What to build in holding slots? Castle? City? Temple?

[Lelo Mariin]

In most of my games I just plopped whatever whereever i had space. Never really giving much interest into what goes where "best"
I play as a Dutchy of Bohemia. Been trying to stay as my own religion as much/or as long as possible untill the crusades go after me (if at all)
I want to kit out Praha
It now has a city, temple and a castle. I have several stots to build a city, temple or a caste
What would you reccoment? If you build a caste, what buildings or a city with what buildings?
Im trying to understand what goes where "best"

[corisai]

1) Castle is a bad choice in long-term (each castle = 1 domain slot like a normal country but without cities/temples).
Some players still like build 1-2 in you capital coutry. Building them anywhere else = a big "no"!

2) Don't remember math between city and temple, so I'm simply gonna with cities usually :)

[Lovecraft's Cat]

I guess cities are "best" in that they get the guild halls, which make good money and boost development of the whole county.

Temples I ignore mostly in my own counties, but apparently they're not all that bad tax wise.

Castles are super useful imo, because you can take them from your baron in a pinch. For example when you die and start as your heir, sometimes you lose holdings to your brother. So, just take over a couple of your small castles, and give them to low nobles as you collect your regular holdings back. Sure, the small castles miss a spot, but they can have barracks in them just like the big ones.

[Ashantai]

Temple holdings are almost always the best way to go as far as new holdings. In your capital, especially if there's a building which buffs all holdings in the county you're best off going castle if you have the slots.

As far as actual buildings, it depends on terrain. Plains and farmland you'll want the high income buildings, then a men at arms building for whichever route you're going down.

[CrUsHeR]

In Bohemia, i think that building barony castles might be useless, because the duchy itself is one of the largest and most powerful in the game already. So you might have trouble with your domain limit just by holding the counties itself.

Otherwise:

Cities - good taxes and county development. They start out incredibly poor, so you may have to buy them some initial tax-boosting upgrades, otherwise a wasted slot for the coming century(ies).

Castles - MAA bonus, taxes, levies, fortification blocks enemy movement. The special thing about castles is that you can grant and revoke all baronies at will, so whenever your domain cap changes, you can simply grant/revoke a few castles as needed. They have 3 instead of 4 slots compared to a county's top holding castle, so they are effectively a wasted slot (on several levels) if you could hold an entire county instead.

Temples / theocratic - your realm priest will lease all temples in your realm, as long as you have non-negative opinion this gives a huge amount of levies and taxes. Also with many temples, he has a lot of money himself, so he can very quickly upgrade new temples. Additionally a temple will give a popular opinion bonus if your faith is theocratic and has the "alms and pacification" doctrine.

Temples / lay clergy - Function-wise they work identically to castles, just with different buildings. So you can hold them yourself or grant/revoke as needed. In that case it is 1 more slot to exploit, because each county needs a temple and a city before you can build castles.


Also to avoid losing counties to partition outside of your primary duchy, you just need to destroy the duchy title.

[Red Dragon]

I like to get at least 2 castles, ideally in my capital county. The reason is that you can revoke without tyranny from barons so you can use them as a buffer for your domain limit. If you get high stewardship revoke them and hold them yourself, if you get a garbage heir (or your wife suddenly inherits some effin random castle and leaves you) you can stay within your domain limit without having to gift/revoke entire counties. They aren't quite as good as county castles due to one less building slot but a lot less hassle than gifting/revoking counties.

Edit: Yeah I guess it pays to read what others wrote before you post

Originally posted by CrUsHeR:

Castles - MAA bonus, taxes, levies, fortification blocks enemy movement. The special thing about castles is that you can grant and revoke all baronies at will, so whenever your domain cap changes, you can simply grant/revoke a few castles as needed. They have 3 instead of 4 slots compared to a county's top holding castle, so they are effectively a wasted slot (on several levels) if you could hold an entire county instead.

[Lelo Mariin]

Very informative Crusher. Thank you (and others ofcourse)

[michaelmerlin]

Castles can be good in the main holding of your primary title if you've got a large family and a Partition sucesson type. You can always be sure to get it but in a worst case that's -all- you get, along with your primary title. If you are going to have to fight a war with your brothers to put your father's domain back together it's a lot easier if there are 3 castles in your main hold. (Partition won't hand out Baronies)