[Tuidjy]

> BTW, has there ever been a comment from a dev that indicates that they think
> blanket castling is even an issue?

Thanks the Powers that Be, no. I would even go further - there aren't that
many players that think that ubiquitous casles are a problem. Last time I
made a survey about this, the votes were overwhelmingly against making mad
castling impossible. Many players said that they hated it, but it was part
of the game, and one had to learn to deal with it.

Speaking for myself, I do not see a problem. All a castle does is provide
the defender with one turn of safety. People go on about the attacker being
subject to remote spells, as if the defender is somehow protected. I think
that, as Yvelina said, anyone who want to conquer a strong empire should be
able to deal with a defended castle. In my book the attacker still has the
advantage.

Castles, just like hoarding, or building mages, or any useful stratagem have
a cost and a return. In my ongoing game, I gave someone a three turn warning,
and when I attacked, about two thirds of his provinces were castled. So?
I have two gatecleavers, and two sizable armies. Five turns later, most of the
castles are mine, and in two or three turns, they will all be. Saves me the
cash to build them, and makes me wonder how many additional Niefel Jarls I would
have had to face, were the money invested otherwise. In the same game, Ermor
had a castle in each province of his. At some point, there were about ten of
them. According to my scouts, right now he has exactly one left.

It is turn 50 in that game. Most of my castles used to belong to someone else.
The ones I built were raised around temples, bloodhunter labs, or particularly
impressive magic sites - a sound investment to protect a valuable ressource.

Where is the problem?

Well, if there is a problem, it lies in the fact that most of the existing
fortifications are improperly priced, or simply extremely ineffective, which
leads to only watchtowers and castles being used in multiplayer games.

Instead of proposing ridiculous, poorly thought-out anti-castle measures, which
would create horrendous problems, like a 'move and storm' command, something
should be done about making castles more varied and useful.

A couple of ideas, none of which are mine...

1. Castle upkeep. A watchtower needs maintainance. All it has is a skeleton
watch, so someone should pay for replacing the stones and fixing the roof. Ten
gold per season. A wizard tower has some magic going which keeps it nice and
shiny all year long. No upkeep. A fortified city not only has plenty of
manpower for maintainance, but also can earn some extra cash. Twenty golds of
additional income.

2. Domain shift. For example, a fortified city could give a tiny population
boost to the province. Plus one to the life scale. A Mountain citadel can
be made of ice, so it can cause a cold shift. A castle has a strong garrison,
so its presence would lead to an shift towards order.

3. Extra units. A wizard tower could add some kind of magic familiar to the
build list. A castle may train units with a bonus to defense. The ice of a
mountain citadel may be caused by some cold generating critters, and maybe
an industrious pretentder will figure out how to train them.

4. Gem income. A bigger type of kelp fortress could generate nature crystals,
an ice citadel would create water gems, a wizard tower may bring astral pearls...

5. Permanent fortress defenders, similar to province defense, who always fight
in castle battles. Imps for the wizard tower, ice elementals for the montain
citadel, well armoured men-at-arms for the castle.

6. Additional ranged units on the towers.

All of these will serve to make the castles more varied, and will make it less
of a no-brainer to go for the watchtower. And of course, building a fortified
city which actually generates income will take a long time, and cost a lot, so
we will probably no see them built in every province until the very late game.

As for castles being too hard to take, give me a break. Any task force that
cannot weather a storm of fireballs and a dozen of ghost rider squads will not
take one of my castles anyway.

Oh, and a question for those hypothetical whinners who find it too hard to take
castles right now. What in the world makes you think that after you change the
rules, I and my ilk will be slow in addapting to them? We will formulate a
winning strategy and make you cry 'Cheese!' before you have finished patting
yourself on the back for the latest nerf.

Zen's mods are well thought-out, and do a good job at eliminating no-brainers.
But did someone notice powergamers doing worse under his conditions? I doubt it.
When the dust settles, there are two kind of players standing - the proud
powergamers and the closet ones.