Number of castles?

[becephalus]

Is there some optimal number of castles? If you build tons do they hamper each other's growth? Or is the more always the merrier as long as you have officers to staff them?

I have been rluctant to build them as there are already so many and $8,000 is not a trivial sum, but then again I kind of get the feeling if I just made several I would be much stronger in 10 years.

[Thamalandis]

I doubt they "hinder" each others growth, as the districts are preset. I am not sure if they "share" the resources as in if you build there first, it gets the southern districts and you can't build a fort in the south anymore. I would need to test it, but I would say the buildable places are preset as are the districts, no problem.

[Delacourt '27]

Certain place will be so poor, you will have no crop/craft/conscript to upgrade, if it shows - on the upgrades. The standard is 100/100/70 for new fortress. And just to clarify, in game distinction, you can build fortress, not castles. And fortress will not supply too much troops over all. I only build them to get more tribes. Like i built 2 fortresses to cut off my ally to 2 tribes, so i have 100% loyalty. And a 3rd fortress to claim 2 pure independent tribes.

[Thamalandis]

A fortress even with mediocre districts - 3 are minimum - off about 4 to 5 and maybe some good area synergies or resources can yield up to 4000 troops. That is a force worthy of half a mediocre castle. It can't beat a fully upgraded 12k+ castle, sure, but if you got money like my Shimazu, building fortresses and developing them will yield a lot in the long run. Just listen to your advisor. He tells you how many districts a location gets "won't yield much" "ideal place" etc.

The "upgrades" only matter for the special building of the fortress, which is not that important in a backup fortress... border maybe. You will always be able to upgrade a district once you reach the developement caps. The overall turnout or investment-return could be bad though. Getting 1 gold for 100 developement money forces you to think 7 years ahead.

[Vorian]

From my small experience and the test a friend did on a game if money is not a problem for you it is good to make many fortress. A fortress is not weaker than a castle , you even start with some better castle upgrade place if you use a 100 POL character to build it. Where my starting castle was stuck a 8 slots for upgrades my fortress start with 12. Also given the extra income, food and soldiers it brings just focus on pop increase and it will get to a castle like strength in no time.

A good strategy is to place fortress where you need them to conquer a province and as you grow some provinces will become remote and with few/none chance to get attacked. Remove them then and only keep 1 castle, soldiers form the disbanded fortress will gather at your castle blowing off your troops limits and you then force the AI to attack you on the worst conditions you can get with a 10k S/S rank castle with 15k soldier so far away they will eat 60 days of food just to reach it for exemple. When you remove them and switch to a delegate province you will get back your officers and keep your expansion steady.

Also remember you can resupply troops by moving through your castles/fortresses zone so if you own a lot of fortresses behind you front line you can use theses soldiers to weaken the front while leaving your front lines fully man. It comes in handy when the game goes pass 30 years and everyone finally developped correctly their castles.

[Thamalandis]

The immersive and arbitrary act of killing and disowning thousand of people living in your fortress town should be ignored here I guess... and the fact you could just not make a death channel in a fortress that never will see a siege anyway.
The only fortresses I would ever scrap are military outposts, "cities" or better forts build at "won't grow" locations with 0 districts. They only give around 750 troops, contribute no income and are only there to stop the enemy. Those can be scrapped. Don't scrap the others.

And your POL has nothing to do with the building slots. Each fortresses slots are predetermined. The best ingame are 20 and for example the best on Kyushu is Tachibanama - or something - in the north. It can build "nearly" all upgrades. Nearly.

[Vermillion]

To answer your question, no, they do not hinder one another.
I took Mino and had tons of castles next to Inabayama castle and they all were about 4 districts and some of them 6.
With choosing a good location, bring up the build castle option, pick a location and look to what you adviser says.
They have about 4 sayings.
"This town will not grow" A bad location that is generally just a fortress to slow down enemies.
"A good idea but it will take longer to build that castle" A generally decent location but it takes more time generally because the castle has a good location like a small hill or something.
"A good idea" A decent location with about 4 districts
"A wonderful idea" A great location to build usually 6 disticts

[becephalus]

I have found that what he says also varies based on which officer you choose.

[Ensign]

Have either of you noticed that those 4 says are based on the time it takes to build and not the quality of the fort or how many districts? It goes by intervals of 30 (one month/one turn) Everytime you pass a milestone he says something else. It varies dependant on officer becuase their terms of construction vary. Try it.

Notice that a term <60 is refered to as wonderful and beyond that its good. >90 is "quite a few days".

Making sure to spread the word so no misinformation gets out. Ive asked a similar topic but after this one.

[Darbs R Us]

My experience is that the more fortresses you build, the better. Don't bother with 3 and 4 district fortresses though, because there is a limit to how many you can build. The best ones are typically at intersection s where 3 or 4 roads meet up. Building in plains areas makes for decent fortresses too, naturally.

Also, contrary to what some people have stated, you can get some very nice troop numbers from good fortresses. I routinely get 5-6 from 3 district fortresses and I have one 9 district one that pumps out 17k. The trick is proper district usage and do not destroy fortresses unless you absolutely need to our they are worthless. Good luck.