Tower defence is a fun genre, a staple of mobile strategy based upon building defences and watching as the attackers trying to scale your walls melt under volleys of withering fire. But what if there were two towers? And what if, instead of enemies, those towers fought each other? Well, now you’re talking…
Siege Castles is the brand new game from Plug In Digital, who you might know as a publisher of Bury Me, My Love and apocalyptic strategy action game Zombie Night Terror. But while Siege takes a card of two from Clash Royale and other tower dueling games, it also adds its own twist to the formula.
You play as the monarch of a floating kingdom, sailing the high seas in search of other lands and rulers to conquer. As you enter a battle, opposing islands crash together, and both fortresses blaze away at each other with siege weapons and soldiers. The aim of the game is to be the last castle standing, so how well you build your bastion, and the firepower on your walls decides whether you emerge victorious or not.
It’s a formula that will be familiar to Clash Royale players, but rather than a deck-building component, Siege Castles is far more physics-based. On the 2D side-scrolling battle map projectiles are flung high into the air, arcing towards the enemy fortress, so the positioning of your siege weapons is extremely important in either cancelling out enemy artillery, or preventing your own projectiles from being intercepted.
As a physics-based system, you also have to watch out for line of fire. If your siege weapons are blocked by your own castle, things are going to get very messy, very fast, as your catapults wreck each other, and just generally sow chaos on your side of the map. So that’s why designing your castle well is of optimum importance, turning your tower into wall of firepower.
Play nowLucky then, that Siege Castles has its own building system, letting you design your fortress, adding an array of weapons to its ramparts, and barracks to its buildings. You may start with a humble wooden keep, barely fit for a lord, but as you win battles, you receive chests which provide fancy upgrades. These range from better stone walls, to siege equipment – such as cannons – and even decorations. Before long you’ll have a bastion fit for a king.
You can also recruit your own personal army of soldiers by building barracks in your castle. These brave bois will charge towards the enemy walls with an almost alarming lack of self-preservation, but hey, if they’re aiming at them, they’re not aiming at your castle.
It’s an addictive formula, as battles feed into improving your castle, and your improved castle feeds into winning battles. It’s also enjoyable to go from rags to riches, scaling up your fort until it’s truly a bulwark of terrifying destructive power. And as you scale your tower, so too do your opponents, meaning there’s never a lack of new rivals to take on.
When you’re not smashing down enemy fortresses you’ll also be governing your own little island kingdom. Whether it’s building farms to supply you with food, or houses for some of that sweet taxation money, your realm will provide you with a share of the resources you need to continue your never-ending campaign of castle destruction.
You can also purchase what you need in-game, and any in-app purchase immediately removes all ads, which is a fun little freebie to get on the side. The shop offers new themes for your island – such as Autumn and Winter – and you can even buy walls and decorations if you don’t want to have to earn them through fighting your way up the floating island food chain.
But one of the most appealing features of Siege Castles is that it plays like an auto-battler. Just as with Clash Royale, where your units automatically fight towards the enemy HQ, the castles in Siege also start lobbing rocks and sending out soldiers without any orders. This means you can play Siege Castles like an idle game, and relax or do something else at the same time. But it also adds an increased importance to castle construction, as you test out different build types with the layout of your personal fortress.
On the whole Siege Castles is a fun physics-based take on the castle dueling genre, which you can play casually as an auto-battler, or invest a bit more in if you’re a big fan of the genre. Either way, it’s fun to just build your ideal castle, sit back, and watch the magic happen. If you want to play Siege Castles for yourself, you can download now on Android and iOS. For more similar recommendations, be sure to see our list of the best mobile strategy games!