would be useful to post wires and flats. 22k tris does seem like a lot... but the learning experience excuse is a good one :P It looks okay, but deffo a few probs: The brick section near the top looks too low-res, and the bricks really don't fit their sections, the ultimate approach really is to model each brick seperately…
The above two images show the original low poly geo before I started going back and cutting stuff out. Since then, I've cut 16 more tris without changing the shape of any of my UV islands/clusters. In the future, I'll seriously consider your advice, m1neh and sculpt individual bricks in Zbrush. pf
The bricks towards the top let the piece down IMO, seems to me its texel density is off. Also i can see plenty of places to save on polys, but it is dependent on the viewing angle, that sphere on top for instance, if the player is only seeing this from below, the only time he will see the top is when he is afar, so you can…
I think you can probably skim some geometry by cutting down on the number of faces you use to describe the pillars in the middle. you don't need any of the chamfering (Chamfer? Bevel.) Beveling on the battlements up top, or the bricks that stick out of the battlements. It doesn't look like there's any kind of rounding on…