The Fireplace, also called guard post, allows you to guard and patrol areas of your settlement and the surrounding area. They do not require wood to build, can be placed anywhere and any Follower can be commanded to use them. To use a Guard Post, first place one down on the landscape and select some of your Followers (you can select a guard post on the buildings panel). Then left-click on the Guard Post and your Followers will run to it and circle it. You can also set down more than one Guard Post and tell your followers to move between them, thus creating a patrol. Place down two more Guard Posts and select your Followers. Then hold down Ctrl and left-click on each Guard Post in turn, stopping on the last one. Your Followers will now run between all the Guard Posts and return to the first when the last is reached.

 

You can perform even more complex actions using Guard Posts, and if you would like, you can remove your guard posts by holding SHIFT+mouse right click on it - if you do this when units are patroling, they will still be patroling there, but the actual fire will no longer be.

 

Guard Posts are invisible to all players beside the owner. Your guard posts can be seen from worldview - it's those little burning effects.

 

You can place many guard posts on a level, but not infinite - after reaching the maximum, once you place one more, the first one you had placed will disappear to give spot to that new one. 

 

A beginner should use guard posts sometimes, but in online, it's rare to see them, since there are faster ways of patroling troops (watch the patrolling section), and the actual fireplace have no effect on the game, so it's kinda useless, unless it boosts your morale!