These can be fun. It's akin to the Fortresses in that you take them from an initial NPC, then you defend it from other leagues. However, there is no lock-out period of 24hrs before a league can attack. Once the castles are open you can launch at any time. (I haven't tried to launch on one while it is on fire yet, I have heard that you can't do this, though).
Launch and return times aren't set in stone unfortunately, or maybe a blessing, as you could end up fighting non-stop(which IS great fun for so many hours, but eventually you'll have to sleep lol). The minimun launch time is 10 minutes; based off your tempo and distance from the castle arena it can be several hours (I'm guessing. The longest I've seen, in the few hours it's been live, is 1.5 hrs so far).
Launching against a Castle cost a Copper, Silver, or Gold Horn, and sestreces from your league depository. Adding to an arena or defending doesn't seem to cost anything other than physical from what I can tell. So, now there is some actual use to the depository past geting the league to lvl 10, even if it is just ses.
Upon occupying a Castle, your league can then Explore it (once a day like the fortress, or you can cough up gold for multiples). Explore is the same as Plunder basically. You get lots of different goodies. So far, I've seen Equite packs, Ses packs, study/building/job speed ups, hero exp books, caesar marques, incense, furs, and more. When you plunder a Castle though, it seems to hold a list of what you have gotten. When I plunder Huge I get a few items, then plundering Medium a list of what I got from Huge with the addition of what I got from Medium scrolls up the screen. Then when plundering Thin, the list that scrolls shows the exact same things I got from Medium and Huge, with the addition of the Thin plunder.. So it looks like you're getting a crap load more than what you really are.
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If you loose a defense of a Castle, the amount of time you held the castle will be posted, in seconds, on the launch/explore window of that castle. If you retake the castle, that time shown isn't updated until you loose it again. There is a close time, and I'm thinking at that time it will tally up all the times, and the league who has occupied a castle longest gets an extra reward. I think there may also be an award for the league that currently holds the castle when it closes, as well, but I don't know for sure yet. For the longes occupant, rewards are 3 Parthia emblems for Thin, 3 Carthage emblems for Medium, and 3 Egypt emblems for Huge.
The next open time I'm seeing right now is 24 hours after the close time. I presume there won't be any Castle action for 24 hours after a close.
The NPC troop counts on Huge and Medium Castles(I haven't seen Thin NPC count yet) are tiny compared to the Fortress. There are three enemy heroes, and three Fearless geared hammers take them out with little losses. Loss rate is also 10% here. I'll bet they can be done without gear.
Huge NPC Troops:
3 enemy heroes each set up with 5089/40716/5089 princs 2575/20577/2572 onags
Medium NPC Troops:
3 enemy heroes each set up with 1227/9818/1227 pony 352/2819/352 onags
Launch and return times aren't set in stone unfortunately, or maybe a blessing, as you could end up fighting non-stop(which IS great fun for so many hours, but eventually you'll have to sleep lol). The minimun launch time is 10 minutes; based off your tempo and distance from the castle arena it can be several hours (I'm guessing. The longest I've seen, in the few hours it's been live, is 1.5 hrs so far).
Launching against a Castle cost a Copper, Silver, or Gold Horn, and sestreces from your league depository. Adding to an arena or defending doesn't seem to cost anything other than physical from what I can tell. So, now there is some actual use to the depository past geting the league to lvl 10, even if it is just ses.
Upon occupying a Castle, your league can then Explore it (once a day like the fortress, or you can cough up gold for multiples). Explore is the same as Plunder basically. You get lots of different goodies. So far, I've seen Equite packs, Ses packs, study/building/job speed ups, hero exp books, caesar marques, incense, furs, and more. When you plunder a Castle though, it seems to hold a list of what you have gotten. When I plunder Huge I get a few items, then plundering Medium a list of what I got from Huge with the addition of what I got from Medium scrolls up the screen. Then when plundering Thin, the list that scrolls shows the exact same things I got from Medium and Huge, with the addition of the Thin plunder.. So it looks like you're getting a crap load more than what you really are.
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If you loose a defense of a Castle, the amount of time you held the castle will be posted, in seconds, on the launch/explore window of that castle. If you retake the castle, that time shown isn't updated until you loose it again. There is a close time, and I'm thinking at that time it will tally up all the times, and the league who has occupied a castle longest gets an extra reward. I think there may also be an award for the league that currently holds the castle when it closes, as well, but I don't know for sure yet. For the longes occupant, rewards are 3 Parthia emblems for Thin, 3 Carthage emblems for Medium, and 3 Egypt emblems for Huge.
The next open time I'm seeing right now is 24 hours after the close time. I presume there won't be any Castle action for 24 hours after a close.
The NPC troop counts on Huge and Medium Castles(I haven't seen Thin NPC count yet) are tiny compared to the Fortress. There are three enemy heroes, and three Fearless geared hammers take them out with little losses. Loss rate is also 10% here. I'll bet they can be done without gear.
Huge NPC Troops:
3 enemy heroes each set up with 5089/40716/5089 princs 2575/20577/2572 onags
Medium NPC Troops:
3 enemy heroes each set up with 1227/9818/1227 pony 352/2819/352 onags
