Attacking a castle

How to bring the rival’s castle down, and what your troops do at its walls.

The plan

Cut first. Take the provinces that link the rival’s land to their castle: their income falls before the fight begins.
Tear the buildings down. Click an enemy building with units in hand (“Tear it down!”); a province with enemy buildings cannot be taken.
Mind the walls. The castle has 1,500 hit points and 2 archers; towers nearby add theirs.
The Pirate Cannon (1,000 gold, 120 s) can take the castle down to 1 hit point from 1,800 away. Troops must be there to finish it, and outside the ring: the blast hits both sides.
Use the forests. Troops in a forest deal 20 % more damage and are hard to see.

Defenders first. Your troops standing by the rival’s base answer every enemy fighter they see within 420.
Then the nearest building. With nobody to fight, they strike the nearest enemy building they see, whatever it is: the castle is a building like the others, and the match is won when it falls.
You choose what falls first. Click a building with units in hand (“Tear it down!”): the barracks before it trains more, a tower, or the castle itself. Marked, they answer only enemies within 160, then go back to it.
Pawns draw nobody. A pawn that walks into reach is struck down, but nobody leaves the walls to chase one; click them to send a raid.
The castle shuts its door. Struck in the last 5 s, it calls the pawns of its own mine inside (that mine pays nothing) and sends no pawns anywhere. The pawns of the houses work on.
Get off the belts. Riders strike no building: send the troops by the walls with a move order, or mark the building.

Tip: Keep the siege going: once the castle has gone 5 s without a blow, its pawns come out and its mine pays again.