It sounds simple enough -- "just hold the most flags" - but territories is actually one of the hardest games to consistently win at. It is for this very reason that the game is rarely played by the average bungie.net citizen. Instead we tend to favor more controllable games like bacon and last man. These are the games in which we can feel secure knowing that all we need to do to have a good chance of winning is to camp. Like most games territories all comes down to the end, but a wise player who has been sweeping the map and clearing several flags to grab and hold at the end has a far greater chance of winning then the one who sits in the corner and tries to capture 3-4 flags at once in the last minute.

To succeed in territories one must first be absolutely clear about every rule of gameplay. There is a number of flags scattered around the map. At the end of gameplay whoever has the most flags in their possession wins. You get a flag in your possession by tagging it with a unit, but if someone else touches it after you leave then they gain possession of that flag. If two opposing units come within tagging range of the same flag then it becomes contested and neither side gain possession until someone moves away or gets killed. Furthermore the game will not end until all flags are clearly uncontested -- so with 8 flags on a map it is needless to say: overtime can last for ages and games are very often won or lost in this sudden death period.

It should also be noted that if one side gains uncontested possession of every flag on the map -- even for a split second -- then the game goes to sudden death and will end immediately as soon as all flags (if any) are uncontested. The winner as always will be whoever has the most flags which (barring a miracle) will be the team who initially tagged all the flags. This is usually only a factor when playing desert or creep because in FFA's there are so many players it is near impossible for one to grab all flags from under the others.

Unit trading often depends on personal preferences, but in this game you must go for quantity by maxing your melee troops. "Infantry is important on territories. Fewer dwarves and archers, more warriors and thrall. You MUST have numbers to defend multiple flags," says Shadow Dancing. It's true -- in the final 2-3 minutes of the game you will inevitably begin dividing your forces amongst nearby flags so you can keep them in your possession safely until the end. Frankly two or three archers cannot hold a flag from anything short of a platoon of wights. A lone dwarf similarly would not be able to stop one tiny ghol or warrior, but they cost the equivalent of three. Keep this in mind when choosing your army.

Once in the game you must resist the urge to use your infantry to split up and grab flags right away. This is the number one cause of failure in a game of territories. Do not allow your army to be divided and conquered, instead keep it all together as you would in most other game types. However, this does not mean that you should not bother going after flags. You must always be roaming the map and taking note of where players are in relation to nearby flags. Otherwise you wont know where to go for the safest flags at the end.

You can start by picking a direction and sweeping it with your entire army moving as one. Don't bother guarding the flags. Don't even touch any to begin with. Just take out as many small groups of scattered enemies you can. The more you get now the less contenders you will need to deal with in sudden death when it counts.

Attack anything that looks smaller then your army, but be sure you don't chase some warriors back to an ambush which could lead to a big battle. Do remember their location however, because recon will play a major role towards the end. You might also try leaving a ghol in your wake so you'll be aware of who you will be facing in the other direction when you head back for those flags. If you see a particularly vulnerable threat turn around and eliminate it now.

Once you've bumped into a force equal to your own which prevents you from sweeping further, you will want to see how he reacts. If he retreats, let him...otherwise backup yourself to the last flag and set up a basic pincer there showing no signs of budging. Unless he is desperate or wants to take both himself and you out of the game, he will back down and probably go back to his flag and sit there. Now you know one outpost where you will need to station extra troops when it comes time to split up for flags,

In order to win you will certainly need three flags so stake out the two behind you. Stick a ghol beyond that so you will have advanced warning if someone begins to eye your flags. Then you will have time to race your army down there and deal with it. Those three flags are yours and you must guard them like like a momma lemur would her young, Be sure to still keep your army together though, or send only enough to deal with the problem but be ready to fall back and regroup with your full force if you the enemy gets reinforcements.

The key is to stay together, pick off small groups, and keep your three flags clear. This means no big enemy forces nearby, this does not mean you need possession of the flags. Don't be afraid to let ghols or lone units tag them and steal possession. Just make sure you intercetp the big threats so you wont have trouble later.

In the last two minutes of gameplay it is finally time to split your army up accordingly and run to reclaim your flags. Make sure you send enough troops to deal with whatever small enemy groups picked up the flags in your absence.

You will need your 3 flags to win for sure, but that is no guarantee because other players might already have 3 before you -- It's not hard to do. In this case the tie would go to them because they had their 3 before you.

Shadow Dancing had a good solution to this problem:
"To win a tie breaker, you have to have held your 3 flags longest. Therefore, send some suicidal ghols, berserks, whatever, not to capture a flag, but just to CONTEST the flag of the guy winning. When he recaptures his flag, he'll fall a notch since he will have held his 3 flags less time than yours. Repeat as necessary,"

Dividing your forces to guard your flags is very much like setting up a game of risk, you must use your brains. Thrall are slow and thus should only be sent up to one flag away. Warriors should be sent to the farther flags that you staked out earlier. Ghols should run to far away flags and check to see if either you can take it right then, or send warriors to possibly get it in overtime.

Concentrate most of your forces at fronts, which on mudpit would be the end flags of your domain along the outside where you stopped sweeping because of another person's army. The fronts will be your main protection and they need to be located where other raiding parties come from. The rest of the flags in your territory may only need one or two thrall/warriors to protect them from wandering ghols. You should create a ghol network around access points to your middle territories, so in the rare occasion that someone does go directly to them you will have time to summon reinforcements from your fronts.

Somewhere around the 40 second mark you will want to take as much troops from your fronts as you can and push them towards neighboring flags, especially if it is owned by a player who has more flags then you. (Check with F7) Don't worry about running out of time, even send some thrall...if you are about to reach another flag and you will be able to take it, chances are the game will go in to sudden death. You should have your ghols find flags guarded by only a few thrall and start dancing circles around them to keep the flags contested to buy time.

Sudden death is brutal in territories, especially with lost of people still alive with large numbers of troops. Always be checking the stats with F7 to see who is in the lead and make sure you stay on top. Anything can happened based on who takes a flag from who at what time and who attacks who with what. Sounds like fun eh? You have to be very shrewd in sudden death because you never know when it will end. Just hang in there and concentrate on holding your flags, while sending spare troops to make stabs at neighboring ones.

Most of all, good luck. Often times that is what you need most in this game, but there is something to be said about the thrill of a 5-minute long sudden death struggle ending in your victory by one ghol and three steps. :-)