Garrison

The Early Medieval garrison was not a comfortable barracks but a fortified compound — shaped by the collapse of Roman centralized logistics and the emergence of fragmented feudal power. Without an imperial supply chain, professional soldiers had to be housed and fed locally, inside defensible enclosures that could serve as the last redoubt under attack. Carolingian burhs, Byzantine tagmata forts, and the ring-works of early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms all reflect this logic: the garrison was as much a defensive structure as a training facility. Heavy infantry and archers were quartered here, bonded through shared hardship into the reliable core of any lord's retinue. In the game the garrison unlocks Early Medieval heavy infantry and ranged units — halberdiers, crossbowmen, and iron cavalry. Its fortified nature gives it more hit points than earlier military buildings, making it worth defending as a last line of production under siege.