Castellan

The castellan is the defensive counterpart of the general — while the general leads the army into attack, the castellan stays at home and holds the castle. He is the core of the defense of your castles, camps, and outposts, and his strength stands and falls with the equipment you assign him. Without a good castellan, your defense collapses unnecessarily quickly.

What the castellan does

The castellan is the core of your castles, camps, and outposts. By himself, he does nothing — his value lies in the defensive equipment you assign him. Depending on the equipment, he provides a range of bonuses:

Combat strength of close-range (melee) and ranged defensive units.
Protection of walls, gates, and moats.
Unit limit on the walls.
Combat strength when defending the courtyard.
Combat strength of all defensive units combined.

Economic and other bonuses

However, the castellan does not only deal with combat. Relic equipment (especially hero pieces) also adds economic and utility bonuses:

Less resources lost during looting and higher capacity of the secured storage.
More glory points gained during defense.
Earlier warning of an attack.
Lower fire damage during defense.
During sieges: marching speed of the army and required time for occupation (only for common to legendary qualities).
Bonuses to unit strength depending on where they stand — in main castles, kingdom castles, foreign castles, outposts, metropolises, and trading centers.

Where to get castellans and how many you have

You can obtain castellans by building an Estate or unlocking kingdoms. The number of castellans is limited according to the area:

4 castellans in the Great Kingdom.
1 castellan in each additional kingdom — Eternal Glacier Plain, Scorching Sands, Fiery Shields.
2 castellans for events — Storm Island and the Battle for Berimond.

In some versions of the game (IN1), the castellan is called Thunna, but the mechanics are the same.

How to optimize the castellan

Since the castellan is purely defensive, equip him according to how you most often defend:

Do you mainly defend with ranged units? Equip him with items for ranged strength and wall protection.
Are you expecting attacks on the gate or moat? Assign pieces for gate and moat protection.
For profitable castles, it pays off to use pieces for less resource loss and larger secured storage.

As with generals, having more optimized castellans (for different types of castles) is better than one universal one.

Pro player tipEquip the castellan with pieces for wall, gate, and moat protection based on where the attacks most frequently come from. Relic hero pieces also reduce resource losses — invaluable for gathering castles.

Common mistakeLeaving the castellan without equipment or giving him offensive pieces. The castellan is purely defensive — offensive bonuses do nothing for him, and a bare castellan will not hold your defense.