The Rat - Stronghold Crusader AI Lords

The Rat is a skirmish opponent in Stronghold Crusader & Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition.

Overview

Duc de Puce, young upstart and puppet of The Wolf, inherited a modest desert domain. High up in his head and full of it, The Rat thinks that sheer willpower will bring victory for his cause, however he is pretty rudimentary at displaying both economic and military knowledge. While he is fairly industrious at fielding armies, his strategy oftentimes stops to work here.

Castles & Defenses

The Rat builds very basic castles, sometimes with a labyrinthine layout featuring very little defensive assets, such as towers or gates. In some designs his Keep is accessible through "conveniently" placed stairs. He places a few Archers on select spots on the walls, while he also keeps a large group of patrolling Spearmen around the perimeter. His small number of workshops is usually built inside and outside on various locations around the castle.

Designed as a tutorial enemy, The Rat can be sieged and bested in a myriad ways. Unless his Keep is swarming, a direct attack with a few armored units, Assassins or pretty much any melee unit in numbers can suffice. Spearmen are usually more favoured by the Rat, which tend to charge out on aggressive stance; ranged units encircling the castle and crushing in one decisive attack can remove most of the Rat's defense without a challenge. Sometimes the Rat's Lord can be lured outside of the castle by provoking him with a small number of weak troops; you may use the opportunity to dispose of the Lord far from his defenders quick and fast!

Economy

The Rat barely has a functional industry. He relies mostly on wood and apples production to cover what small gold his troops need, furthermore he builds a single Stone Quarry to mine stone and sell the excess. The Rat is smart enough to build a few Poleturners and Fletcher's Workshops to craft cheap weaponry.

Raids & Sieges

The Rat relegates himself to using the cheapest Barracks troops available, Spearmen and Archers in varying numbers. These troops arrive about up to half a dozen in size, usually haphazardly thrown into the fight to get a single building or two until cleared up. They also may be sent out to retaliate against enemy raiders, to much limited effectiveness.

Where the Rat may pose some threat is his attack attempts. A considerable number of Archers and Spearmen may arrive to the scene, without any support from sturdier units or siege engines. These forces form up relatively early on, and if the Rat is doing particularly well, he won't hesitate to quickly muster another even larger force in the place of the previous one. While Archers try to soften up the ranged defenders often without any success, Spearmen are sent in to work on the fortifications until a breach is created. These take quite a while to break through however, guaranteeing a drawn out siege and ample time to thwart the attacking forces.

Protecting the castle and your buildings from The Rat is done very easily. Crossbowmen are bulky ranged units that can also become virtually impervious on top of towers, while also one-shotting the unarmored units of the Rodent. Even if there is an opening, the marching troops can be quickly decimated even with a handful of troops, such as Slingers or Skirmishers. A few heavy-armored units should be kept around, should the Rat's men attack your tower garrisons, but otherwise there is no strategic depth to their attack: they simply headbutt their way into the walls and eventually the Lord. Use a few Horse Archers to dispose of the sporadic raiding squads to prevent building losses.