upgrading castles

[threealls]

hi, I am playing 6.1 as turks..it's now 1246 and I still can't upgrade my castles of Caeserea, Çanakkale and Tbilisi..I built everything I could in those regions but wall upgrades didn't come yet..population is also quite enough I think(more than 7000 in Caeserea, considering much less population of Acre for example)..I couldn't produce more advanced units like sipahi lancers in those provinces because I couldn't upgrade them to fortresses..my enemies are producing much more advanced units than me and it's getting worse for me..I took Tortosa, Nicosia, Baku and Acre..and all those regions were upgraded to fortresses by their former owners..my question is that what am I doing wrong ? what should I do to upgrade my castles ?..now I am using those newly taken fortresses to produce better units but I want to use Caeserea and Tbilisi as main recruiting centers..I spent much to improve those castles and don't want to leave them..

I have no problem with upgrading cities..when their pop. is enough I upgrade them easily..but after 120 turns, I still fight with crap units like Azabs and turkish javelinmen because I couldn't upgrade my castles..

[PerXX]

7000 isn't enough.

It's 9000 for Fortress and 17000 for Citadel, as far as I remember.
The best way to do increase population is by far with a high chivalry general. Each point of chivalry = 0.5% population increase!

[threealls]

7000 isn't enough.

It's 9000 for Fortress and 17000 for Citadel, as far as I remember.
The best way to do increase population is by far with a high chivalry general. Each point of chivalry = 0.5% population increase!

ok, I searched forums and saw how to look at the required level of population and I need 7500 pop. for upgrading my castles to fortresses..my pop. in Caeserea which I am owning since the very beginning of the game reached 7000 and stayed there.. I built every building possible..so, all I can do is to put high chivalry generals in my castles, right ? or are there any other general traits which add to pop.growth rate ?

a question about chivalry ; how can I increase a general's chivalry ? winning battles ? madrasa and university education in a city ? taking cities and not massacring the population ? thanks..

[PerXX]

a question about chivalry ; how can I increase a general's chivalry ? winning battles ? madrasa and university education in a city ? taking cities and not massacring the population ? thanks..

Easiest way is to successfully take a Jihad/Crusade target, or leaving a general in a settlement with the taxes set to low for some time.

[threealls]

Easiest way is to successfully take a Jihad/Crusade target, or leaving a general in a settlement with the taxes set to low for some time.

so, I should use a general in a city with low taxes to gain chivalry points and then take that general to the castle..

[kostimer]

you can raise youre chivalry by letting prisoners go and lowering taxes in cities, also joining a crusade gives you 1 point up, and taking the city on which the crusade was called gives you 4 or 5 , something like that

[threealls]

you can raise youre chivalry by letting prisoners go and lowering taxes in cities, also joining a crusade gives you 1 point up, and taking the city on which the crusade was called gives you 4 or 5 , something like that

lowering taxes gives chivalry point to the current governer of that city right ?

so, I must release prisoners and must occupy or at least sack the newly conquered settlements..SS is just very entertaining, in vanilla VH/VH, I never mind the population of my castles, they just slowly reach the required level and I upgrade them..now, I have to choose the governors wisely and try to increase skills of them in order to get enough population..it will be hard for a player like me who have a strategy of extermination of all newly conquered cities..almost all of my generals have dread points instead of chivalry points..I even rarely release the prisoners..now, I should try to be more merciful for more population growth

[Abyrvalg]

I have to choose the governors wisely and try to increase skills of them in order to get enough population..

Yep In SS you have to pay more attention to what are you doing
Or return to vanilla.

Btw. Way to obtain Chivalry

[JorisofHolland]

DON'T SACK SETTLEMENTS especially not if you want chivalry. It gives one point for strategy dread, the AntiTrait of strategy chivalry, which you get by occupying and low taxes.

[hpsauce13]

Another way of increasing population growth is by building the second level of religious buildings which gives an extra 1 (or 0.5%) pop growth, which until recently i didnt bother with until i found my only fortresses i had were ones i had captured off the enemy.

[JorisofHolland]

He has already build everything, so he has that already

[Enomine]

What I do to make my castles grow quickly is place all of my spare generals in low tax towns and leave them there until they have about 3-4 chivalry, then move them to a castle. Also, once I have a high chivalry general from fighting (releasing all prisoners/occupying towns only) I'll bring them home and put them in a relevant castle. Also, pay attention to their traits and retinue, look for things that give a minus to squalor, and of course build farms and chapels in your castles. The highest growth rate I've had in a castle was +8.5% (6.2 RR/RC VH/VH), and most of it was from the influence of my king X the saint. Needless to say, I had the first citadel on the map