Nigel

Just to let you guys know what is happening: EaglePrince was meant to have his battle yesterday, but something came up in Real Life which he had to take care of. So we are looking to re-schedule his battle. My own RL is quite busy for this week, too, and I will be traveling from tomorrow until next Tuesday. The next battles are coming up on Wednesday next week with Lord Chris and Fail Session. I will provide updates as soon as they have been fought. :)

If I remember correctly, in SH1 a savegame can be converted into an editable map. Not sure if that helps with what you are looking for, but it may be worth trying out something along those lines.

Congtatulations from me, too. I love reading your historical spotlights and look forward to follow the continued series. :)

Hehe, Lord Vetka, maybe you should have said: do worry level 2 will be harder :lol: But yes, the gold will also increase and while we have tried to design the castles with increasing difficulty, none of them is unbeatable. Sir Blobka, your kindness and token of respect to your peasents and soldiers is well noted. This indeed brings you much honour. I look forward to the coming battles.

Testing post formatting: Lord Chris 0 gold [0/3] EaglePrince 0 gold [0/3] Blobka 1002 gold [1/3] LordPaultheDubious 0 gold [1/3] Fail Session 0 gold [0/3]

Yes, Lord Paul, that was some very brave action - going in with the troops like that. I could actually see his eyes blinking through the visor of his helmet - he got that close to my keep :lol: But now blobka has made his assault and .... The castle has fallen !!! Congratulations go to him for beeing the first over the wall and taking the keep. I shall tell nothing of his tactics. Only so much that he spent all but 2 gold pieces to recruit his army. But Richard the Lionheart rewards him with the promised prize of 1000 gold. So it was well worth the effort. I will ask the forum admins to update the original post on page 1 to keep track of where everyone is standing. EaglePrince will be the next one with his battle on Tuesday. Good Luck to him. :)

We did our first battle today. I can say: the castle has stood firm. But barely, Lord Paul made a very valiant attack and almost got through xD That was a close call for me.

It looks like we have our first battles lined up :cool: All going well, LordPaultheDubious will have the honour to ride the first assault on Wednesday, followed by Blobka on Thursday. Further invitations will be sent to the other Lords over the next few days.

Yes ! In all friendship, Lord Vetka, but I cannot just let you go unchallenged in this one :P

Fail Session, good to see you have found your way here :) Wellcome to the game. The admins will add your name to the list of players shortly. And my men are sharpening their swords in anticipation ;) Lord Vetka's castle designs for the later levels are quite impressive. "Comfortably challanged" I like that expression. :lol:

As far as I remember there is, or was, a LOTR mod for Stronghold 2. Complete with skins for orks, rohirrim and Gondorian knights. I dont know if I will be able to find it again (it was long ago), but that aside, your idea of making a film with SH2 as actors and scenery sure sounds interesting. :cool:

Wellcome Lord Paul, glad you are joining :) Don't worry about the timing. We try to accomodate players real-life-schedules as much as possible (and my own one can be quite busy at times, too). I have added you name to the list and will let you know when your turn comes up. We still have 6 more free seats, if any one else is interested.

Yes, this was a nice mission. I managed to complete it on the 3rd attempt :) Quite tricky, too. I won't tell how I did it, not to spoil it for other players. Just so much, that I had to resort to setting my peasants on 1/2 rations in the end to get enough apples. I wonder what they think of me now.

We have a 3rd player who sent me a PM a the official SHC2 forum. :cool: With that it is a good time to get the first battles going. Is there one of you who wants to step forward and say: "I will go first" ? Otherwise I am just going to draw lots and send out invitations.

One fo the FireFly employees commented on the Steam thread and asked when we would start this contest. I told him, that we are basically ready to go and now looking for players, but also that, if FireFly wants to give some input and involvement, we will be more than happy about it. :) It is actually very good news that someone from FireFly took notice of this contest. I would like to give them this week to discus it internally and see if they indeed want to get involved. Also, it would be nice if we could get one more player before we start. But I dont want to wait too long either. So I am now thinking that we should aim to start our first battle sometime next week. Sign up will not be closed. People can still sign up while the battles for Level 1 are ongoing.

What an excellent idea :D I strongly recommend that you allow Lord Vetka to attend this contest. His castles are excellent - I can tell you. I myself am not quite sure if I can make the January 21 timeline :P Maybe if you extend it just a little bit. Now, where on earth did I put my SH2 disk.....

"Land - such a valuable commodity", Sir Charles thinks to himself, while he starts daydreaming of a newly established Charlian branch of the Loring family, rich and powerfull, even surpassing the status of his brother's estates. A nudge from Brother Goodman brings him back to the reality. "What, yes, yes, sure. I an with you. You can count me in".

Charles Loring bends over close to his new companion. "Brother Goodman, this idea is so crazy, it may actually work. And it does have the advantage, that I will actually get into the castle after all. I am craving for a good cup of coffee from the castle citchen, and if nothing else, that's what I should be anble to get. But let us hear what the other friends think"

I think this is an improvement over what we had previously. :)

Sir Charles un-notches the arrow, that he had already attached to his bowstring - slighly embarrassed. "Errm, Greetings Mylord. I hope you will not take our attitude for ill will, but we had thought to find you inside that castle over there, not outside of it and certanly not at this hour. Well, what is it that distresses you so?"

I am glad you like it, EaglePrince. Shall I take this as a "Yes, I will join" ;) In that case we have 2 players already. I am wating for this week and hopefully at least 3 players before we start. Then hopefully we can have the first battle next week. There is one thing I forgot in the rules. Micha had pointed out that trebuchet are likely to be overpowered in this game and should be restricted. And indeed, a skilled player could, with careful micromanagement, turn a whole castle to dust with just a handful of trebs. So I would like to play the first mission with immobile trebuchets, meaning that once you have set them up, you are not allowed to take them down and move them again (like in Crusader 1). The attacker has to plan carefully how many trebs he brings and where he places them.

Ok, thanks Chris. It would be useful if you could enable image attachments in the Contest sub-Forum, as posting images would be very useful there (not only for the Siege That, but other potential contests, too). An other alternative would be, that we have a place here as "image collector" and then link to the images in the relavant game thread. But I think the other solution would be more tidy.

All right, the game thread is opened TATAA It is in the Gaming Events forum right now, but Lord Vetka if you or some other moderator could move it to the new Contest forum that Chris has created for this game, that would be great. Glad to hear that Chris himself is joining in on the fun. :) I dont really think that we will need a referee for this particular game. Still, we have a free seat and could bring one in if we wanted to. And I like your idea of taking a save close to the end of the battle. That should be doable without too much trouble and will give us a good idea of how many and which troops survided etc.

Testing to upload a picture. Ok it seems to work here. For some reason it does not work in the Events sub-forum.

Upway Castle (mission 1) Sir Nigel has angered the King. The insolent knight is hiding out in Upway Castle, a small fortifcation somewhere in the new lands of Outremer. The fort is big enough to hold 140 men. Your task is to capture the castle and bring the rebelleous lord to his senses. Yours scouts show you the view of the castle from a nearby mountain. There is some more information: Your men have captured a peasant, who is trying to get from the castle to a nearby market town. After some "persuasion" he tells you that he was sent out to purchase more pitch. The castle has only 18 pitch in the stockpile - Sir Nigel thinks that this is not enough to provide a good defence and had therefor sent the peasant to try to buy more. The armoury of your own siege camp is suppied with 100 bows, 100 spears, 40 crossbows, 80 armour, 20 swords and 20 pikes. You have 6.500 gold pieces to recruit troops and purchase more weapons as you see fit. There is also a mercenary tent and a few men, 8 swordmen and 20 archers, who are already there, guarding the camp. Trebuchet Rules: As trebuchets are much too powerful for this kind of game, this mission is played with immobile trebuchets, meaning that once you have set them up, you are not allowed to take them down and move them again (like in Crusader 1). The attacker has to plan carefully how many trebs he brings and where he places them.