Tower defense games

A candlelit tower defense: set wards of light along the winding path and keep the shades from the keep.

A lane defense for the cloister: set casters, gatherers, and bulwarks against the creeping shades.

A mazing tower defense: there is no road. Wall the open field with wards, sculpt the longest detour you can, and make the shades walk it.

A ballistics tower defense: every lobbed shot takes real time to fly, so your engines lead the marching column like a hunter leads a bird, and the bends in the road are worth gold. Terraces raise a thrown stone’s reach; armor blunts bolts but never splash; the horn pays gold for boldness. Every siege is the same siege, and the longest stands go on the community board.

A tower defense where light is the whole economy: the field lies dark, wards only strike at what stands in lit ground, and lanterns buy that ground. The shades know what the light costs you; they drain lanterns dark, and devourers carry a gloom that shrinks every light near them. Relight what gutters, raise the pharos, and keep the lattice burning. Every night is the same night, and the longest stands go on the community board.

A merge tower defense at the forge: casting pours a crucible of random metal onto a random empty anvil, and dragging two of a kind together fuses them one rung up the ladder, tin to copper to bronze, on up to star-steel. Every fusing overflows in a ring of molten metal that no armor blunts; time it into an armored column. The metals run in a fixed vein, the same for everyone, and the longest firings go on the community board.