War Council: drafts and scoring

1 The points table#

Alliances score:

• Win: 10. Draw: 5. A loss scores nothing for the result.
• Upset: 5 more for a win over a side that had more war power at matchmaking. If either side's war power is unknown, it isn't an upset.
• War points: 1 for every full 100 the alliance scored. 3,460 war points is 34.
• Map clear: 8 for clearing the whole enemy board.
• Squads standing: 1 for each of its members' squads still standing at the end.
• MVP and Wall of the week: 6, 4 or 2 when one of its members places first, second or third among the week's top attackers (MVP) or defenders (Wall).

War players score:

• War points: 1 for every full 200 they scored themselves.
• Zones cleared: 3 each.
• Squads standing: 1 for each of their own squads still standing.
• MVP and Wall of the week: 6, 4 or 2, as for alliances.

Your captain scores double: everything in the captain's line is multiplied by two. There are no negative points. During attacks a team shows live points from war points and clears only; the result, upset, squads and MVP points are added once the war is final.

2 Worked examples#

An upset win, captained. Your captain is an alliance that wins its war against a side with more war power. It scores 3,460 war points, clears the enemy map, finishes with 4 squads standing, and one of its members is the week's second-best attacker.

• Win 10, upset 5, war points 34, map clear 8, squads 4, MVP #2 4: 65 points.
• As captain: 130.

A strong player. A war player you started scores 1,450 war points, clears 2 zones and has 1 squad standing.

• War points 7 (1,450 ÷ 200, rounded down), zones 6, squad 1: 14 points.

A respectable loss. One of your alliances loses its war but scores 2,980 war points with 2 squads standing. It earns 29 + 2 = 31 points. In War Council a well-fought loss can outscore a narrow win, because most of the points come from war points, not the result.

A draw. An alliance draws with 1,840 war points and nothing else: 5 + 18 = 23 points.

Bench cover. A starting alliance has no war that week. The first alliance on your bench, in bench order, that does have a war takes its place and scores in full. A starting player who didn't fight is covered by your bench player, if the bench player fought. If nobody on the bench can cover, the slot scores 0.

A covered captain. Your captain is the starter who sat out. The bench alliance covers the slot, scores 41, and you get 41, not 82. The double only counts when the captain's own slot plays. Captain someone you are sure will fight.

3 Lineups and the lock#

Before each week you set your starters, your bench order and your captain. Lineups lock when attacks open, at Saturday 00:00 UTC (Friday 8 PM US Eastern in summer, 7 PM from November 1). Between weeks you can swap: drop one pick and add a free alliance or player of the same kind. The Public game allows 2 swaps a week; a private league sets its own number from 0 to 4. See The war week clock.

4 Private league drafts#

A private league picks its teams in a snake draft of 12 rounds. Each pick is an alliance or a war player, up to 8 alliances and 4 players a team, and every alliance and player can belong to only one team in the league. The order reverses each round, so the Warlord who picks last in round 1 picks first in round 2 and gets two picks in a row at each turn.

• Draft order is random by default. The League manager can set it by hand instead.
• The pick clock is 30, 60, 90 or 120 seconds, 60 by default.
• Length. A 12-team league makes 144 picks, about two and a half hours at most on the default clock. The largest league, 20 teams, makes 240.
• The room has its own chat. The League manager can pause and resume the draft.

Queue and autodraft

You can line up a queue of picks before and during the draft. When your turn comes on autodraft, the draft waits 5 seconds and then takes the first player or alliance in your queue that is still free, or, with an empty queue, the top of Best available. Best available ranks alliances and players together by their points per war over recent weeks, tempered by price so that one big week doesn't jump the list.

You go on autodraft in three ways: by turning it on, by leaving the draft room, or by letting your clock run out, which also makes that pick for you. Turning autodraft off gives back whatever time your clock had left on that turn, not a fresh clock.

Near the end, the draft makes sure every team finishes with 8 alliances. A team that has left alliances too late finds its last picks steered to them.

5 Draft strategy#

The scoring rewards some habits:

• Alliances carry the most points. War points pay 1 per 100 for an alliance and 1 per 200 for a player, and an alliance adds the result, map clears and squads on top. Taking alliances with your early picks is the natural plan.
• Active alliances beat strong ones. War points come from filling the board and attacking. An alliance that places every squad and uses its attacks scores well even in a loss.
• Upsets are worth hunting. A winning alliance with less war power than its opponent earns 5 extra. War power predicts the winner poorly, so modest alliances that win often pay off.
• Players only score if they fight. Draft players who play every week, and keep your bench player ready for the week a starter misses.
• Depth covers byes. A real-game bye or a missed sign-up leaves a starter idle. Three bench alliances in a sensible order keep those slots scoring.
• Plan around the turn. With a snake, a pick at either end of the order comes in pairs. Queue two targets before your double turn.

6 The Public game's budget#

The Public game has no draft. Everyone picks from the whole pool under a 225-credit budget. Alliances cost 26, 22, 19, 17 or 15 credits by war power band, A to E, fixed for the season. Players cost 11 to 34, by their war points per war over the last two weeks.

An example roster. Five band A starters cost 130 and three band E bench alliances 45, a total of 175. That leaves 50 for players: a 28 and a 22, for example. Starting four band B alliances (88) and one band A (26) instead, with a band D, a band E and a band E on the bench (47), costs 161 and leaves 64, enough for a 34-credit player and two cheaper ones.

7 Head-to-head and playoffs#

In a head-to-head league, each week pairs you with another Warlord, and the higher total wins. Pairings rotate so every pair meets once before any pair meets twice. With an odd number of teams one team has a bye each week, and a bye counts as a win.

Playoffs are none, Top 2 or Top 4. Top 2 makes the last week a final between the top two seeds, with a third-place game between the next two. Top 4 needs a season of at least three weeks and adds semifinals, 1 against 4 and 2 against 3. Seeds come from the standings: win share first (a tie is half a win), then points scored, then draft seat. A tied playoff game goes to the higher seed.

See also War Council, Alliance wars and War scoring and the war ladder.

8 See also#

• Alliance wars
• Alliances
• Defense planning
• One-hit wars (before October 10, 2026)
• Roster lock
• The War Shop and the Glorious Set
• The war week clock
• War attacks and team duels

9 External links#

• Alliances and wars on polbielytics
• The official Atlas