Nigel

Nice screenshot :) What map is this? And who was the lord of the caslte in the upper right corner? Maybe if I have some more time in the new year, we can do a 4 player game.

Sir Loring cursed under his breath. "Damn, Lord Richard wanted us to capture those catapults, not to destroy them. My men really went over the top here. Oh well, it cannot be helped. We may have to find another way to get into the Duke's castle. At least the camp should be safe now." Then in a louder voice: "Men, shoot again and aim for those men with the Wolf's Head on their tarbards. Those Wolverine Guards are best taken out from the distance." Another volley of deadly arrows came flying and the men of Wolverine Guard, tall and broad-shouldered as they were, made easy targets and fell by the dozen. OoC: LoL, I noticed that we have been mixing up Charles and Nigel, starting with my own post #307 above. I guess it does not matter. After all, they are both more or less borne from the same pen. :)

With the plan agreed, the men started to get moving. Lord Richard divided the troops according to Brother Goodman's suggestion. Sir Lloyd joined up with Nigel and the archers. The other companions remained with Brother Goodman and the shock troops. OoC: Mattew, I am taking you with me if you don't mind :) I know you are too busy to take part right now, but feel free to come back in, whenever you want.

Hear ye, hear ye, It looks like we have a challange and the gauntlet has been thrown ;)

That is actually a rule which changes the gameplay quite a lot - and in a positive way. We started a little game with those rules just now and I liked it a lot. You really have to think about how you design your castle and what you want to have inside and what outside. It also limits your building ability and you cannot build those gigantic Uber-casltes that you sometimes see. You just have to start the action when your castle is done. Our game did not go that far, as I had to go. But we have the savegame and I look forward to see how these rules handle when the battle starts.

"Sounds like a reasonable approach to me." Sir Loring nodded his head in agreement. Clearly the old knight of the order was by far the more experienced one when it came to battle strategies. Charles Loring and his brother had, of course, been tutored in the art of war. Charles had been in several skirmishes, but never in a full sized battle. He had read several books on strategy - but nothing compares to the real thing. He was ready to follow the seasoned warrior and learn.

We have 3 players, EaglePrince, Lord Chris and Andreas, disembarking the ship and coming to my rescue. Since we have only 2 keeps in the harbour, I have an idea of how to include you, Andreas. You can join the game as a knight in Lord Chris' army (I have placed a knight on the map for you to control - apart from the lords, you will be the only knight in our faction). You can decide if you want to ride around the map freely on your own, or join me in the fort and help me defend it or get some men from Lord Chris and go on a mission - go scouting, capture a strategic position, harrass the Wolf's peasants or whatever the situation requires. Hope you will like your role in this adventure 😄

"That was a narrow escape", Sir Loring grabbed Brother Goodman's hand and shook it heartily. "I am so glad you are back on your feet, good Brother. Join me in Lord Richard's tent and hear of our adventure." After telling the story of their findings and their encounter with the wild pack, Sir Loring concluded: "It is obvious that the bandits were taking our Duke towards the castle and that their forces, depleted and weakened by the battle with his troops and the inferno ligtened by Brother Goodman, were not strong enough to fight off the wolves but instead had to run from them. But this leaves the following possibilities: - The bandits have imprisoned the Duke in his own castle dungeon. - The bandits and the Duke have not reached the castle and are hiding from the wolves in some cave in the forest. - The bandits and the Duke have neither reached the castle nor a safe hideout and .... I don't even want to think of it. Either way, I suggest that we move our army to a position between the forest and the castle. Our troops are strong enough to defeat the wolves and if the bandits are trying to reach the castle, we have a good chance to intercept them. But if they are already in the castle, we need to find a way in, either by force or by stealth."

It was as quickly done as said. The rangers dropped the body of the poor man they had found and sure enough the wolves were over him in a second. While they were fighting each other over the prey, the little group of Sir Lorings men used the time to put enough distance between themselves and the pack. Soon the camp was seen in the distance.

"All right, then. Let's drop the body and rescue our own skins." Sir Loring called out. "Take one last look at his face and see if you recocnize it or at least remember it. When the wolves are finished with him, there won't be much left to recognize. If it is not the Duke, then who on earth is he?"

The men combed the area and it was not before too long, when the "cry of the owl" was heard. Gatering around the ranger who had given the signal, they could clearly see the tracks of many feet dragging something heavy with them. [OoC: sorry Chris, no intention to make persumptions about your body weight]. They followed the trail for some time. "Where does this track lead us, can you tell me? Are they going to the Duke's Castle?" Sir Loring asked the rangers, who must be familiar with the area. "Sire, they are going in the direction of the caslte all right. But not in a straight way. For some reason they seem to slinger left and right. Almost as if the group was trying to avoid an encounter or as if they were beeing chased by someone - or something ...."

Sir Loring gathered the men and set out. From the way his men moved he could tell that they were skilled scouts - no rookies. He felt sure that he could rely on them. He circled around until he came close to the area of the battlefield. "Fan out - but keep within "signal distance" - remember the cry of the owl. We know that the Duke has been taken away by force. This must have been done by several men and they must have left tracks for sure."

This sounds very nice, Chris. 52 challenges - great - I have no idea what they could be but I am sure that I will try several of them. :D Also, congratulations to Crusader and Tokamaps for your well deserved promotions.

Just to keep all patrons updated, we are going to hold this event on December 17th. I have confirmation from EaglePrince, Lord Chris and Andreas. Micha, if you still want to drop by at that time, please do. But if you can't make it, well, if this event goes well, I am sure there will be more coming in the future. I really look forward to it. :D

Well, I have to say that I invented this little "family tradition". Although it sounds really nice, doesn't it? Karl is an old Germanic name which simply means "man", but also in the sense of "free man" or "man with arms". There is a nordic version of it, the Huscarl (house man), which has taken the meaning of a type of warrior. In Anglosaxon Britain the Huscarls were the professional warriors, as opposed to the Fyrd. The Fyrdmen were armed free peasants/citizens. As I understand it, the Fyrd formed the mainstay of the Anglosaxon army, while the Huscarls were the elite troops. A few posts earlier, Charles of Tours was amused by my suggestion that someone called Charles might have Saxon anchesters. I guess that is because his great namesake Charlesmagne had acutally conducted a bitter war against the Saxons to chritianize them. But I think it is quite possible that in all the turmoil of those wars, someone called Karl got married into a Saxon family, moved to Britain, his decendants rose to knighthood and eventually became the forefathers of my litte Stronghold character. All that is invented, but I think it in a nice story :)

First off: Chris I dont know if this thread is considered advertising against forum rules - if it is, please feel free to delete it. I just thought is worth mentioning that the game is currently available on Steam Autumn Sale for a 75% discount (i.e for 8,74 EUR). That is probably as cheap as it is going to get for a while. Again, I don't intend to advertise the game. I am (unfortunately) not getting paid by FireFly :D But I know that some patrons here had mentioned that they might be interested in getting it at a good opportunity. So they may just want to look into it and see if this was the opportunity they were waiting for.

Sir Loring approached the circle, where the leaders of the company were gathered around the fire. "Sire, if you are looking to rescue the Duke we share the same objective. If you allow me into the circle of your councillors, I may have news to tell you." Lord Richard motioned the young knight to join him and Charles explained how they had found the battlefield and heared the voices and sounds of the Duke beeing captured. "He cannot be gone for long and if you will allow me small band of skilled rangers, I trust that I can find his tracks and see which direction he has been taken. But if you have different plans for your company, please share them so that we may work together on the Dukes rescue."

Hi buddha737, wellcome to the forum :) It is good to have a few more players with an interest in role playing. You will meet my "younger brother" Charles Loring, my alter ego in the Adventure in Riverbourne. I hope you will like the various activities that we do here. I saw your character introduction - very nice. Well, if Charles wants to introduce the new characters in the next adventure, we better get a move on and bring the current one to an end - and hopefully a happy one that sees Duke Christopher geetting rescued from those bandits. I will go and talk to Sir Richard and see what he can tell us about the situation. :)

Thanks, Chris, I will keep that in mind. It is good to know just in case. Getting 5 of us to meet online could be a challenge in its own right, I guess. For the Siege That contest it was easier as we were playing the battles one at a time. But this in an event for all to play together. I will look at my own calendar and send some suggestions for dates out via the PM system. Then we can see what works and take it from there.

Glad to see so much interest in this event :D EaglePrince, you are in. Lord Chris, you too, if you can make it. What more details do you need to confirm? Playing times? As usual, we will look for some time on a workday evening. Micha! thanks for the compliment. Does "looks nice" mean that you want to join ;) Most wellcome if you do. Andreas, we met online today and had a nice little co-op on one of your maps. I will see how I can accomodate you, too. The map is designed for 2 lords (plus one lord that is needed for me in the fort). But more players can join if we use the co-op mode and have 2 players in one faction. I need to find out, though, if more than 4 human players are possible this way. If not, we can perhaps run this event twice or make a follow up event. But it would be very nice, if we could all join into the same battle and kick the Wolf out of here. :D

Thanks Chris, for your help with uploading the pictures. Anyone who wants to join this event, please post here. We can then find the time for an evening to play and see if we can defeat the Wolf and secure the land for the King.

Eskania - a small and unknown isalnd in the mediterranean sea. King Richard has decided to establish a foothold there andthe knights of Stronghold Nation have arrived in a ship at the harbour in the South of the island. While the lords are disembarking, Sir Nigel has gone ahead on a scouting mission. He had hardly left the harbour, when he discovered that they were not the only force on the island. The Wolf and his troops have arrived before them and he has already started to build a castle. It is still small, but he has lots of space to expand and resources are nearby. Sir Nigel quickly sets up a small fort to defend his position. Unfortunately, the careless knight has forgotten to bring the tools with him, that are required to build a barracks. So he is now stuck in the little fort with only a handfuld of men, hoping that the other lords can come to his help and bring more troops with them. There are barracks at the harbour, but no other buildings can be build there. The lords have to rely on supplies from Sir Nigel, who has lots of space around his little fort to produce food and weapons and to expand the fort into a mighty stronghold. There is also a mine in the mountains and it may be helpful if the miners can be won over to our cause. This mission will truely require teamwork. The players can only produce troops and they are the only ones who can produce troops. I am the only one who can build, but apart from a few archers I have no troops available. We will have to trade goods and communicate a lot if we want to defeat the Wolf in this mission. The mission is set up for 2 lords to come and help me against the Wolf but more payers should be able to join if we use the co-operation mode of the game. I know that EaglePrince and Lord Chris have already expressed their interest. If someone else wants to come along, he is more than wellcome. Please post in this thread if you want to join and we can take it forward from there.

Sir Loring, who stood behind the physician, breathed a sigh of releave when he heared his friend talk. He stepped forward and placed a hand on the wounded man's shoulder. "You need some rest, Brother Goodman. It will be a while until you can ride again, but sure enough you will be sitting again at the council table and discus our strategy. But for now you need sleep and rest more than anything. With your permission, I will speak to Sir Richard and see what I can learn and where we will take things from here."

Sir Loring gave Brother Goodman a short nod and stepped forward to introduce himself to Lord Richard. "Sire, my name is Charles Loring, by your leave. Brother Goodman may have mentioned my name. We have been traveling in the same company for some time now and I my sword is at the service of Duke Christopher. If you will allow me to mention, we have a wounded man with us - a bodyguard of the Duke himself. If you could send your surgeon to see to him, I would be grateful." "You are lucky, young knight, that the Duke's surgeon is traveling with us.? He may attend the man presently." With that Lord Richard waved to an elderly man who came forward and let Sir Loring guide him to the wounded sargeant. "This is the man I would like to trust into your care.", Loring told the physician. "He has lost much blood, but I hope your skill can save his life." Then be bent closer to him and whispered: "And if you would like to cast a glance at my friend, Brother Goodman. He is trying to conceal it, but I fear the fighting has not left him unscratched. I would feel much better if I knew that a doctor was looking after him, too."

The map is almost finished and all going well, I can post the introduction of the event later this week. It is going to be somewhat different to what you guys may expect, but I hope you are going to like it :)