Emperor Frederick - Stronghold Crusader AI Lords

Emperor Frederick is a skirmish opponent in Stronghold Crusader.

Overview

Frederick Barbarossa is a calculated and principled strategist, who won countless battles in the Crusades. His punctuality and versatility granted him much success against his opponents, at the expense of developing his castle very slowly. Frederick may spend a lot of time developing his triangular fortifications, but given enough time he can become a difficult adversary to be reckoned with.

Castles & Defenses

Emperor Frederick always builds variations of a sealed, triangular enclosure around his Keep, with a single line of wall padded with crenellations. He always has one or two entrance on the longest side of his castle via Small Gatehouses, as well as he adds a thick layer of additional Moat that is slowly dug by Archers. Defense Turrets are placed in ample numbers to overlook the sprawling stoneworks, as well as the front is usually worked into a more fortified position featuring two Square Towers with Mangonels on top. Most towers and gates are placed Archers and Crossbowmen to repel unwanted guests. The courtyard always hosts most of the industry and a few religion buildings, however some other buildings are forced to build outside the walls. Killing Pits are also added as a rather ineffective defensive measure near select buildings individually, as well as Trebuchets are constructed in the front to demolish siege tents and other buildings close-by. A large number of Swordsmen can also be seen on Frederick's Keep around the Lord, standing guard, as well as a few Knights running about in the area.

Frederick patrols his buildings with Archers and Crossbowmen, though these tend to come online fairly late into the game. He sends out a band of Archers and sluggish, but persistent Swordsmen to counter enemy raiders.

Almost all designs for Frederick are equally difficult to siege, but they can be crippled all he same. The side with his gates should be approached with an attacking force, deploying Catapults and/or Trebuchets to level the turrets without equipment. Once a sufficient chunk of the line has been cleared, you can send in a digging squad that will be shielded from other parts of Frederick's defenses, particularly his Mangonels. Once filled in, knocking down a gate or setting a Siege Tower could prove decisive, as Frederick has no effective and immediate way to stop a large number of troops locking in on the Lord. As the Emperor has armored units and Crossbowmen, Macemen or similarly bulky units should do the job. Setting the castle on fire is not recommended, since Frederick has a really good coverage of Wells and Water Pots to quickly put out the flames.

Emperor Frederick is also susceptible to rushes at the early game, as he develops his castle in stages, not adding all his defenses right away. If his troops are attacked while his towers are not up yet, much of his defenses can be ignored and the Lord is quick to fall.

Economy

Frederick relies heavily on mining minerals to fund his war machine, thanks to a large number of Stone Quarries and Iron Mines. He also builds up to a dozen farms to produce Apples and Cheese, both of which he also continuously buys to ensure high food variety. Furthermore, Hops Farms supply Breweries and Inns to raise Popularity for some taxes, as well as a few Chapels and a Church is also built for religion coverage. Emperor Frederick does not influence Fear Factor, however he has a rather extensive weaponcrafter industry to provide equipment for his troops. Over the course of the game, the Emperor builds a healthy gold stack that keeps him well funded even at the most dire times.

Note: in vanilla Stronghold Crusader, Emperor Frederick does not buy Armoury equipment, making him exceptionally slow at army recruitment. The Definitive Edition adjusted it so that he can buy equipment in bulks of 2, eliminating the issue.

Raids & Sieges

While Emperor Frederick spends most of his time slowly developing at home, he can show some affinity towards harassment. Once he gets a Stables up, he will start pouring out small bands of Knights that can prove annoying to clean up, as their heavy bulk and swiftness gets them quickly to a badly defended farm, quarry or mine. Soon enough, they also get independently supported by a few Catapults, adding another tool to his arsenal to keep his adversary on his toes by laying suppressive fire. 

Frederick likes to send relatively small armies that grow astronomically slowly with successive attempts. He brings a combination of Barracks units with Engineers that like to set up exclusively Trebuchets on the very edge of Ballista range, ensuring that a section of the enemy castle gets levelled at all times. Armored Crossbowmen and Swordsmen make up the bulk of the forces, as well as Archers arrive in the rear to reinforce by providing covering fire. Frederick does not deal in special means of utility such as Tunnelers, however he splits off a few Archers to fill in the enemy Moat, if there is one. This balanced composition is usually slow to attack and march, lacking the proper firepower, however Frederick can quickly assemble another siege force if the previous one falls.

There should be little difficulty preparing for Emperor Frederick's attacks and repelling them, due to the demanding staple units he features. Getting the ideal number of Crossbowmen of your own should be possible by the time Frederick commences a siege, however the Trebuchets may prove annoying if they catch you off-guard. Building a number of Square Towers backed by a healthy stone production, and adding Mangonels on top, then setting them to attack their general direction can be surprisingly effective, as they thin out the army forming up and eventually kill off the Trebuchets due to their large hitbox. As always, Moat is generally good against Frederick because he sends Archers to dig it up; light units that are killed very quickly. Against his raiding Knights, keep a few Spearmen, Assassins or Light Camels around your buildings.