Fort Defence Tips

In multiplayer, with rivals and enemies all around you, you will find it necessary to build and defend a fortress. There are useful tutorials for PVP bases and other building styles on the Minecraft Wiki. Click on this link to view the tutorials page: Middle-Earth Gameplay Guide.

However, there are some aspects of the mod that are not covered in Vanilla Minecraft, such as the use of hired units and unique blocks and weapons. Thus, various other suggestions are made on this page. If you're interested in adding traps to your fort, a page about this can be found here.

Battlements
A necessity. This will make it much harder for the enemy to target you with bows, crossbows, and even bombs. If you are shooting from a flat place atop of a fortress surrounded by battlements, the enemies will have a much harder time of geting in, because the battlements provide a wall over which the enemies must climb, and while they are doing that, all you need it to shoot at them, and the knock-back effect of arrows will make them fly down. But, in order for that to be possible, they must be vertically aligned with, or being the outermost point of the wall or fortress. This is what they should look like:

As you can see, the battlements are along the outermost point of the tower, and are comprised of a wall in the middle, and on the side, two blocks with a slab on top (this will prevent hired units from getting out, and enemy units from getting in). The rim of these battlements also prevents Mirkwood or Mordor spiders from climbing over your fort's walls.

Units
Very important which you use! Archers are good for being behind battlements, and melee units are good for staying inside the fortress. But, NEVER bombardiers! They will only serve well outside the castle when it is not yet besieged! Putting bombardiers in your castle will, at some point, result in you doing the enemy's work for them. They will not even need to waste their own bombs to destroy your fort! Cavalry and other mounted units can also be good for defending your fort, and, like the melee units, are best left inside the fortress. They are also good for fighting outside the walls of the fort before it has been besieged. Another technique is to surround your outer perimeter with stealthy long ranged troops such as Rangers of the north or wood elf scouts.These troops could take out a whole army before you even know they are there.Plus they act as an early warning system because it will alert you of incoming enemies because of the death messages in the chat.

Materials
Try to use as much stone and metal (or other strong material) in your building so it is harder to blast or mine through, and by the time they have got through your units will most likely have slain the besieger. Do not use any worn materials in your fortress, such as cracked bricks, which are easier to break and blast. Use as little wood in your fortress as possible, especially if you are good-aligned! With the addition of fire-bombs, evil-doers can cause new devastation to wooden structures. Also, wood is very blast-able even without firebombs, and is easy to break. And, if they set fire to your fort, it will burn and be destroyed, along with your units and you! An excellent material with which to build a fort would be the blocks of Utumno, as they're nearly indestructible, and many are of excellent coloration!

Retreat Route
Unless you are strong and determined enough, there should always be a (preferably secret) escape route, so that if the battle is not going your way, you can slip off quietly and save yourself, and preferably with a few hired units, so that you can go far away and make a new stronghold and army, and possibly re-take your old castle. An escape route should be an underground tunnel that emerges on the side of a hill, with a Dwarven door on each end, to be as secret as possible, The only downside is that the Dwarven doors will glow at night, so be very careful. To avoid this problem, you could make a piston door instead.

Location
The location of your fort is a very important consideration, and depends greatly upon your alignment. The best place to build your fort is deep within friendly territory, as it will make it much harder for foes to get to your fort. If you are have thrown your lot in with Sauron, you may want to place your fort within the Nan Ungol region of Mordor, as there are many powerful and dangerous spiders and spider riders on the prowl. If you are a defender of the free peoples of Middle-Earth, strongly consider Rohan as a place for your stronghold, as the soldiers there (Rohirrim) are exceptionally strong and are almost all on horseback (their horses are also the finest in all of Middle-Earth), making them very dangerous for the forces of evil. However, there are many other options for each alignment, so explore which region would be the best for you.

Landscape
Sometimes, the spot upon which a safe haven is built is just as important as the materials you make it out of. The positioning of the fort is mostly dependent upon the type of biome you call home. Mountainous regions are great places for forts. Try to construct your stronghold atop a sheer cliff with very few access points. This makes it far more difficult for enemies to reach, and far easier for you to defend. If you live in a large forest, treehouse forts (such as the Elven treehouse) are a great idea, as you have the advantage of being far above your enemy's head, and it is exceedingly difficult for enemies to reach if you play your cards right. Of course, if you take the necessary precautions, the Forodwaith biome makes a spectacular fortress location, as the opponent and his army will be greatly worn down by the freezing cold before he even reaches your fort, if he ever does. Finally, make use of naturally spawning structures in the area, as they grant you a constant supply of spare troops and extra points of defense.

Traps
Thanks to the redstone circuitry graciously granted to us by Notch, players can now engineer all sorts of saucy tricks for unwanted guests. Whether you prefer the classic arrow-launching hallway, the tricky piston-activated lava trap, or the truly evil TNT pit, these home security systems are a sure-fire way to pick off invaders. After all, the players might notice your pressure pads and dispensers, but their troops will not. If you haven't been to the Overworld to mine some redstone and prefer a more Middle Earth way of killing your foes, then here are some tricks. Dig a hole that an enemy cannot jump out of and place spikes (stabbing thorns or stalagmites) at the bottom. Enemy troops fall in and then sometimes try to jump out but kill themselves in the process. If you live near a marsh then go collect some quagmire to surround your walls. There is nothing funnier then watching an enemy sink (and slowly suffocate) in the quagmire.

Banners
Banners are a good way to protect your base and the surrounding territory if you play your cards right. You can place a banner on a bronze block to protect a 9x9 area, or you can place it on a silver block that protects a 33x33 block area, or you can place it on a gold block to protect a 65x65 area. The banner itself is an entity, so it can be destroyed by other players, but if you set up another banner, those banners will protect each other. Thus, you can make an impenetrable fortress.

Double Walls
Double walls are the key to a castle's defense. If the enemy bursts through the gates but hasn't taken the first wall then they will be attacked by both the inner wall and the outer one at the same time. Alternatively, if they take the first wall then the enemy must also take the second before finally reaching the keep. A good example in Lord of the Rings is Minas Tirith, which has seven walls. Traditionally it is better to have the inner wall higher than the outer one, which means the defenders can see what is happening on the outer wall. If you want a history lesson, Constantinople had these walls and they warded off the Turkish invaders with new cannons and many more troops for months!

Slab-Reinforced Walls
In order to prevent bombs from breaking through your walls quickly, utilize the effective half slab and put a space of half a block in between them, with a three layer thick half slab defense. With walls on either side, it will take 2-3 Orc bombs to get through. This is highly effective to hold off attackers while your archers pick them off. This added defense is due to a different blast resistance of slabs from normal blocks. Remember, the thicker the wall, the more bombs it takes. If that is too expensive for you, you can also employ the use of water walls. These highly effective walls help negate bomb explosions entirely, effective against bombardiers, as they must stop the water to use the bomb.

Here is the effect of triple Orc bombs on a wall reinforced with slabs:



After all of these expensive bombs have been used to get in, you will no doubt be well aware of your enemy's whereabouts, and most of his army will have been picked off by then.