The Last Keep

Additions

• Knocking down the red castle no longer ends the match. The war now runs through three stages, each with its own army and boss:
  • Stage 1: a dragon climbs out of the rubble and walks at your walls. 200 hits to kill, one swipe kills every troop in reach, it breathes fire on your castle and spits a fireball down the road every 15 seconds.
  • Stage 2: when the dragon dies the camera pulls back, the ground shakes and a goblin fort rises. Goblins are 25% stronger, and the rival keeps its gold and upgrades. When the fort falls the Flaming Skull rises: 500 hits, burns every troop it bites and rains seven flaming skulls down the road every 7 seconds.
  • Stage 3: a beast camp rises at the new far end of the road. The Beast Horde (rat, cat archer, beetle, bear shaman and wolf warlord) is 50% stronger than the first rival.
  • Final boss: a giant Frog Champion. 1000 hits, quick slashes and stabs that kill every troop in reach, and a ground quake every third attack.
• Castle health (50) now shows over each castle and on both sides of the top bar.
• Added the war chest: your income grows 10% for every minute of battle, so long stalemates end on their own.
• Added the Recruit Hall upgrade, 5 levels, which unlocks new troops:
  • Paladin, Battle Mage and Champion
  • Elf Ranger (400 gold) and Black Knight (1000 gold, cleaves everything near its target) in stage 3
• Upgrade caps rise each stage for both sides: 5, then 10, then 15. After each boss the rival's upgrades jump to at least the last cap.
• Added painted castles for you, the first rival and the goblin fortress: a front wall with parapets, a flag on top and a cannon poking out of a gun port by the gate. Troops step out of the gate.
• Castles shake, burn and explode when they fall, then turn to rubble.
• Normal and Hard rivals now plan their armies (about 60% front line, 40% archers and wizards), counter what they see, defend first when threatened and save up gold to send waves.
• Keys 1 to 9 and 0 hire troops.
• Added 10 music tracks (menu, a battle theme for each stage, boss themes, victory and defeat) and sound effects.
• Added Music and Sound buttons in the start and pause menus, a mute button, and the M key.
• Added a Back to homepage link on every screen.
• The scenery is different every battle, with flowery and mushroom stumps, yellow trees and the odd pink blossom tree.

Tweaks/Improvements

• All ten upgrades now have 5 levels. The strongest ones taper off after level 3.
• Grumpy Cannon at level 5 gets a second barrel and fires two bombs a shot. Castle cannons never run out of powder.
• Rivals now spend much more on upgrades, especially Chicken Tax. Normal and Hard buy about 27 to 30 upgrades a match.
• Rivals get no stat bonuses. Difficulty only changes how fast and how sharply they think. Sir Dawdle keeps his old, more random style.
• Troops take real steps when they march, walk through their own side, and can't get past an enemy until it's dead. Archers always hold their bows.
• Removed overtime. The war chest breaks stalemates instead.
• The dragon walks faster, and the dragon and the Flaming Skull attack 5% faster.
• The recruit bar goes compact when more than five troops show.
• The ruins of earlier castles stay on the road.
• Trees closer to the front are always drawn in front of trees behind them.
• Tuned Duchess Ironjaw's income.
• The version number shows in the footer and on the credits page.

Bug fixes

• Fixed troops walking backwards.
• Fixed troops turning invisible while walking for players with an older version saved in their browser.
• Fixed a background tree cut off on its right side.