Which is the best castle province ??

[YAKOBU]

Hi everyone

After my 5 province long campaign with the English I realise that I have only really played a couple of factions. I am now going to force myself to complete a short campaign for each faction.

Today I started as the Moors and went straight for Cordoba as it was lightly defended. I was impressed to see the limited access but once I had taken it found it annoying to defend as all the streets were too narrow and I had to keep resizing my units for ages. The castle only had 1 wall to get through at this point.

Anyway back to the point of my thread. Which do you all think is the best castle province and why? Please think not only of the strategic province in question but also the design and access to the castle.

I would have posted a poll but listing all provinces would have been a nightmare.

[Zarky]

Acre, you can block enemies before they even reach your castle, and i haven´t found any problems with city streets and such in there.
It can be attacked only from 2 direct ways, and by sea which can be blocked with strong fleet.
Other would be Caesarea for its easy defendability, but with Turks you have poorer infantry than catholics for example, no horses on walls ^^.
Of course those 2 are just in so called "hot spot" that someone actually attacks there, some places such as Helsinki and Oslo are too far away and invaluable.

[Budwise]

Which category are we talking about?

Are we talking about...

1. Defending
2. Troop Building
3. Location / Chokepoint
4. Economical (Yes, they still get money)
5. Bonuses (Are their any, in MTW there were)
6. Ect

Please answer because I believe people would have a different answer for all of them. If your talking about Strategic placement, I would say Constantinople would be the best option if converted to a castle but then again, I hardly ever play over on that side of the world.

[YAKOBU]

Hi Budwise

I mean strategically and defensability.

[Valdincan]

I've had a lot of success with Innsbruck, but there may be better. I've had enemies try to attack it many times, but they never get through the mountains.

[supadodo]

I would say Constantinople would be the best option if converted to a castle but then again, I hardly ever play over on that side of the world.

Constantinople can never be converted to a castle. It starts off as a large city.

In my opinion, I would say Aleppo(or was it Adana? I only know its east of Antioch) because it can supply troops easily to both Antioch and Edessa(Only takes a 1 turn march). Aleppo is also a shield to Antioch against Mongols because of the bridges.

[Ramses II CP]

I'd say Aleppo or Adana as well. Adana has the mountains nearby, where you can fight some fantastic terrain and block all passage east, west, and north, whereas Aleppo has the crossings and bridges. Alexandria would make a decent fortress too, with only open desert to the west and a double bridge set to the east, but you won't see a lot of action there.

Even if you exterminate Constantinople repeatedly it won't shrink? Never tried.

[Budwise]

Constantinople can never be converted to a castle. It starts off as a large city.

In my opinion, I would say Aleppo(or was it Adana? I only know its east of Antioch) because it can supply troops easily to both Antioch and Edessa(Only takes a 1 turn march). Aleppo is also a shield to Antioch against Mongols because of the bridges.

Couldn't you exterminate when you take it to kill the population. I am not sure because I don't flip flop back and forth on castle/city conversions. It would be a perfect castle though.

[supadodo]

I don't think extermination knocks down the settlement level. I've seen the Ai tried it on many cities even reducing the pop to just a few thousand but the city level is still the same. Extermination though does seem to knock down destructible buildings like barracks and town halls.

[phonicsmonkey]

I'm pretty sure that, once upgraded, a huge city stays a huge city regardless of how low the population goes after that

[Towwb]

I'd have to go with Sofia, or a converted Zagreb. Infantry-based factions can garrison the bridges to at least slow down oncoming armies from the north (northern Mongols!), while HA factions have a decent amount of space available for hit-and-run attacks to whittle down enemy stacks. Zagreb has the added benefit of being able to quickly reinforce northern Italy.

[WhiskeyGhost]

I'd have to go with Sofia, or a converted Zagreb. Infantry-based factions can garrison the bridges to at least slow down oncoming armies from the north (northern Mongols!), while HA factions have a decent amount of space available for hit-and-run attacks to whittle down enemy stacks. Zagreb has the added benefit of being able to quickly reinforce northern Italy.

Your a madman! Every time i've seen Zagreb, it was competing with Stockholm, Constantinople, and Antioch in comparison to how much money it rakes in. Especially post patch, where those gold mines add TONS of income

I personally like Gaza (makes a really good front on the Eastern lands, especially if Egypt has already taken all the Holy Lands) since they have to cross by Gaza from Cairo and Alexandria, if they wanna re-inforce the weaker cities to the other side.

[ReiseReise]

Zagreb has a HUGE mining income (~700 vs 200 for normal iirc). I always thought it was pretty worthless but those gold mines are HUGE to your economy. Durazzo however, remains worthless :-) the only good that comes from it is the Byz LOVE it, so you can make a decent garrison and massacre stack after stack of HA.

PS. Vienna has good mines too.

I don't know if this is just post 1.2 or not, but you cannot pass up these regions.

[RoadKill]

I would have to say Toulsone and the other castle south of the french territories, i think it starts with a B.

[Zarky]

Pamplona?

[RoadKill]

yes Pampola, during my french campaigns the portugeuse defended it very poorly through out the whole game, i let the portuguese build the castle up and captured it during the 40th turn and the money poured for me.

[Odin]

Sofia. Its location allows for the defense of central europe from the turks or mongols. It also allows for a defensive position when playing the Byzantines against the christians to the north as you expand into the middle east.

As a christian faction its a great place to launch invasions of Italy, and constantanople. Its proximity to factions of the three religions make it a key castle to hold. I mean each faction has a key province IMHO that enables them to be successful in multiple conquest directions.

But Sofia seems to be one smack in the middle of a lot of potential action (the byz expansion north, christian expansion toward constanople, and christian defense against invasion from the middle east.).

[Shao]

Adana perhaps if we're talking East. An excellent base of operations for both Asia Minor and the Holy lands. Caesarea and Acre are good too.

[icek]

Palermo, an excelent building structure.

[Towwb]

Your a madman! Every time i've seen Zagreb, it was competing with Stockholm, Constantinople, and Antioch in comparison to how much money it rakes in. Especially post patch, where those gold mines add TONS of income

So be Italian and keep it a city. It doesn't change the fact that an army from the north has to cross an incredibly defensible bridge (firing positions on both sides of the bridge for crossbowmen), while an army from the east has to cross four (four!) bridges. Combine it with Ragusa and its single-mountain-pass guarding the south, and any Catholic wanting to defend the west from Mongols, Turks, or Byzantines has to consider castling Zagreb; the possibilities for attrition on invaders are just too great to be ignored.