Defend the Castle

A siege in thirty waves

The situation is plain from the start: the King is inside, an army is outside, and it comes in waves. You spend what you have on the castle’s defences, and when you are ready you call in the next wave yourself with Space. Winning is not about beating that army in the field but about outlasting it, because once the castle has seen off thirty waves the attackers lift the siege.

Gold, wood and what to build

Everything costs gold and wood, so running the economy is half of the game. The hint the game itself offers is to build mines and cut wood, and it is good advice: a castle with an income can keep building, while one without soon has nothing left to spend. The defences come in three kinds. Walls hold the line, archers and cannons deal with whatever reaches it, and a tower that is already standing can be upgraded with U. The game recommends mixing all three, since each covers a different part of the job.

Playing it well

• Get the mines and the wood going before spending everything on defence.
• Choose pieces quickly with W for a wall, A for an archer and C for a cannon.
• Upgrade what you have instead of spreading your resources thin.
• Keep Q, the special power, for a wave that looks like it could break through.

On a phone each of those actions is a tap, so the game plays the same way without a keyboard, one wave at a time.