[Saxon]

Thanks for all the good answers!

I was thinking about how to maximize resources. On some of the big maps, you tend to get fairly large areas which are “safe” behind your lines. Sure, there as spells and sneaking troops who can sometimes get to them, but they are generally safe. Given that building a castle effectively doubles your production, it seemed logical that you would want to build more. These back areas, where you have total control, seemed like a place to put this into effect

This is theoretical, ignores other concerns and assumes unlimited gold, but it seems to me that building a castle in each province will maximize production. Sure, you will not get one super province, but you get a higher total production. You would recruit in every province and in some you will have to wait multiple turns for the high value units to come, but you will produce more units over all.

Of course, in the real world, this would lead to massive micro managing. Also, if you have that much gold, you have probably won the game or should be looking for other, more aggressive uses for it. As such, I will keep my theoretical maximum in my head and focus on getting the more practical “key production provinces” going in the game.

I agree with sfsuphysics, the money is usually better spent on armies and heroes. They are much more versatile and offer lots of nice bonuses. When I played basketball in high school, the coach always said “Offense wins games, defense wins championships.” In Dominions, I feel it is the other way around. Defense is important, but unless you take the fight to the enemy, you are not going to win. My interest in fortresses is to get the best out of them for unit production. Their defensive value is clear, but I needed some help regarding their link to production and, therefore, offense.