One of the functions of this game is the ability to attack and plunder your neighborhood. While many players see this as extremely unfair, it’s still a part of the game, and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. With that in mind, it’s best to be prepared for it, and a great way to do that is to up your home defense boost.

As new event buildings come out, especially the set buildings, we are seeing more and more ways to get that boost up there. Before those buildings though, there were Watchfires and Great Buildings. Then came Guild Expedition, with the addition of Ritual Flames.

Obviously, for the maximum boost you’d want to put everything into your city, but that’s not realistically possible. You’d end up spending all your valuable real estate on defense, and you’d have nothing left for other important things, like happiness or goods. Therefore, you need to decide what combination of these buildings are right for you, in addition to whatever sets you build.

St. Basil’s Cathedral

This is a Great Building which will add a defense boost as you level it up, as well as a nice coin collection every day and some additional force to your guild’s support pool for GvG. The defense boost with this GB doesn’t just boost your defending army’s defense score, it also gives them an attack boost. So not only are they harder to kill, but they pack a more powerful punch, too.

You can get this GB in Late Middle Ages, if you don’t get it ahead-of-age (which isn’t necessarily recommended). It has a 5×5 footprint, and at level 10 you will get:
30% defense & attack boost to defending army
30 guild support pool
30,210 coins

 

 

 

Deal Castle

Like St. Basil’s Cathedral, this GB gives that same defense boost called fierce resistance that also gives your defenders an attack boost, plus adds to the guild support pool daily. Unlike St. Basil’s, it will give you daily medals instead of coins.

You can get this GB in Colonial Age, and it’s also not necessarily recommended to get it ahead-of-age. It has a 7×7 footprint, and at level 10 you will get:
30% defense & attack boost to defending army
30 guild support pool
170 medals

Watchfire

 Watchfires can be earned in events and sometimes the daily quest, meaning that they’re a building you cannot replace if you accidentally delete one. Each watchfire will give you a 4% defense boost, which stacks as you add more of them into your town.

These are great little defenders, because they occupy a 1×1 space and do not need a road connection. This means that you can fill in any little hole or gap with one of these and make the previously unusable space useful! A very handy thing to have.

Since there’s nothing to collect from them either, it also doesn’t matter if you lose sight of them behind some of the taller GBs in your town and such. Most choose to put them along outer perimeters where buildings never seem to reach to.

 

 

Ritual Flames

Ritual Flames come from Guild Expedition. You can win them from relics mainly, which gives the Temple of Relics a bit more value to get as soon as possible since you cannot earn relics until you have that GB.

These babies take up a 2×1 space and give you an 8% boost to defense for your defending army. So they’re exactly the same as having two Watchfires, just a little less versatile because they are not square. Still, they don’t have to be connected to any roads and are easy to tuck off wherever you have the space. The more you have, the bigger the multiplier.

 

 

 

Picking out what is right for you and your town’s needs is really the hardest part. Some opt to never build St. Basil’s Cathedral or Deal Castle because they have better uses for that space. Others really like to pack a punch when attackers come to visit, or they want to give to the support pool of the guild for GvG (but Observatory is the best building for that because it also donates goods to the guild treasury). In some cases, the two GBs are built as a stop-gap briefly, until better things come along and then they’re removed; if this is the intended case though they often are not leveled beyond 5.

To help decide though, here’s a breakdown of what you can get for the real estate in comparison:

  • Deal Castle is the largest at 7×7. At level 10 you get 30% defense for your defending army.
  • St. Basil’s is 5×5, which means you can build it and 24 Watchfires to get to a 7×7 space, for a total of 126% defense for your defending army.
  • In a 7×7 space you could place 49 Watchfires for a total of 196% defense for your defending army.

Of course, you can interchange two Watchfires for one Ritual Flame in that comparison too, it’s just easier to calculate a total based on the Watchfire.

Looking at this, Deal Castle gives the least, and just Watchfires/Ritual Flames offers the most. To make St. Basil’s or Deal Castle as efficient as just the Watchfires/Ritual Flames you would need to get either to well over level 100. However, unlike either GB, you do not get any additional bonuses from the Watchfires/Ritual Flames. So from purely a defense boost perspective, neither GB is worth it in the long run. However, if you’re desiring of the GBs other perks, then they’re something to consider. Remember though, there may be other GBs that are better suited for you that give similar things to those extra perks you’re going for.