How do you tell which provinces have castles?

[devall4000]

I've been looking through the Birthright rulebooks to figure out which provinces for each country have castles but have been unable to find anything definitive.

On page 36 of 'Rulebook' for the BRCS it uses Medoere as a sample domain and shows that the province of Alamier is guarded by a castle and states that is a castle(4). The map on this page also has a symbol in the province to show that there is a castle. However, in 'Ruins of Empire' there is nothing in Medoere's description(p.15) or any of the other countries' descriptions to show that any of the countries have castles. I was unable to find any castle symbols on the main map or on the map portions of 'Ruins of Empire.'

Can anyone clear this up?

thanks,
Jamie

[Doyle]

You're right - in the original 'Ruins of Empire', the stats for fortification levels (castles) are as absent as court levels. Both of which I believe, are for the GM to decide on. The PC game has all but a few of the fortification levels all set at 0, but its something the NPC realms spend on very early.
This does seem a bit odd when the flavour text does mention a castle in the capital of most of the major cities. IMC, every capital province started the campaign fortified to the province level, and the court level is at maximum unless the realm is described as poor or frugal.

[ausrick]

Doyle is right as far as I know, it doesn't really say. Even worse are the Players Secret's books that may mention the existance of one but not what level it's at. I usually assume that the capital has one that is the same level as the province, and then I may add some other places as the dm just if it really fit the story line. (like Ghoere for example I would assume would have more than one castle) And I usually assume that the court expenditure is equal to the largest province rating.

[Master Dao Rin]

That's what I do as well (like Doyle).

What is worse is the armies each domain is supposed to have. I haven't been able to come to a good conclusion as how to work around this oversight.

Currently I'm using 1/3 total GB intake as what a domain has in terms of standing army.

What are others doing in regards to populating domains with war cards?

[Osprey]

Doyle's answer (capital province level = provincial fortification level) is a good default standard. That's what has always made sense to me.

What is worse is the armies each domain is supposed to have. I haven't been able to come to a good conclusion as how to work around this oversight.

Currently I'm using 1/3 total GB intake as what a domain has in terms of standing army.

What are others doing in regards to populating domains with war cards?

I don't look at gross income -what I believe you mean by intake? I use net income (gross - seasonal maintenance), and figure that most landed regents maintain a standing army whose garrisoned maintenance is, on average, around 1/2 that amount. If the entier army became active, the regent's net income would drop to 0 (static income, but no treasury loss due to maintenance).

A militaristic regent would have larger than average armies, knowing they would keep some units in castle garrisons even in wartime. He might also build up his treasury before launching an invasion somehere, assuming he would spend money for each season of aggression but hope to compensate through pillage or conquest.

"War is an investment."

Osprey

[ausrick]

The other option, which is what I do when the PC's are neighbors to an NPC realm and it looks like their relationship might not be all that friendly, is sink a good number of hours and totally fill out a domain sheet for the realm and see how many units I can afford if I was playing that realm's regent. But on average it usually comes out to like what the rest of you said. Half net income, or 1/3 Gross income, whichever is usally less. Maintaining an army can be the most expensive aspect of the game.

[Walter]

Some Realms have very large Armies, according to Ruins of Impire, Gorgon 35, Avanil 25, Ghoere has 20 and could raise 15 mercenary units in one turn and so on.
As a rule of thumb a realm shoud have 1 normal unit (like infanterie, Archers or pikes) per Province and 1 special unit (like knight, heavy infanterie or the like) per 3 provinces.
A realm should have at least one castle.

[irdeggman]

Some Realms have very large Armies, according to Ruins of Impire, Gorgon 35, Avanil 25, Ghoere has 20 and could raise 15 mercenary units in one turn and so on.
As a rule of thumb a realm shoud have 1 normal unit (like infanterie, Archers or pikes) per Province and 1 special unit (like knight, heavy infanterie or the like) per 3 provinces.
A realm should have at least one castle.

Unless it is in Vosgaard or the Rjurik Highlands. IMO not many castles there.