Nigel

I am glad that you and other players like those sorties and skirmishes. The add quite bit of an tactical element to the sieges. Maybe one day it may also be interesting to set up a field battle, where two big armies have to fight each other in an interesting terrain with hills, rivers, forests, swamps and other land features.

As it happens, we have to reschedule this battle for next week. Lord Fail sent me a note that something came up which he could not postpone. Well, Real Life comes first - thats how it is. I will keep you guys posted.

Nice to see that this map is available now. I gave it a first try and got my fingers burned - literally :D I guess this will be a real challange for my attack stills - looking forward to it.

I recieved your Test PM, but when I try to respond, I still get the same error messsage :(

Like the title says, I am currently unable to send or reply to Private Messages. The error message I get is: Not sure if I am the only one or if others are experiencing the same. :(

Yes - the castle is really quite daunting now - Lord Vetka did a good job on the final fortifications :) Also, now that the forum is back up and has been revamped by Lord Chris, I am able to update the scores table myself. You can check it out in the first post of this thread. We can now put a date on what will possibly be the final assault: Lord Fail will do his attack next Thursday (25th). He has his very unique but also quite effective attack style. Let's see how he will fare against this castle :)

Lord Chris had his battle today. He also managed to take the castle, but you would not be able to put a sheet of paper between his victory and his defeat. We began with the "usual" opening moves: he lost a few siege engines, I lost a few towers - you know how it goes. Then he managed to place a trebuchet in a critical position and I did all I could to take it out - and actually suceeded ! Now he was short of siege engines and a big part of my castle still standing. We both thought this had been the turning point in my favour. But Lord Chris did not give up and when he launched his melee assault, he managed to surprise me by finding an unexpected way into my inner defences, while my men were waiting at what they thought to be the only way in. In the end he had quite a few men left standing. Well played, Lord Chris. This was a really deserved victory !! :) I should mention that Lord Chris only had 1 goldpiece left when he eventually entered my keep :D Now Sir Fail Session will be the last knight to go into battle. And a strong fighter he is, so this will be another very interesing one and Sir Blobka may still get some serious competition.

EaglePrince made his assault today and he was not taking any chances. Spending almost all his money, he ony kept 56 gold pieces in his treasury when he attacked. It was a good fight with quite a few interesting skirmishes in front of the walls of Upway Castle. But on day 107 the castle had fallen to the forces of the Prince :)

Sounds great. Just out of curiosity: can you take over a castle from an AI opponent in SH2? Your story sounds like this is exactly what you want to do in this mission. Is that technically possible with the SH2 enginge? It would be so cool if yes.

While Brother Goodman was dining with Duke Christopher and Commander Richard, the other friends were still eating their supper in the soldiers tent. Charles Loring leaned over to Sir Lloyd: "I still have my hopes that we will not be forced to turn against these men we are training. If we can win their loyalty, I hope they will decide to side with us when the going gets tough and everyone must make a decision of conscience on which side they stand. Let's make sure we treat them well in the training. Work them hard, but with respect and build up their moral backbone as well as their muscles." [OOC] Indeed, I have been dabbeling with that game recently. Picked it up on sale at -80% and must say it is quite nice - a good mix of battle field action, role playing and empire building. :)

Well, as it happens, we did have to reschedule the battle. Real Live just comes first. Now, all going well, EaglePrince will ride his assault next Tuesday. Closely followed by Lord Chris on Wednesday. It should be an exciting week :D

I heared in on the readio yesterday - very sad. Actually, I was thinking of you, Charles of Tours, knowing what a great fan of him you are after a conversation we had some days back. While I have never really been into his Dracula films, I love the Lords of the Rings films and the role he played there. My condolences to all his fans.

[OOC] Fair point. I will let you get on with it and watch what happens. [back in character] While Brother Goodman was having dinner with The Commander, the other friends were having more simple food in the soldiers tents. Still, they were not envious of Brother Goodman, who was "paying" for is good food by beeing in a difficult diplomatic situation which could have him drinking moat water again if he put his foot wrong. Charles Loring leaned over to the others. "What do you think of our recruits? Any talents coming out yet? Eventually we will have to make a decision about who we want to train in which direction. Archers? Melee Men? Horsemen? If we are lucky we end up with a small warband of all the necessary troop types."

[OOC] Yes, this is really confusing. The Commander, the Duke, the Emperor. Good, that the concept of names was invented a few thousand years ago. That could really help here :p I mean we don't have to give names to every single one of the poor recruits we are training, but perhaps it is time that Brother Goodman and The Commander make a proper introduction :)

If all goes well, EaglePrince will do his battle next week. There is a small chance that we will have to reschedule - but hey - such is life. To remind us of where we stand: Sir Blobka is far in the lead. With his brilliant attack skills he managed to save 8000 from this battle. Lord Paul had a hard time. But he bravely saw it through and still managed to win on first try saving 930 gold pices. Let's see what the other lords will do: Try to position themselves in the middle? Play it safe and use their money to the most? Or take a risk and try to top Sir Blobka's brilliant result? I am certainly looking forward to the battles to come. :)

"Depends which soldiers you mean" Charles Loring replied. "The ones I have trained today seem to be quite the usual recruits. Young lads seeking to exchange their life of poverty for a regular pay and someone to tell them what to do - and perhaps a tall dream of battle-glory. But their loyalty is not formed yet and they will stick with whoever is putting food on their table and keeps them alive in battle. It is very fortunate, that we are the ones training them. If we get that right, they may end up looking at us for guidance and regard us as their direct leaders. Now the officers in this army are more difficult to judge. Most of them seem to be loyal to The Senior Commander and wherever he leads them, they will follow with the men in their charge. Some of them may have their own mind though, that is really hard to tell. But of course the most important question is: where does The Senior Commander stand? I assume he will come by occasionally and see how the training is progressing. Maybe that is an opportunity to talk to him. If not, Goodman, perhaps you can go forward and see him in his tent to give him a report. If he trusts you, he may even tell you more if his own officers are not present.

Charles Loring finished off his sword lessons with a friendly clap of the flat blade on his opponents backside. "Off you go and enjoy the evening with your friends. You have earned it - and tomorrow you will remember never to turn your back while fencing." He then walked over to Goodman - following his eyes to the Postern. "Possibly a sally port", he sais in a low voice, "or a secret entrence to the castle - perhaps for a lady or a not-so-lady, but I do not want to speculate on the Duke's nightly adventures. Be it what it may, it could be of good service to us in due course". "Meanwhile, perhaps you can use your newly won trust with The Commander to learn more about these soldiers. I am still pretty confused as to wether they are friends of the Duke or just enemies of the bandits of a thrid party altogether."

Nice to come back and find that I have been promoted :) Thanks Chris and everyone for the good wishes. I will strive to live up to it.

Hi guys, Just to let you know that I am back from my vacation and picking up on things again. Watch this space for further updates :)

Hey guys, I will be traveling over the next 2 weeks and probably only have limited internet access. Please go on with the game and carry my character along (and please try not to get him killed unless you have to :P ). I look forward to picking it up again when I return in beginning of June.

Lord Paul did his battle today. He also managed to take the castle, but he needed all the strenght he could get for it. He had to spend almost all the money he had and saved only 930 gold pieces for himself. I managed quite a few good shots against his trebuchets and at one point in the battle it looked like I could lean back and just sit it out. But his final assault came hard and coordinated and I just did not manage to pull my defenders together fast enough. So he did pull through in the end. With the gold from King Richard he is still getting 1930 gold pieces out of this battle. :)

Charles would have liked to talk to the man some more, but then he thinks to himself: "Maybe Sir Lloyd is right. Who is to be trusted? Who can tell?" He watches the man in the straw hat disappear down the road. "I wonder if we will see him again or if he will play more of a role in this mystery". He then settles back in the wagon, ready to follow the group of adventurers.

"Sounds good and fits with our disguse of beeing merchants in search for business. But let us see if we can find out some more things, such as what the mood of the peasants is like. Perhaps we can strike up a conversation with our "friend in the straw hat". He is just outside tending his horse. I will go out and try to talk to him. Perhaps one of you may join me." With that, Sir Loring steps out and casually walks over the the man in the straw hat. "A fine horse you have there, Sir", he speaks in a somewhat heavy Latin tounge. "Pray can you help us - strangers to these lands - with some guidance. We are merchants seeking new business. Would you know what wares the people around here are in need of? Or if here are any intersting rare goods to purchase for a fair price?" Charles Loring eagerly awaits the man's response. Will it be friendly or hostile?

Nice to be able to see the battle, even if I missed watching it live :) Does this mean that, when you stream a game, it also creates a video recording? Or is this something you had to set up separately and in addition to the streaming?

Yes, I also think this is a map editor bug. It used to work with the [delete] button from the menue bar, but not anymore after some updates. :( There is a workaround though. If you place a small tower over the wall section that you want to remove, the wall gets replaced by the tower and the tower can then be selected and removed with the [Delete] key from your keyboard. The wall is then gone without trace. It is a bit naff, but if you are stuck with the map otherwise, it may be the best way to get out of it. I have taken the habit to alsways "save as" under a different file name rather than saving over a previous (working) map. This way I end up with a lot of files (same name apart from a number in the name going from 01 to 99), but it means that I always have a recent working version of the map to fall back on, if the map editor does something unexpected and produces a crashing of otherwise non-funcional map.