City warfare is the part of Last War with the widest gap between what players assume and what the publisher actually wrote down. Four rules below decide almost every failed campaign we have seen described.
Cities are graded 1 to 6, and the grade is the whole point
Neutral cities on the map run from Level 1 to Level 6. Higher-level cities are rarer, harder to take, and carry stronger rewards and stronger alliance-wide bonuses. That grading is not cosmetic — it is the gate on everything later in this guide, because only an alliance holding a Level 6 city qualifies for the Capitol.
Only R5 and R4 declare war, and only on one city at a time
Rank-and-file members cannot start a city war. Your leader or an officer declares it, and the alliance can only have one declaration running. There is also a movement rule that catches new alliances out: after your first capture, you may only advance to a city adjacent to territory you already hold. You cannot leapfrog across the map to the juicy Level 5 you had your eye on. Plan the route, not the target.
Taking a city costs troops you do not get back
A capture means defeating the monster garrison and grinding the city's durability to zero. First Fun states plainly that some soldiers die outright in these battles and never return to the hospital. This is the single most expensive fact in the guide. Treat a city war as a permanent troop cost, budget for it before you declare, and do not open one the week you were planning to push a power event.
What you get for it comes in two forms. The First Capture Reward is personal — diamonds, hero recruitment tickets, alliance teleportation items and large resource bundles. The ongoing bonuses are alliance-wide and permanent while you hold the city: resource production, construction speed, research speed.
The Siege Camp is a beginner tool with a hard ceiling
Every alliance is given a Siege Camp in the early stage of a server, and it is usable only against Level 1 to Level 3 cities. Each member commits one squad; the system then launches them automatically in waves of three squads at a time until the city falls or every squad has been wiped. It is designed so a young alliance with no coordination can still take a small city. It will not take you a Level 4.
The Capitol: four hours of occupation, not one moment of it
The Capitol is the endgame of the map, and the entry requirements are strict: your alliance must hold a Level 6 city and must control land directly connected to the Capitol. Then comes the rule that decides it — the first alliance to accumulate four hours of total occupation wins. If nobody reaches four hours, the alliance with the longest total occupation takes it.
Total, not continuous. That changes the strategy completely: being thrown off the Capitol does not reset your clock, so short repeated holds are worth banking, and a defender who only shows up at the end has already lost time they cannot recover. The reward is the one everybody is actually fighting for — the winning alliance's leader becomes President, and hands out the official positions covered in our official positions guide.
Sources: First Fun’s official English help centre — How to Capture Cities and the Capitol