Hello there reader,

After @Charlie made his post on forts and how you can make better looking forts which serve their purpose in defending your lands and claims, i decided to follow up on it and add my own knowledge to the mix.

I have created many beautiful fortified cities with citadels, ports and lush royal and civil gardens, cities with towering white towers which show off the kingdom’s vast wealth and power and Keep’s that you’d expect only the finest of kings to inhabit with his family and guards.

Sadly my piratecraft home, Seastone, does not show off my ability and potential that is why i have chosen to write a basic guide on how to build and upgrade your cities and defences if you don’t know where to start or just need a little nudge of inspiration.

So without further ado….
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A history lesson on castles and forts.</p>

When most people think of castles i wouldn’t be surprised if they think of a glistening white castle standing proudly on a green hilltop overlooking a beautiful landscape with no other building in sight, that’s a fantasy with some truth in it.

Most castles did sit on hills but they weren’t built on them for the scenery, they were built there to act as a psychological weapon against anyone who would dare to rebel, a watchtower that could see an enemy army coming from miles and watch the town below them and as a defense, running up a hill in full body armor while getting shot at wasn’t a walk in the park, and neither was trying to get across the moat and onto the walls where the enemy archers would be picking your friends off one by one before getting to you.
Most castles you see around most European countries are the result of several upgrades and renovations made by powerful leaders and tenants as most castles started off as Norman Motte and Bailey castles.

As you can see it is made up of two different sections, the tower, which sits on it’s own and oversees the bailey where they would keep the livestock and some homes.
With time these wooden structures would be replaced with stone and the walls would expand so as to allow more people into the safety of the castle, and sometimes the lord would decide to add another section to the wall for further defense in case another lord or enemy decides to expand their territory.

Notice the massive courtyard in the picture above, the courtyards were and still are essential in any military fort or in this case a castle, the court yard would be used as a rally point for the lords guards and soldiers, it would be used as a training area and it was also a pretty neat way of keeping things organised, courtyards are still used today.

Windsor castle, it is by far my most favorite castle which has served as the basic outline for the castles i have built on my worlds.

Windsor castle went through all the stages of a castle’s lifespan and it is still used today by Queen Elizabeth II.

 
<p style=”text-align: center;”>Defending and evolving your castle</p>
 

Picture a Motte and bailey Castle, now add a few stone walls to it and several stone towers along those walls, if you see the enemy coming you’ll be ready, but holy monkey with a shotgun!

Are those siege engines?

It’s time to turn your flimsy wooden keep to stone, you don’t want the enemy to shoot burning arrows at your firetrap of a keep, let’s make it fireproof, well done you now have yourself a stone keep with sturdy stone walls and tall and might stone towers.

and guess what kid? You leveled up!

You’re no longer a Motte and bailey castle you are now a strong and proud castle surrounded with a moat and built on a tall hill for an extra little advantage.

Enough with the sarcastic playful bullshit, i’m going to get serious and i’ll list off the new additions to this new castle.

• A kitchen for the cooks
• Barracks for the troops
• Armory for the troops
• A well for your own private source of water.
• Livestock
•  Courtyard
• Towers stone walls that can be navigated with ease, not  the wooden stakes from the motte and bailey castle
• Stables (Depending on your position with the king these may be large or small)
• A gold room where the peasant’s taxes are stored.

You may want to replace everything or build around it, after all the larger your castle the more lines of defense your enemy will have to go through.