Tower defense games - Master of Fortresses game review and hints

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 link 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 intriguing. I did not plan on writing a review about it, but Master of Fortresses turned out to be very addictive (I could not stop playing it to the very end - if you consider endless mode to be the end) and, therefore, here you have this review. I also included some helpful hints for those who might find the game too hard.

The concept behind Master of Fortresses is a little different 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 main features (which gives it realism) is the fact that you must put palisades under every firing unit. This includes big guns as well! Well, in their case you must also place a bastion to accommodate them. So, place four palisades, a bastion on top of them and the cannon on top of the bastion. It is actually nice but beware (!), all these do cost. The price to actually have a cannon firing can be much greater 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 usual tower defense games.

It is also important to notice that your troops and cannons can be upgraded, just like in most tower defense games. It might not be obvious how to do it, so here it is (example for British side): place Militia -> when you have enough money, unlock Red Coats -> place directly Red Coats or select your existing Militia and choose "upgrade" in the bottom-right corner of the screen. Next you can unlock Green Jackets and upgrade your existing troops. And these Green Coats are real snipers! I survived a lot in the endless mode only by using them. The upgrade costs 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 money from killing the enemy to afford to keep upgrading a decent amount of troops! Oh, the same goes for upgrading your cannons.

Strategy: Well, you saw that I chose to play on the British side (mostly against the French). The British have the most expensive troops but these also pack a good punch. I am sure that the following tips work for the other sides as well.

So, first choose a good defense position. Like the tutorial states it, place your defense in "choke" points whenever you can. When you cannot, I recommend putting the first defenses at least 3 squares away from your base, to leave enough room to build bastions behind them later on (the cannons have a greater range then the troops, of course).

For me, the strategy to put basic troops on palisades as a first line of defense (and upgrade them as soon as possible) worked very well. When you finished upgrading them, you can start building bastions and deploying cannons. Ah, an important one, when you hover with the mouse over the arrows that show the attacking directions, you can see the unit times that will attack from that side. If you see engineers, then put barricades before your palisades. This is because the engineers are very tough attackers and they will destroy a few of the buildings they encounter (and it is better to lose a barricade worth 15 then a palisade worth 40 + the troop on it). You can also use different 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 use Puckle Guns (like machine guns). They fire rapidly and have a very good range. And, this might be a life saver: you can rotate bastions! Therefore you can study from where most of the enemies will come and turn most of the guns in that direction!

I wrote about a life saver before 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 destroy every obstacle they meet!

As a conclusion, Master of Fortresses is an addictive and well made tower defense game. There is a good variety of troops and upgrades, as well as of strategies that one can approach. Although I have shared with you my strategy, there is nothing to stop you to try out your own, different one. Check out the end of the article bellow (or the resource box) to find the link and play this great game. Have fun!


You can play this great tower defense game following this link: Master of Fortress.

A great place to play tower defense games is this: New Tower Defense Games. There are over 100 tower defense games and new ones are added frequently.