Can you use tactics when defending a castle? I love this game, but it seems like there is a disadvantage when being attacked (instead of an advantage). I'd like to use arrows, or confuse, or illusion when getting attacked but don't know how. Any advice please??

If your defending from a city theres no way to use tactics against your enemy. Fortifications like gates and outposts do use arrow tactics though.
Defending from a city really is a disadvantage. I'll almost always send out a unit to fight so that the officers can use tactics, even if the city is outnumbered.

Thanks very much for the input. That's a real change from other RTK games - so I just thought I was missing something. Guess not.

np. Have you played any of the games past 9 yet?
Its funny how city defense went from being probably the most important factor in 8 to being so insignificant in 9

No I haven't. I used to play Romance III and IV on the Super Nes - those games were awesome. I miss the joint attacks and what not. Romance IX was cool - but not enough military strategy for me (although there is still a lot). I'm getting XI next. Hope it's good. Have you played it?

Ya I've played XI, but I have yet to finish a game on there. I really like the character create and some other stuff in that game, but it usually just ends with me coming back here and playing 9. Dont know why though. 9 has been overwhelmingly my favorite for a number of years now. If you liked the original games, I think you'll like XI a lot. It seems to be the most like the NES ones, but I have only played those about 1 time each. But from what I've seen theyr pretty similar.
Are you going to skip over X for now?

Cool - thanks for the Info. Yes, I'm skipping over X. I really only like to play games with other people - for some reason I don't enjoy playing the computer much. Me and a couple friends will stay up all hours of the night and play Romance. Fun stuff. In X, I think the option to be an officer and whatnot is pretty cool, but I've heard that 10 isn't even a multiplayer game, is that correct?

By the way, where are you from? I live in Oklahoma - United States.

Thats cool, I've only found one other person who has liked to play RTK games, and well, hes just nowhere near as good as me at them So usually I'll just play vs the comp. Oh yeah, and Im also in US, on the East Coast.

Its true that X doesnt let you play as more than 1 character. VII and VIII both let you play as regular officers though, and up to 8 people.