SHC Skirmish Trails

[Frankel 8]

Progress will be a little slower from here on in. Holidays are over and it's back to the real world.

 

Speaking of progress, Mission #16 - Desert Hunters, is complete. Its not as challenging as I expected. I spent pretty much all of my gold at the start on wood and 10 crossbowmen. Given the close proximity of the stone, 2 square towers (the one closest to the right gatehouse in the picture below, and one of the two on the right) were quickly errected with 2x ballistae, 5 crossbowmen and 5 archers on each. It was not difficult to have a big economy up and running fairly quickly - I created 4 fletchers on crossbow production early on and gradually stacked the two towers. I periodically made slaves in batches of 10 for the moat, while the wall was quickly finished as the stone flowed in. With the defense mostly sorted, the mission seemed much less challenging than anticipated so I built up a large army of horse archers, 50 pikemen and a dozen assassins. Usual strategy - take out tower mangonels/ballistae, destroy barracks & engineers guild which are outside the walls, arrows to kill the remaining troops and a couple of assassins to open up a gatehouse to finish off the lord.

 

My keep is below. Lots of stone and iron. Big population, plenty of ale & +3 religion bonus. Alternating taxes between -8 and -12. The inner 8 square towers were added late as a way to take care of any catapults from the stronger Saladin on the right (albeit completely unnecessary as it turns out) while I disposed of the one on the left.

 

http://i.imgur.com/0liu4nl.jpg[/img]

 

Next up is me vs 3 Sultans in a mission I found surprisingly tricky the first time I played it years ago. I'll keep you posted.

[EaglePrince 230]

You did quite well in this mission. I agree, it may not have been much challenging, as even though Saladin's had more gold, they also need it more to build their castles, and more time will pass until they are ready to attack. It's different with Lionheart for example, who builds only the most necessary stuff, and goes forward with some men and catapults. :)

[Frankel 8]

You are right about Saladin and his economy and about the Lionheart. Indeed I vaguely recall a mission from the trail where it was me and the pig I think, against 3 lionhearts and a snake? Those relentless catapult attacks are not something to be trifled with! My poor square towers were in a bad state when I finally got a suitable defence in place.

 

Back to the mission at hand (17 - Land of the Camels); Me vs 3 Sultans, those with a reasonable gold advantage but I have an easily defended position (both in terms of elevation and access). I bought 20 crossbows and leather armor and split my units between the two inner gatehouses. I also split the knights and placed them by each gatehouse also. In the meantime I built one square tower facing the northernmost Sultan (in hindsight I would have built this later as I did not have the resources to man it and I would have been better off selling the excess stone I had).

 

At the same time I set taxes on -4 and built a small economy of 4 wood cutters, 2 apple farms, 1 hops, 2 wheat, 4 bakeries, 1 mill, 2 quarries, 4 oxen, 4 fletchers (on crossbows), a brewery and an inn. My focus was to sell whatever I could and buy bows and leather armors until I had a strong defense. Then I built a second tower facing the bottom left Sultan and put manned mangonels on both, targeting their Lord. At that stage I built up 10 fire ballistae (using them from within my castle while I built up some support), followed by 50 crossbowmen and 20 arabian swordsmen in roughly that order. By that stage it was simply a matter of crossbowmen taking out the units on the walls, burning the keep (merc post, trading post and granary in roughly that order) and by the time the swordsmen caught up they knocked a tower and killed the Lord.

 

Overall not too challenging although it would be a very interesting mission if I was not allowed to use my marketplace. I relied on it heavily here. For the sake of adding a screenshot, here is my castle in full swing (replaced two apple farms with cheese for leather armor production).

http://i.imgur.com/OZahmNt.jpg[/img]

 

Next up is Mission #18 - A Barren Land, which will see me up against the combined efforts of 5 snakes. Stay tuned :)

[EaglePrince 230]

Nicely done, one again. :) I remember playing that mission for the first time, it was pretty exciting for me as well. :)

[Nigel 71]

Those are really nice battle reports, Frankel. Keep them coming.

 

 

Oh and regarding multiplayer:

 

  Quote

The last time I tried a multiplayer game of Stronghold online, the opponent spammed mills, built a massive army and rushed me in no time. I prefer playing vs AI because I get to take my time a bit more. Even if they do rush because of a big gold advantage, its still somewhat more realistic.

Read more  

 

 

I know the feeling.

That's why I seldom play MP games against unknown players these days.

 

Here at Stronghold Nation we have developed a set of rules which makes MP games with more realistic castles and reduces spamming. Also the people here are more interested in having fun with the game than gaining a qick victory.

 

We are occasionally organizing MP events and if you are interested you can come along and check them out. You may find them more to your liking than the "vanilla" MP games.

[EaglePrince 230]

Or, we could call our playing "vanilla" as it is more "the way it was meant to be played", while that thing he saw online would be some sort of "competitive" MP games, or if I may say "garbage" MP games. :D (just joking a little, but the point still stands)

[Frankel 8]

Sounds great! Do you have the rule set at hand so I can read up on them a little?

[EaglePrince 230]

Here they are.

http://forums.stronghold-nation.com/topic/200-stronghold-crusader-multiplayer-rules/

 

One can find those rules in the Gaming Events forum, there are rules for Stronghold 1, Crusader 1, and other Stronghold games that we thought bring up some rules would be needed. In case of Crusader you felt on your own skin why we wanted those rules. :D Most importantly, what matters is that none of us intentionally brakes those rules, and we believe that everyone who wants to play without dirty tricks wouldn't do anything from those rules anyway. :)

[Frankel 8]

Interesting. Only 30 woodcutters? It's rare I build more than 3! Also I don't know the quarry trick. Is that something to do with the space between the quarry itself and the deposit box area?

 

Anyways sorry for the delay on the skirmish. I have a couple more down and will post soon.

[Frankel 8]

So a quick summary of the next three missions. I wont go into too much detail here, just post a quick picture and an overview of the mission.

First up was me against 5 snakes. Quite a simple mission. Just buy plenty of archers, plant a tower or two to the front (leaving room for a few farms), hire slaves to dig a moat across the three entrances (you can moat around the stone to keep one quarry in your base), and then just keep enough archers on your towers. They also fell quite quickly. A few catapults and a small army of macemen was enough to deal with each snake.

http://i.imgur.com/oFGGnsv.jpg[/img]

 

Next up was me against the wolf. The gold advantage might seem daunting but he builds a hugely impressive army in this one. Again the usual strategy worked here. A couple of forward towers, buy crossbows & leather armor and dig a moat around the rest (you need to wall the bit by the quarry as it is on a hill). From there build up an army and destroy him. Offensively I built 20 mounted knights. 10 to each side gate to take out the barracks, mercenary post and close the two gates (as well as take the mangonel fire). Then a group of crossbowmen to go to the front of the castle both to close the front gate and destroy the mangonels. Once pinned in with no unit production it was easy. By the time I built up some macemen to finish the job it was simply a case of knocking a side gate and walking in. The defense here was unnecessary btu I had more stone than I knew what to do with!

http://i.imgur.com/35Calsi.jpg[/img]

Final update is for mission 20. It sees me teamed up with one Lionheart against three caliphs on the same mission as the one we started out on. First off wall the southern and western entrances. Get some quarries up and running and buy archers. The next while was spent fortifying my defense against the yellow and black caliphs. A tower out of reach of the black caliphs archers took care of that. I placed a mangonel on it to worry the nearest caliph. My small economy was based on 4 quarries in my base and a bit of food. Richard is a bit useless in this mission, other than to occupy the blue caliph. Their bases are so close that Richards gate is almost always closed, however his mangonels and catapults reduce the blue base to rubble. I bought about 20 assassins and used them to finish him off just to give Richard some breathing room. On the other side I made 30 macemen, knocked a ruined tower of the black caliph and took out that Lord. For the final caliph I asked Richard to attack and he kindly knocked a tower before letting his troops trigger the pitch ditches. Then I just used my remaining macemen and assassins to walk in and kill that Lord.

http://i.imgur.com/Qa70rSP.jpg[/img]

Next up mission 21. I hope to have time this weekend so I will keep you posted. Forward, march!

[EaglePrince 230]

  Quote

Interesting. Only 30 woodcutters? It's rare I build more than 3! Also I don't know the quarry trick. Is that something to do with the space between the quarry itself and the deposit box area?

Read more  

Well, in multiplayer it is wise to build more woodcutters than you would in skirmish, as you won't be attacked for a while, and it is more efficient to have wood brought by woodcutters than to buy wood. It does bring your economy up faster. In skirmish where you fight from the beginning you need everything, you cannot wait for your woodcutters to bring you the wood and then you would buy some of it. Still, it is clever to build some more woodcutters in skirmish as well, as that would would serve you well later in the game to build even stronger economy in shorter time.

 

Yet, this is not the reason why we have this rule. While you're in game you can turn off some of your buildings - this you would do if you don't need a particular resource (we would be brought from those buildings), and that would be fine, but you could also do if you need to get some troops fast - to defend yourself or to march into an counter attack, and that would be fine as well. Unfortunately, those "pro" players, as they call themselves, like to build lots of woodcutters (more than 50 - that's for sure...) only to get larger population and that only for the two following purposes:

-when you take taxes from people, more people you have, more gold you get; plus they would periodically turn those on and off when they need to train more troops; and furthermore this way they can get more worker than they actually need, shut woodcutters down, give people no rations and take maximum taxes (to -24) and get lots of gold in little time without harming their economy as they they don't have only 24 workers around their campfire - they could have 100 or even more...

This is an exploit I don't like to use against AI lords nor against human lords, though I do shut down buildings now and then when I need to get some troops fast, but that I do only with my working population, not with population I made without actually needing them.

 

For similar reason we have the rule against building unnecessary many mills or unnecessary many waterpots - those can be exploiting in similar way, only woodcutters are cheaper: it's only 3 wood per man.

 

I don't remember exactly about stone quarry trick, it's something about building wall around the deposit box, and something would happen then... Your ox tether should be able to get that stone from any part of the map without needing to walk to it (so, instantly), or those stone gets transferred to the stockpile instantly. I think it's something among those two. :) Obviously an exploit. :)

 

Nicely done in the mission 20 against Caliph with Lionheart by your side. :)

Edited January 15, 2016 by EaglePrince

[Frankel 8]

Mission 21 - The Desert Wind complete. I fear this post may become a bit rambling as it echoes my unorganised approach to this mission.

Well, this was an interesting one. 3 teams. Me vs Pig Pig Pig Rat vs Lionheart. If I was to replay this mission I would start it differently, but here is what I done. 5 extra stockpile, 2 granary, 1 market, 2 wheat farms, 1 hops farm, 4 wood cutters, 3 houses, 1 mill, 2 bakeries, 2 armouries (buying wood as necessary). Next I placed the square tower at a distance I felt suitable in front of my keep. Enough to cover the stone and iron mines while keeping pressure on the rat and the yellow pig. Next up was the barracks and I ended up spending the rest of my gold on bows (then trained archers) followed by, I think, 10-15 crossbows and 5 leather armor. Now here is the problem, that is where my gold ran out. I set taxes to -4 and I had to juggle with no stone to make a stair for my tower, no gold to train troops (other than 15-20 archers), 10 crossbows with no leather armor, and running out of food as the bread process takes time.

To do this I ended up having to really micro manage, with the priority buying those last 10 leather armors and training crossbowmen in fear of a pig attacking. Any archers I had were moved to the keep roof, while the few spearmen I had tried to dig as much of a moat as possible (one dug a moat at the small patch of iron to the south of my base to close that off). I managed to just about kill off an assault from the black pig during this process (2 macemen made it as far as the top of my keep). I places more bakeries as I could, finally remembered a brewery and again used the market to sell as much as possible (regularly staying with no more than 10 units of food). As I could I placed fletchers on crossbow production for the gold they bring. I also placed an inn shortly afterwards, as well as purchasing 5 stone, a mangonel, an engineers guild and 2 engineers (all of this took quite a while). Once this was all up and running, and I had about 6 fletchers operating (should have prioritised this sooner), I had a good enough income source to slowly build up some crossbowmen, selling crossbows for leather armor as necessary.?

The mangonel was targeted at whatever piece of the yellow pig's castle he could reach, while the archers and crossbow men meant the rat was as good as dead and there was no stone or iron for the black pig. This is my castle as at that point:

http://i.imgur.com/keVOQ1u.jpg[/img]

?It was at this point I made one fire ballista and took out the black pig's barracks, granary (regularly doing so) and houses that were within reach. I made 3 poleturners and bought 5 armor. They walked in and killed the rat. I bought stone to gate and wall the bottom entrance, removed the moat and built two iron mines. Then I started armor production and the rest is history. Black pig fell shortly to an army of pikemen. The yellow pig I didn't successfully defeat on my first effort (largely due to a tactless assembly of crossbows and pikemen) but 30 assassins I had ready for the lionheart soon did. I sent out all of my tower units then to the blue pig who cleared the way for my new pikemen and then as mentioned the assassins cleared the mangonels and ballistae from the towers allowing my pikemen to walk in for a free kill.

So there you have it. Poor decision making at the start thankfully didnt cost me, although it did hinder my progress. The Lionheart is his own worst enemy here, walling off his oasis at the back and not able to place his barracks either. He deserves credit though for somehow managing to stave off quite a few pig attacks regardless.

If you have read this far I hope I have not bored you. I will keep it more brief in future :)?Onwards and upwards!?

[EaglePrince 230]

Nicely done. :) Well, regarding some mistakes you mentioned, I find it more interesting when you win with those mistakes and without loading back to the saved game and without restarting the game. :) Not everything goes so ideal, but you managed to win anyway. :) Nicely done.

[Nigel 71]

Indeed: cudos for not just starting over after you realized your mistake, but biting the bullet and going through with it.

 

That is the way of the warrior - :)

[Frankel 8]

I have never been one to throw in the towel, and indeed one learns more in these moments than in a mission that goes smoothly. I know there are some missions coming up however where my mistakes will be more harshly punished.

 

On to mission #22 - Red Beak. Me vs Caliph. I am in an area easily defended but shy on resources. A small moat and a tower at the top of my area of the map, coupled with some archers (bought bows) was more than enough to hold the enemy at bay in this mission. Later a fire ballista at the bottom of my area to set the caliph's iron mines and quarries on fire was well worth the small 210 gold investment.?

http://i.imgur.com/Uv7CdZG.jpg[/img]

Using bread and crossbow production as the foundation of my economy I built two more towers with archers (completely crippling food and hops production), added a gatehouse and drawbridge to access the iron mines, and built up a small army of crossbowmen and swordsmen to walk in and kill the Caliph. Simple mission but just takes a bit of time to get your economy going.

 

Next up was mission #23 - Flatland. Me vs 5 rats. No arable land but more than enough iron and stone to make up for it. First off I built a tower and enough bows for 40 archers. That would be enough to take care of any early attacks. I didnt bother trying to wall in right away, considering the investment in one tower and archers more prudent. From there on I built up a (completely unnecessarily) strong defence, kept my population happy with a 'sleepy' cathedral, church and purchased beer (3 inns). I placed bad things for a -4 population bonus (-5 at times when hiring soldiers). This with no taxes balanced nicely. By that time I had enough fun with my castle so I used 150 horse archers and 50 swordsmen to take all of the rats out one after another.

 

http://i.imgur.com/4GYQwTe.jpg[/img]

In the screenshot above, the inner circle was my original fortification. The outer one I built for fun to house my church & cathedral.

 

Next up is me in the centre of 4 Sultans in a barren map. To quote my unit of choice in the last mission "Forward! To glory!!"

[Frankel 8]

I said I would try one more for tonight, and it was a success. Mission #24 - Death in the Dunes complete.

 

This mission with me vs four Sultans in a barren map was straightforward enough. More gold than I need and 4 enemies who are not in a hurry to attack. I built a small castle, surrounded (mostly) by a small moat. I bought probably 50 bows and 20 crossbows & leather armor to man the towers. The two towers to the north east had mangonels and the two to the south west, ballista. A small economy based on crossbows and soon after, stone, was probably unnecessary but I do not like to rush. I sold the original pitch and iron and bought hops and wheat as necessary. Taxes were -4, half rations and +8 from beer.

http://i.imgur.com/SWFhz41.jpg[/img]

When I did decide to attack, I used 2 fire ballista, 10 swordsmen (either arabic or the 10 european ones I made because I clicked on swords by mistake!) and 20 crossbowmen. More than enough to take out each Sultan with a bit of patience. Here I shall leave it for today. Enough progress was made for one day.

[EaglePrince 230]

Interesting battle reports. :) Regarding one with the Caliph, I believe most of us do it in similar way, though with difference that I had mangonels on my towers.

 

The second one - well, I would say that would be how an overkill in Crusader looks like, my friend. :D

 

And the third one, yes, it might have been more interesting if you had less gold there... It would be interesting to see how could one handle Sultans in that land with almost no resources. I should also mention that this map is the perfect one for Sultan, he's the only one that doesn't build any farms at all. :) He can fight in this mission with 100% of his capacity, and it is possible that he would eventually take down any other opponent. :) I have never tested that though, I could be wrong about that as well, as he doesn't have some great attacking nor defensive tactic, and some AI lords would have larger economy even here: Wolf builds up to six stone quarries for example.

[Frankel 8]

So after a bit of a delay (alas work has been busy), mission #25 - The Forgotten is complete.

 

Aside from a brief hairy moment ?at the start, there was nothing much to report here and I was never threatened.

 

I began by placing the usual 6 stockpile squares, a granary, marketplace, a armory. Next up was the northernmost square tower you see in the picture below followed by 2x wheat farms, 1 hops farm, 2 apple farms, 4x fletchers, a barracks (with 5 stone purchased for this), 2-3 houses, a mill and some bakeries. I purchased some bows and placed all of my archers on top of the northern tower. I also set my spearmen to dig a moat to the west of the nearest river passage hoping to force the wolf and pig soldiers through the iron and stone deposits.

 

It was here I had my hairy moment. The pig sent 5 or 6 macemen and killed my moat diggers when there was one tile of land left to make. My lord was alone on top of his keep and I had no gold. I pointed all of my archers at the incoming men (ignoring some archers the snake or rat had to the north) and tried to move my lord to the stairs of the tower. Luckily here they split up. Two went to attack my lord when he was halfway to the stairs (he easily defeated them) while the rest stopped to destroy two farms. I lost one wheat and one hops farm, but it was a small price I was willing to pay. Below is a picture of my keep. This is at the end of the mission (I sent all of my troops to the wolf and pig but I'll get to that later). The moat to the right was just something to keep my slaves busy when they finished the first moat to the left.

http://i.imgur.com/Bh5IH50.jpg[/img]

 

I hired 3 slaves and finished the moat and from there on it was a matter of building my economy (bread & crossbows) and army. When I decided to take out the rat I used 30 archers, 40 monks and two fire ballistae. The fire ballista took out the barracks, then the archers took out any archers on the walls while the monks closed the gate. Then the archers killed all remaining troops before I knocked a wall and killed the lord.

 

The snake I killed shortly after. I was building up some horse archers so a handful of these helped the existing troops I had for the rat to easily dispatch the snake. After this I built the extra towers you see in the map and opened up the moat on the left with a gatehouse and drawbridge albeit in the line of fire of the wolf's mangonels. The mangonel fire hastened my attack plan against the wolf. About 200 horse archers I sent to clear the walls and towers along with whatever troops I had from the snake attack. In total about 250 troops died in this attack (there were a lot of crossbowmen in the pig and wolf keeps) but my main objective was complete. I had one horse archer left alive at one gate, and 3 monks alive at the other. This kept the wolf pinned in and I sent all of my crossbowmen and archers (a little over 100 in total) from the towers over as reinforcements. These killed off all of the pigs troops while a handful of monks finished him off. Monks took out the wolf's barracks that was outside of his walls and I made an assassin to open an outer gatehouse. All of my 100+ bows/crossbows stood atop the outer walls and cleared all of the troops within. A fire ballista lit the buildings on fire and the archers quickly killed the lord on a slight variation of death by a thousand cuts.

 

All in all quite a manageable mission, if a bit long.?

[Frankel 8]

Mission #26 - Vultures Claw

Me and the snake against 2 caliphs and a sultan. Lots of resources to start here, albeit low gold. Started off as usual, this time building a small square enclosure around my keep with the starting stone (the two holes at the back I added late on when I realised the tight space within my keep was slowing production and causing a roundabout route to the stash). 2 towers at the front manned with archers, crossbowmen and ballista took care of my defense. A moat on three sides linking up with the snake was added (albeit not needed). 2x wheat farms, 1x hops farm an apple orchard and two quarries were soon added.

http://i.imgur.com/Wkvmbt3.jpg[/img]

I wont drag on too much. Defensively the only thing I added of note was the square tower at the top of the snake's keep. That, manned with a mangonel, was quite important as the snake was really suffering against the blue caliph as the battle went on. Offensively I went for the sultan first, marching my troops (mostly crossbowmen, macemen and some engineers. Maybe 5-10 horse archers too) around the map to the top centre. At that time the sultan decided to attack me, conveniently emptying his base.

http://i.imgur.com/gftv91E.jpg[/img]

As soon as they left I cleared the walls, used 3 catapults to knock a tower and rushed with the macemen. With the gold boost (and a strong economy with plenty of iron (maces) & leather armor production), I built up an army or horse archers and macemen. The yellow caliph was quick to beat, my mangonel having ravished his economy and castle (horse archers werent even needed). I asked the snake to attack the blue caliph at the same time, and by the time I had killed the yellow caliph, the snake had opened a gap in the blue caliphs walls to rush through with my macemen. And the rest, as they say, is history.

[Frankel 8]

Mission #27 - Arabian Nights

Well this one was a nice breather so I'll keep the commentary to a minimum. Below was my keep from early on (I walled in the snake and pig at the end just so I could take a screenshot in peace!). Saladin was a bit of a pain at the start of this mission with his horse archers but as long as you build a stairs at the back of the snake's castle (he moats himself in), the rest of this is pretty much autopilot. The snake is even kind enough to dig the moat around the entrance to Saladin's keep if you set the blueprint.

http://i.imgur.com/JZZnWbn.jpg[/img]

Next up is me vs two pigs on a tight map. This will be challenging as I do not rush opponents at the start. Tonight I shall gird my loins and sharpen my steel as I shall soon be tested!

[EaglePrince 230]

Those missions you won recently are all interesting to me, I remember them being hard to me to win them when I player them for the first time. :)

 

Mission 25 - no stone and no iron, and yet you handled quite well there. The next one is also pretty nasty, as they start sending massive troops upon your castle pretty soon. Also, the mission 27, I needed a lot of patience there, and I remember asking Pig for cheese - he was feeding my people. :)

[Lord_Chris 251]

You're posting some great guides here, thanks @Frankel. I'm sure you will help a great many people with them. Would you mind if I add a few as actual articles on the main site for better visibility? Perhaps you might even like to setup a help thread in this forum where people can post on it for help with the missions?

[Frankel 8]

Funny you mention the Pig giving you food in that mission EaglePrince, it was the first time I tried asking a Lord for goods and the Snake duly obliged with a small delivery of wood. I was pleasantly surprised.

 

Lord_Chris - Of course! If you feel it would be useful to people, then please go ahead. As for the help thread, I'm happy to help out people with what little I know however I have still never completed the first skirmish trail (not to mention the second) so I fear I may lack the knowledge of certain missions just yet.

 

As for mission #28, I was right to think this would be challenging but I will say no more until I post my next update

Edited February 6, 2016 by Frankel

[EaglePrince 230]

Me too, though I should mention - if I would ask him for 20 cheese he wouldn't send it to me, but if I ask for 5 cheese four times he would do it, and he was sending the food to me that way. :)

 

Regarding mission 28, I have played it few months ago, it is interesting one. :)

[Frankel 8]

Mission #28 - A Place of Rest

Where do I begin. I had pencilled this in as a tough mission and I was not disappointed. Two pigs in close proximity with 8000 gold to my 2000. Any resources (other than wood) were vulnerable to enemy attack. I do not wish to rush any lord in this playthrough so that made it more challenging (or so I thought it would but I will get to that later). I shall begin by saying I did not succeed on my first attempt, however I soon learned my lesson and the second attempt was much smoother sailing.

Attempt 1: I began by placing 4 stockpile, 1 granary, 1 armory, 2 woodcutters and a marketplace. Next was one wheat farm to the south, as far away from the pigs as possible followed by a quarry in the same position with 2 ox teathers. I built a square tower slightly northeast of my keep between the two gaps and added a stairs, mangonel (after engineers guild - as ones tends to do when enemy lord's keeps are so close), archers and crossbowmen (buying gear as needed). I also needed to buy more stone for the barracks as between the square tower and stairs I did not have enough.?

 

Soon the attacks started. The first few I managed to deal with, but what I didnt account for were the almost instant attacks from catapults outside the yellow pig's walls. The only unit I had that could reach them was my mangonel and accuracy is not a strong point. It wasnt long before I had no resources, my quarry and wheat farm was destroyed and I was selling food to hire any kind of unit possible to defend myself. I was bested.

 

I'm glad to say, however, I learned my lesson (somewhat). This time around the square tower was attached to my keep, thus leaving me enough stone for a barracks without having to purchase more. Rather than a mangonel I built a ballista. I did take some damage from the catapults but I managed to kill them reasonably quickly as long as I kept a close eye on the yellow pig's mercenary post. Resources saved on purchasing stone and panic hiring soldiers was spent on fletchers. 4 arabian swordsmen were hired to defend my granary at one point, but aside from that I slowly but steadily built up a small defense. As soon as I had the stone to build a second square tower adjacent to the first, manned with another ballista, I was comfortable.

http://i.imgur.com/hgsLrOp.jpg[/img]

(The small wall you see at the south eastern entrance was very useful as it forces my oxen to take the south western route, out of line of enemy fire)

Soon after this I sent my spearmen north to destroy some farms and iron mines to harass the enemy economy. It was then I realised (after coming under no attack) that I should have placed my farm (and more than one!) up here at the beginning. The northernmost pig is useless in this mission after his first attacks as he cannot build a barracks. This rushing at the start only serves to reduce your gold on troops, when in fact he takes up economy space from the second pig.

 

A few more towers with mangonels were added to roughen up the enemy while I produced swordsmen. Shortly after the screen below I attacked and defeated the two pigs in turn. What started as a hairy mission was made much simpler by the change of location of the square tower, and the use of a ballista rather than mangonel.

http://i.imgur.com/CYA8oG8.jpg[/img]

All in all an enjoyable mission, despite my original setback.