Minecraft Castles

Last year I showed the kids Minecraft. (They are ages 6, 4, and 2.) They got hooked, of course. We played in a survival mode, but whenever anything dangerous came along they would freak out so I ended up doing most of the actual playing. So I got to do all the building, with some suggestions from them. Naturally I made the home base be a little like a castle. After the kids went off to play in their own creative-mode worlds, and I put Minecraft on the iPad for them so they wouldn't keep wanting to use my computer, I felt like returning to Minecraft myself to work on some castles.

First, here is the home base I made with the kids. The keep is set on top of a hill, reminiscent of hill forts from the medieval period. I set stone fences floating out from the wall walkway so that there were gaps that allowed seeing straight down along the wall. I set up blocks as rises in the wall between those floating fences to provide some cover. This produces machicolations and crenelations like on a real castle wall, both in appearance and functionality.

Sand Island Castle

Here is a castle I made in creative mode. It occupies a large part of a sand landmass between an ocean and a river, and right across from a village. It seemed like a perfect place. I built this as a fortress with two wards.

The upper ward has a main keep inspired by the Tower of London, along with a chapel, stable, and dungeon. The two exterior gates in the upper ward are defensible, with plenty of places to seek cover while shooting at anyone trying to get through either gate. There's a lava trap on the small gate and the large gate has collapsible scaffolding over lava in addition to some TNT that can be triggered. This scaffolding is in a large area between the gate and another wall with iron doors, surrounded by battlements. The main gate, per kid feedback, is just a lava curtain, but since there is a secondary iron door gate anyway, I didn't mind.

The lower ward is separated by another defensible gate (with a pit trap) and wall. There is a second keep and a few shop structures. The lower ward's exterior gate has an operating drawbridge, one of my first attempts at using slibe and honey blocks in a mechanism.

I used several different ideas for making crenelations. Some were the floating rock fence, some were sideways stone stairs, and various approaches in between. Not shown in these pictures, there are secret routes in the keep basements, including an escape to the stables, an escape outside, and a nether portal.

Black Moss Keep

The previous castle is defensible using historical inspiration, but it wouldn't be the optimal defenses in a Minecraft game, so then I decided to make a fortress that was designed more for defending against survival players. I know, there are a lot of people who play PVP. I don't, and I haven't looked at what goes on in those games. I just did a little of my own analysis and went with that.

I assumed the rules would be that teams do not start with enchanted equipment and potions, that teams would be 4 vs 4 where one team gets a head start running to a prepared fortress and can set up in there. After that, anything is allowed. So the strategy is basically to give the defenders an advantage in (1) seeing the attackers approach, and (2) delaying them long enough to be driven off. It is impossible to completely stop a survival player, at least if the defenders themselves can enter the fortress, which they must be able to do relatively quickly because they start outside. (So it can't just be a bedrock cube.) But traps, obsidian, and more can be useful.

My first thought was that players could stack blocks to climb over a wall, stick ladders on a wall, or dig through a wall. To defend against that, have battlements where defenders can easily shoot at attackers as they try to get through. Slow down attempts to climb over by having the top of the battlements protrude out so ladders can't just go straight up and players would have to be a little slower and more careful in getting over. Slow their approach to the walls in the first place with traps, magma blocks, cactus, a maze, moats, and so on. Then also make the walls thicker, or else made out of obsidian.

My second thought was that if players knew the walls would be defended, they could just dig underneath and come up in the middle. If they dig down far enough the defenders might not notice the nameplates. Coming up in the middle, those nameplates would get closer to the surface but from behind where the players are looking. So I figured it might be good to have a thick bottom to the entire compound, but someone would still have to be watching for such an approach. Perhaps it would work to have a huge empty cavern below the fortress and an inverse tower hanging down from which defenders can watch that cavern. But when I chose a site for the fortress, I picked the middle of a swamp and figured having water under the fortress would serve the same purpose of slowing down a tunneling attack from below while allowing an inverse tower to observe it.

So, I created a foundation that is a layer of obsidian, then a layer of lava, then another layer of obsidian, and then a layer of decorative floor blocks. To prevent players from rapidly approaching in boats and then jumping under the fortress, I put a ring around the fortress of magma blocks and cactus, with obsidian, stone, and iron bars forming a curtain all the way to the swamp bottom. So players will be visible approaching and then have to stop to cross the barrier before getting back to the inner moat. Someone who tries to dig up from the bottom will need to build a safe location to get air underwater, and then would have to dodge the lava in narrow confines once they break through. It would be dangerous and slow, which allows the defenders enough time to prepare to drop attacks straight down on whomever is coming up.

My fortress walls are stone, obsidian, stone. Making it three layers thick but hiding the obsidian until someone starts trying to dig through. I have towers on all four corners that afford plenty of opportunity to shoot anyone along the walls. I also have a couple spots that are shielded from far away but allow shooting anyone on the bridge to the door, which is made of magma blocks to slow anyone down. A ring around the walls has thorn bushes, just to pour lemon juice on a cut if they try to climb or break through the walls.

I also thought about whether anyone would try to attack from the sky, either with elytra, a long bridge, or a flying machine. So the roof of the fortress has only one door inside and can be shot at from all four towers. The battlements and towers are also closed up enough that nobody can step into them from the outside either. So someone would have to land and then dig through the roof. While the roof is not as thick as the rest, flying in gives the defenders a long time to see and prepare for it. I have a fifth tower that is taller than the rest and has a glass room on the top to see all around for spotting these kinds of attacks.