History VideoGame / Castles

''Castles'' is a RealTimeStrategy game produced by Quicksilver in 1991. A "spiritual ancestor" to newer castle sims like ''{{VideoGame/Stronghold}}'', it focuses around a Medieval English king's efforts to fortify Wales with a series of strong castles to withstand local uprisings.

* DialogueTree: A special kind of tree that runs its course over several hours of gameplay, closely resembling how story events are handled in ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings'' and other ''Creator/ParadoxInteractive'' strategy titles. Every once in a while the game goes into dialogue mode, showing someone visiting King Edward at court. A short narrative presents the situation, allowing the player to choose from one of a handful of responses. The game then briefly describes any immediate reaction or consequences, and returns to the main screen to continue building the castle. Some time later the game goes back into dialogue mode, with a new narrative showing how the player's previous choices caused the situation to develop in a certain direction. The player is once again given several reactions to choose from, et cetera. Though some of these mini-trees contain only one or two dialogue "sections" and effectively conclude as soon as the player makes a decision, most trees unfold gradually over the span of an entire mission - which can take hours.

* DialogueTree: A special kind of tree that spanned out over several hours of gameplay (though each "part" of the tree was very short, they just had great intervals between them!). See the article for more details.
* DisproportionateRetribution:

''Castles'' is a RealTimeStrategy game produced by Quicksilver during the late 80's. A "spiritual ancestor" to newer castle sims like ''{{VideoGame/Stronghold}}'', it focuses around a Medieval English king's efforts to fortify Wales with a series of strong castles to withstand local uprisings.

This was one of the first games to feature VGA graphics (256 colors) as well as mouse control and Midi music. It was highly acclaimed, and received a reasonably good sequel that took the castle-building business one step further, mixing in "grand strategy" elements as your faction vied for control of Medieval France.

* Expy: Exchange "Albion" for "England", "Gwynedd" for "Wales", "Pictland" for "Scotland", and on and on. Other than the names, everything else is pretty much the same. The manual [[LampshadeHanging acknowledges it outright]].

* KnightInShiningArmor: The entire family of the Southhampton Duchy. You can pretty much count on them to be loyal and trustworthy, and their advice should be heeded... in most cases.

* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Sort of. The more soldier units you place on the map before a battle, the weaker each unit will be. That's because your total soldiers available will be split up into as many units as you've placed. Of course, having fewer units means it'll take longer time to clear all enemy units, giving them more time to destroy your castle segments.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Quite a few of these momnents exist in the game.

* DisproportionateRetribution: You can respond to the King of Bretagne sending you tennis balls by declaring war on him.

* HistoricalInJoke: A lot of these exist in the original game where you're basically Edward I.

* KingmakerScenario: In ''Castles II'', the Pope is the Kingmaker. Albeit, you can TakeAThirdOption.

* RomancingTheWidow: You can do this to King Charles' wife in the 2nd game, though she's much older than you and you have to put aside your own wife.
* ShootTheMessenger: When an opponent sends a diplomat to you in ''Castles II'', one of the options is "Kill Him."

* TakeAThirdOption: You can conquer all of the Pope's lands in Bretagne and get the Antipope to declare you King of France rather than relying on the actual Pope's blessings.
** You can actually avoid a peasant uprising by just ignoring whenever a regular poacher flagrantly violates the law. [[spoiler: Since he's an {{EXPY}} for Robin Hood.]] Eventually, he'll decide you're best friends and forget about uprising against you. [[spoiler: He also gets murdered when he tries this on another nobleman.]]
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: You can exile all of the Moneylenders (i.e. Jews) from England, burn down a Celtic village, betray your allies, and numerous other terrible misdeeds.

* ShootTheMessenger: When an opponent sends a diplomat to you in Castles II, one of the options is "Kill Him."

** You can actually avoid a peasant uprising by just ignoring whenever a regular poacher flagrantly violates the law. [[spoiler: Since he's an {{EXPY}} for Robin Hood.]] Eventually, he'll decide your best friends and forget about uprising against you.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: You can exile all of the Moneylenders from England, burn down a Celtic village, betray your allies, and numerous other terrible misdeeds.

* CorruptChurch: In the sequel, you have to gain the Pope's favor to become the king of France, and the main way to do this is by bribery (i.e. buying indulgences). [[JustifiedTrope Exactly what you'd expect for a game set in medieval France.]]

''Castles'' is a RealTimeStrategy game produced by Quicksilver during the late 80's. A "spiritual ancestor" to newer castle sims like ''{{Stronghold}}'', it focuses around a Medieval English king's efforts to fortify Wales with a series of strong castles to withstand local uprisings.

[[quoteright:256.21990004543:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/castles_coverart.png]]
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* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Sort of. The more soldier units you place on the map before a battle, the weaker each unit will be. That's because your total soldiers available will be split up into as many units as you've placed. Of course, having fewer units means it'll take more time to defeat the enemy.

* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Sort of. The more soldier units you place on the map before a battle, the weaker each unit will be. That's because your total soldiers available will be split up into as many units as you placed. Of course, having less units means it'll take more time to defeat the enemy.

* TheCrusades: The pope will sometimes ask you to send some men for these. Needless to say, this will be very bad for castle defenses if you agree... and very bad for church relations if you refuse. It's a no-win situation, so getting this dialogue is always a FacePalm moment.

* KingmakerScenario: In Castles II, the Pope is the Kingmaker.