Castle Wars/Strategies

The battle tactics in Castle Wars vary. This is because each and every game of Castle Wars have different players, different situations and the balance of power changes every game.

Ancient Magicks
One useful tactic is to block off the corridor going around the teams room (the one you start in). Most of the time, each team will have at least one Ancient Mage. The Ancient Mage often tries to defend the castle from potential standard stealers by freezing them with spells like ice barrage. Once frozen this gives the melee attackers a chance to finish off the helpless thieves. Sometimes the ancient mages will also have a bow to use, so they can range after freezing enemy players.

Very rarely, a very high-levelled player able to cast Ice Barrage and Blood Barrage, (some of them have level 99 summoning and come with a steel titan) might camp at the enemies spawn zone and use the area spells to demolish enemy players with the Protect from Melee prayer or Deflect Melee curse activated. The caster uses Ice Barrage to freeze enemies, but when the caster is getting piled by enemies, he quickly switches to Blood Barrage and uses to restore health. Most of the players tend to have low levels and weak magical defence, allowing the Blood Barrage user to stay alive a lot longer and give his team a diversion to capture the flag. The caster will end up racking a of lot kills when the game ends. If the ancienter is killed, it is only a temporary solution as he/she usually returns.

Ancients are also useful underground for stopping standard thieves as they try to infiltrate the castle from the underground passages.

Countering Ancient Magicks
A strategy to counter the use of Ancient Mages lies in the reduction of the magic stat. By lowering an opponents mage level, a player is often likely to prevent them from using their higher level spells. Due to the innate high mage levels required to utilise the Ancient Magicks, almost any reduction in magic level will render an Ancient Mage useless. The most readily available magic reducing effect comes as a result of the magic attack Flames of Zamorak. However, this attack is somewhat flawed in this scenario since an Ancient Mage will in all likelihood be wearing armour that provides good magic defence. However, it may take just one hit to disable an Ancient Mage so it is well worth the slightly reduced accuracy.

The most effective way to cut an ancient mage's magic level is through the use of the Seercull bow's special attack, Soulshot, which when used in conjunction with Eagle Eye can stop a mage's magic attacks instantly. The special attack reduces the magic level by the amount it hits and drains the special attack energy 100%. With a max hit corresponding to your range level, you can lower the mage's magic level significantly! To recharge your special after using it, simply get killed, and you will have full special attack energy again. In this manner, you can render mages useless if you hit a high enough amount to render their spells useless. Against a person wearing full Ahrim's and 99 magic, a hit of 6 or more would render Ice barrage useless. This can be achieved through the use of range boosting prayers and ranged armour.

General mage and range tactics
Mages and rangers tend to hang on the top of the castle near the catapult where they can see enemies storming the castle. They then strike down potential threats at the safety of the wall. This however may not last long if a powerful melee shows up on the wall. Then they will attack the mages and rangers taking them down quickly because of their low defence due to robes and dragon hide armour. This has however been compromised if there are enough mages or rangers to quickly take the melee player down.

Strategies for lower-level players
Lower level players often stay in the underground with a pick and collapse the tunnels with explosive potions and picks. Normally they will wait for the person to walk under the tunnel when trying to attack them, then collapse the tunnel instantly killing the other player. Other methods for higher-level players wishing to use low-level strategies include ranging them in order to lure them under the tunnel or using an ancient spell to trap them under the tunnel have been used, although not as often due to expenses.

Lower-level players may also operate the catapult as a team and attempt to fire on the opponent (Note: Catapult attacks can damage your own team as well as your opponents). Another thing lower-level players can do is heal your teammates with bandages; a better target for your bandages would be the flag carrier and their bodyguards.

You could also set up barricades around the arena in strategic locations. Make sure you think before setting up a barricade because there is a limit of 10 barricades that can be set up at one time. Handy places to set up are around the stairs leading up to the flag or other narrow pathways.

Standard defending
As for standard defending, most people barricade the standard and the exit so that when a standard stealer comes they are trapped and quickly killed. Usually players stealing the flag will carry explosive potions with them, placing a barricade and burning it makes it unable to be exploded and giving more time to kill the thief. Sometimes if players are quick enough in the beginning they may be able to capture the opposing teams standard room and defend it for the whole game taking the standard when it shows back up from a score. This may sometimes backfire if a low level player takes the standard. When this happens the other team will allow the player to leave the castle then take him down and take their standard and hold it. This may cause the defeat of the standard room raiding team.

Stalling, buying time and other hindering tactics
Also, if nearing the end of a close game, it may be wise to attempt to stall the enemy rather than outright killing them. For example, ancient magicks or the spells bind, snare, and entangle may buy valuable time. Time for your team to either set up defences or catch up with the enemy. Barricading the enemy castle becomes a viable tactic to prevent the enemy runner from scoring, as well as hitting them with the dragon spear's special ability, "Shove", which stuns them for five seconds. This is because they have most likely used up their resources trying to steal the standard in the first place.

Other tactics

 * Some players who perform the following tactic correctly can easily win tickets. They gather a group of friends or random people, at least 15-20. They decide which team will 'lay down' and give up their standard by letting the other team run in and grab the standard. They then go into the castle wars arena with 10 on each side. After the 20 minutes, swap roles so the winner will lose on purpose. You can easily get 8+ castle war tickets every hour because of this.


 * Getting past the underground collapsible rocks are quite hard. So when entering the game bring your pickaxe. Preferably the best you can hold. Make sure you are wearing the pick and bring your weapon in your inventory. This makes it much quicker getting past the rocks if you can't be bothered to take some explosive potions.


 * To get into the castle without going through either of the doors, you can use a rope with the outer wall to climb onto the top, or enter through the ladder underground. These are also useful tactics when trying to kill the mages or rangers on top of the wall.


 * When being pursued by the other team while carrying a standard, it is a good idea to set up a barricade while running. This blocks the path of your pursuers, buying you valuable time while they try to destroy the barricade.


 * Standard defenders should set-up barricades after the enemy attackers so all the defenders can pile the attacker whilst they try to deal with the barricades. This tactic should only be used if the defence is mainly melee. If the defence has strong rangers and mages, then setting up barricades before the attackers arrive is fine.