Castles and Citadels and stuff

Spacepain · #1 March 16th, 2004, 04:19 AM

So far, in ALL of the games I've played, I've chosen the castle as my fortification. However, I'm beginning to wonder if certain fortifcations are more appropriate to certain nations.

Is there a preference per race, or am I safe just sticking with castle through and through?

Norfleet · #2 March 16th, 2004, 04:48 AM

The castle is an excellent choice for a fort: It has a modest cost of only $450, only 50% more than the watchtower, which gives it a modest build time of 3 turns. It has an excellent admin of 40: Only the Fortified City does better, and the Fortified City costs $750 and 5 turns! Unless the map is exceptionally small and/or you have no plans to build many other fortresses, or you absolutely, positively, must have the metric assload of supply that the Fortified City grants, the castle is a very good choice. Pointwise, the cost is the same: 80 points. You certainly can't go wrong with that. The only drawback of the castle is that its defense value is not a great asset, but nor is it absolutely wretched. Besides, who plans a strategy around being sieged? Any castle will buy you a minimum of one turn, and no castle will hold out for any real length of time against real opposition. A higher defense will just make it more bothersome for YOU to take it back!

Arryn · #3 March 16th, 2004, 04:55 AM

In one of the various threads on playing a specific theme (I forget which theme and the poster, may have been Zen), it was recommended that the el-cheapo zero-DP fort type be used so that you can quickly and (relatively) cheaply pop up forts all over your borders both to channelize the enemy and to allow recruitment of national units right at the front. This works best for nations that do not need to maximize resource gathering (ie: whose main limit is gold, not resources).

Other than this particular example that was cited (I do wish I could recall what thread it was), the Castle which Norfleet mentions is pretty much the best all-around buy.

Sandman · #4 March 16th, 2004, 05:01 AM

I'm a big fan of the fortified city. It's got the best design point to admin ratio, and the high cost and build time is offset by the fact that you get one for free at the start of the game.

Murph · #5 March 16th, 2004, 05:08 AM

I haven't found any reason to use anything else. As far as point cost/price and value is concerned, I don't really see a decent alternative, unless you really have sucky troops, then you want something with higher defense, because you'll be hiding a lot.

Graeme Dice · #6 March 16th, 2004, 05:41 AM

I happen to really like the wizard's tower for nations that have powerful national mages, and fairly useful troops. This is because it is both cheap and quick to produce, but also provides a decent administration rating. I do often go with just the standard castle however, as it is a good compromise between the various types.