Stronghold 2 Epic Battles

[Mathew Steel 151]

Now I'm sure I posted a topic like this before but on my attempt to find it, I just couldn't. So I made a new one (if this is in the wrong place or you've seen the other thread then forgive me).

 

Lord_Chris vs Mathew Steel - The Second Battle

We had a battle very similar but so different before yesterday on the same map. Last time I managed to win through seeing a small gap in Lord_Chris' defence and rushing through with assassins just to take his keep without having to kill his lord. This time, it was a very different battle.

 

We started out how we usually do. Peace Time until we both reached Duke, Freeman rank - 150 gold and a lot of talking. Lord_Chris always has started his economy quicker than me and this showed again in the battle. He had a large food production and weapon production while I was still trying to clear my estate of gong :P. Eventually I got my act together and started ranking up much quicker. As soon as I unlocked most of the towers and gatehouses, I started to structure together my fortress, placing crossbowmen and archers in the variety of different towers and gatehouses. While I looked over at Chris, I saw no troops and a very small defence. I knew what he was doing, creating loads and loads of weapons and collecting a lot of gold and honour to spam knights and horse-archers when the time came.

 

When I finally caught up and reached Duke, my army was nearly at it's maximum size, just from my defences. I had to disband a few archers and crossbowmen in return for raising a few dozen knights. Lord_Chris had bought the estates on his side of the bridges. Allowing him to place some stone buildings next to the bridges to serve as a wall to place troops on top. I did the same to mine. At the start I pushed back a lot of Chris's troops, giving me control over most of the bridges.

 

I wanted to point this part out as it made me giggle as it was such a clich? moment. I had a group of crossbowmen and some mantlets, moved up on Chris's troops and saw him pull them off the walls, in triumph I taunted "yeah you better run mwahaha!" to which I look at my minimap and see a swarm of orange dots running towards me. Upon looking at those dots on the main screen I see a group of around 50 knights storm my 12 crossbowmen. Rest in pieces.

 

Soon enough my estates were overrun. I pulled my troops back to the keep. Placing my remaining men in tactical locations. My economy burned down, literally - Chris thought he hadn't embarrassed me enough by taking all my estates, oh no, burning all my economy was the tip of the iceberg. I had a massive collection of stone left. Meaning Chris and his trebuchets would've been waiting a long time. While I was repairing my walls and towers, I knew the inevitable was to come, I decided to move all my men to the keep and just remove the towers for one final battle.

 

Upon Chris being distracted fighting all my men downstairs I covered my Lord in archers, so his cape blended in well almost serving as a camouflage. I snuck downstairs, through the bloodshed and mayhem that was occurring and ran to my final stable. Waiting desperately for a horse to spawn as I saw a new group of knights heading in my direction. I mounted the horse just in time and rode away into the sunset. Upon realising what happens if the enemy are the only ones on your keep, I rode back and realised I didn't stand a chance. Before I knew it. My keep had disappeared, along with my dignity and along with my gold.

 

A battle well fought.

 

Chris - 1

Mathew - 1

 

 

Note - you can view some screenshots of our battle in the Stronghold 2 screenshots gallery :)

Edited April 10, 2015 by Mathew Steel

[Lord_Chris 251]

  Quote

I wanted to point this part out as it made me giggle as it was such a clich? moment. I had a group of crossbowmen and some mantlets, moved up on Chris's troops and saw him pull them off the walls, in triumph I taunted "yeah you better run mwahaha!" to which I look at my minimap and see a swarm of orange dots running towards me. Upon looking at those dots on the main screen I see a group of around 50 knights storm my 12 crossbowmen. Rest in pieces.

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In the end, it was this that cost you the battle - It meant I held the bridges along the east side of the map, which you never attempted to take back. From there, I managed to eventually destroy your buildings with burning carts, and so the battle ended. If you'd kept more buildings inside your castle walls, you would have done much better. I'm, giving you tips now, I'll stop ;)

 

A very good battle, I look forward to the sequel tonight!

[Mathew Steel 151]

I too noticed this weakpoint. I usually protect every building I have with walls and towers, this time I did not :p

[EaglePrince 230]

This indeed sounds like a great battle! I enjoyed reading the story!

 

Mathew may have lost one battle, but the war is far from over. You two are going to meet again, but this time one more lord is riding towards you - I am coming as well. I am hoping that the next one will be even more exciting, and I am suggesting us to play a free for all game. What I learned from playing this type of game from Crusader 1 and Stronghold 1, but from Age of Empires 3 as well, is that in free for all games it is less likely the most powerful lord to win the day. Of course, he does have advantage, but I believe in victory! :)

[Nigel 71]

Sounds like an exciting battle.

And a nice write up, too. :D

 

 

I should join you guys one of these days. Hopefully someday when I will be less busy.

But interested to see how tonights battle is going. :cool:

[EaglePrince 230]

Today we fought another one, and I felt like I should say few words about it as well.

 

 

We were playing Three mans land map by Bradley - it was Chris, Mathew, and me. Chris started pretty well, and he was the most powerful. I started better then I normally would - I am still getting better in Stronghold 2, as all my games in past were against AI lords; and Mathew started pretty well too, although he was a little bit slower. I'm only not sure if this was his tactic, because I am sure that he was able to get promoted to Duke, but he didn't want to - to buy himself some more time.

 

Chris said he wouldn't attack anyone until someone attacks him, so I decided to take my move first. I attacked him crossing the bridge that was within the range of one of his towers. I was trying to take down the tower as well, but no success there. He had plenty of resources, and he was repairing the tower, and he came with group of his knights. By the time he fortified that part of the castle even better, so I decided to retreat. Then I decided not to attack his castle, I decided to do something less challenging. I decided to raid his villages, and this way to weaken him. For this reason I again attacked the same village, but this time I crossed another bridge, and I took down some of his stone buildings which he built for fortify the entrance to the village. I defeated his army there easily, but then we were engaged in more serious battles. I send some of my knights forward to raid the village - he had lots of fletchers workshops in the village, so Chrises knights reacted. Then I moved my knight back closer to my crossbowmen, so I could fight with their support. I won that battle, and after that I took over the village. He was trying to retake it, but he failed.

 

Then I fortified the village, removed the fletchers workshops, as I didn't want Chris to retake them, and I brought some more knight to join the battle. I sent those knight into the next village, and in front of the castle to destroy Chrises economy. I felt like I was winning the war.

 

During those battles Mathew wasn't attacking me much, he was also attacking Chris, although he was sending some burning carts to destroy some of my buildings. In the moment I was in front of Chrises castle I saw a group of Mathew's knight riding into my country, although I didn't count them as a large treat. I should have... Mathew noticed that my church was outside my castle, and my lord was walking to the church. This way he managed to intercept my lord outside my castle, and he killed him. Now I know - never feel too confident, always protect all my borders, and - build the church within my castle walls.

 

After my lords death Chris and Mathew continued the war. Chris was trying to get back on his feet, to get back his old territories, and those that were mine, but it turned out it was too late. His castle was damaged, and his economy was crippled. Despite this hard situation, he was resisting really well, he still had his troops, he had weapons, honor, and gold - I just don't know how much gold and weapons exactly. Still, all this wasn't enough to repel Mathews attacks. Lord Chris fell as well.

 

It was a great and an exciting war!

[Lord_Chris 251]

I didn't manage to get an army up quite as fast as the first match with Mathew - possibly because I didn't have as many estates. But I still managed to get an army up, decent enough at first. However, the only hostilities were around my castle, the other end of the map where and [user]Mathew steel] were had no troops stationed on either side of the walls, so I could tell what was going to happen.

 

So I had to very quickly disperse my troops out covering a large semi circle area from my estate, which meant that a fairly small force to begin with was quite well scattered. Over time I managed to get a slightly bigger army up, and built a great tower in front of the only open bridge - into @EaglePrince's territory.

 

I then stationed at least 20 archers and 15 crossbowmen, again I had to distribute my force evenly. Most of my arms were coming from two estates, as my main estate was too busy producing food. I had 50 bows coming in with each delivery from the village, and some apples too. Another village I had was producing iron, swords and armour. This was nothing compared to my own estate, but this helped massively at the end. The other two villages I had were producing ale, stone, wood & apples. So all in all, anything that wasn't being produced by own estate was being substituted by income from other estates.

 

However, when the attacks started, they started incredibly heavy from the start, from both fronts on my lines as well. This made it very hard to reinforce myself properly because I was always being attacked on two fronts. While I had 100 + armour /swords, and 1000 + honour, I could not manage to get the troops out to the front in time, I just could not get them built fast enough, and slowly but surely, the forces were depleted. Eventually, @Mathew Steel broke through the lowered defences (I'd taken troops to defend my territory on the other front) and I just managed to keep them out.

 

Meanwhile, unknowingly to me, a second bridge had been compromised on this front, with fresh reinforcements coming in from EaglePrince- now was the beginning of the end. He stormed my village which was producing my main weapon income, and I hadn't the troops to attack. So once again, I had to take troops from the other front, again weakening the defences so when Mathew attacked, it was very easy to take.

 

By now, they were enclosing on both fronts against me, and there was nothing I could do. Suddenly, EaglePrince was wiped from the map, and this meant I was only left with one opponent.

 

However, I was seriously undermanned still. I moved all the archers and crossbowmen back to my keep, but there still wasn't enough. To make matters worse, my granary had been destroyed, along with most of my production buildings. Luckily I still had the weapons fro m before, so I placed a new granary and bought some food with the 11000 + gold I still had.

 

I finally managed to recruit *some* kind of a rushed army of knights, and stationed them in my keep. I then kept recruiting for a short while in batches of 15, and managed to get some back on their feet.

 

Meanwhile, my archers were being shot from the keep using fire ballistae. I eventually managed to get a troop together of 5 knights and charged, but all eventually got killed. I collected a few other troops and stationed them in my keep, pulling my ranged troops from the roof. He then proceeded to attack, and I placed my ranged units on the roof once more. They attacked and many were killed, in the end, it was only due to a new set of troops coming in that killed me, I couldn't recruit any more troops.

[EaglePrince 230]

Well, considering how much gold and weapons you say you had, we can say that it was justified that we were attacking you almost all the time. :) I mean, if we stopped out attacks for a little while, you would come back to power, and everything would be just as it was before. Also, now I am getting one more thing - if I want to cripple an opponent, it is not sufficient only to destroy his economy in the villages - it is necessary to destroy armory as well, if it is possible, and destroying he granary would be welcome as well. :)

 

Only I believe that it would be even more interesting game - especially for you, if Mathew and I were spending some more time looking at each other. This way I wasn't looking carefully to that front, which I should have. If I was looking a little bit more carefully, I would be able to send less troops on you, but my castle would be safer, and it would be more interesting to you as well.

 

One more thing I will have to do is to build the wall around my entire estate. I am sure that next time it will be more fun!

 

 

I also meant to say that I am glad that we were playing this map, which is more open. It is more interesting to me this way. Perhaps we could create a similar 4-player or 6-player map which would be an open such as this one. I mean, an enemy is able to attack your castle from all directions, while you can have the villages all around you. One more thing could have been done with this map... It make some villages to produce some specific goods, such as stone, iron, cloth, candles, etc... This would be pretty interesting, as when one buys a village, he gets all the iron, stone, or any other goods as well - instantly! Only he would need to transport it. Also, if it would be a six player map, each player would have his own iron village, his own stone village, etc... What do you think about this idea?

Edited April 11, 2015 by EaglePrince

[Mathew Steel 151]

Here's the war from my perspective:

 

I personally started off slow, like I usually do. Luckily peace time lasted until we all reached Duke, meaning I wasn't punished for being slow. Eventually I got my economy going, but with the hovel limit, it meant I had to buy a lot of estates to help me raise the army I needed. I fortified all my buildings. With a small wall protecting the keep, then a large wall all the way around it. I then fortified my estates like last time, then placing troops on the walls. Chris may not have noticed but for a long time, the estates leading to Eagle were also fortified with troops.

 

When pt finally ended I saw that Eagle and Chris were busy attacking on their side. I remained silent for a while, just to see how things would turn out. Upon seeing an opportunity to strike, I started to attack Chris on one of the bridges. This lasted a very long time, much longer than it should've. Of course Chris had bigger numbers. Meaning I had to train a lot of crossbowmen to make up for the amount of knights he had! Eventually, I broke through, while Eagle was weakening Chris' estates, I made work on his walls, with a large group of knights, horse archers and crossbowmen to defend my trebuchets.

 

Upon realising Chris' impatience, with good reason as Eagle and I were not attacking each other and also seeing how close Eagle was to getting the kill, I decided to watch Eagle's lord. Noticing his church was outside, I trained a small group of horse archers and knights and waited my his estate. Without Eagle realising, I charged at his lord as he entered the church, giving him no chance to react. Eagle, was killed.

 

Of course, Chris was now severely weakened by both sides. Which for me was a great advantage. If Chris had been killed by Eagle, the game would've been a much harder one for me as I would've had to defend against someone who's taken hardly any damage. Hence why I eliminated him soon. Chris fought well with the remaining troops he had left. At one point, I honestly thought I would lose it. We ended the game with my 12 knights left (attacking troops).

 

A battle well fought :)

[Lord_Chris 251]

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I also meant to say that I am glad that we were playing this map, which is more open. It is more interesting to me this way. Perhaps we could create a similar 4-player or 6-player map which would be an open such as this one.

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@bradley0095 created a good map - http://www.stronghold-nation.com/downloads/file/76-paths-and-passages/

 

I was going to suggest this next time we play actually. Speaking of which, did we ever say anything about playing next?

 

I need to do better :D

Edited April 11, 2015 by Lord_Chris

[EaglePrince 230]

I have played that map too, and it was with you guys. I think it was once or twice. It is also a good map, only I prefer three mans land, because it is more open. Nevertheless, both maps are great, and I would gladly play on any of those two.

 

Actually I think we didn't mention playing another game, but I think that we should! I would gladly march into another war, to avenge my lords death!

 

 

By the way, I like how you made the Downloads section now, it looks way better now, and it completely fits with the rest of the website. Thumbs up!

[Mathew Steel 151]

I'm not sure when I'll be able to play again. With exams coming closer and stuff, I'll have less time to play :(

 

I'm sure we will soon :)

[EaglePrince 230]

Well, as soon as you are able to play, you just make an event, and hopefully we would all be able to play. :)