Frankel

Interesting. Only 30 woodcutters? It's rare I build more than 3! Also I don't know the quarry trick. Is that something to do with the space between the quarry itself and the deposit box area? Anyways sorry for the delay on the skirmish. I have a couple more down and will post soon.

Sounds great! Do you have the rule set at hand so I can read up on them a little?

You are right about Saladin and his economy and about the Lionheart. Indeed I vaguely recall a mission from the trail where it was me and the pig I think, against 3 lionhearts and a snake? Those relentless catapult attacks are not something to be trifled with! My poor square towers were in a bad state when I finally got a suitable defence in place. Back to the mission at hand (17 - Land of the Camels); Me vs 3 Sultans, those with a reasonable gold advantage but I have an easily defended position (both in terms of elevation and access). I bought 20 crossbows and leather armor and split my units between the two inner gatehouses. I also split the knights and placed them by each gatehouse also. In the meantime I built one square tower facing the northernmost Sultan (in hindsight I would have built this later as I did not have the resources to man it and I would have been better off selling the excess stone I had). At the same time I set taxes on -4 and built a small economy of 4 wood cutters, 2 apple farms, 1 hops, 2 wheat, 4 bakeries, 1 mill, 2 quarries, 4 oxen, 4 fletchers (on crossbows), a brewery and an inn. My focus was to sell whatever I could and buy bows and leather armors until I had a strong defense. Then I built a second tower facing the bottom left Sultan and put manned mangonels on both, targeting their Lord. At that stage I built up 10 fire ballistae (using them from within my castle while I built up some support), followed by 50 crossbowmen and 20 arabian swordsmen in roughly that order. By that stage it was simply a matter of crossbowmen taking out the units on the walls, burning the keep (merc post, trading post and granary in roughly that order) and by the time the swordsmen caught up they knocked a tower and killed the Lord. Overall not too challenging although it would be a very interesting mission if I was not allowed to use my marketplace. I relied on it heavily here. For the sake of adding a screenshot, here is my castle in full swing (replaced two apple farms with cheese for leather armor production). http://i.imgur.com/OZahmNt.jpg[/img] Next up is Mission #18 - A Barren Land, which will see me up against the combined efforts of 5 snakes. Stay tuned :)

Progress will be a little slower from here on in. Holidays are over and it's back to the real world. Speaking of progress, Mission #16 - Desert Hunters, is complete. Its not as challenging as I expected. I spent pretty much all of my gold at the start on wood and 10 crossbowmen. Given the close proximity of the stone, 2 square towers (the one closest to the right gatehouse in the picture below, and one of the two on the right) were quickly errected with 2x ballistae, 5 crossbowmen and 5 archers on each. It was not difficult to have a big economy up and running fairly quickly - I created 4 fletchers on crossbow production early on and gradually stacked the two towers. I periodically made slaves in batches of 10 for the moat, while the wall was quickly finished as the stone flowed in. With the defense mostly sorted, the mission seemed much less challenging than anticipated so I built up a large army of horse archers, 50 pikemen and a dozen assassins. Usual strategy - take out tower mangonels/ballistae, destroy barracks & engineers guild which are outside the walls, arrows to kill the remaining troops and a couple of assassins to open up a gatehouse to finish off the lord. My keep is below. Lots of stone and iron. Big population, plenty of ale & +3 religion bonus. Alternating taxes between -8 and -12. The inner 8 square towers were added late as a way to take care of any catapults from the stronger Saladin on the right (albeit completely unnecessary as it turns out) while I disposed of the one on the left. http://i.imgur.com/0liu4nl.jpg[/img] Next up is me vs 3 Sultans in a mission I found surprisingly tricky the first time I played it years ago. I'll keep you posted.

Mission #15 - The Lion's Mane complete. Not much to report here. Another mission where the AI's keep and economy is hampered by the terrain. I had a good defense built up for nothing. To defeat him I simply used crossbowmen to take out his archers, torched his keep and then walked in with some arabian swordsmen. My castle for this mission is below. My economy was pretty much run off selling crossbows from the ample supply of wood. http://i.imgur.com/QEiVSz1.jpg[/img] Next up is me vs. two Saladin's on a resource rich map. This should be at least a little more challenging :)

Well, a few beads of sweat, a few grey hairs and a couple of hours later and mission #14 - The Land of the Arab is complete. This has been the most enjoyable mission to date, not least because of the close shave I had at the beginning, so indulge me while I pen a line or two extra in memory. I was caught napping in this mission by the nearby Caliph. I went against my usual patterns here and nearly paid the price. I focused on my economy and stone to circle my caste for fear of fire, and that was very nearly my undoing. The caliph rushed me with slaves, and enough survived to the cover of my walls, and burned my keep to the ground. Eventually I killed those slaves (sold all of my food just to buy 5 bows and train them). There is a story that escapes me, that mentions a naked man having very little to hide his modesty and needing quick hands to move a hat or something around his body. That is how I felt about my 5 lowly bowmen. Panic over I managed to begin getting an economy up and running. It didn't take too long with the abundance of resources. The caliph was completely subdued for some reason, not making any army of note other than the occasional pack of slaves. http://i.imgur.com/KlibsOE.jpg[/img] The Sultan was the first to go as his constant mutterings of restless camels, and resting doves deserved swift and decisive quietening. I moved some horse archers, pikemen and a couple of engineers to the top right of the map and as luck would have it he emptied his castle. I let him slaughter his troops on my now well established defence, took out his wall slingers with the horse archers, lit his mercenary post on fire with fire ballistae and then finished him off with the pikemen. The Calpih was next. I had amassed a larger army down below at this stage, horse archers, macemen and more engineers. I asked the pig to attack, which he kindly obliged (unlike when I asked him to defend me), and he was as kind as to use his troops to trigger the pitch ditches. Once they were burned out, I sent in the horse archers and fire ballistae to do their work. Replacing the ballistae with catapults once the fire had begun enabled me to quickly knock some towers and rush in with the macemen. By this stage my economy was thriving and it took only a couple of minutes to hear "Your army is at it's maximum size". Although Saladin's castle was imposing (my favourite design of his, and possibly my favourite keep of the original Lords), the horse archers quickly dismantled the mounted weapons and shut the gates. The macement split, one group destroying the mercenary post and the other the engineers guild. The fire ballistae set the keep alight and by the time the pikemen and macemen had the gates destroyed there was nothing between my men and a swift end to Saladin. http://i.imgur.com/GMnz3jt.jpg[/img] I see the moon is bright tonight! How long may we reign?

That looks like a fantastic map, and you didn't go easy on yourself with the AI! I'd say those outer buildings tempted the Caliph's fiery demeanour to say the least! As for my own progress, the next two skirmishes (#12 - The Creek and #13 - Heat of the Desert) were hurried somewhat. The close proximity of the enemy keeps and the lack of economy built up by the AI, meant that I didn't really build any economy of sorts. Rather I decided to press on. For the first mission, against the Lionheart, he has no economy due to his position. Given the gold at hand I built 4 square towers, hired 50 or so crossbowmen, 3 mangonels and 1 ballista. These coupled with a few fire ballistae quickly reduced his keep to rubble. It was simply a case of hiring a few macemen to walk in unopposed. http://i.imgur.com/EWXgUTY.jpg[/img] The next mission followed a similar approach. This time I used archers instead of crossbowmen, and used about 50 assassins to complete the mission. Again not much of a challenge. Its eat or be eaten at the start due to the space, and for better or worse the AI is very rigid in it's tactics making for a simple enough duel. http://i.imgur.com/k8r1jdd.jpg[/img]

Those are two nice looking castles there. May I ask what the map and opponents were?

The last time I tried a multiplayer game of Stronghold online, the opponent spammed mills, built a massive army and rushed me in no time. I prefer playing vs AI because I get to take my time a bit more. Even if they do rush because of a big gold advantage, its still somewhat more realistic. Now the last one for Christmas day, #11 - Rocky Waste. Me vs three pigs. I like the pig as he is aggressive enough, and three of them given enough time muster up nice little attacks. They are somewhat hampered in this mission however by the close proximity of their castles. Anyways, a familiar start here. EaglePrince has got me in the mood for enclosed castles. I must admit I hate the pig a little when he destroys my beautiful walls with his wretched catapults. This time I used about 100 swordsmen, 50 crossbows and 20 engineers to wipe them all out in one go, starting from left to right. The last is always the easiest (if you have troops left) because of the hole in his wall left after the middle pig's castle crumbles. http://i.imgur.com/HhcpDGc.jpg[/img] For valour!

Thank you for your kind words gentlemen. @EaglePrince - Generally I focus on a strong forward point in the base (i.e. a couple of square towers) where I think the AI are likely to attack. Beyond that it really depends on my mood what kind of castle I build. Sometimes I moat, sometimes I partial wall, and sometimes like you I complete the castle. Today's mission, 10 - Land of Palms, I decided to follow your lead and create an enclosed structure. I think it is a nice map to do so as, aside from iron and stone, everything else is easily managed within a small area. In the screenshot below you will see the main area (with my two towers at the bottom as usual). I later expanded to wall in my usual 4 farms (I kept my cheese farm in the inner enclosure more for the tanners than the food) just for aesthetic purposes. The mission itself was not too tricky given the starting resources; two towers with 40-50 crossbowmen and 2 ballistae, coupled with one square tower, 20 crossbowmen and another ballista for the rat (you can see the red dot), was more than enough to defend us. For my offense I focused on crossbowmen and macemen this time. Saladin followed the same routine as last time. Take out the tower defense, close the gates, destroy the merc post & engineers guild and then set fire (I build a couple of fire ballistae while the sultan was dying). http://i.imgur.com/ynd2sIs.jpg?1[/img]

09 - The Oasis: Well this is one of those missions where I lose the run of myself somewhat, and build a castle (and economy) far larger than needed. Defeating Saladin is simply not enough, I have to out-economy the economist! Well without further ado, this is my castle. Similar idea to last time. After I place the usual (granary, 3 wheat farms, 1 hops farm, 1 mill, 1 brewery, 6-8 bakeries, armory, barracks, merc post, engineers guild & quarries), I build two square towers facing the enemy. Saladin is fond of horse archers and swordsmen, so I buy some crossbows/leather armor, 2 ballistae and toughen them up a bit. I then bought a handful of slaves to build a moat. With this setup you can play out the rest of the mission at your own pace. You can see the fruits of my effort here. I added a few more towers and ballistae for the siege equipment he likes to build. You can ignore the outer moat. Once the inner moat was complete I decided to see how far the slaves would get before they died :) http://i.imgur.com/B891G4H.jpg[/img] It didnt take long to build up an unnecessarily large force (200 horse archers, 200 macemen, 15 fire ballistae and 15 catapults. I know... I know...). My strategy vs this type of Saladin keep would still be the same with a smaller force. Take out the mangonels/ballistae. Move men to the gate to trap them in the keep and then set it alight. http://i.imgur.com/KpBuaUQ.jpg[/img] For anyone interested, although I beat him on a couple of fronts, he beat me on wood and food production! He deserved this. Now onwards and upwards. By the way, I appreciate this is all old hat to some folks, so feel free to shush the new kid on the block if you find my rambling posts somewhat boring :) P.S. Merry Christmas!?

Well that's 08 - The Sands of Time done and dusted! Easy enough. I started off by buying enough stone to cover a short wall, 2 towers and the gatehouse. Then I bought about 30 bows and moves all of my archers to these two towers. After that I had peace to build up a small army (a few archers, crossbowmen, macemen and fire ballistae) and took them out one by one. http://i.imgur.com/hHKF95M.jpg[/img] By the way, I hope you don't mind I post in this thread tracking my progress also? It might keep me motivated to finish the trail this time :) Also I play on steam. Does anybody know how to copy my save files if I wanted to share them with someone?

Thanks EaglePrince. I do indeed mean SHK. That sounds fun about the skirmish trail. I'm up for multiplayer match-ups anytime, although expect to be a crutch that I have to lean on quite heavily!

How is the progress coming along Isaiah? I just found out the old site I used to frequent was no more (thankfully it seems there is room for one more here), so nostalgia has driven me to take up the trail once more. I never managed to complete it before. Currently I'm just about to start mission #08 - The Sands of Time. I vaguely recall fighting over the iron and stone last time, so perhaps this time I'll take a leaf out of your book and focus on food production. Variety is the spice of life and all that?;)