castles

[Spark]

Searched all over the place and couldn't find this, but what are the requirements for upgrading a castle settlement? I remember reading something about castles not being dependent on population for upgrading (unlike cities, which are), so what exactly determines when you can upgrade to the next tier?

[PaulTa]

Castles are indeed dependant on population, but not the first three upgrades.

Going from motte and baily to wooden castle, and then to just Castle are not dependant on population. You can do that for any settlement. To upgrade to fortress you need a population of 4500, and to go to citadel you need 9000 population.

[Spark]

I see, so tier 1, 2 and 3 are just a matter of spending the florins to upgrade? So then it would be wise to upgrade farms in castles a.s.a.p so as to reach the juicy tier 5 units as soon as possible, since squalor isn't really a problem in castles. Am I right?

[PaulTa]

That's what I do anyways. I like to up the farms in castles ASAP that I have designated as troop producing provinces. That way I get the good stuff earlier.

Lately I've been flirting with the idea of convertion large cities early on so that I get better troops sooner. For example, as France I've converted Paris into a castle and then quickly into a fortress, which has scored me good cavalry, infantry, and artillery earlier than other factions who kept the cities as they were.

I know that as Germany the best use of Bologna in Italy is as a castle and then quickly a fortress. Bologna is constantly being attacked, so being able to produce feudal foot knights early and take the offensive is great.

[PaulTa]

Oh, also remember that you can't convert cities into castles that have stone walls or better. So Paris can convert into a castle, but Cordoba can't.

[pevergreen]

Hey Spark

welcome to the .org!

Getting those high tier units fast is nice, but for some factions, doesnt really help as much as barracks. I cant wait until i get pikemen in my Portu game.

mmmmm...plate pikemen...

[FactionHeir]

While upgrading farms to get the higher tiers faster may be a good idea in the short run, in the long run, old castles would be in the center of your country instead of near borders and vital locations, so you may wish to convert them back into a city.
However, if you had built all farm upgrades, converting it into a city will give you permanent population control problems due to skyrocketing population growth.

Any castle type settlement that makes more than 1200 florins a turn without much farming (max 2nd lvl farming) deserves to be converted into a city because it has the potential to produce up to 4k or more.