Fortress Defences

[MJF]

When you wish to upgrade the defences for a fortress (i.e. culverin towers, siege towers), do you need to have built the necessary cannon foundry in that province (i.e. master foundry)?

similarly, do you need to wait for the advent of gunpowder before these defences become available?

cheers

[caravel]

Welcome, MJF, to the .org

I think you need gunpowder to be invented, and I believe they depend on one of the foundries. I don't know for certain about the latter because I never build any castle upgrades at all.

The most I will upgrade to is curtain walls, ring walls and barbicans for keeps, castles and citadels respectively. Ballista, catapult and cannon towers are, IMHO, useless as they tend to shoot at your own gatehouse during a siege, doing a lot more harm than good.

[Vladimir]

For all the cannon fortifications you need at least the basic foundry and the basic gun building.

[Martok]

Welcome to the Org & the Main Hall, MJF!

Unfortunately, I (like Caravel) build the tower upgrades so rarely that I'm honestly not sure what the requirements are, especially for cannon/culverin towers. Their unfortunate tendency to shoot up my own gates and outer walls usually persuades me to not bother with them most of the time.

[gunslinger]

I must be doing something very right or very wrong. In a couple years of playing this game, I've only had a castle assaulted a handfull of times. Those assaults always occurred on border provinces where the garrison was pitiful (less than 100 men). I can't imagine a situation where I would be defending a fortress, so I've never messed with the defenses. Like Caravel, I do build ring walls, etc. if I think a castle may be on a border with a small garrison for quite awhile. This is purely to help the garrison hold out longer in a seige.

Does anyone know exactly how much longer a garrison can hold out as a result of a wall?

[Lord Cazaric]

I've played as various factions for more than a few turns, but on each one I tend to build cannon towers and ring walls, and every upgrade possible on one province in my empire. For the Almohads, this was Cordoba; for the Turks, Rum; the Spanish, Khazar and the Germans Switzerland. When I played as the Byzantines (the only one I've actually bothered to finish the game on) I fully upgraded fortresses in both Constantinople and Rome, as my empire covered basically the whole map and I decided it was time to build another massive stronghold.

The only reason I actually do this is to show off. I've never had to defend any of these castles except for Rome once, when the Pope attempted to take it from me.

Other than these examples, the most I build to is a barbican and curtain walls etc. and these are usually on the fronts. However, I always have at least a keep in Khazar by 1200, just in case the Golden Horde routs my army. It's never happened, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

And of course you need gunpowder before you can have culverin towers! Imagine trying to fire a culverin at the enemy, without gunpowder! It'd be like trying to tie your shoelaces and you suddenly discover...Oh my god! I have no fingers!

[Lord Cazaric]

And garrisons can hold out much longer with an extra wall (a stone one, anyway). That's if the enemy are stupid enough to attack without siege engines. Just stick some Swiss armoured pikemen in the gate. That'll hold them off for ages.

[MJF]

Thanks a lot for that guys
Clears a lot up
And I didnt know they blow your own gates up...thanks for the advice; guess I'll avoid them now...

[Vladimir]

I've successfully defended various fortifications several times. It's true that at ANY level, your walls are in danger of being hit by your own defenses. However, rarely is it enough to destroy your wall or make you vulnerable. You should have at least one cav unit in your garrison to take out as many siege engines as possible at the start of the battle. Tha way when your defenses damage your walls, they never destroy them.

Ultimately I would build all the walls I can because they serve as a deterrent and dramatically help in the defense.

[Innocentius]

Honestly, you don't need any fortress at all. Just make sure you have a unit of good Swiss Armed Pikemen right behind the last gate, and thousands of enemies will die at their hands

[Vladimir]

Honestly, you don't need any fortress at all. Just make sure you have a unit of good Swiss Armed Pikemen right behind the last gate, and thousands of enemies will die at their hands

Give me more than one Switzerland and make then avaliable in early and you have a deal. I also recommend that you put them at the first gate. That way you have all your towers firing at those waiting to assault the gate.

[Lord Cazaric]

That's what I just said!

[Lord Cazaric]

Another annoying thing about fortress defences is when you lost a province. The Egyptians once took Rum from me for three years (I was the Turkish), and it had a fully-upgraded fortress in it.

It took the lives of many hundreds of soldiers, but eventually I attacked Rum and murdered every Egyptian soldier inside.



It was a great experience.

[caravel]

The problem with Swiss Armoured Pikemen is their very limited availability. I prefer to base my tactics around the use for more readily available units, if you have those other types of units it's a bonus. For the fortress defence I would use something like Chiv Sergeants or Saracens backed up with Chivalric Foot Knights, Halberdiers, JHI or Billmen. It is also a good idea to have archers, arbalestiers or crossbowmen stationed behind their lines to get some salvoes off at the enemy over the walls and as they enter.

[seireikhaan]

One thing I love to do is put two organ guns into the garrisson of each castle. Those are fun to use in defenses. Put them behind the gate with a little distance between them and the gate. Enemy gets through the gate... only to get blasted apart at point blank range!

[Ciaran]

I hardly ever have to fight sieges as the defender and if I do, I´m usually so much outnumbered and outclassed that the result is predetermined anyways. And when I have the troops to put up a reasonable defence, I get starved out. So I don´t bother with any castle upgrades.

[Vladimir]

I hardly ever have to fight sieges as the defender and if I do, I´m usually so much outnumbered and outclassed that the result is predetermined anyways. And when I have the troops to put up a reasonable defence, I get starved out. So I don´t bother with any castle upgrades.

The problem with that is that if you loose the territory, you may loose the castle. The extra defenses may be what are destroyed or dammaged and not the superstructure itself. This is the main advantage.

[Ciaran]

I never thought about that. Thanks for that tip.