Castle defense additions - are they worth building?

[HicRic]

@HicRic: Do you win because you can get the upper hand with even inferior troops because of your tactical skills or your troops are just good enough to prevail - attributed to your strategic skills?

Without meaning to sound immodest-both! I've played for too much Shogun and Medieval for my own good, so I know how to out-play the AI on both the strat map (so my armies are strong) and on the tactical map (so I can win even when attacked in a weaker position).

Of course, nobody is going to win using all peasants for their armies-so strat map skill is vital. I don't claim to be a genius at either-I'm useless at the online battles against other humans-but I can manage against the AI fine.

There are people much better than I-some "rush" at the start of their game and take large amounts of territory with very small armies, requireing near-pefect moves on the strategy map and great generalship on the tactical map. I cannot do this, I admit.

Another example of out-fighting the AI is with the mongols. They can't field their whole army at the same time, and they don't use their reinforcements effectively. This allows me to field one full-strength army with a few reserves and take on much larger numbers (as they throw their men piecemeal at me, they can't put, say, 5000 men on the field at once).

I have no idea why I just wrote so much completely off-topic. Uhh, I'll shut up now.

Oh-one more thing. I still lose a battle now and then to the Mongols, thanks to their Mongol Heavy Cavalry. They're very powerful-I've had them charge a line of spearmen head-on and win almost straight away as they broke and ran. They were low-morale spearmen, and MHC are just..solid. Hard as nails.