are free, with a 30-second cooldown.

4. 4
   Head for the flag

   From your camp, make for the flag, 60 to 120 blocks away. Ender pearls work; elytra, chorus fruit and every teleport don't.

5. 5
   Take the flag

   Stand in the flag area with nobody from another side in it until someone on your side has 45 seconds of capture time. Your side then holds it and scores every 20 seconds for each of you standing there. Keep other sides out: if they get in it's contested, and if they start capturing, you stop scoring. Hunt the glowing player: they're the one closest to taking the flag. Hold it for 20 minutes without it being taken and your side wins outright.

6. 6
   Kill, die, go again

   Kills are where the points are: every kill on another side's player is +100 for your side, and up to +250 at the flag (a capturer, or while you're capturing). Killstreaks are called out in chat. If you die in the zone you keep your items and respawn at your camp; an enemy who killed you gets the points.

7. 7
   Go home

   When the battle session ends, you have 5 minutes to get out: back to your camp to teleport home, or over the red border. After the zone closes, dying there drops your loot like anywhere else.

Questions

• Do I lose my items?Not inside the red border, from the moment the flag goes up until the zone closes (the camp race before the battle included). You do outside the border, and anywhere once the zone has closed.
• How do I leave the zone?Walk into your camp (or any camp, if you're stuck in another side's) and teleport home from there, or walk out over the red border. Teleporting is blocked everywhere else in the zone.
• What happens to things I build?Everything built or broken in the zone and the camps is put back afterwards, chests included. Take your loot home.
• Can I mine the zone for resources?No: blocks that were there before the session drop nothing when broken, and chests that were already there can't be opened. Blocks you placed yourself drop normally.
• Can enemies attack our camp?No. Nobody can be hurt inside a camp or attack out of one, and only your side can build or break blocks there. You can walk through another side's camp, but you can't start a fight there. That includes fights that are already on: combat tag doesn't matter inside a camp.
• Why can't I build in our camp?Only your side's leaders build and break there unless they let others: ask them to use /koth camp perm gui or /koth trust add.
• Can our town join a nation during KOTH?Not while your side has a camp in a session: diplomacy is paused until it ends.
• Nobody from my side is online to set a campThen your side can't fight this session. Any leader can still set one later in the session.
• I'm a new player with immunityWhile you're immune you can't hurt anyone and you don't count at the flag. /immunity off ends it early if you want to fight.
• Can I bring my horse?Get off before /koth tp. Only Happy Ghasts travel with you, with /koth ghasttp.
• Are there mobs?Hostile mobs are cleared from the zone when the battle starts, and none spawn there until it ends.
• Can I build a town near it?No new towns or claims can be made close to a running session.

Commands

• /kothThe next session, the location (once revealed) and the battle points.
• /koth scoutLeaders only: teleport to a random spot just outside the red border, to find a camp spot. Until your side has a camp; 30-second cooldown.
• /koth camp setLeaders: set your side's camp, just inside the red border (the whole camp inside it, its edge at most 15 blocks in from it).
• /koth tpTeleport to your side's camp (stand still for 5 seconds). Free; 30-second cooldown; not from inside the zone.
• /koth ghasttpTeleport your Happy Ghast and its riders to above your camp. Free; 30-second cooldown; not from inside the zone.
• /koth statsYour KOTH record: sessions, kills, deaths, time at the flag, captures and wins.
• /koth camp perm / /koth camp perm guiYour camp's permissions; leaders can change them in the menu.
• /koth camp set perm <staff|residents> [build|destroy|switch|itemuse] <on|off>Leaders: set what a group may do in the camp (or reset).
• /koth camp toggle <fire|explosion|pvp>Leaders: turn fire, explosions or PvP on or off in the camp.
• /koth trust <add|remove|list> [player]Leaders: let one player on your side build and break in the camp.
• /koth camp deleteLeaders: start a vote to delete your camp and back out (then /koth camp delete confirm).
• /koth vote <yes|no>Vote on your side's back-out (or click YES / NO in chat).