How you organize your towns?

[tonibiker]

I want to know how you have the castles,how many cities usually (percentage)????
And what buildings you build in most of towns?

[ulrien]

depends on the faction, some factions get great units from towns alone such as milan. also I usually only have castles on the edges of my empire, the rest of the empire is set for economic growth or gunpowder/artillery unit production. also, depends on the location, for example using gaza as a fortress makes much more sense then using antioch just due to the overall economic potential.
that being said i try to maintain at least 4 towns/castle, that number fluctuates throughout the course of the game though.

[burningsoul]

my castles are only on borders with an another empire...an after i go much more into enemy territory, i convert it to a town, because it so no longer possible to supply my army with soldiers from that castle....

[miccofl]

In my games I take the settlements for what they are; if it is a city, then it remains a city; if a castle, it stays a castle. It's more of a challenge plus it evens things out with the AI as it never converts them.

[daffyff]

I maintain a 10-20% of my territories as castles.

[Renco]

I keep it like this.
I want as many towns as possilbe. Adjustable tax, trade buldings and higher holy buildings. So I keep everything a town except the border towns, and sometimes a center town to deal with rebels. Soon as I expand I convert a castle to a town or vice versa.

[Okocim]

Border territories are Castles as are coastal(on the coast... like Riga), I try to balance it with England and Byzantium... other wise its all cities to generate as much cash as I can have, more cities = more merchants = more armies.

[Lord William]

i set up like this

3-4 city and 1 castle near it, so the always have knights near by but yet i still make money from the cities

[loquar]

I normaly have 1 castle near each current battlefront and 1 near the middle to retrain units in my fire brigade stack. The ratio starts normally about 3-1 or 4-1 and as the game progresses moves closer to 6-1 or 7-1

[Mithrantir]

Depends on the faction. I play mainly England, Byzantium and Spain. Castles that are developed sufficiently and have a useful guild (ie Woodsman guild, swordsmith guild) i keep them as is even if they are far from the front line, and try to keep armies flowing back and forth from them to the borders.

In England i always keep Nottingham as a castle, and when i conquer Angers and Bordeaux (or later) i turn them to cities.

In Byzantium i turn Corinth and Smyrna later in the game (i also try to keep them low on pure castle upgrades) to cities, as well as Rhodes (when i take it) and Nicosia (these two immediately).

I don't have a ratio of cities per castle. Just trying to have castles in strategic (that is easily accessing many regions) regions, and usually ones that are not that prone to have a considerable economic development. Only exception is Hamburg, which usually when i conquer it's usually well developed and is kept as a castle (despite the possibilities of huge income in case of town).

[Sher Khan]

Adana is always converted into a city.

[T-wester]

as others have said it depents on the faction but i like to have castles on my border and i try to get my towns specialized so in one i create churches the 2nd i create diplomatic buildings and the 3th spies and in all i start with roads, mines (if available), the to first farm levels, ports then markeds and at last barracks

[Evolution]

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 I organize them like that

[burningsoul]

Here are some cities, I considered to be poor enought to be converted or to remain as castles: Tbilisi, Yerevan, Smyrna, Innsbruck, Granada, Lasi, Vilnius, Ajaccio, Tripoli, Inverness, Acre, Caesarea
and here are the castles, that are rich enought to be converted to cities: Adana, Hamburg, Tolouse, Toledo, Tunis, Dongola, Corinth, Bordeaux, Palermo, Cagliari, Nicosia, Rhodes,
dont forget, that this is only my opinion...

[nosjo78]

Basically settlements near water need to be TOWNS. Sea trade is VERY valuable so make sure you convert all castles on water into towns. Ill give a basic run down of what I do for certain factions. btw I play SS 5.0 so some regions are a bit different than vanilla.

1. British Isles
Turn every settlement on the British Isles into cities except for Nottingham.

2. France region
If your playing as England, Scottland,I reland, or France (whoever holds Caen) turn that into a city as well as Antwerp, Bordeaux, and i cant think of the names off hand but turn all the the castles bording HRE and France into cities except for 1 (whichever is the most advanced). Also leave Angers as a castle until you have subjugated France region and the British Isles. Leave Tolouse as a castle as it is usually well upgraded at the beginning of the game.

3. Iberian Peninsula
All castles except Leon (Toledo in vanilla) turn into cities. Pretty much no matter what faction your in if your quick enough you can buy Tolouse from france for 1/2 to 3/4 of your money trade rights map swap and alliance. This is a probably the BEST castle in the west. Perfect to take care of Milan.

4. Northern Africa
Turn all castles into cities except for Algiers. The reason you leave Algiers is its a good place to stop both the Moors and Sicily.

4. Italy
This place is the bread and butter for money making. Turn all cities into castles. If your playing SS or another mod that has Aconda sp? keep that as a castle until you take Iverness or another HRE castle in the region.

5. Northern Europe
Make sure to convert all the castles on the water into cities. The Baltic Sea offers great trade opportunities once all the cities in the area get upgraded ports. Keep Hamburg as a castle ( I know its on the water but its a GREAT place to stop invasion into Scandanavia. You dont want to loose Arhus no matter what faction you are. Also as another type for warfare park a ship between the Islands east of Arhus to stop any armys from marching in. Also leave Villinus as a castle (its pretty useless as a city).

6. Russia

Helsinki needs to be a town. Make sure to leave one castle in the west and one or 2 in the east. When the Mongols invade you need to have some firepower in the east to defeat or slow them.

7. Black Sea to the Adriatic Sea

Once again start converting most of the castles into towns. Especially Sophia and depending on the mods Corinth (awesome money makers as towns) Their are other castles in the area that should be converted but make sure you dont use these 2 as castles. Leave Hungarys starting castle as a castle and use that as your powerbase in the region. Ragusa might need to be left as a castle for invasion of Italy and to shore up your western borders.

8. Middle East

Change everything into a town that is on water. Leave Gaza for the time being until you wipe out or control the Egyptians. Make sure to keep 2 or 3 castles in the area to handle the mongols when they invade. Mosul and one of the other castles in the area are pretty good at this. If your a Christian faction down here make sure to only take the Hospitalar, Templar, etc... guilds for the cities and castles down here. Its pretty easy to get them when your bordered by Muslim factions.

9. Turks

I dont play the Turks much so im not really sure. I hate the region because its takes forever to walk anywhere. But make sure you leave enough castles to fight off the mongols when they arrive. Its a safe bet to change costal settlements into cities.

Theres basically how I set up the world for cities and castles. I keep very few castles usually only 1 or so for each factions starting area. With the exception of the Mongols and Timurids you can easily win a battle with good generals and low cost troops. Quantity>Quality. Money Money Money is the single most important factor in this game. If you have good money output from cities you can wage war on the entire world.

Hope you find this helpfull.

[Zeno of Citum]

I don't organize them...I only build what needs to be built. Converting towns to castles or vice versa are just so unrealistic, besides I don't want to throw away the initial cost converting them. Just build the **** where it is needed the most. Thats as far as I go because Im at war all the time basically, and Im always bankrupt when ending the turning having built one or two of roads, farms, wall upgrades and military buildings if I am lucky.

[hammer93]

i keep mine on borders but also if it is an island like UK i have one central castle there too