[590] Last Stand Tower

Hi everyone!

This tower is called Last Stand because the bottom is easy to repair and in a defense situation many archers can defend it from various angles without being overly exposed.

Please give some critiques about how you like it and how it could be improved! :)



White = Bedrock, always nice to build towers on. Also, notice the tree right next to the tower - very nice against laddering builders because their ladders don't stick to the wall and they can't block the entrance with a stone. Also a builder can't encase himself right next to the tower. Just mentioning the obvious, since way too few people build their towers right next to trees.

Yellow = Spikes prevent knights from slashing at the teamdoors. (You could consider a bigger spike-pit but they tend to be so quickly destroyed by bombs that maybe a minimalistic solution is better suited since it's cheaper and faster to repair). The second team-bridge on top of the bottom one is good to have, if the critical stone marked in red right to its left gets destroyed. I call it a critical stone because it needs to be replaced fast if destroyed or else the following can happen: Someone throws a bomb into the base if you stand the way my builder does in the screenshot, opening up the door. On the other hand, if the stone is missing it becomes a very nice spot for archers, as long as a builder can quickly place the stone back if nearby an enemy bomb gets lit.

Green = The base and heart of the tower. Notice that it's 8 blocks high to the exit door so your team avoids stun from dropping down. The cool feature here is that a builder can keep repairing/replacing all of the blocks facing the enemy from inside the tower. Also notice the very quick pathing shown with the dark green arrow, except for the builder no one actually has to enter the inside of the base to do awkward jumping, so it's rather noob-friendly. The quarters are integrated into the base and the lower red teambridge is there to prevent people from falling down while trying to heal. The upper red marked teambridge makes getting back up a lot easier. Notice the lonely ladder as well - key to get further up real quick, especially for people with catapults and such. The two-stone thick wall next to the quarters may seem iffy to some, so if you have the resources you can make the entire base 1 block thicker than shown and add 3 team doors like on the bottom. Or you add the team doors without making the base thicker and put the quarters next to the main exit door. (Tip: Some people and noobs like to keep that door open for far too long without paying attention to what's coming their way - if under heavy siege with unwary players in your team, consider blocking this exit yourself with a stone.)

Orange = Always important to have an arrowshop in an archer tower like this. Notice the barely visible ladder behind the quivers to make getting up easier. The two secondary exits are important to reduce the risk of being stone-blocked by an offensive builder. The two ladders below the exit are important, as they prevent archers from accidentally dropping down and also extend their firing range. Don't mind the spikes, they don't hurt you but may prevent overly ambitious bombjumpers.

Violet = If you ask yourself how this team-bridge walkway can be so long, it's because they use what is probably a bug, causing treetops to act like pillars of backwall which extends the horizontal building range. An added bonus here is that I actually trimmed the green treetops (without shortening the tree) to reveal what's behind there. If I didn't do that, the treetops would provide good hiding opportunities for ambushes.

Blue = Lots of firing spots for archers high up - can be hard for an attacker to throw bombs way up there, especially while under fire. You can also place and drop stones, they will fall perfectly through the gaps in the team-bridge though they limit the firing radius of archers and seem unlikely to succeed (could be most useful if a builder tried to ladder up there). Just a fun feature for builders with enough resources. The vertical wall going straight upwards can obviously be as tall as the map and situation requires. The way the catapult is set up, it won't hit anything (if you place the catapult, you get the best results when aiming the mouse to the lower right of your character while hitting "c", placing it as close as possible to the wall). Obviously you need to discourage bomb-jumpers who slide down the wall from above, trying to reach that gap and dropping their second load (heh) into the catapult. Place two spikes there and some more at the wall going further upwards (not seen here).


Obviously this tower requires some time and resources to build (though quite fewer of both than many other towers), but luckily it is quite useful throughout all of its separate building stages. If you as a builder take care of repairing it while it's under siege and keep eyeballing your resources in order to not run out of repair materials, this tower can take a lot of punishment - if you run low on materials try to be resourceful and only replace actually broken instead of just damaged bits, so you use up as little as possible until you get a breather to grab more stuff. Or if you are cocky, destroy the damaged stones yourself and use the resources from that to place a shiny new one! The tower usable as a relatively cheap last fallback position next to your tent if you run low on credits, but since a great defense often is a stable offensive position it should make for a very formidable front tower, although with only one builder it'll be harder to repair the base, and mine resources, while also trying to finish it all at the same time. And remember that building right next to a tree is key to make this tower infinitely better.

Tip: Consider what needs to be built first. The long team-bridge is probably the last priority, also focus on getting the tower as high as possible first, before placing more backwall.

The important thing to keep in mind is that this tower is only as good as the builder married to it, so if you build it be prepared to take care of it. It's not very thick and uses comparatively few resources for its base, so you need to make up for that with your presence as a builder. Try out building it as fast as possible and remember how much stuff it costs. At first you can place backwall rather sparsely and finish the job later every time you come back with resources to repair and extend it. Counterintuitively, it may be better to build it from left to right (back to front that is), or you start with only the front row and then the back row of blocks and only then fill in the middle - or else your teammates will have trouble getting on the other side and some builder may even cock up your tower because he could think you don't know what you are doing if you start building it the other way around and hinder your teammates.

It costs a lot of wood but comparatively little stone so it's good to build it near trees. On top of those treeless hills you often see in matches it's hard to get all the required wood. Also there are no trees to use for your advantage. But in maps that are essentially plains with many trees this tower rocks hard.


Have fun! :)

Repair all the things!

 

There might be a problem, that due some new faggut build, bombs might slow down on these ladders if they're thrown there. That might explode the upper part and aswell the arrow shop, also quite easy to blow up the trap bridge.

Anyways, I might try it out. Looks overall good tower.

 

You are right, one should definitely build the arrow shop further away from the wall.

Do bombs really get stuck in ladders since recent builds? That would be unfortunate.
Those ladders are meant for archers to get them a better range, obviously you can build the tower without the ladders as well. ;)

 

They don't get really stuck, they're just heavily slowed down. That might be a good place to throw bombs.

 

Maybe one should actually spend the resources and make the wall two blocks thick instead of one above the main exit door.

 

Well done man. take my likes

 

Wow couldnt be stuffed reading all that. But I looked at it. May i question the ladders underneath the doors. It could let the enemy in. I just need 3 bombs and i could get in there. I dont want to be negative but im being honest. Its okay.

P.S How long did it take you to type all that.

 

Don't know, was a while ago. In fact it was actually more of an instance of procrastination because I'd rather write all that stuff up than study inferential statistics.


But since so many people criticise the two ladders I guess there must be something to it. You mean you'd bombjump into them and then unload your other bombs?

 

No. I would destroy the two ladders. Not one at a time but do it so they are destroyed at the same time. I would bomb jump because that is a foothold for the enemy. I wasnt critisicing. I was just wondering what they were for...

 

The ladders, aren't needed,
Trees below is something for archers to climb
Your purple box is a better place to shoot than dangling down there

The stone falls aren't going to be too effective, too small an area and too obvious

A trap-bridge inside the tower for convenience would be nice, for easier access instead of climbing from the outside

 

the tree right next to it might be a troll for enemy archers when abuilder its the tree and then the archer falls into the trap. good job anyways!

 

I know, they are just for fun-effect and trolling, I already said that myself :)

It is definitely way easier -and above all faster- to climb from the outside. However, you have a point considering players who carry catapults or outposts, because they can't climb the tower from the outside.

 

Down the bottom left it might needs bit more support due to knights and bombs these days people olive to bomb things down otherwise I think it's good and some builders need to learn how to build this type of thng at home base

 

You mean simply adding more backwall to the left at the base of the tower?

Sure, never anything wrong with that :)

 

Yeah that's what I mean I would use this just a bit worried about the bottom left I reckon expand the back wall and this would be good in just afraid of Catas and bombers