Castle barricades essential or hinders the Defence?
Castles barricades sound good on paper, but in practice they give the attackers an advantage while hindering the chances of the defending team. Here's why:
As a defender, you can usually keep a close eye on a door and watch for enemy feet behind it. While they are placing their breach charge/whatever, you easily kill them via head or body shots. The same tactic works great for windows if you shoot some small holes into them with your pistol though you need to pay more attention. With Castles barricades, the only thing you can still do (unless you have a high penetration weapon) is shoot at the feet of the attackers. You might steal some HP, but it's unlikely to get the kill. When I play as an attacker, I'm actually relieved to spot a Castle barricade instead of a regular one. It's a sign that enemies are most likely close by and I'm much safer when placing a breaching charge or a Fuze cluster charge (I really LOVE IT to see Castles barricades on windows as Fuze, makes my day!)
Castles barricades slows down defenders more then they slow down attackers. The additional time it takes to tear them down can make the difference if you need to change your position because you are a sitting duck or are getting attacked by a shield. Plus tearing down a barricade instead of just destroying it via melee is so much more dangerous. If you melee you can take a quick peek and make sure things are safe on the other side, if you dismantle it you are left standing right in the middle of the doorway with no cover, making a perfect target for the enemy.
The default barricades are great for covering an area through small holes created. You know the drill: smash a hole into the lower corner of the barricade, go prone on the ground at a small distance to the door and even though attackers might look at the hole, they will have a very hard time spotting you before you blow their brains out. With a castle barricade it's just: Wait until it's been blown away.
They render traps useless. Since Castle barricades need 12 melee hits to be destroyed, they are almost certainly going to be destroyed with a breach charge, thus destroying any Nitro, Gas or Kapkans and Frosts traps, that are close to the entrance.
All of the above applied to a "good" Castle player, but in Casual a bad Castle can do so much harm to the team that it's maddening. Placing barricades between the bombs, blocking the exits early and then bytching or teamkilling roamers that want to leave and dismantle them, dismantling common barricades that have been "prepared" for Kapkan traps or LOS etc.
So what are the advantages of the Castle barricades? The main reasoning seems to be "better protection" but I ask: better protection for who? The guy placing the breach charge on the other side whom I can only hit in the feet now? Slowing down the attackers? In some cases this may work if the other team horribly failed, no one with a breaching charge is around and nobody realizes that you actually CAN destroy them with melee attacks. The only good use of the Castle barricades I saw, was using them combined with Mutes jammers on the windows. This can work pretty well on Casual but good teams will always have a Thatcher with them and then the advantage is gone again. With the new operators, I much prefer placing Frosts traps under the windows. The attackers will have very hard time spotting those and often fail to do so. The coming weeks will show if this remains a valid strategy, but for now it's working great.
Is there a way to make him useful? Maybe the barricades could have little transparent flaps on the bottom, so there is still some visibility maintained but grenades and drones would be blocked. Then at least, there would be some use to them (though I still might prefer a good old wooden barricade).
Really interested to see what you guys are thinking (especially the Castle players). Maybe I overlooked some great aspect of Castle barricades that make them really great, but for now, I'm relieved when I see that he is not on my team.
Castles barricades mainly protect the attackers, slow down defenders and are making traps useless.
teabag celebration that @Mowgli would appreciate 
