"Anyone Using CASTLES As Post Apocalyptic Strongholds?" Topic

After watching "Reign of Fire" for the hundredth time, it dawned on me . . .

As far as I can remember, I have not seen or heard of anyone use stone castles as post apocalyptic strongholds or shelters in their games!!! Or, am I wrong?

link
link
picture
link
YouTube link

QUESTION:

Has someone done a post apocalyptic raid on a castle? If so, any pictures?

Thanks.

Dan

Well not exactly post apocalypse I guess but 40K, we have used them before. 40K is sort of uber post apocalypse I suppose.

reign of fire induced labour in my wife!

nothing to do with castles but there you go.

Hmm. And here I thought it was pregnancy that induced labour in women. :)

Dan

"Well not exactly post apocalypse I guess but 40K, we have used them before. 40K is sort of uber post apocalypse I suppose."

LOL. Yes. That would be a bit uber. :)

I was hoping for pictures of something more like a near future settlement, on a realistic-looking medieval structure, much like in the movie.

Here in the US, we don't have the benefit of such enduring defensive stone structures:

picture
link

Dan

There is a castle near Baltimore in MD. It is some type of banquet hall/hotel I believe.

Funny you should ask Dan…

I am currently working on several pieces made from Hirst Arts moulds, inspired by this post at Ambush Alley Games Forum: link

Not really Gothic, but could be used as Post Apoc as well as SF / Fantasy buildings.

I am working on small buildings including a keep or a small castle and some larger sculptures / pillars like the one in this photo. My 15mm cultists standing beside for comparison. Sorry for the crappy photos…

picture

picture

I haven't started working on it yet, I've got a couple dozen pages of notes and sketches for converting my colonial "Ponape" terrain into post-apoc settlement. Pics of the original terrain are here:

link

The plan is to build a duplicate, ruined main building for the fortress with a futuristic residence for the island leader, add steel towers and accomodation for guards along the walls. Replace or make removable additions to all of the town buildings, including a sci-fi shanty town. Keep the dock with some additions and make a number of scifi-ish boats and a couple of small ships. Build a second settlement to replace the native village, and add some mutated mega-fauna to the jungle.

I keep bumping the project for other things, so no idea when I'll actually get to it.

A friend of mine is setting up a PA scenario in 80's Britain. One of his main factions are making use of old castles and hill forts.

Funny you should ask Dan…

But in a recent Zombie campaign my mate Maff decided to hole up in Cardiff Castle as his stronghold.

Cheers
Mark

When you say "use them" I am not sure what you mean. In some of my near future games, I have set them to include castles and historic forts.

For example, in one "Past The Peak" game, I have the rulers of the Kingdom of Eastern Maine take over this fortress. Eventually, the players have to take it over. It is one of the last stone fortresses built in America and an amazing place to visit if you ever get to Maine.

picture
picture

My post-peak games use castles because it was not guns that defeated castles, but artillery. In my post peak games, artillery is basically gone; used up in wars. Bullets are rare and precious. So, castles make sense again. When 50% of your threats are hand-weapon armed fighters, castles rock!

Another city that I have used is Quebec. That is the center of the French-speaking post-peak Empire of Quebec. The only people they hate worse than the barbarians living in Northern Maine are the Acadian French!

Tangential, but there was an old comic strip called The Tower King about a post-apocalyptic world where the hero used the Tower of London as his base: link

Yes the old star forts that dot the East Coast of North America might be a nice refuge for post-apocalyptic survivors.

Other options might be some of the 'dark ages'-style fortifications from Baueda. This could represent the survivors building their own walled enclosures out in the wilderness. Even the small A-frame style houses could work. People fleeing the cities and building quickly with whatever is available. Only limited by your imagination and what models are available or can be scratch-built

I remember the Tower King.

In a couple of Twilight 2000 games I've played in, older fortresses did feature. Obviously based in Europe.

One adventure involved us trying to stop a bandit/marauder/warlord actuality building his own starfort. If he had finished it it would have caused a lot of problems in the area.

I guess that the Castillo de San Marcos could be a cool PA refuge:

link
link

As long as the sea level stays pretty much the same. Otherwise . . .

picture
picture

Dan

A Castle and even Medieval culture was being used in the movie Doomsday. It fit in very well and made sense. The people had rejected technology since it had apparently lead to theiur apocalypse.

John

Interesting zombie safe house Dan. That's until the rest of the 'survivors' show up… :D

link

Not castles but the Missions of San Antonio are both defensive and imposing. They are closer to home CC.

Some in some nasty neighbourhoods – would make good "Assault on Precinct 13" type scenarios in a near future/post apocalypse setting.

One of the few highlights when I lived there.

The others were cheap ammo and cheap tequila. Cannot vouch for the cheap women as I am "happily married".

There was a series of short stories written in the 80s and 90s by Edward P Hughes that were compiled into a collection called "The Master of the Fist". The basic premise was that a plague had swept across the planet rendering nearly every male animal sterile. The Fist was the castle that overlooked a small Irish village; it was occupied by a British sergeant, who not only had a Chieftain tank at his disposal but was also the only man in the area capable of fathering children.

Some interesting PA possibilities there, I think.

LT

You know, even here in North America there are a few forts that would make a very tidy place to hole up – Fort Knox in Maine springs to mind, certainly Fortress Louisburg or the Halifax Citadel in Nova Scotia and Fort Henry in Ontario

acadian-cajun.com/royale.htm

parks.on.ca/fort

Read the chapter on castles in "World War Z"

Good inspiration

I'd hole up in San Simeon (Hearst Castle).

Imagine something like this atop the castle walls:

link

Dan

The original Warhammer Seige book had pictures and scenarios for using the "Might Fortress" fantasy castle with 40K games. Unfortunately, they didn't give it tech upgrades as CC suggest, which was also what I had in mind.

Also, on the East and South coasts here in the US, there are still some of the mid-19th century brick & earth artillery forts in good condition. Look up ones like Fort Gaines or Fort Morgan.

I'm checking out which East and South coast forts the US has that would be high enough to rise above a 100m sea rise.

Not coming up with anything just yet.

picture
link

Any suggestions?

Dan
TMP link

It would be really very funny if the 'Water Doom' we read so much on TMP recently, would in reality be a 'Frozen Hell'… or even 'Death from the Stars' in the form of a stray comet / meteroite. Not much use for a castle then… :o)

A new Ice Age. Yes! I kinda like that too, for gaming of course. :)

TMP link

Dan

Well, let's see if the ACW fans know where the higher-elevation US forts are located:

TMP link

Dan

This is not a castle, but it sure looks cool:

picture

Dan

I think I've mentioned this before, but you could also look to old prisons. Many of them have serious rock walls, lots of interior space for food production, and full old-school machine shops.

The Old Idaho State Penitentiary ( link ) was completely self-sufficient *inside the walls*, so it'd make a great PA shelter. You'd need to remodel the walls to get defensive crenelations or some kind of siege hoardings, though.

Hey CC there is some good art on that link. I really like the half buried truck that has been turned into a shelter.

There are many buildings that could be used as strongholds in a Post Apocalyptic world, as an example I often joked with my wife that this church in Milan ( link ) could be a good fortress in case of a zombie invasion. Of course she thinks I shouldn't worry as I will be eaten first :-(

Luciano

Humm… Now I am thinking about the decommissioned Coastal batteries here in Northern California… And well we have Alcatraz, maybe depends how high the waters rise…