Looking for best defensive cities and castles in 3.8

[Lord Irontoe]

Kennet Castle looks pretty impossibe to defend. The main ladder leads to an wide open platform so the defenders are completely exposed to archers. The one big central tower on the outer wall doesnt have line of site on the ladder and there's nowhere for archers to stand on the left side. You can position archers along the wall on the right side of the tower, but the merlons are only waist high, so theyre completely exposed too. And you can't really defend the courtyard because there are 6 stairways leading down from the wall. Seems like the only way to have a chance is in the inner keep, but that's got a pretty wide archway leading in with no real vantage points for archers. I didnt even bother to request it after taking it because I know there's no way I can hold it against a decent sized army

 

[Hektor1492]

Hello everyone. Long time player first time poster 

There is an exploit in Whitestag Castle where you can run all the way to the back of the castle and in the tower at the end of the whole thing you can jump down onto the stair with a ladder on it. The door to the inside of the tower there is destructible, making it practically impossible for you to be killed since the enemy troops can't reach you. The enemy troops will gather above you in the tower and if you move out on the stairs you can look up and shoot them in the foot where they stand and shout aggresively at you. I have soloed 100s of troops this way but it really is cheating and will probably make your game boring.

Edit: Made a video of what I mean, probably needs fixing. The troops will gather where I shot the first arrows and maybe 10 troops where I shot the other time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ulle9O_zak

Edit 2: Sorry for the ****ty mic I forgot to turn off 

 

[NouH]

Maras Castle needs some serious rework, nearly impossible to defend against horde of enemies, Dshar Marshall attacked and in the first 20 seconds of battle their archers killed like 2/4 of the soldiers on the wall, much worse is that, strong units like Gladiators gets absolutely destroyed by the archers, shields get shattered in seconds and there's no room for your archers to shoot.

Which kind of masochistic person projected that castle?, when i see that horde of soldiers sieging maras castle i just give up, don't even try to defend it, not worth it.

Ps: i sieged maras castle with 60 empire crossbowman vs 200 dshars and won, its frustrating how easy it is for the attackers.

 

[Egaldor]

Whitestag castle.
You don't defend the walls, you make everyone follow you to the courtyard as soon as the battle starts. Because whitestag castle has a lower and a higher courtyard connected by a gate, you can tell all your melee units to blob on the gate, and your archers behind in the hill. This way your archers will all contrate fire on a smaller area and nothing will even reach your melee troops. I was able to defend with 100 commoners against a 2000 empire army with about 20 loses this way, i used some ravenstern rangers and whatever infantry i had. But yeah its op. The best thing is enemy ranged units cant shoot your units from their angle!
You have to look arround, sometimes the walls are the worst place you can defend.  Go walk arround whitestag courtyard, you will find the spot im talking about. I will upload screenshots when i come back from vacations

 

[noobxtreme]

One gamebreaking exploit is possible in Valonbray. During defensive siege at the start, go all the way to the left as soon as battle begins. There are stacks of wood you can jump over and get to the other side. Enemy troops won't be able to get to you, and you can shoot them from behind the wooden stacks or enter the shabby house right next to these wood stacks. Troops will have accumulated by the wall of the house and you can actually shoot through the inner wall of the house. Using a glaive or a long-reach weapon works as well (jump onto the wooden stacks or climb over the cart that rests on the wooden stacks). Eliminate troops with herbalds and glaives first, and when enemy reinforcements come, back down the stacks to put the enemy troops between you and the archers. Wait a bit till the archers get close and switch to melee, climb back on, rinse and repeat.

I found this to be much more efficient than the Whitestag exploit. You can literally defend Valonbray just by yourself against 1000+ enemy troops. Sapphire bow / Sapphire glaive can really help speed up the process. You can actually use this trick during the initial offensive siege to capture Valonbray as well.

 

[lconracl]

Those wood stacks were removed in 3.9.

 

[CmdrCohn]

Sange Safid was one of the worst castles I've ever assaulted. The only apparent entrance I discovered before I was obliterated by archers and crossbowmen was through the Siege Tower that moves at a steady .01 mph in one of the more awkward movements I've seen. There's no cover prior to the assault except the Siege Tower which is quite poor cover indeed.

You are spawned on a plain hill in front of the castle and all of your tree-cover are scattered along the downslopes down from the castle proper, enabling the ranged troops to easily cull you regardless of what you do. The Attacking AI's reaction to "Charge!" is to mass in plain few of the castle's archers to make themselves easier targets than a cow with peg legs; it is frustrating to find a position to mount your soldiers on to prevent infantry deaths, although the hill you spawn on can potentially be used for archers to fire inwards. This is difficult, however, as their archers will be busy turning you into a pincushion.

I cannot vouch for being a defender as I've never broken through their defenses to take it and I've yet to amass an army to take it through autocalc, but I can say with certainty I never want to fight Sange Safid on the field ever again.

 

[raider969]

What's the most defendable castle in 3.9? Anyone find a really good one?

 

[Brew]

What's the most defendable castle in 3.9? Anyone find a really good one?

I've had a look at most of the new scenes and while there has been a lot of changes, most are still similar to v3.8.4.
I found Calendain Castle to be really easy to defend in last version and its still the same.
Other ones of note are Whitestag(no changes) and Tuldar Fortress(ladder removed), for tuldar use the defence I used(posted on this page) and its really easy to hold even against full marshal stack.
Currently intent on accquiring Calendain, but have to train more troops for the attack.
Rela Keep while mentioned before is actually kind of difficult as there is a building in the way which stops your archers working properly, the defensive spawn point is also far away.

If you can resist the power of the dark side you can

Spoiler

use cheatmenu to look at the scenes

 

[grimm4]

Haringoth Castle seems like a good defensive castle to me.

 

[Thrannduil]

Valorshield needs something for the defenders. At least raise the wall crenelations so the defenders have something to keep them from instantly getting murdered by archers. Complete cakewalk to take, and I pray I never have to defend it.

 

[Brew]

Valorshield needs something for the defenders. At least raise the wall crenelations so the defenders have something to keep them from instantly getting murdered by archers. Complete cakewalk to take, and I pray I never have to defend it.

There are quite few castles/towns which are impossible to defend with bad odds and Valorshield is one of them, its not as bad as Highcliffe, Taloncrag and Maras.

 

[Sheidy]

What about Senderfall? Only sieged it a few times. Never tried defending. Thinking of starting my kingdom there. Or its bad to defend ?

 

[lconracl]

One gamebreaking exploit is possible in Valonbray. During defensive siege at the start, go all the way to the left as soon as battle begins. There are stacks of wood you can jump over and get to the other side. Enemy troops won't be able to get to you, and you can shoot them from behind the wooden stacks or enter the shabby house right next to these wood stacks. Troops will have accumulated by the wall of the house and you can actually shoot through the inner wall of the house. Using a glaive or a long-reach weapon works as well (jump onto the wooden stacks or climb over the cart that rests on the wooden stacks). Eliminate troops with herbalds and glaives first, and when enemy reinforcements come, back down the stacks to put the enemy troops between you and the archers. Wait a bit till the archers get close and switch to melee, climb back on, rinse and repeat.

I found this to be much more efficient than the Whitestag exploit. You can literally defend Valonbray just by yourself against 1000+ enemy troops. Sapphire bow / Sapphire glaive can really help speed up the process. You can actually use this trick during the initial offensive siege to capture Valonbray as well.

Are you talking about 3.9?

 

[Vissy]

Sarleon is pretty horrible to defend as well. If you defend it with poor odds, you'll get shot to death immediately.

 

[Brew]

What about Senderfall? Only sieged it a few times. Never tried defending. Thinking of starting my kingdom there. Or its bad to defend ?

Sendarfall is a good defensive town, all the Ravenstern towns are good on the defence.
I helped defend it against a heretic army in v3.9, I arrived just in time as there where only 200 defenders left but with my army of 100 it was easy to defend.

 

[lonely]

Love the siege scences in 3.9, because stupid xbow/bow wall cleaning is not working at all fiefs. Now I'm rushing the wall with my Krakens and Heavy Axeman - it's pretty brutal.
After the siege i got ~10-20 Heavy Axemans upgraded to Huscarls.
Also new Fierdsvain Heavy Skirmisher is a good plus to Fierdsvain army, especially following infantry at siege.
But the question about defeating lords in the field is still open: found the Storm Sisters rather weak even for my flank attack.
Should i collect Adventurers and Rogue Knights for that again?

edit: this rush is not working vs siege scences with a big field. Fierds still have no good archers and cavalry for global map. Their hits are strong, but under the rain of arrows they can't hit even once. Fast attack>hard hit.

 

[thermocline]

I just started playing 3.9, and wanted to offer a few of my observations. I've started two new playthroughs, and the following castles are very easy to attack as a first fief. I took them all at 2:1 numbers disadvantage or worse, mostly using troops gathered from companion Right to Rule missions between Day 60 and Day 150.

Easy to attack castles:

Castle Alden (Ravenstern)
Valorshield Castle (Sarleon)
Maras Castle (Empire)