Building a castle
Castles are built and saved before the game begins. Castles must be carefully designed to stop the Invader, or they will be quickly overrun by the Invader's superior forces.
To begin building your castle, choose New from the File menu. Choose 'Standard Castle' as the castle type. A terrain will be generated for you to use. If you don't like the generated terrain you can follow the same steps to create a new one.
Castles can be built anywhere on the terrain within the yellow outline. Buildings and towers can only be constructed on flat ground, but walls can go up and down smooth slopes. You can clear forest or marsh to make buildable space with the Clear tool (for a small cost in gold).
Build your castle by choosing castle elements from the Castle tab and clicking where you want the elements to go on the terrain. Click on the overhead map to move quickly around the terrain. Use Rotate from the Options menu to look your castle from different angles.
You start with a fixed amount of castle elements, and money to buy more. If you want to reposition a castle element you can delete it and place it down somewhere else, without losing any gold. Undo and Redo also preserve your gold supply.
Walls |
Walls are the primary obstacles between the enemy and your buildings. Units may walk along the tops of your walls to protect them. Walls can go up and down smoothly sloped hills. Walls come two varieties:
|
Towers |
Towers are bastions for defense and attack. They can withstand many more catapult hits before collapsing than walls can, and make surrounding walls stronger. Towers must guard all turns in walls; otherwise catapult shots quickly bring down exposed wall corners outside your castle. Towers need to have stairs leading into the castle interior. With extra gold you can buy towers with special features:
|
Gates |
Gates protect the entrance to the castle. Catapults can't bring them down, but a ram that comes close enough can smash through them. Gates connect the castle to the roads. |
Arrow loops |
Arrow loops protect troops on walls from enemy fire. |
Great Hall |
The Great Hall must be protected at all costs. If it is destroyed, the castle is defeated. |
Chapel |
A Chapel is required in every castle. Without a chapel, no troops will come to the castle's aid during the battle. |
Barracks |
Castles must have at least four barracks for the Castellan's forces to live in. The more barracks you have the more likely you will be reinforced during the battle. |
Stables |
Castles must have at least two stables. With extra stables, more mounted troops can reinforce you. |
Fletcher |
The Fletcher creates arrows for the use of the Castellan's archers. If you have a fletcher in your castle, archers can reinforce you. You also have more archers at the start of the battle. More than one fletcher (or carpenter or blacksmith) will just crowd your castle. |
Carpenter |
The Carpenter helps outfit the pikemen and the crossbowmen. You will start will more of each if there's a carpenter in your castle, and additional pikemen and crossbowmen can arrive during the castle's defense. |
Blacksmith |
With both a blacksmith and a carpenter, some mounted reinforcements can be outfitted as knights. |
Well |
Every castle needs a well for drinking water. Wells are also crucial for putting out fires in the castle. Wells built far away from a water source cost extra gold. |
Oil Cauldron |
An oil cauldron placed near stairs allows units on nearby walls and towers to pour boiling oil on their enemies. The oil in a cauldron can only be used once. |
Buildings packed closely together are in danger of catching fire from sparks from each other's chimneys. Fires can spread between buildings. Buildings near oil cauldrons are especially in danger of catching fire.
When you build a historical castle, you have total control over the terrain around the castle, and no limits on the number of castle elements you use. Historical castles cannot be used in registered games.
To change terrain around the castle, choose a terrain type from the Terrain tab and click where you want it to go. To create a rectangular patch of terrain, use the right mouse button and drag out the area where you want the terrain to go.