В годишните специални сървъри от 2014 година, играта се развива на карта на древна Европа, разделена на 87 региона. Във Fire and Sand картата е по-малка от 401 х 401 полета, вместо 801 х 801 полета в обикновената версия.

Региони, заселване и контрол

Има 87 независима региона, които могат да се контролират от алианси. Това им позволява да трупат точки победа и активират древни сили.

За да превземете регион, той първо трябва да е отключен. Това се случва щом топ 5 най-големи кланове в региона имат поне 4 000 популация общо в региона. Популацията на други алианси, играчи без алианс, във ваканция или блокирани, както и натарски градове не се брои. Веднъж щом региона е отключен, не може да бъде заключен отново. Ако популацията падне под 4000, региона спира да произвежда точки победа и регионалната сила ще бъде деактивирана.

Възможно е да се заселите в региони, които са отключени или са в съседство на отключени такива. Единственото изключение на това правило са няколко региона в центъра, където нови играчи се появяват и където винаги е възможно да заселите нови градове.

Ако един от клановете в отключен регион успее да постигне над 50% популация в региона (само топ 5 кланове в региона се броят) ще започне да поема контрола над региона. Това отнема 24 часа. Ако успеят да удържат мнозинството, те ще контролират региона.

Информация относно популацията на региона и топ 5 клановете е показана в Статистики -> Регион и във всяко посолство в региона. Имайте предвид, че колонката Регионална популация показва популацията на топ 1 клан в региона, не цялата популация на региона.

Ето преглед на механиките:

Ancient powers and victory points 

All members of the alliance that controls a region can benefit from the ancient power of the region if it has one. To activate the ancient power, the player needs to have a Treasury at level 10 (for small, village-related powers) or 20 (for account-related powers). You can activate the power in any village; it doesn't have to be located in the same region as the power.

You can activate one power in each village, but only one of the powers can be used for the whole account. Once activated, the power lasts for 24 hours; afterwards, it can be reactivated if the alliance still holds the region. One activation is free each day; each additional activation costs 5 (for village powers) or 10 (for account powers) Gold.

The power can also be deactivated under the following circumstances:

• If you quit your alliance
• If you lost the village where it was activated
• If your alliance lost control of the region holding the power

Ancient powers, although very useful, are not the only benefit of controlling regions. If you want to win, your alliance needs to gather victory points. Every day an alliance controls a region, it earns victory points. The amount depends on the region:

• Unique power – 10 points per day
• Big power – 30 points per day
• Small power – 50 points per day
• No power – 100 or 200 (Delphi region only) points per day

There is no longer a regional power equivalent to the Fools Artifact on Annual Special servers.

The alliance that gathers the most victory points at the end of the game wins. The Fire and Sand special lasts 200 days, and there are no Wonders of the World.

Codex Victoria 

If the regional population drops below 4000, the region stops producing VP and doesn't offer the regional power.

The region is still conquerable / unlocked/conquered/secured, the mechanics of conquering cooldowns is unaffected. The only change is that VP-production stops and the powers of that region are not visible in treasuries.

Example 1: 

The region is unlocked but drops below 4000 population again

• While below 4000 population, an alliance achieves >50% regional control
• The conquer cooldown starts. Still the regional message of "too low population" is shown
• 4000 population is achieved again.
• The conquer cooldown is visible now.

Example 2:

• The region is unlocked.
• Alliance A conquered the region.
• Player B uses ancient power.
• Region drops below 4000 population.
• Alliance A doesn't get VP from that region, and cannot use the ancient power of that region.
• Player B still has ancient power active; it is not cancelled. He just cannot reactivate it after the effect runs out.
• Region emerges above 4000 population.
• Alliance A start to get VP production again and can activate ancient powers again. 

Overview Map 

Click the map to open bigger version of it.

The map above shows the battlefield of annual special servers. It is ancient Europe, divided into regions. The map shows all regions borders (including on water), their names, powers and victory points. It also shows the first regions of each faction.
Note: this does not mean factions are limited to those regions, if there is no space for new players within those regions they will start appearing in another region nearby.

We have used short names for the ancient powers, here's an explanation of what they mean:

• Architect – stronger buildings
• Boots – faster troops
• Confusion – cranny + random aim
• Diet – less hungry troops
• Eyes – better spies
• Storage – great warehouse and great granary plans
• Trainer – faster troop training

See the details about ancient powers in the artefact effects article. The effects are the same, however Annual Special servers do not have artefact of the fool (random) power.