Opening up the gates of either city is a long and arduous process that begins in the Tier 4 zones primarily.  In order to force your enemy’s city into the contested state, you and the fellow warriors of your realm must first capture 2 fortresses in the Tier 4 zones within 12 hours of each other.In order to attack these fortresses, you must first capture the zones prior to the Fortress zones in Tier 4 by Zone Control (participating in Scenarios, queuing for Scenarios, capturing Objectives and Keeps, Killing enemy players and completing PQs).

Fortresses are the last bastion of defense before you can start knocking on your enemy’s city gates.  If ever there is a need to work together against all odds, this is it.  If you don’t win here, there is no hope for bringing the fight to the city.Once both are held by your Realm, you will be free to take on the challenges of sacking the enemy’s fortress in that racial pairing. What goes into taking an enemy’s fortress in Tier 4, you ask? What this means is you’ll first push to a zone between your Tier 4 home and the enemy’s (Praag for example), and once you’ve taken control of that zone you would push forward to Reikland or Chaos Wastes (depending on your allegiance) and capture the objectives there.   

Each fortress has its own zone, and once players enter this area they’ll have 60 minutes to topple the defenses and take down the Fortress Lord.  The outer reaches of each fortress has 10-12 siege weaponry pads for the attackers to use in order to take down the defenses.  Similarly, the fortress walls are lined along the top with 6-8 of their own weaponry pads for the defenders to use.