Military Governor's Barracks (ETW building)
| Military Governor's Barracks | |
|---|---|
| Category: | Military |
| Level: | 3 |
| Turns to build: | 5 |
| Building cost: | 3000 |
| |
| Requires | |
 Military Governor's Encampment | |
Barracks provide more than simple housing blocks for regular military forces. The buildings also serve to remind the local people who is in charge.
They are a statement in brick and stone that the military are present to defend the state and keep order. Usually constructed around a drill square, they are a carefully segregated military world deliberately kept apart from the civilians beyond. The walls present a blank, defensible, and intimidating face to the outside world. It can be important to keep troops away from the assorted temptations of flesh and the bottle. Civilians also harbour unsuitable, unmilitary ideas of disobedience and disloyalty – there must be limits to what an army can permit its men to think!
Historically, in Europe the fashion for building barrack blocks seemed to mirror the fascination with the Classical World of Greece and Rome. Among its other achievements, the Roman army had standardised designs for military buildings; armies in the 18th Century began to be similarly standardised. Governments employed good architects too: Nicholas Hawksmoor, for example, built the garrison barracks at Berwick-upon-Tweed for the British government. He was almost the equal of Sir Christopher Wren in talent if not in lasting fame, and produced many fine churches to replace those lost in the Great Fire of London.