so, he took the castle and gave it back to the computer,
but did it actually achieve anything? How justified is such a tactic?

And he didn't even take it; I didn't want to waste a turn. It was in a side branch, with exits from the spawn point on my side, and there was only that town hall, but he built cyclops instead, and the stream was also closer to the entrance/exit to the spawn point. But giving a city to the Necropolis is a good thing. And in general, the computer started acting strangely. It ignored my empty tower village and ran past it; I was shocked:eek: And sometimes it stages such amazing battles. It seems like something has been tweaked.