Bonner's keep

[Memsochet]

Ok, here it is. The early(VERY EARLY) stages of my very first castle/keep. A friend of mine corrected me by telling me it was not a castle but a keep when I told him what I was going to do. And by very early, I mean I don't even have the castle layed out yet. All I have is the gate, front wall, and the preliminary exterior side walls. I want to get feedback early so that I don't have to completely rebuild huge sections once I do receive it. Eventually I will fill in the inside of the walls with various buildings needed to support a keep(but that wouldn't belong inside the castle proper), ie black smith, barracks, etc.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37314375@N ... 623194708/

[Knight of Honor]

Well, it's already looking great! Can't wait to see it finished.

[Heir of Black Falcon]

Looks like it is coming along well. It also looks like it will be quite big when finished. Will look forward to future updates.

Not sure what your friend told you defines a keep but it looks like a castle to me.... unless you plan on enclosing the entire area in a large tower structure. Looks like the outer ward of a castle to me at least. A keep tends to simply be a large tower used as a last resort for the defenders. Some castles do not have them but a type of modified massive gatehouse instead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle

Heir

[Stahlregen]

Looks like you're aiming pretty high with that one, judging from the sheer size of your baseplate. Nice.

Personally, I think your walls and the gate towers look a little low. In my humble opinion, the castle would look a lot more serious if you raised them by a few more bricks.

I think the gate could also use a bit more width - I don't think you'd get any sort of cart through there as it is.

Also, the layout looks a bit boring at the moment - I think some further fortifications, like some extra guard towers or bastions would be nice - unless the buildings on the inside will be asymmetrical enough to break the symmetry.

If you want some serious buisiness defensive weaponry, I'd say add a few catapults. The layout in 7091 easily hurls bricks over a few meters distance. Great fun.

Also, did you consider adding a barbican? You sure have enough space...

[Memsochet]

Well, for the moment my walls will have to suffer with being a bit low. But for an exterior wall, I don't think it should be much taller than it is. So I might only raise it 1 brick when/if I do.

The gate & drawbridge are based off of the King's Castle Siege(7094)'s gate. I'm using 2 of the portcullises from there, so I don't believe I can make it any wider(I really don't like limited by the pieces like that). Also, not sure that a barbican is much different than the gate tower I have now, other than being further out from the main wall.

I'm still figuring out what I want around the inside, but I do know I will be adding some defensive weaponry soon.

I have some updated pics of the right wall & added blacksmith. Once the slopes I bought come in I'll be working on the left wall and get those pics added.

[Heir of Black Falcon]

I agree. I think you should not raise the outer walls too much more or anything inside will then have to be much taller as well.

As far as the width of the gate. You should be able to add bricks to the sides with no issue... as you said though the gate's inside width is pretty much set. I'd not worry too much about that.... just make smaller carts.

I actually dislike the KCS gate design somewhat but since it was not your design I was not going to say much about it. The draw bridge is good but a portcullis should not raise up into the air... looks funny to me and makes it functionally weaker. Truth be told there are some historic medieval gate designs I have seen (though rare) that did this so I guess it is possible but looks odd. As it was unusual my guess is that it was not very strong. Of course some of these structures may have had a wood superstructure that left few remains and may have house the porcullis. Still trying to fix mine actually.

Some ideas for stuff to build inside-
houses/apartments
Main hall
armoury
kitchen
barracks

Have you seen the giant crossbow in the new Drawbridge defense for this year? Might be an idea for wall mounted crossbow for you?

Heir

[Memsochet]

Yeah, I really don't like the fact that my portcullises raising above the top of my gatehouse, and would even buy the brick to hide them if it wouldn't make the gatehouse freakishly tall compared to the rest of the exterior wall.

I did look at widening my gate, and the only way I saw that I could would require pretty much a foundation up rebuild. That's mainly due to how tightly everything is aligned to eliminate gaps in the roadway. But I think I'll start that when I go home for lunch, then finish tonight sometime.

So far the planned interior is I'll have a palace/castle proper where the raised base plate & empty section(I'm waiting for the chance to drive to my parent's to pick up an BL order that got sent there) are located. In one of the pics I posted there's a pot holder sitting on top of it. What this will entail, I don't know. I have a few ideas as to what I want to do(and that's the reason I came here), but nothing formalized. Then around the inside of the exterior wall I have planned pretty much everything you've suggested(except for the apartments/houses, which I think if they are setup for the troop's families it might be an interesting idea).

Once I get around to weaponry, I know I will include at least 2 fully functional trebuchets(one at each corner). I'm more of an engineer than an architect, so what I build will more often than not be functional instead of pretty. I also have plans for some standard catapults, ballistas and other defensive weapons. I do like the design of that crossbow, and will probably use it at various points.

[Heir of Black Falcon]

Look forward to seeing what you end up doing. Always nice to have a BL order waiting for you.

Gate house towers are more often than not taller than the surrounding walls. This is so you can defend the weakest point in the wall, the gate/portcullis. It need not be freakishly tall but you have an option to add some height to it. That is generally my plan with my gate. To raise it another level and stick some battlements on top mybe. still kicking ideas around. have not seen a good solution to the KCS gate to be honest.

Good luck either way. Better it looks less than pretty and is functional I'd say!

Heir

[Memsochet]

After looking a bit closer, I don't think I can increase the size of my bridge/gate. The problem is my pin-bricks(which are used to hinge the bridge) are right next the portcullis grove bricks. This makes my bridge 1 brick narrower on each side, so I was hoping I could move the pin-brick out that extra space, then redo the wall behind it so that my bridge would still open. But, b/c of where the portcullis is, I don't have the option of redoing the wall behind the pin-bricks, so if I move them out, my gate won't move. Bugger!!!

Looks like smaller carts for me.

[Heir of Black Falcon]

Can you pull the draw bridge out and place it in front? If you do that you can increase the total size of the gate as well.

In the end small gates are fairly common in medieval castles so don't worry too much. They are intended to keep people out after all. Small carts work fine just more trips

Heir