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City Defenses

Towers

Most towers are built as round shapes at the corners of the city walls and are incorporated into the walls' structure. They provide an additional internal means by which the battlements (if any) may be mounted, and are used as lookout points above the walls and assist in the defense of the walls. Large towers may incorporate additional rooms within the structure which can be used for storage, barracks, organization/administration areas, and other similar functions. This description does not include gate towers, which are constructed as part of the gates themselves.

Towers must be defined to be at least as large and strong as the wall of which it is a part. This means that its game level must be at least as high as the walls, and the construction of the towers and walls are comparable at each game level. (In other words, a wooden level 3.0 wall and a wooden level 3.0 tower are built in the same manner with the same materials and perform together well.) Stone walls may have towers at a higher defensive level than the walls, but this is rare - they are usually built and improved together. Towers added to corners where they did not exist before will cost 50% more mancycles than the usual price for building a tower of that level.

As with walls, towers must often be torn down to replace them with newer, higher-level towers. To this end, the rules and costs applicable to upgrading walls will also apply to towers.

In addition to corner towers in the walls, a free-standing tower may also be constructed. This is typically erected in the city center and is used as a final defense to protect city leadership and other high-ranking personnel. This is often called a Keep or Great Tower. They are also often taller than the city walls and the top is commonly used as a lookout position to watch for trouble in the distance. Corner towers are not free-standing (without walls), only a centrally-located tower is built without supporting walls. Free-standing towers require heavy foundations and cost 125% of the usual amount.

In rare situations, some rich and powerful individual may construct their own pseudo-city in which to live (often with those closest to them and probably some servants). Instead of typical housing for this residence they may choose to construct a free-standing defensive tower, such as a peel tower, in an otherwise unoccupied area and have their entire retinue reside within it. This is technically the equivalent of a Hamlet (or Village) with a central tower, but without the city proper or its surrounding walls.

This is what towers of various levels would look like in relation to the walls of which they are usually a part:

Level Type Description
1.0 Sod Intended for use with sod walls, a sod tower is simply a built-up block of sod on which an observer can stand and peer out over the walls. Steps are built into the sod on which to ascend the tower (or a wooden ladder is used), which is tall enough to raise a man chest-high to the wall.
2.0 Palisade Intended for use with a simple wooden palisade, this is made from the same materials as a raised platform on which to look over the wall. It is mounted by a wooden ladder and again it is tall enough to raise a man chest-high to the wall.
3.0 Log Towers on log walls are similar to enclosed log blockhouses built at the interior corners of the walls with its floor raised to the level of the wall tops or just below and may extend somewhat out over the top of the wall. They contain arrowslits and small windows. Spotting and ranged warfare can take place from these defensive blockhouses and they can be used to help defend the walls from direct attacks.
4.0 Brick Brick towers are usually round with somewhat angled roofs and take the place of the wall's corners. They are taller than the walls by about 5' with arrowslits and tiny observation windows somewhat higher than the wall itself enclosing a space about 10' across. It contains a fighting floor up to which internal stairs lead.
5.0 Stone, simple Stone towers on simple walls are round structures about 15' across made in the same way as the walls but about 10' higher. They are completely enclosed with an angled roof and have arrowslits and small observation windows. Their fighting floor is about the height of the top of the wall with internal stairs leading up to it.
6.0 Stone, with battlement Towers on walls with battlements are over 10' taller than the walls and the fighting floor with arrowslits is even with the wall-walk and heavy doors open from the tower onto the wall-walk. Above the fighting floor the tower has it's own elevated battlement with a crenellated parapet from which to engage attackers. A trap-door and ladder lead down to the internal fighting floor. A tower of this type is about 25' across.
7.0 Stone, with bastions A tower on a bastioned wall provides defensive support at the corners away from the bastions, but in the same general fashion. It is constructed in the same way as a tower for a battlement but with thicker surfaces and a 35' outer diameter.
8.0 Stone, with interior walkway This style of tower is of similar construction as smaller ones, except for protecting a higher wall with equivalently thicker surfaces and an outer diameter of about 50'. There are two fighting floors, even with both those on and in the wall itself, and the arrowslits are accessed from embrasures. Below the fighting floors additional floors are usually constructed and may house anything from general storage to barracks to command areas.
9.0 Stone, with interior stairs These towers are nearly 75' wide on the outside to accommodate the extremely thick surface walls. The top battlement surface is covered similarly to the wall and it contains very large areas for men, equipment and matériel, and anything else needed for combat. Lower floors are used for bulk storage. Entry doors at the base are heavy and defensible.
10.0 Great Wall Towers on these walls seem like massive blocks of stone almost 150' across. They have many of the same internal features as the walls which they protect. Extensive interior space can be put to almost any imaginable use. Entry doors at the base and exits to the walls are heavily reinforced and can protect those inside nearly as effectively as a well-fortified city gate can. If the city proper is overrun, remaining defenders can take refuge inside a corner (or central) tower and continue the fight from a well-defended position.