What is "Zeroing"?
A village is “zeroed” when the population goes down to zero. The population is removed by attacking with catapults to demolish the buildings and fields and rams to demolish the walls.
When the village has zero population, it will be destroyed, unless it is one of the following:
- A Wonder of the World village
World Wonder - Village with artefact (only if the artefact was not stolen)
Artefacts - The player's last remaining village (not counting WW villages nor 18-croppers)
In any other case, the village will vanish from the map becoming an abandoned valley and is settleable again. It is often desirable to players to clear area around their villages to destroy rivals in this way.
How do I demolish a village?
Use catapults to demolish the building and rams to destroy the walls. Each building and field should be attacked until all buildings and fields are destroyed until the village has zero population.
Catapults
How can I prevent my village from being destroyed?
It would be best if you built as many buildings as possible that give population. This is especially important when settling in the grey area (normal servers) to survive the Natars attacks. If the village is your capital, you can also build a Stonemasons house to improve the durability of your buildings.
What happens with zeroed villages that cannot be destroyed?
- If it is the player's last (non-WW) village when the population becomes zero any remaining troops from the village will vanish. Any troops that are in the training queue would continue training and will not be removed.
- If the village contains an artefact that has not been removed, then the village and troops will not disappear until the artefact has been removed.