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!