What kind of castles do you choose?
 

Is watch tower viable? I am trying to save as many points as possible...

Re: What kind of castles do you choose?
 

If you do not need alot of gold/resource production for your units, also watch towers are extremely easy to storm, though most MP just preach you out and don't worry about trying to storm your castle.

Re: What kind of castles do you choose?
 

The only forts I use are Fortified City, Wizards Tower, and 40 Admin Castle.

Forts are cheap. Save your nation points elsewhere.

Re: What kind of castles do you choose?
 

Hrm. I doubt its a coincidence that is the only ones I have ever used except for the Kelp Citadel http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: What kind of castles do you choose?
 

I often use watchtower and even mausoleum. Some nations get most of their best and highly armored units only at the capital, for those a high admin castle is great. Some nations defense is in their mages and summons, for those its best to have castles that will Last for a long seige.

Other nations get their best units in ANY castle, and their defense is in those units. For those it might work best to have a castle they can build cheap and fast. Some nations best defense includes archers and heavy units, so a watchtower might be good.

Again, I tend to play nations that like to pop up in spots. I dont need admin as much as I need to build often. And I am known for trying to find uses for the unwanted choices.

[ November 22, 2003, 03:56: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

Re: What kind of castles do you choose?
 

>I dont need admin as much as I need to build often.

The Wizards Tower gets you both. That's why I use it.

Re: What kind of castles do you choose?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I agree, although I'm also considering the Hill Fort, as it's not too much of an economic hit for much stronger defense.

Re: What kind of castles do you choose?
 

I'm more and more deciding the mausoleum is the way to go for almost all nations. You get 20 less admin than the castle, but save enough points for a order/growth/producivity scale which gives better benefits IMO, and you also save 150 gold every castle you build allowing the creation of 50% more castles and therefore potentially 25-50% more troop production. The wizard tower's nice too but the cost is pretty high and cuts into scales/pretender magic/bless effects deeper than I like. And I tend to not like to consider the consequences of being under siege in a mausoleum...they're useless in that respect.

Re: What kind of castles do you choose?
 

I only used the 40 admin caste (as in doms1), or wizard tower. Perhaps in a very small game I would go for fortified city if I dont intent to build an additional one, but aside that the other dont attract me. The mountain fortress is a joke for example. 750 gp and 10 admin... sure if you take these settings, you will surely have a use for his defence as you appeal your own demise.

Re: What kind of castles do you choose?
 

I can't see the use of these 10 Admin Forts. Sloth 3 is more attractive than a 10 Admin Fort that will provide me, more or less, the same production value and gold loss AFAIK.

I remember playing my first few games of the Demo and attempting to field any sort of army with the default tower and feeling like a complete idiot later when I changed it up to a Castle or Wiz Tower.

Re: What kind of castles do you choose?
 

I have been using the 40 admin castles that cost 80 development points.

But I'm actually considering moving up to higher defense after having some of my forts seiged by an AI supercombatant pretender...a wyrm.

Looks like 2 turns for any decent sized army to tear down my walls. Or is that just Ry'leh?

Re: What kind of castles do you choose?
 

Game size of course means something also. Well actually I guess any scale or setting might have some point in the decision.

But a small map pretty much orders me to invest in strong walls and high admin. A large map makes a strong argument for going with cheap fast builds

Re: What kind of castles do you choose?
 

I have to admit that in practice I typically use the 40 admin castle too, with only the wizard tower being seriously in contention. I _want_ to like the Hill fort, but in the end I never quite take it.

Re: What kind of castles do you choose?
 

Actually, I think the fortress system would be improved if they simply all had the same administration, and were instead simply differentiated by their point cost, expense, independent time to build, and defensive features.

Re: What kind of castles do you choose?
 

What's so great about administration anyway? 20 administration difference is, IIRC, a 10% difference and income and supposing 50-100 resources worth of surrounding provinces, there's a 10 resource difference, so taking the castle over the mausoleum gets you an astounding 10% more gold at certain provinces (except for your capitol most forts have low income)...and +10-20 resources per fort. The resources is nice but so is a 150 gold discount on fort cost.

The wizard tower on the other hand, costs over 2 scales more than the mausoleum for 5% more gold at fort provinces and +5-10 resources...I'd rather take an order scale and a production scale.
I can see the benefit of the 40 point castle for early troop production, but unless I missed something, I don't see what the expensive forts offer late-game.

Re: What kind of castles do you choose?
 

Well you have to consider that an initial province attack and hold; fort construction and domination of control of provinces for both gem and army production makes a massive difference.

If you could make double the money and production from turn 4 to turn 12 (Just for the early game expansion) then youll have a massive advantage in any field you choose as you have much more options to spend your valuable gold on.

Take an example of Pythium.

If you could build an Extra Temple that pumps A communicant every turn from an initial conquest of 2 provinces before a player playing a 20 Admin province, you suddenly have yourself a drastic advantage when armies collide because of abusive Communions.

Re: What kind of castles do you choose?
 

Admittedly the player with the higher admin might get a slightly faster start, but nothing close to double the money, and *no* resource bonus until after the nearby provinces are captured. And to get that place producing more communicants you'd need a fort and a temple, so unless the fort admin makes up for the 150 cost gold difference, the low admin fort player is the one likely to be producing lots of communicants.

Re: What kind of castles do you choose?
 

I almost exclusively use 30 and 40-Admin castle, depending if I can spare 60 or 80 design points...
The rest is either too crappy Admin-wise or just too expensive (Mage Tower in design points, Fort city in gold).
I don't see the point of ever taking a Mountain Castle. Granted, it's very difficult to storm, but using so many design points and gold to get it is a waste of resources IMHO.