The castle

The castle is the heart of a province. It protects it in war and helps it in peace. It goes up to level 9, and every level gives:

• Production. Every level adds +5% to the province's wood, iron and stone.
• Happiness. Points on the happiness target that grow with the level. Finishing a level also adds a short boost of +:val{k="castleBoost"} for 1 day.
• Loot protection. A share of the province's wood, iron and stone that a siege cannot carry off, and a share of its people a pillage cannot touch.
• Garrison. How many troops can defend from inside the walls. A garrison costs no upkeep and adds happiness.
• Hit points. How much damage the walls take before they fall.

The castle also sets the look of your town. As it rises, the whole town changes with it.

Every level

Level	Cost	Time	Production	Happiness	Loot protection	Garrison	Hit points
1	1,500 200 2,000 1,750	30m	+5%	1	5%	100	30,000
2	3,600 480 4,800 4,200	1h	+10%	2	6%	200	60,000
3	9,000 1,200 12,000 10,500	2h	+15%	3	7%	350	120,000
4	22,500 3,000 30,000 26,250	4h	+20%	4	8%	600	250,000
5	54,000 7,200 72,000 63,000	8h	+25%	5	9%	1,000	500,000
6	126K 16,800 168K 147K	14h	+30%	6	10%	1,600	1,000,000
7	300K 40,000 400K 350K	22h	+35%	7	11%	2,500	2,000,000
8	750K 100K 1M 875K	1d 12h	+40%	8	12%	4,000	4,000,000
9	1.8M 240K 2.4M 2.1M	2d 12h	+45%	10	13%	6,500	8,000,000

Before Architecture, at world speed ×1.

Hit points and garrison here are the base values. Research raises them further, and terrain changes the wall strength. The military chapter covers sieges and defence in full.