Nigel

Crusader - I am awefully glad to see you here again. Wellcome back :)

Thanks, Chris, for bringing this back up. I have not quite forgotten it, but have to admit, that it got on the back burner as I have spent a lot of time looking at FireFly's siege that tournament (which turned out pretty well, from what I have seen). But yes, I am determined to pick the idea of field battles up again and whant you describe above from Imperial Glory is getting quite near it. I will keep using his thread to hammer out the ideas in more detail, but the firs thing we need are a few battlefields (maps). So what I want to do is to start a mapmaking contest for that purpose. Hopefully that will be well recieved and give us some good maps to play on. :)

Yes, this castle was really hard. And FireFly defended well and did not make any presents. As that, they decided to let all payers who managed to set their foot onto the keep, also go into the last round and compete for the 3rd place. I think that is a very good decision. So FireRanger, Perryale and Skarabei are also going to fight on Sunday. I saw the video of the battles on their Twitch channel now and can give you the "playlist" here. They are well worth watching

The second round was played yesterday. It must have been a hell of a fight. Only 2 players made it through. Blobka and DSPL are going into the Final Round ! I am glad that Sir Blobka is holding up so well, doing justice to his name and his title. But I also whish good luck to DSPL. Those castles seem to be really tough and well defended. As I did not see the battles directly, I am looking forward to watch the video recordings now. So far, I have seen FireRanger, the winner of the American Tournament. A very good battle and he got really close - bringing his lord past the last gate. But Marta defeated him in the end. Did anyone see it live?

I watched the video footage - very interesting. Burak found a very strong strategy and stuck with it throughout the tournament - no one managed to get past him. I actually quite liked the way Neal played his games. He started weak, but he kept improving. At one point he tried out Burak's tactic and won, but then we went back to his own style and developed it further, rather than just copying Burak's winning stragey. That was very honourable of him. While I watched through the video (4 hours), I noted down the starting times of the different battles. So you guys can just pick one that you are interested in and jump right to it. Note that only half the battles were streamed as Burak and Neal were playing in parallel. My favorite ones are the last two. Eric did great against Burak and almost defeated him. He did loose in the end, but he really gave him a run for his money. And Beroky and Neal were evenly fighting to the last and it ended in quite an unusual way. If you are interested in watching the fights, you should do it soon. I imagine the videos will be replaced with new ones when round 2 starts this Sunday.

Charles Loring decided to go out scouting himself. He only took one of his men with him. Leaving behind their swords and other clumsy weapons they only took their bows and knives. Apporoached the enemies behind the cover of tress and bushes they were actually able to get within earshot. The leader, a big, bulky maceman, was talking to his his second-in-command, a thin archer. "Why should we keep fighting?", the thin archer said, "We have completed our mission and killed that messenger. That is all we were asked to do. You only want more fame and get a promotion from the boss, but we have lost 6 men already. And we have no idea how many they are. For all we know, they could be a whole fresh army coming to the Duke's aid. We should go back to the boss and inform him. If he hears it, he may decide wheter to continue or to abandon his attack on the Duke's army." "All right", the big leader said, "you take the men back to the boss and tell him, we completed our mission but encountered some resistance. I will take 3 men and try to follow those guys. I will see if I can find out if they are really an army or just another scouting party." With that the enemy group started to move and Charles decided it was too dangerous to stay so close. He and his man went back to his own lines and reported to Brother Goodman what they had heared. Then he adds a suggestion: "if we mange to set a trap and capture this leader, he may be able to tell us a bit more than our previous prisoner - provided we manage to make this big man talk."

Round 1 of the FireFly Siege That tournament was played yesterday. FireFly defenders of the castle were Neal (QA) and Burak (Turkish Community Manager). I was not able to watch it, but the recording of their stream is currently still up on their Twitch chanel - probably until the next round. It is a full 4 hour video :o On thier Twitter page, FireFly has announced the players that made it into round 2: Fire Ranger, blobka, SKARABEI007, perryale90, CadettKlinge, DSPL and Dark Souldier Good to see that Sir Blobka made it :) Also, Fire Ranger and SKARABEI are very good players, who made a name for themselves in previous tournaments. Fire Ranger actually won the American Championship. Best of luck to all of you. I hope many of you will get through to the final castle. I heared that the 2nd castle will be defended by Marta and FireFly_Pascal.

FireFly have managed to get 20 contestants for their Siege That tournament - that is pretty impressive. Here is the list of contestants. It is good to see some familiar names among them. :) SKARABEI007, blobka, korsar, FireRanger, Mejdzr, Knyaz Michael, SergiuHellDragoon, Mr.Monk, nsvsochi, perryale90, CadettKlinge, DragonHeart, Hatty, bayoda, AniGrill, DSPL, Dark Souldier, eric, Beroky 2.0, Dekay The battles are starting tomorrow (Sunday 16th) at 14:00 BST and are broadcasted on thier Twitch Chanel (see link above).

(OOC) Sorry, I have been away for 2 weeks, but I am back now and see that a lot of exciting action has happened here. Seems I am right in the middle of it and happy to jump in :) From his high position on the hill, Sir Loring had a good view of the situation. 6 enemies had fallen in the archery skirmish. The group of enemies still standing in the plain still numbered 14 heads - lightly armoured men in cloth tunics or leather wests. He looked at their own group. Of the 4 recruits they had taken with them, 1 had fallen. The other 3 were with him on the hill. Brother Goodmand and Sir Lloyed had Julian and Isaiah with them. They were 8 against the 14 enemies, but they had one big advantage: the bandits were on foot while their own men were mounted on horses, all of them. He took another look at the enemy group: no spears, no pikes or helbards, only bows, swords and maces. And right now, they had lowered their bows and were discussing with their leader. It seems they had become aware that they had been flanked but had no idea how many we were. Probably they were discussing wether they should make a stand or better start a retreat. This would be the perfect moment to launch a charge. Sir Loring signaled to Goodman (using the miliary sign language common to all of King Richard's troops) and waited for him to start.

Never too late to join the fun :D Wellcome Infinintysuns

Charles Loring leans over to Julian Palaiologos and take one of the books from his luggage. "With your permission, may I take a look at this?" He flips through the pages, mumbling out loud as he reads. "The Crusader cross, also called the Jerusalem cross, ... ... one central cross and 4 smaller crosses around it ... ... representing the Five Wounds of Christ ... ... first worn by Godfrey of Bouillon ... fameous knight of the first crusade ... decenant of Carlesmagne over 9 generations ... coat of arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem ... Oh, I am not sure if this is making sense of helping us in any way" He hands the book back to Julian. "My learned friend, you may be able to make more of it - or we may be on the wrong lead altogether. I say we press on and do some more scouting. We may find another hint, that is connecting things and provides the missing link. Or we may just find that Phantom himself and if he chooses to be on hostile terms to us, we will show him our own swords XD

Nice to see that you are keeping an eye on this forum, Bolbka. :D And it is always good to hear different thoughts and opinions. In the end we will just have to choose something and simply give it a try. And we can make adjustments as we go along, if they become neccessary. But I am glad to see that there is interest in a new contest. For the next two weeks I will be afk, leaving this Friday. But when I get back, I will get a small mapmaking contest started to give us some battlefields. That should get the ball rolling :)

Charles Loring went over to the bandit and took his arm (not too gently). "A Phantom, right? So tell me, what does this brand look like, that the demon implants on the forehead of his victims?"

Some nice thoughts here, guys. I think what we definitely want is something where players have to command "proper" armies, and not just buy as many as they can of the strongest unit. There are quite a few interesting ideas here: - a pure field battle with pre-determined armies - small castles, with enemy lords sitting next to each other as rival neighbours - a siege, where the defender has an incentieve to come out and try to attack his opponent in the open. Whatever we do, we will need a few interesting landscapes for it. So I am thinking that a little mapmaking contest, to give us some maps to play with, would be a good first step. Would you guys be interested to take part?

I see what you mean, EaglePrince. Yes, the rock/paper/scissors concept is not very pronounced in the game. I would not say it is not there at all, but yes, the knights are extremely powerful and the "knight spam" is a known tactic. Indeed it would be pretty boring if players just spend all their gold on knights and then march straight at each other for the fight - not much strategy in that. I need to think about this some more. Also, I am happy to hear what other players have to say. Or if we have other ideas (like the small castles) - I am open to all suggestions. :-)

I was pleasantly surprised today, when I saw that FireFly is picking up the idea of a Siege That contest and organizing their own version for it :) Here is what Lady Magnanimus announced on their Crusader 2 website As the battles happen on the weekends, it is unfortunately not possible for me to take part myself. But hopefully I will be able to drop in for a few minutes to look at what they are broadcasting on their Twitch Chanel. And I sure hope it will be as succesful and fun as the contest we had here at Stronghold Nation. :-)

The feedback on the Siege That contest was really encouraging. So I have started to think about what the next Crusader 2 contest could be. I quite liked idea of field battles, that came up during the last contest. :) Two big armies fighting on a map with tactical features, maneuvering to move into the best position and skirmishing at the flanks to gain an advantage before moving in on the main clash. Lord Chris also mentioned that we could hold a small map-making contest to design the battlefield. Having a couple of different maps to choose from would be nice. But first, I would like to ask you guys, if there is an interest in such a contest. Let me know if you think this is something you would like to take part in. We could then use this thread to discus the idea further and plan out the details.

I am currently getting an error message, when I try to post a new topic in the Gaming Events section. So I am trying to post a test topic here - just to see if I get the same effect. Chris feel free to delete this if it has severd its purpose. Edit: ok, it seems to work here and the problem seems only related to the Gaming Events section. Hope this helps with the troubleshooting.

Charles Loring wiped his blade clean. It felt good to fight when you knew exactly who the enemy was. The 4 recruits had held up nicely. Thanks to the element of surprise, there had been no casulties on their own side. "Now what are we going to do with this fellow here? Any suggestions on how we could make him talk?"

Yes - I am getting the same - using Internet Explorer or Google Chrome.

Sir Loring waited on his horse while the group set into motion. He let the new recruits go past him and took the rear guard, making sure no one got left behind. The men had actually made good progress and the "recruits" had become reasonably well trained footmen. They had chosen a handful of the best to come with them. Hopefully they would hold their own when it was no longer a training fight but the "real thing".

Thank you, Lord Chris, for uploading the maps. And many thanks go also to Lord Vetka, for making them in the first place. :D Without his good work, this contest would not have been possible. I am glad that you all enjoyed the game and I am very happy about the way it turned out. In case you wondered what happened to me; well, King Richard was to kind to allow me to take part in his feast. Late in the evening he eventually came round to the lower end of the table, where I had been seated, and sat down to talk to me. However, whether it was the good ale or the long time that had passed, it turned out that neither of us could really remember what it was, that had caused us to start this argument in the first place. We emptied a few more mugs together, and finally I apologized anyway - I am sure there must have been something that I did wrong - and he accepted and invited me back into the ranks of his knights. So all is well now and I am back into the king's good graces. I will need a bit of rest now after these battles. But there have already been some ideas for a new contest and I am looking forward to a new adventure at some time in the future.

So this contest concludes with a very unusal end of an unusal battle. With that, King Richard has decided that there will be two titels to award: Sir Blobka recieves the title of Greatest Conqurer. He truely deserves it as he has been the best lord throughout all the battles. He has shown meticulate skill at commanding his army, uses his troops wisely and has a true eye for the exact strength that is needed to take a fortification. I placed the duty of first battle on him for 2 castles and he has handled the challange with great honour and chivalry. Lord Fail shall be known as The Strategist for his feat in this last battle. His skill of command is matching that of SIr Blobka and last night he really gave him a run for his money. His clever strategic use of different troop types and siege engines make him a power in King RIchard's army and the title, which he chose himself, is truely deserved. But let me say that every lord put up an excellent fight. We all remember Lord Paul and the heroic and certainly intentional charge of his lord and his brave quest to eliminate the rival court jester. The siege engines of EaglePrince worked with mathematical precision and Lord Chris showed extraordinary fighting spirit at the last castle, not giving up in a seemingly hopeless situation (we also quoted Sun Tsu - the old master would have been proud). You have all brought honour to your names by showing chivalry and good sportsmanship. Now is the time to join King Richard at his table to feast, drink and be merry. :D

Lord Fail did his attack on Upway Castle last night - what a batttle that was. It lasted for over 3 hours - the longest Crusader2 game I ever played. The daring lord had decided to take up the challange posed by Sir Blobka: taking this castle with 10k gold and 3 trebuchets only. Indeed those conditions would prove to be the absolute edge for this map. Lord Fail moved his army with skill and caution. He protected his 3 trebuchets well and no matter how hard my skirmishers tried, they jut could not get a shot near them. He also managed to apply the teachings of Sun Tsu, when he tempetd me to place my own defensive trebuchet at the wrong time and in the wrong place, where it was utterly useless. "The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting" :) But yes, the battle was on the edge and after an extremely long siege I was so desperate, that I went on the offensive and made an all-out charge with every swordman I could muster. The clash was hard and left both our armies in tatters. After some more cat and mouse play around the last defences of the castle, Lord Fail challanged me to a Lords Duel and I felt this was the proper way to end this battle. So we moved our last archers back, lined up our remaining swordmen in spectator ranks and with a salute we both stepped into the ring. Blow fell upon blow, but Lord Fail remained standing in the end.

Sir Loring met his eyes when Glynn mounted his horse. "Good luck and may we meet again in good times." As he watches the horse disappear in the distance, the turns to Sir Lloyd quietly: "He does not seem to be a bad fellow. I only hope my sense of human nature does not decieve me. And I sure hope, if we meet him again, we will still be on the same side."