Town | Buildings Stronghold: Crusader II Guide
Last update: 11 May 2016
This group of buildings allow you to increase the maximum population in the castle, as well as offer a great deal of functionality buildings, such as the Inn, which purpose is to distribute ale, or the Church / Mosque, which 'distributes' religion in your castle - both of those buildings affect your popularity significantly.
From this building tab you can access buildings such as: Hovel, Market, Inn, Candler's Workshop, Church / Mosque, Well, Water Pot, Apothecary.
Hovel
Cost: 20 / 35 / 50 / 65 wood
Produces : increases population by 2 / 4 / 6 / 8
The Hovel is one of the most important buildings in the game. Each time you build one increases your maximum population in your castle, allowing you to man more buildings, or offering an easier army production.
Depending on the amount of wood spent, you can build Hovels of different sizes, which offer a different amount of space for peasants. Remember to restrain from building too many of those buildings in one go when you do not need any excess of peasants, because each new peasant in the castle increases food / ale / religion consumption. When a Hovel is destroyed or sold, you will lose the additional space it offered. If you happen to lose several buildings this way, you may be loaded with a negative overpopulation modifier.
The size of the Hovel is dependent on the distance from your main building - if you build it next to it, it will offer the biggest space (8), but if it's built far away, it will be reduced to 2.
Market
Cost: 200 wood
Function: automatic purchase / sale on the market
The Market, in contrary to the previous installments of the game, isn't required to purchase or sell resources on the market - it will only allow you set those processes automatically, under specific conditions. More on this topic can be found in the appropriate section of this guide.
Inn
Cost: 200 wood, 1 peasant
Function: ale distribution
This building serves the purpose of ale distribution in your castle. In contrast to the previous installments of the game, in Stronghold Crusader 2 you will only have to build a single Inn to achieve the full effect. More on this topic can be found in the appropriate section of this guide.
Candler's Workshop
Cost: 50 wood, 1 peasant
Produces: 6 candles
Candler's Workshop allows you to manufacture candles, which are then uses in religious rites. This building can be compared to the Brewery - it creates a different product, but the function is fairly the same. Candler's Workshops can be placed whenever you want them to be, but should be near the Stockpile to maximize the production rate. The amount of candles you need depends on your personal needs, but if you want to keep religion distribution on a relatively high level (+2 or even +3), an unwritten rule states that you need 1 Candler's Workshop for every 10 peasants in your castle (5 Candler's Workshops with a population of 50, 12 with 120, etc.), which should allow you to keep the distribution relatively high and you should still end up with some surplus, which can be sold on the market.
Church / Mosque
Cost: 300 gold, 100 stone, 1 peasant
Function: performing religious rites
Those buildings are fairly the same, but each of them is available to different side of conflict - Church for 'Crusaders', while Mosque is Arabian-only. They serve the purpose of performing religious rites in your castle. In contrast to the previous installments of the game, in Stronghold Crusader 2 you will only have to build a single Church / Mosque to achieve the full effect. More on this topic can be found in the appropriate section of this guide.
Well / Water Pot
Cost: 20 wood, 1 peasant / 100 wood, 2 peasants
Function: fire extinguishing
Both of those buildings are used to combat one of the most annoying aspects of the game - fire. Doesn't matter if it was caused by the enemy (Slaves, for instance), or from natural causes, you don't want to be dealing with it no matter what - but if you are forced to, it's a good idea to have a way of fighting it.
Both of those buildings come in handy if such a situation rises. The first one is manned by a single peasant, while the second with a duo, meaning that Water Pot is more effective, but a lot more expensive. The choice is yours, but you should have at least a few of them built in strategic positions (near some important buildings, like Bakeries).
Apothecary
Cost: 200 wood, 1 peasant
Function: preventing diseases
The last building from this category, but of equal importance. The Apothecary offers you the services of a physician, allowing you to prevent, or heal off diseases, be them of natural causes, or when the enemy decides to swarm you with carrion. If such a thing happens, the physician will heal any infected peasants and get rid of that negative popularity modifier as soon as possible.