Castle Phase 2
The night before we left for New York for Christmas I wanted to see if I could quickly create two more towers and ramparts to create a self-enclosed structure. The existing rampart was halved into two 10' sections. A sharper blade created much nicer cuts. I also wanted to solve the problem of the merlons on the tops of the battlements - they look too big in 1" increments. Before re-doing them I decided to try and just trim off the top 1/2" - and they looked good enough I left them that way. Next will come arrow loops and other details before I paint them. Then comes the gatehouse for the drawbridge!

Click Here to see a lame test movie I did to see how the elements of the castle fit together. Darn camera didn't focus right and I couldn't help but queue up a little LOTR to set the mood. Enjoy the cheese! :)

Castle Phase 3
While in New York I lost no time - I took some board with me and tools and built a gate house for entry into the castle. I also constructed a large keep for the interior. I want to try and create neat visual designs, so I placed angles at the base and dove-tailed them to look realistic (defenders dropped rocks and that careened down and then out at the attackers). Back from New York I picked up more foam board and some paint and went to town. I replaced sections that didn't match the newer, nearter ones, I tested paint to find that even darker gray still didn't look quite right, and I decided the blue-back board looked good enough it might just be fine for a final product. Arrow loops went into the guardhouse, as well as doors. I tested trap door entrances at the top of the old prototype towers, as well as lift-off walls to show the interior - not pretty but it helped me figure out things. Next I created some vertical angled wall sections in case walls are laid at angles with the towers. My final and best move was to finish up the keep, adding doors at the entrance and top and carefully creating a pull-off side that allowed access inside. There I placed slats for removable floors to allow 3 levels. Oh, and I almost forgot - one night I got bored and ripped up a prototype wall so it would look like a battle-damaged breach. You can see it clearly - the bad guys got through and the battle moves inside the walls! Did I mention I picked up another 50 or so figures for Christmas? It shows. Game on!

Time for battle! The walls have been breached! Drow have infiltrated and are on the ramparts! Gnolls try the front door while Orcs and Bugbears plow through the opening! Goblins go head-to-head with a Dwarf contingent! Meanwhile the keep is guarded by an elite squad. Queue the music!

The Great Hall
Castles are great, but where will the party take place? Not in a tower. Kings had Great Halls in which songs were sung, feasts served up, and merriment was made. After the thrill of constructing the castle sections I acknowledged that PC's will spend far more time in places like a Great Hall. So I studied hall ideas and settled on a few European designs as inspiration: very long and tall proportions featured big in later halls versus the rounder, broader designs of the mead halls of the thanes. But when I was finished with the central hall it seemed a bit too plain and looked too much like a cathedral. I added cross-beam facades to the roof edges to give it a more rustic look, but it was still very confining in spite of the relatively large space inside. Finally, it was LOTR's Meduseld, Rohan's golden hall, as featured in the movies that inspired my final addition of side-halls to widen the hall and make it more functional as well as make it look less like a church and more like a king's meeting place.

The hall ended up looking quite dramatic even at this scale. I whipped up a dais and thrones as well as some long trestle tables just to gage the layout - turns out they looked good enough to keep. Then I attacked the arches and this is where I felt very moved by picture references and wanted to capture the feel of the hall inasmuch as I could at this scale. I had several designs to consider and came up with the one you see below. I hot-glued vertical posts to each end of the arches so they'd stand and give the appearance of columns along the edges of the hall. Then I glued little squares along the ceiling to create channels to slide the arches into to keep them upright. I was going to put in small windows along the top but this work seemed too delicate - but I may try again later. More decoration may follow.

Royal halls tended to be long and tall so I went with those general proportions. But when I was finished I thought the interior space was rather narrow. So I turned to the Meduseld model with its side-halls. This really offered more seating space and seemed more like a festive atmosphere. I also decided to make these side wings modular so they can be removed and the main hall used as a royal court or small cathedral and the wings themselves put together for general purpose inns or taverns.

First Test of the Castle
The first test of the castle was my gaming group in a little encounter they were set to have during their campaign. Our party is on the run from a local nobleman hunting them. A company of goblinoids from the Black Caves is on their heels in the Tredfut Forest. Look! An abandoned fort to investigate! (2) The heroes enter through a breach in the crumbling walls. No signs of life except the smoldering remains of a campfire. (3) A tripwire sets off a warning flare. Seconds later company is coming from the forest! Pictured here is four of the five waves that come running. (4) Dantric, Dymus, and Ashenif hold the gate house (which has no doors but the tunnel is intact) to give Eelatan and Anaria time to move drums of oil to the top and set up firing positions. This shows the enemy flooding the tunnel seconds before the oil is dropped and set aflame. MASSIVE DAMAGE! But can they be contained?

(5) The survivors break through! Dymus is down! Dantric and Ashenif fall back to the ramparts. (6) Anaria is down now and the fifth and strongest wave takes over the low-ground and navigates the buildings for cover. A real knuckle-biter finish as our heroes are beaten down. (7) Alan and Allie move their heroes to take advantage of firing angles. A last-ditch effort by the Bugbears with some black powder almost knocks them off the ramparts but luck is with the heroes! (8) As the smoke clears only Dantric and Eelatan are still standing, with their friends recovering. Victory is theirs! The castle proves to be a cool tool for enhancing the game!