Isaiah

Been a long time since I have been on this site. So, some more questions to answer in case anyone still plays these archaic games: In general, after basic wood, stone, and food acquisition, what do you focus on next in an invasion/skirmish fight? (Getting weapons, enclosing the keep, etc.) How many layers of walls do you use typically use? Do you use multiple defensive layers? (Troops have to pass through multiple gatehouses) Do you find playing as a bad lord or a good lord (or maybe even neutral!) to be more beneficial? Do you ever keep archery troops atop your keep after a basic castle defense has been established?

I've been playing trumpet for like 4 to 5 years now. (I'm currently third chair out of 13 out of my high school band.)

Its the small one right after the Oasis -- Me & Rat vs. Saladin & Sultan

Well, hi, I haven't played in awhile as indicated by my absense from the site. I'm still on the one against Sal and the Rat --> I'm bad at attacking, and space is so limited on that level. Plus, haven't played recently. Hello Frank, it seems you are doing well in your campaign.

Later, but I save right after the last lord dies (idk why, I just do), so the files may be of limited use. I did #9: The Oasis recently. For the first time ever, I made a pretty large castle. I think I've might've went as far as 80 people only in a freebuild game once or twice before; this was the first time I actually built a castle with over 80 people in actual game. Generally, my population is in the 50s (20s if I decide against food) because I need to maintain my bread chain and still have 6 peasants left for recruits. The difference on this map was two-fold: 1. There was mounds of iron and stone, and 2. My opponent was Saladin who I know from past experiences is extremely tough to siege. Another first for me was training a large army. Generally, I train 30 or so pikemen with maybe some monks as backups, and some siege towers or battering rams, and definitely fire ballistae, but I knew that wouldn't work here. Therefore, I trained about 5 siege towers, 50 crossbows, 30 pikes, 20 swords, 40 or so macemen, and 40 slingers. (Actually, I think I trained way more -- my total troop count including defenders was over 400). My strategy was to have the siege towers dock to Saladin's walls, so I could use his round towers against him; the slingers were my expendables as the rest of my troops got into position. With my sheer number of troops, I overpowered him. (I did have one issue which I'm pretty sure's a bug: I had my metal units go to Saladins southern gatehouse (get on top it) and cleared all his troops, yet the gatehouse was never captured.... So I had to wait on my macemen to finish destroying the wall....) Also, I found it strange that Saladin built an Armoury and made weapons, yet never built a barracks. Aiv problem? Last of all, I was rather disappointed when I was never attacked by Saladin. @EaglePrince Yeah, we can discuss Extreme too. The two volley skills are overpowered, but still interesting. Also, have you tried editting the trail? I made it (way) easier, but you can changes lots about it.

I thought we could discuss the trails here. My progress: I finished #7: Greek Fire and #8: Sands of Times recently. In Greek Fire, I saw the Caliph actually use fire ballistas offensively and catapults, and while I had to constantly replace troops, I was able to easily defend cuz there was only 1 ford through which the enemy could travel. I should've blocked the ford a bit earlier though...... In Sands of Time, I had more difficulty than expected. Rather than fight the rats over the stone and iron, I ran a minimalist economy with a hops farm and wheat farm on the nearest oasis grass. That was it for resources -- the rest was bought. I made money off of sailing excess crossbows. As far as offense goes, I sent several slaves to burn the orange rat's castle, so he would be unable to attack me. Later, once I finally got a few archers to clear his keep, I get attacked by 300 spearmen plus 50 archers or so.... I nearly died as I still had low walls and about 70 or so archers. Luckily, I had started Pike production and was able to sell some Pikes to raise money for Metal Rmor for 5 pikemen. After that, I realized I needed tall walls and a moat, and meanwhile, I got a much needed 500 gold to spend on buying stone (for my small encampment had been obliberated). I burnt the yellow Rat's castle too and took him out by sending armoured troops using the ford near the orange rat's old castle. Finally, I cleared the blue keep with Crossbowmen then had my Lord take out the Blue rat. I then sent all my defend archers to go attack the gray rat alongside a healthy chunk of pike/swords. Once, I had an entire siege force of about 20 macemen, and 5 pikes/swords obliberated by the combined siege forces of the blue and gray rat -- Spearmen are powerful in numbers, and the rat seems to send almost all his troops out when he conducts sieges (might explain how he lost his castle so easily in Stronghold 1 ;)!)

Forgot about that article. But yes, this is one possibility for the .sav to .map trick. Might be interesting if you want a much harder skirmish trail (I wish I could siege well....)

For all of you who have played the 4th Historical Campaign, you'll notice its a skirmish battle with custom invasions in it. I have found a way to replicate such a configuration (but alas, there is one major limitation): Here's how: 1. Open Crusader 2. Start a custom Crusader game on the map you want, etc. 3. Save immediately and exit Crusader. 4. Locate save folder (In documents/Stronghold Crusader/saves) 5. Copy your saved game to the maps folder 6. Rename the save file, so the extension is now .map instead of .sav 7. Launch Crusader 8. Load the map in the map editor 9. Use [ALT]+[COMMA] to change the map to a single player map. Tada, you can now script invasions and events, AND the game acts like a normal skirmish map! Pretty neat eh! Now, there is one limitation: For some reason, if you let the map editor run while in building mode (not terrain mode), the map suddenly ends saying victory/defeat. Therefore, you cannot edit the castles, but that may not be a limitation due to the gameplay style.

Unable to send email. Please contact the forum administrator with the following error message reported by the SMTP server: "550 Sender verify failed " At your Panther forum when trying to register

Congrats Charles and Nigel ..... Neat, you made your own forum software Chris? Edit: OOPS, Wrong forum master!

Whilst what you say for the most part is true, you forgot one vital thing: Stronghold does NOT let you convert invasion maps to siege, economic, or freebuild IF there are invasions that are scripted. Therefore, EaglePrince should use the .sav to .map trick, remove all the scripted invasions (and probably win/lose events), then [ALT]+, to change the map type.

There's the .sav to .map trick Load a map, save it, rename the file to .map instead of .sav but leave it in the save folder, open SH, and load the map (sav).

Great Job Crusader, your never-ending knowledge of History astounds me (srry for being late)

Yeah, probably a resolution problem.... Did you check the readme files and all that? If you have, take a look at files like config.*, settings.*, display.*, hopefully you get the post (the * is a wildcard)

I myself prefer catapults as they're much easier to use and cost a lot less. Although trebuchets have a big range advantage, catapults are very useful when that last layer of wall needs taking down fast! I don't tend to use huge armies, simply because I never have enough resources. Playing with allies (for example @EaglePrince I tend to send supporting troops, such as engineers, archers, small groups of swordsmen, just to help wipe out remaining enemy units. Lol, I'm basically the same way on the second question except I have to siege the castle myself. I'm about to update the initial post, but you are always welcome to continue discussing old topics.

Sorry all for my rude (and removed) comments. I'm going try to get this thread going again... Which do you prefer: Catapults or Trebuchets? I'd personally say catapults since they hit most of the time and do great damage. In Crusader, what's your average siege army size? A few fire ballista and about 40-100 melee units normally; I cannot stand micromanagement sometimes and waiting for a huge army takes forever.

Another problem with similiar significance to connection is data -- we always run out but thats enough that!

Two reasons: 1) Don't have the connection neccessary & 2) The game's so old, I'd probably wouldn't find anyone (got it Christmas 2012) EDIT: Updated initial post

Once again, my responses are in bold. Now, I want discuss a bit about each troop; I'm gonna be brief here. 1. Archer - Long-ranged, you can use them to help aainst siege equipment 2. Spearmen - Dig quickly; spears created quickly 3. Macemen - Berserkers - Fast and strong, yet frail 4. Crossbowmen - Bolts effective against everything 5. Pikemen - Move moderately fast, high hp, dig moats quickly, low attk. 6. Swordsmen - 2nd strongest melee troop; moves super slow 7. Knights - Weaker than swords; can't climb walls 8. Arab. Bow - Shoots faster than archer 9. Slave - Can burn economy; Very cheap 10. Slingers - Throw short range stones quickly??? rather pathetic in my opinion..... 11. Assassin - Partial invisibility; scale walls; weaker melee capibilities than macemen 12. Horse Archers - Shoot while moving, move fast, can't climb walls 13. Arab. Swords. - Slightly weaker and faster than Europeon counterpart 14. Fire Throwers - Throw fire; about slinger range; low endurance In my opinion, both fire throwers and slingers need a buff. I'm thinking increasing the troop's range would make them useful. Fire throwers would be useful if you didn't have to be within a very short range.

Another excellent post EaglePrince? Too bad this thread isn't sparking the conversation I was hoping for... About the horse archers + patrol - I never would've though about it, but that is a very good idea (might even be op); it would definitely reduce the amount of management required, so you can direct your melee troops. Excellent job explaining your stance on Pikemen; my favorite troop are them because while they are weak, they can get farther than swordsmen when attacking walls since swordsmen are EXTREMELY slow. The fact that they can dig/fill moats is a plus :) I think we can agree that moats are the best way to slow down the enemy. Siege equipment can be problem, so that's not a bad idea for mongenels. Yes, spears are created quickly, but 100 spearmen would never equal 3 swordsmen against a fully defended castle. Also, I updated the opening post with more questions if you're interested in discussing.

Excellent post EaglePrince; if you don't mind, I'm going to give my two cents on your post before stating my stance on each question. My responses will be in bold. Now that I made my comments, I will share my own opinions: What approach do you take when building a castle (in-game or in-editor)? Always a square castle. I normally build moat (if possible), and tried to fit as many buildings inside as possible. In Stronghold 1, I'll attempt to make multiple layers, but normally I cannot gather the neccessary resources, etc for it. My castle design is always changing,; I'm never consistent. Do you ever use mongenels on square / round towers? Absolutely not, as it can damage my buildings and misses 90% of the time. Do you ever use turrets or do you always build towers? Always towers. I like being able to mount ballistas. In Crusader, I'll use lookout towers to fill the gaps (though technically a turret, it has tower in the name :) ) What troops do you use to defend the keep? Walls? Gatehouses / Towers? Obviously archery units for all of them. For the keep, I use swordsmen and pikemen as they're excellent defenders. I don't really place troops on walls, as I think that leaves them vulnerable. Gatehouses and towers generally aren't defended with melee troops. In Crusader, I'll use arabian bowmen and fire throwers too. I also don't use catapults or trebuchets on defense. When sieging an enemy castle, what do you do if you can use anything? Maybe fire ballistas in Crusader, but that's about it. Do you ever use spearmen when you have better troops available? No, I think their just a waste. What food(s) do you use? Bread, so there is no micromanaging when setup. I have dairy farms for leather. Also, if you think of any other good discussion questions, feel free to ask me to add it to the list!

Alright, another attempt to revitalize the Stronghold 1/Crusader Community [em]Note: If you vote in the poll, please share why you voted for what you did. This is a discussion thread, and troops are definitely great discussin topics.[/em] Stuff in this format are the newest added questions. Note - While I posted this for Stronghold 1, you can discuss your strategy in Stronghold Crusader/Crusader Extreme here too. What approach do you take when building a castle (in-game or in-editor)? Do you ever use mongenels on square / round towers? Do you ever use turrets, or do you always build towers? Have you ever set troops to patrol an area? What troops do you use to defend the keep? Walls? Gatehouses / Towers? When sieging an enemy castle, what do you use if you use anything? What's the hardest troop to kill? The most annoying? What's your favorite troop? Least favorite? Most useful? Do you ever use spearmen when you have better troops available? What about laddermen, monks, and tunnellers? Which is more important: iron or pitch? What food(s) do you use? If you can't use bread, what food would you grow? Do you use cremulation for defensive purposes? What's your average population size? (Especially Crusader) Are macemen worth the leather? (Does their power make up for the fact that the leather has to be shared between them and crossbowmen?) Which is worse (in Crusader): Starting Rush (Trainging a bunch of mercenaries then attacking while the opponent has no time to build up defenses) or horse archers with portable shields? Which do you prefer: catapults or trebuchets? In Crusader, what's your average siege army size? In Crusader, what style of gameplay do you use (defensive, offensive, support/economy, support/defend, etc) What tactics would you use if you couldn't build walls, moats, and other commonly used defensive structures (pitch / boiling oil allowed). Who's harder: Saladin or the Wolf in Crusader? How many Rats would take to kill Saladin? Ok, the last question was a joke. Those are just examples, explain your tactics via any question you want; just remember to state why you do something, or why you feel one way or another.

@Lord Chris -- You cannot set events, etc in freebuilds Also, its just gongs and rats I'm worrired about, Crime is an interesting feature (except when your falconers and gong farmers decide to become criminals,.....)

Its seems fixed now, but it was the forum for Stronghold Crusader

Can you make it where if a subforum gets a new post added, the parent forum changes the last post to that post? Currently it does not to do that, and I think that would be a useful feature.