Where should you build castles

[aflashman]

I have a friend who I play regularly. I am much better at the first half of the game, but if he survives until Imperial I usually lose my advantage. My trouble is Castles - he is always taking them down with trebs. I usually build my castles forward in an attempt to take the middle ground. My friend always walls off very comprehensively and tends to build his castles well back behind the walls out of reach of my trebs. I must admit I tend not to build walls myself - I usually hope for a quick victory wih a feudal or early castle rush.

I know I like them when I play Britons I find castles to be an effective offensive weapon - castles + longbowmen are formidable, but lately I have been playing the Huns more and more (because they are better in the early game) and they only get some kind of cavalary unit which I have don't find very good. I am starting to wonder if Castles are waste of resources.

So I am interested what peoples thoughts are on castles? How should they be used.

[Villa]

I build mine beside the sea side.

[aflashman]

That's great advice thanks Villa ;-) How about if you are playing Arabia?

[aflashman]

Btw I am starting to think your suggestion of an option to disable trebs at the start of the game is not such a bad idea after all. lol.

[Villa]

Well, I suck at this game generally, however I tend to build mine either in my base (just the one there) or as a spear head for an advance into enemy territory, followed up by another one a little further ahead as the advance makes headway.
Really useful to have villagers standing by to repair the castle if it's used as a spear head as enemy trebs will no doubt be hitting it.

[Ham]

if he has trebs and you are still in castle age you are at a disadvantage.
If you have trebs aswell you can attack his trebs with your trebs (your trebs being under your own castle fire)
If he is walled off dont build your castle close enough to allow him to kill it with trebs from behind his walls.
Try to lure his army back to your castles to fight under your castle fire.
Trebs are ussually focal points for enemy attacks (he needs to take them out or lose buildings/castles/gates ect) putting a castle up in a good spot and popping a couple trebs out forces him to come fight you under your castle fire, be ready with units.
Set your rally points from barracks and stable ect beside your castles so you will ussually have units there ready to defend or launch attacks from your castles.
Use calvary to flank his trebs
Use seige behind your castles to add splash damage when he comes for your trebs
Use halbs to defend your seige and trebs from his calvary (just set them to guard)

Castles add alot to your army but if they arent backed up with units (or backing up your units)
they can be taken down pretty easily

[Cosmoshibe]

Near enemies (if theyre a bit behind) is a fun one, it'll ruin their stuff assuming they aren't ready to defend against it.

[ExTiNcT_SaNitY]

I see many noob build castles right up to the enemy begging the enemy to take the lifeblood down as the very first thing.
For a britt a castle is his breat and butter, he must not lose a castle, specially in such foolish way, therefor it must be build a bit back in the base, where it can also serve as a "tower" where it guards the villagers from rushes.
In order to form a big army of long bows you need the castle to say alive, put some "meat" infront of it, like barracks, siege workshop, stables, etc. Ofc out of treb range, and wall up in dark age ..DEEP!!!!! Too many noobs makes a close wall, thus they can't make an emergency wall further back, if the enemy got ranged units to fight off villagers walling up at the first wall.

It's all very simple logic which too many forsake.

[aflashman]

Messaggio originale di ExTiNcT_SaNitY:

In order to form a big army of long bows you need the castle to say alive, put some "meat" infront of it, like barracks, siege workshop, stables, etc. Ofc out of treb range, and wall up in dark age ..DEEP!!!!! Too many noobs makes a close wall, thus they can't make an emergency wall further back, if the enemy got ranged units to fight off villagers walling up at the first wall.

I think I am learning this hard way. Thanks for the advice ExTiNct_SaNitY.

[ExTiNcT_SaNitY]

Messaggio originale di aflashman:

Messaggio originale di ExTiNcT_SaNitY:

In order to form a big army of long bows you need the castle to say alive, put some "meat" infront of it, like barracks, siege workshop, stables, etc. Ofc out of treb range, and wall up in dark age ..DEEP!!!!! Too many noobs makes a close wall, thus they can't make an emergency wall further back, if the enemy got ranged units to fight off villagers walling up at the first wall.

I think I am learning this hard way. Thanks for the advice ExTiNct_SaNitY.

My plesure, add me and ask for advice if you feel like it.

[ExTiNcT_SaNitY]

Well, now that you mentioned that you are playing Arabia, then it's an whole other deal, it surely depends on your own strength, initiative, and army size.

If you have him slightly down, you can push him over the edge, by building a castle in the middle of his base, usually it's wise to have a tower first, then villagers has a fall back place should things get too heated.
Or wall in the castle builders, your army doesn't have to stand around doing nothing while villagers builds.

[aflashman]

I guess I have to learn to play by ear. There a have been times when a forward castle has done really well for me, but as you say, maybe I alread had the other guy down (a big noob even than me). But other times my castles have just been sitting ducks.

[Blitz]

This all varies so much with game sway and civilization. If you're the brit's you need to put the castle somewhere safe... but scoop up all the stone you can, make multiple castles. Two safe castles, and one spear castle.

Don't forget about your economy once you're castle age.... advance with troops and this will hurt his economy. Keep booming yours and imp before him. If you imp before him during battle, this can end the game for you.

What does your economy look like in late game?

[aflashman]

Messaggio originale di Blitzkrieg89:

What does your economy look like in late game?

Strengths: lots of villagers working hard. I usually have enough villagers I think.
Weaknesses: I am late getting around to economic upgrades. I have looked at end of game stats before and I have seen that even though I had a higher villager count, that the other player gathered more than me.

I think I play quite well (for a noob) up until to mid-castle. I have learned a few types of rushes, which I sometimes pull off quite successfully against oherwise better players. After that I tend to lose focus. I forget to research necessary technologies or I have spent the resources on military units and thus can't afford upgrades (meaning my aveage Imperial time is usually between 50 minutes and 1 hour and 10 minutes, even though I might have reached Castle age at 18 to 25 minutes, depending on the type of rush). I build large armies but I tend to lose more in battle because I either have the wrong mixuture of units or my microing is terrible.

Admittedly I have spent much more time foccusing on my early than my late game. I am thinking I should play a few death matches so I get used to managing large armies.

[hot_gril]

I always make mine close behind my town center and, if I remember to do it, surrounded closely (no space in between) with palisade or fortified walls so the enemy can't take it down as easily with champions or something. Even if you use palisade walls, the enemy has to take down a lot of them before there is enough surface area to do real damage with anything but rams, and because of the way the game is, it's really hard to tell units to attack a palisade wall that's behind a castle :D

Having it behind the town center makes it a garrison point for villagers when under attack, and it forces the enemy to get sucked deep into my territory to attack it. Plus, if the enemy doesn't manage his army, it'll get ruined auto-attacking the castle. If they try and go for my town center, they get shot down. Bonus points if the castle is also next to water, super bonus points if the enemy can't make cannon galleons. Bombard cannons, cannon galleons, and knights are my favorite for anti-treb defense.

I also try to do what Extinct Sanity said. That's the best advice I think. If your walls are far from your castle, the enemy has to bring his trebuchets inside your walls to attack! By the time he gets in, you can have the aforementioned anti-treb defenses waiting.