Sim Campaign: Mission 9 - Contract Race

By Lord_Chris

Mission Objectives:

• Win: Acquire 100 Swords
• Lose: Your Lord Dies
• Lose: Edwin: Acquire 100 Swords

Onto Chapter 9 and we're now back in our old estate again. First of all, if you altered any carter posts from your neutral estates in the previous mission, make sure the shipments are coming to your own castle again. You will also notice how the layout of your estate has changed again at the start of this mission, along with the amount of starting resources you have. This doesn't really matter, but you do have a vast amount of gold in your Treasury now that will ensure just about any success in this mission. However the one part which categorically has not changed is your weapons industry- all these buildings are exactly as you left them, which is excellent for this mission.

Now, onto the mission at hand. While there is no strict time limit it's probably quite easy to think that this mission may still be tough due to the competition with Edwin- it actually isn't. Edwin only has three Armourer Workshops and you can easily outproduce him. This is even more the case when you consider the distance involved in Edwin's Armourer's reaching his Armoury. You only need to mass produce swords during this mission, and you should be very pleased that your castle layout from mission 4 has made this mission an awful lot easier. Start by removing all your weapon workshops, and literally replace them all with Armourer Workshops.

By this point you should have at least 8 Armourer Workshops, so the only real issue now is Iron. Head over to the estate from Chapter 4 where you killed the wolves, and start mass producing iron mines and ox tether. Place any more Hovels that may be necessary, and an Apple Farm or two. If you need any wood, simply buy it through your Market. Next, head to the edge of your estate mining iron and place a Carter Post as close to your own estate as possible. You'll likely find that this estate has already stockpiled a considerable amount of Iron for you, so start sending straight away. This will keep the rest of your mission very easy indeed. This will actually be the second shipment which arrives- as soon as the game starts the original Carter post in this estate will deliver 20 Iron to your estate, meaning that you will have way more than enough to last for some time.



You can also mine iron from the estate your captured with the Outlaws in Chapter 7, although this estate has not yet started and no infrastructure exists- meaning it would be difficult to start this quickly. However for a secondary supply of Iron it would certainly help, although this shouldn't really be necessary. However, you can get a solid economy running in this estate if you like. You will need to use this estate in chapter 12, and this would save valuable time by doing so now. Simply place two or three Apple Farms, one or two Hovels and a Saw pit or two.

Back to the mission at hand, at first Edwin will take the lead but once you get some Iron you will drastically increase the lead on him because of all the Armourer Workshops you've already placed. In fact, after Edwin has bought Swords his production essentially ceases altogether.

Tip: If you like, you can help to prepare yourself better for the next mission by recruiting Archers. While this isn't strictly necessary because you should have troops left over from mission 7, it will help you next mission. Don't necessarily bother placing any more Fletcher Workshops to produce any more bows, just recruit any Archers that can be recruited already. You can also just buy bows if you like as well. And if you like your games extra easy, you can send them straight into Sir Grey's Castle atop his walls Gatehouse waiting for the next mission. You can also send them back to your estate where the Outlaws were and leave them waiting by the estate flagpole, or alternatively leave them in your own castle. Unless you have virtually no army left from defeating the Outlaws you'll likely find that even about 50 Archers is enough.

Make sure you save your game at the end of this mission, and let's continue on to take on Edwin! You can download a saved game of this mission available here in the downloads section.