Greetings! Welcome to the first dev diary for Divided Empire: Sengoku! Today we’ll look into one of my favorite things about feudal Japan: the castles!
The world map of DE:S is made up of “Districts”; geographic territories where you collect taxes, construct buildings, recruit soldiers, and much more. We will explore how districts work more in upcoming dev diaries, but for now we’ll focus on each district’s most important component: its castle.
Castles are the core of territorial control in the game; the clan that controls the castle controls the district. Castles also block movement for hostile armies, so if it’s located in at choke point (which they often are) an invading army cannot pass without dealing with the castle first. Additionally they can hold one friendly army inside, protecting it from enemies.
The castle of Okō controls the strategically important north-south passage on Shikoku
Although castles bring many benefits to their owner, they might also need significant investment. Castles have levels (1-5), where higher levels increase the time it takes to siege them down, and adds more defensive units to its garrison. Upgrading requires gold, wood, and stone, and the cost might be further increased if the district’s terrain is unfavorable. They also have a small upkeep cost.
The siege is nearing its end, but at what cost?
So how do you conquer a castle? Well, there are two ways. Either you play it safe and starve out the defenders, or you try to assault the castle head-on.
Starving out the defenders might seem like the obvious choice, but when an army enters hostile territory it suffers attrition over time. Because of this, long sieges can be very costly (especially if they drag on into winter), and thus you need to decide whether to wait or attempt a risky direct assault...
Charge!
If a castle is stormed, the game transitions into an RTS siege battle. Defenders have a significant advantage with gates, narrow approaches, and defensive towers. To win the battle, the attacker must break through the gates, fight off the defending forces, and reach the Tenshu (the main keep).
Siege maps, just like regular battle maps, reflect the world-map position of the battle. So the map could be mountainous, hilly, flat, coastal, etc. - and the castle itself changes depending on its level. A level 1 castle is small and simple, while a level 5 castle is very large and heavily fortified.
A level 5 castle in the mountains can be quite challenging to take by force... Good thing we got some cannons!
That's it for this dev diary, thanks for taking the time to read it! Please note that the game is still in development and thus subject to change. Please consider wishlisting the game if you haven't already.