How do you garrison castles?

**Maklodes** · January 19, 2014, 08:16 PM

In a way, cities are simple to garrison because militia availability makes the choice easy. With castles, I'm less sure about what to do. There's no free upkeep, and public order issues are generally less pressing.

In my Sicily campaign, I've often used Muslim archers (often two units) as a garrison, because their upkeep is fairly modest (125 florins), they can do good damage in a sally or shooting from the walls, and they're tough enough in melee to hold the walls somewhat against ladders or siege towers. If I see serious opposition on the way, I'll sometimes more stuff (sergeants, Norman knights). I'll sometimes also have Italian spear militai in my castles, since they're about as good as sergeants but cheaper to maintain (125 instead of 155), or pavise crossbow militia since they're so cheap to maintain (100 florins) and powerful. However, inability to retrain militia in a castle is a hassle.

What's your approach? I've heard some people just like to station a unit of peasants in their castles, which is the minimum so that they don't suffer the public order penalty of having no garrison at all and can't be taken by the enemy just walking in without even constructing siege equipment, but no need for a more significant garrison than that.

**UndrState** · January 19, 2014, 09:24 PM

I am a big fan of using forts at midways between settlements and often nearer the border than not. Knights when possible - so its rare past the early game for me to have too much in a particular castle. That being said I am of building up something there to put new armies together, waiting with some infantry or archer whilst cavalry is producing. By the late game, however, most of my castles will be well behind my lines (my favoured factions operating in Italy and Germany so you know what Im talkin about) and I dont really need too many more and Im often switching to cities for economic reasons therefore castles really dont need any garrisons. And yes I will use peasants or even :o leave it empty when I can ( Im thinking of you, Innsbruck).

**Nzg** · January 20, 2014, 07:06 AM

For me it depends on where the castle is. My border castles usualy consist of 1 cav stack 3-4 spear stacks 3 heavy infantry stacks 2 good missle(ottomans, lithuanians, yeomans etc.) This way I can get a decent firepower, good wall holders, bunker at the gate, and a stack to chase down routers.

In safe castles, that I decided not to convert to cities(for example when playing as HRE, I keep Hamburg a castle for the whole game, even if I defeated Denmark etc. Stettin on the other hand is usualy turned to city, even if I'm in war in the area), I tend to keep 1 stack of spears.

In the mid castles, that might be sieged, but usualy they're not at the first line of defence, I tend to keep a stack of missles, and 2 stacks of spears.

I don't use militias in castles. Retraining is painful and their upkeep isn't that much of a problem. It's good to mention that when playing as an Italian state I sometimes change castles to cities. For example when I play as Milan, Ajacco and the other island become instant cities and are defended with Militias.

Forts are a viable choice. Keeping 10 stacks of cavalry near the border, so they can reach 2 or even 3 settlements sometimes and fight sieging armies.

**UndrState** · January 20, 2014, 07:35 AM

Originally Posted by Nzg

It's good to mention that when playing as an Italian state I sometimes change castles to cities. For example when I play as Milan, Ajacco and the other island become instant cities and are defended with Militias.

I do this as well, usually with a good deal of internal conflict first. Those islands get attacked so often, but just won't grow or contribute much as castles. More than anything, those islands have taught me the value of a decent navy ( and some "marines" ready for action ).

**Nzg** · January 20, 2014, 10:52 AM

Trade/travelers guild help there

**eugenioso** · January 21, 2014, 07:00 PM

Originally Posted by UndrState

I do this as well, usually with a good deal of internal conflict first. Those islands get attacked so often, but just won't grow or contribute much as castles. More than anything, those islands have taught me the value of a decent navy ( and some "marines" ready for action ).

not to mention, castles have much lower income than cities, and really you should make those into cities for the sheer naval growth trade they can give.

**UndrState** · January 22, 2014, 11:54 AM

Originally Posted by eugenioso

not to mention, castles have much lower income than cities, and really you should make those into cities for the sheer naval growth trade they can give.

For sure, especially in that area. Frankly, the only time I'd consider keeping one of those two as castles (and not for ever, either) is if I was play as Milan, and I got boxed in by the HRE or France and therefore wasn't able to get access to Bern or Metz.

**JC Denton** · January 29, 2014, 11:17 PM

If its near a border a few spear type units, a few archers/x-bowmen, plus 1-2 catas. Plus maybe a cavalry unit or two to run down retreaters. Spearmen create nice little greeting party near the gate; when it comes crashing down, blast the mosh pit with fireballs from your cata.

Catas are also useful for counter battery against other siege engines.

Fortresses and citadels need less manpower ... I've found the AI is just not clever enough to get multiple walls.

**eugenioso** · January 30, 2014, 08:25 PM

it really, like said by denton above, depends on where, why and against what you want to hold it against. if placed against a potential enemy, then a mid garrison is good, heavy spearmen and a few light archers to hold back enemy invasions. if an enemy army is coming and you dont have time to build much, build a few dismounted knights or equivalent, but not mounted units! those suck in urban terrain (nice analogy, that mounted knights were considered medieval tanks, and tanks dont perform well on urban settings). if fighting mongols, then just spearmen the hell out of the location, with a few archers, some dismounted knights and hopefully a catapult or two for killing the enemy blobs.

**Jon123** · January 31, 2014, 07:32 AM

I've heard about this tactic of attacking 'the blob' with catapults, but never tried it. Does it really work? Aren't they too inaccurate and don't your units and walls suffer a lot from friendly fire?

For myself I prefer to convert most castles to cities, unless they are actually being used to recruit armies, in which case they are usually full of units anyway. The exception would be if I wanted to keep a castle in order to block off an enemy faction. For example when playing as HRE I will keep Hamburg as a castle to block of the Danes. In that case my garrison will consist of spearmen, archers and swordsmen for defence plus a couple of knights. These are useful for chasing down routers, or sallying forth to attack enemy siege engines.

If facing the Mongols I'll use spearmen around the gates to hold back his cavalry plus archers on the walls to shoot them. Since the Mongol infantry is weak, you only need a couple of heavy infantry units yourself to stop his infantry attacks. His cavalry is far more dangerous so I'll use more spearmen than swordsmen in this case.

If for any reason I do keep a castle far from the front line then it would only have the cheapest possible garrison of 2 peasants or something. This is really just to keep the population happy and prevent a wandering AI unit from walking in and capturing the settlement without a fight. Archers are quite good against small wandering AI armies. Use flaming arrows and if you get lucky you can set fire to their ram and then the attack fails while You get to recruit more troops. Always keep at least 1 unit of infantry however, as often you won't set fire to the ram and still have to fight at the gate, even if the attacker only has 1 unit.

**Lord_Imrahil** · October 22, 2015, 08:34 AM

If the castle is at a border with an enemy, I either have a big army there, or at least nearby. To defend archers some spears or pike and good infantry is the best. You don't need much cavalry. If the castle is in the middle of my kingdom, I often turn it into a city or garrison it by something cheap, doesn't matter if the can fight.

**Hadgard** · November 16, 2015, 07:43 PM

I am looking to add more units to France from other empires. I have tried to add them in unit description by adding france to the list of countries that can recruit a unit but thdid not work, then I did step one and messed with building descriptions to let the building allow france to hire different unit besides the regular ones still nothing. any help at this point will be greatly appreciated.

P.S. and mods that add units to the base game will help too