There are several buildings available to construct from the Castle buildings category. Each building requires use of wood or stone and an amount of gold.
Altogether, there are twenty-five buildings that are available for construction in Stronghold under the Castle buildings category. However, not all buildings will be available in every mission.
When you begin the game, you will need to place both your Stronghold and your granary. Your Stronghold is a free building and does not cost any resources to build.
The type of Stronghold you can construct is dependant on the mission you are playing. The different strongholds are:
- Saxon Hall – This is the first Castle type you can build.
- Wooden Keep – This is the second Castle, and the first that your Lord can wander onto the roof.
- Stone Keep
- Fortress
- Stronghold – The largest Stronghold available in the game
In the game, the type of Stronghold you build doesn’t affect the game mechanic, but can influence the amount of troops you can have on the roof of your castle. This can prove particularly useful when defending your Lord against enemy attacks.
When you click on the Castle category (the Tower), the panel shows the various buildings you can make, starting with basic constructions. The basic buildings are:
- Stair – Can only be used on stone walls and creates an access to the Castle walls. Stairs must be placed against standard stone walls or aside a gatehouse. To build, press and hold the left mouse button and drag the mouse in the direction you wish to build, then release the mouse button to place the stairs in the desired place. Each step costs one stone
- Walls – There are three types of wall; wooden, stone and crenulated. Wooden walls are cheaper to build, but are not as strong as stone walls and do not allow troops to stand on top. Crenulated walls need to be placed on standard walls, but offer greater protection to troops. To create a wall, press and hold the left-mouse button and drag the mouse in the directon of construction. Release the button to place the wall.
- Barracks – There are two types of barracks in the game; wooden and stone. There is no difference between the two, but which type you can build will depend on the mission. Either building costs 15 resources to build and is necessary for players to build troops.
- Armory – This building is made from wood and costs 10 resources. It is used to store weapons and armor. Without an armory, you will not be able to build troop units.
Walls can be built to any thickness, with thicker walls taking more time to penetrate than thinner ones. Also, if any part of the wall is placed in an invalid area, such as where a tree or rock is present, then the entire placement will turn red and you will be unable to place the wall. Each two squares covered by a wall costs one resource.
There are also three specialist building sub-categories of the Castle building category that are accessible from the list. They are: Towers (represented by a Tower icon), Gatehouses (represented by a Portcullis icon) and Engineering buildings (represented by a Pick) and we'll look at this in the next part of the guide.