Master of Fortresses is one of the most recent tower defense games online. The author has played it to the very end, liked it, and decided to compose this review of the game. Helpful hints are included as well. Enjoy!
Master of Fortresses is the latest tower defense game that appeared on my website (to see which website it is about,
as well as for a direct connection to the game, take a look at the resource box bellow). I started playing it simply because I like tower defense games (and defense games in general) and because I found the name interesting. I did not plan on writing a review about it, but Master of Fortresses turned out to be extremely addictive (I could not stop playing it to the very end - if you think about endless mode to be the end) and, so, here you have this review. I also included various valuable hints for those who might find the game too hard.
The concept behind Master of Fortresses is a little distinctive from the one behind other tower defense games (actually, it might be better called a fortress defense game :p - yes, I know, there are not enough resembling defense games out there to allow a new game category).
One of the most important features (which gives it realism) is the fact that you must place palisades below every firing entity. This includes great guns as well! Well, in their case you must also set a bastion to accommodate them. So, lay four palisades, a bastion on top of them and the cannon on top of the bastion. It is really nice but beware (!), all these do cost. The cost to actually get a cannon firing can be much bigger than the cost of the cannon itself (with British troops, it was 40 x 4 for palisades + 1 x 250 for the bastion + 200 the cheapest cannon itself - so, a total of 610 for a cannon (Culverin) that costs 200 itself). This can be a surprise for the ones used to regular tower defense games.
It is also vital to note that your troops and cannons can be upgraded, just like in nearly all tower defense games. It might not be evident how to do it, so here it is (example for British flank): place Militia -> when you hold an adequate amount of wealth, unlock Red Coats -> put promptly Red Coats or choose your existing Militia and pick "upgrade" in the bottom-right corner of the screen. After that you can unlock Green Jackets and upgrade your existing troops. And these Green Coats are authentic snipers! I survived a lot in the endless style just by using them. The upgrade expenses are much bigger than the final unit costs (Militia costs 50 and the upgrade to Red Coat is 40, therefore a total of 90, while a Red Coat directly costs only 65) but I was not very much bothered by it. You get enough capital from killing the rival to afford to hold on to upgrading a reasonable quantity of troops! Oh, the same goes for upgrading your cannons.
Strategy: Well, you saw that I chose to play on the British side (frequently against the French). The British have the most costly troops but these also pack a fine hit. I am sure that the following tips work out for the other sides as well.
So, to start with take a advantageous cover stand. Like the tutorial states it, set your defense in "strangle" points whenever you can. When you cannot, I suggest putting the first defenses at least 3 squares away from your base, to leave enough room to make bastions behind them later on (the cannons have a bigger range then the troops, of course).
For me, the approach to lay basic troops on palisades as a primarily line of defense (and upgrade them as soon as possible) worked very well. When you finished upgrading them, you can begin building bastions and deploying cannons. Ah, an important one, when you hover with the mouse over the arrows that display the attacking directions, you can see the unit times that will attack from that side. If you see engineers, then set barricades before your palisades. This is because the engineers are very tough attackers and they will break a few of the buildings they meet (and it is better to lose a barricade worth 15 then a palisade worth 40 + the troop on it). You can also employ several kinds of traps, just like in other tower defense games; it is especially useful when facing the later waves.
I found it good to also benefit from Puckle Guns (like machine guns). They discharge promptly and hold a very good range. And, this might be a life saver: you can rotate bastions! Thus you can investigate from where the largest part of the enemies will appear and rotate the largest part of the guns in that direction!
I wrote about a life saver previously and here is an absolute "do not": do not try to create a maze, like it is advised in other tower defense games. These guys will crush each blockage they encounter!
As a conclusion, Master of Fortresses is an addictive and well made tower defense game. There is a good range of troops and upgrades, as well as of strategies that one can handle. Even if I have shared with you my tactic, there is nothing to stop you to try out your own, distinctive one. Check out the finish of the article bellow (or the resource box) to get the link and play this great game. Have fun!
