Alfred the Great - Stronghold Legends AI Lords

Alfred the Great is a skirmish opponent, available in Custom Scenarios only in Stronghold Legends.

Overview

Designed as a relentless pusher Saxon Lord, Alfred tends to throw any man necessary at his adversaries in an attempt to overwhelm them. Playing for the Good faction, he borrows a lot of warfare strategies from Lancelot du Lac, maintaining a simplistic economy to fund his never-ending human wave attacks.

Castles & Defenses

Much like other Arthurian lords, Alfred the Great builds a normal rectangular castle with a single, double-layered wall. He adds only a lone gatehouse in the southern side with no towers whatsoever, greatly restricting traffic into the heart of the castle, as well as his defensive capabilities. Alfred resorts to placing groups of Archers in a diamond-like pattern along the walls, with the Keep containing an additional small band of Men-at-arms and a retaliatory squad of Swordsmen. To add some additional means of defense, Alfred places Moat in front of the walls, as well installs Oil Tippers on more exposed wall sections to discourage ladder attacks.

Alfred's castle is relatively easy to besiege, given he uses no tower engines or towers altogether. His only saving grace is his moat, which can be filled in without a problem after the walls are reduced to rubble on one side. Alfred keeps a respectable garrison of about 50 Archers, however they are too spread out oftentimes and the majority of them can be displaced by Catapults or Ballista bolts. As Alfred has no active patrol forces, his ranks can quickly crumble under the slightest pressure, provided the attacker brings armored troops and the numbers necessary.

Economy

Much like Lancelot, Alfred relies on the Church to bring income. He builds entirely Chicken Farms to produce Meat, as well as a large number of Fletchers and Poleturners to provide equipment for his waves. Due to his measly troop requirements, he does not invest in the production of royal food or food variety, nor does he build Iron Mines. Alfred constructs a single Stone Quarry to slowly build up his castle.

Given the nature of his small scale economy, Alfred keeps only Wood, Stone, Bows and Spears in large quantities, as well as food in the Granary. He sells almost everything else for profit, but when he does particularly well, he buys in weapons in droves for keeping the pace of attacks up.

Raids & Sieges

Uniquely among all Lords, Alfred does not conduct sieges. Instead, he relies on 'printing' squads of Archers and Men-at-arms, sending them to whichever target they may find. Alfred's blunt but straight strategy is descriptive and perhaps most effective very early on, if the enemy didn't get the slightest means necessary to parry his aggression. These groups vary in size from 12-16 men to a single soldier, giving Alfred a never-ending swarm of troops pouring out of his castle. Sometimes Catapults can also be seen rolling out from his siege camp.

Very rarely, Alfred may opt for sending a death group of 50 Men-at-arms, who target the enemy player's home estate. This squad is perhaps the only infantry force that can damage and destroy a few outlying buildings after a relief force arrives.

Blunting Alfred's primitive attacks necessitates minimal effort to counteract. Simply using armored troops, flying units or Crossbowmen in numbers can hold almost endlessly, as the defender gets to fire a volley before Alfred's vanguard may get a chance to do so. If playing as Evil, Alfred's attack forces can be greeted with Vampiric Creepers in the open field, netting a ton of units for free, who can be used to quickly tip the scales, possibly as part of a later attack of your own against him.