Charles of Tours

I like this idea! Perhaps for Crusader 2 we should have someone make a template map on which we can each try to build a castle and destroy each others' most efficiently? I know Vetka and Micha are both skilled with the Stronghold editors, but perhaps a competition within another competition would entail who can make the best template map, who can make the best castle, and who is the best attacker? All suggestions, of course, but I am glad to see the Siege-That mode (or an improvised version of it in SHC2) get some attention. :)

What's interesting about AIV files is that even if you put troop placements of different troop types, the AI personalities will behave in the same way. For example, Pig will still only produce macemen and crossbowmen and will raid the buildings outside of your castle. Rat, no matter how you try to edit him, will still send hordes of spearmen and archers to your castle, but he can be made a bit more competent by creating for him a better castle. I'm not sure if that will work, but it will be interesting to see the results. I think it is hard-coded in the game so that each AI character can only have 8 castle designs, but I'd be glad if you could prove me wrong. :)

Thank you, Chris and everybody! :D 2014 was a great year for the website, let's try to make 2015 even better! :)

Verily, 'tis an article of great humour. Grammarcy! xD A'FIX'D: Methinks, perchance, we should speak not in such a manner on other threads as to confuse our good gentles. ;)

I meant the whole ring behind the first wall. I think it would be interesting for an alternate version of the map to be made like this, however I don't know how accurate it would be. While the structure of the castle itself is in good shape, I think much of the moat has dried up, but I may be wrong. I can't think of the source, so I sadly can't double-check. :(

The Krak is one of my favorite historical castles, and it will be interesting to see the final result. :) I was thinking of trying to make this castle, Kerak or Montreal (the one in Jordan) when I get Crusader 2. Nice to see some historic places being made. :) EDIT: I'm not sure how well the new artificial intelligence / computer players would respond, but it may be interesting to make an alternate version of the map in which the entire area behind the first wall is filled with water.

My Welsh is limited to the name of this place, and even then I have difficulty:

Well, technically only English and (limited) French. I don't know enough of the others to count 'em. ;)

Here's some games I've spent lots of time on: -Stronghold series (SH1 and SHC especially, but also SH2 and SHL more recently). -Mount & Blade series (Warband especially; medieval combat game, but mods add anything from Napoleonic Wars to Star Wars). -Europa Universalis IV (a grand strategy game based on early imperialism, covers entire world; years 1444-1821). -Crusader Kings II (a grand strategy game based on medieval politics, warfare, and intrigue; covers Europe, North Africa, and even India; years 700s-1453). I also used to play some other Real Time Strategy games like the Age of Empires, Empire Earth, and Warcraft series. For a while I spent lots of time on the Civilization series as well, and I am slowly becoming a fan of the Payday games. I've played lots of others, but few stand out except Escape From Monkey Island - a favorite from my youth.

Great job! Nice to see you've included Rammas Echor and the dockyard. Makes a Tolkien fan, like me, proud. :) I think it would be better to have the player defend, since I think it is harder to balance a map intended for an attacking player. Usually, in that case, there is only one weakness to the castle, allowing little replay-ability. While the AI may attack in the same few patterns, the player can at least experiment with different defensive strategies.

English is my native tongue, but three generations ago my family spoke French. I've taken the equivalent of three years' worth of classes for French, but also have learned some extra from my interest in French history from the Revolution through the reign of Napoleon III, as well as my interests in medieval Occitan and Frankish cultures and histories. I also can greet people and know some common phrases from the Germanic and Romance languages, alongside a few words from Turkish, Arabic, Serbian, Russian, and Polish (thanks to a certain political cartoon in which Poland desires to launch a spaceship). It was also my intent to, at different times, learn Mandarin, Greek, and German, but time dictated otherwise.

Here's an easy way to fix files on Steam games: Go to your Steam games library. Right click on the title, then click "Properties" on the pop-up panel. A new window with several tabs should appear. Click "Local Files" then "Verify integrity of game cache." This should scan, repair, and (if needed) replace all files associated with the game. I hope this helps.

I pay for 2 megabits (not megabytes) per second in speed. On good download servers (Steam) I usually float between 50 and 110 kb/s download speed, while lower end servers I usually download 30 kb/s on. On game servers hosted in central or eastern US (near me) I usually get between 70 and 90 ping on them.

I have a rather bad internet connection myself, considering what others have in my region. On Teamspeak servers, there are pictures called "banners" which are shown in the upper right hand corner throughout all of the rooms. If said picture is a GIF (an animated picture) it usually gives me lag spikes (quick jumps in ping from, for example, 90 to 140, or even to 600+ briefly). So if it's one solid image, there should be no problem, from my experience. :)

I like the "subject," sounds like a designer brand. Anyhow, folks! I made some of these crests using http://rpg.uplink.fi/heraldry/?template=main, as shown in June 2014's signature design thread. These are not meant to be signatures, but I have no problem with people using these for whatever their fancy may be. I hope some hints of French and Italian can be tolerated for the text below each crest, as these are inspired by crests of actual places. Some are fictional too. Enjoy! Note, I use Paint.NET sometimes to edit the pictures slightly, such as the text in the first seven, and to tweak the field coloration in the Francia crest, for example. So don't be discouraged if you don't get immediate results like this with the same program. :)

Aww ... no revenge ... I see how it is :P (actually, I'm perfectly fine with this rule) Stake hurlers and tons of cats (the massive wooden shields of wheels) are devastating against ice witches, but I think an army on the move without a proper number of these may may easily whipped out, unless they have plenty of crossbowmen. Perhaps a rule against witch spams (and crossbows for that matter) should be made too? (I know you and Aleks love those silly things)

A possibility is to change the texture of the moat to the river texture, and smooth the edges (except in paths meant to be dug in) with the river water tool. But that would only work in the editor, and not in all cases even then. :( Another possibility is to use the marsh / swamp texture to smooth the edges, like mentioned above, but this may be harder to do. The moats in SHC and SH1 are a bit blocky too, but the tiles are much smaller (and we can't zoom in too far) which makes it look better. If one imagines the in-game tiles as pixels, then the older games would look more "High Definition" due to a higher resolution (view is farther away from the earth). I hope that isn't too confusing. :)

I sometimes build lots of woodcutters, mills, and waterpots, but only in my castle designs that act more like walled cities with huge populations. But I don't use any tricks to build up a massive army in a short amount of time, unless if that includes turning off some buildings (weapon makers usually) to make a hasty defense force if my offensive army is destroyed and my castle is poorly defended. :) I usually don't use portable shields, but I'll miss them a little. I'll feel better if everyone involved in particular matches agrees to not use them, however. :) I probably know Crusader's tricks too well, but I never use them against fellow humans. Should we mention the double crenelation trick, which makes assassins, siege towers, and laddermen useless? Or is that a valid tactic against assassin hordes?

We do have a small room in a Teamspeak server, but there's really no ID system for that. The admins (myself included) sometimes get out of control, and often times "nomads" (as I like to call large groups of people who shift into a room to talk to one guy) pass by "The Keep" (our room). If people don't want to use Skype or MSN, they are welcome to use that. :)

I searched the internet for some time, looking for a decent coat of arms designer. I found this, after some looking, and it seems the best free one that I've stumbled across: http://rpg.uplink.fi/heraldry/?template=main I have a decent antivirus program and had no tech problems with the website. To begin, press "Create Coat of Arms." A good idea is to press the "Update" button after every facet you add, to see how it looks. After creating, I pressed the "PNG" button on the lower right, which allows you to download the image. From there, I centered it and added the colored background (and text because I forgot) in Paint.NET (which explains the mild distortion).

Hello. Sorry for being so inactive recently, I have been rather busy. Here is my submission:

Thank you all for voting! :)

I don't have any screenshots from that game, but I will write a quick summary of my perspective. :) In hindsight I realize that I started my economy off poorly by attempting to rely on apple farms on the small patch of grass to my north. I would later replace these with hops and wheat farms to feed my large population. My castle took some time to build, looping walls around buildings I placed as I went, and I focused most of my forces on the front walls. I did this because I know Leto to be a seasoned campaigner who could hold his flank, but it was also a risk, as this was only Ak's third game. After Leto withstanding two or three waves of attackers, I realized that Eagle and Aleks were aiming to attack the iron mines. Seeing this, I asked both of my allies to hold that crucial, central position. After several glorious battles, we pushed off the enemy but were badly bloodied ourselves, even though we had inflicted far more casualties than were taken. For this, I congratulate the force of monks I recruited. :P It was too late when I noticed a mob of assassins scaling Ak's walls. I realized that one of my flanks was exposed, but did not act quickly enough to stop the destruction of my economy. One thing that still bothers me about Crusader is how fire can seep through walls, which caused the first Great Fire of 1204. This would happen once or twice more when my walls were breached, Aleks sent in slaves to burn down my bakeries. I sent my lord to Leto's castle when I thought I would surely lose, but astoundingly, the first wave of enemies was beaten back. I knew they would return in greater numbers, so I decided to take a vacation in my ally's keep. When my castle defenders were slaughtered, I knew that was the end of the Northern Alliance, but I rebuilt my granary behind allied walls and bought some food. When Leto's lord charged the enemy, I was left standing behind his grave, and ran to defend my granary to the bitter end, with the final words of "My granary - fooooooooood!" It was a fun game, I think, but next time we'll have to put a limit on assassins ;)

That's not needed, as we will be using Game Ranger. I will walk you through how it works if you want, for a future reference. :) If we did use a direct IP connection that would only complicate it more, I think. I do know how to forward router ports, but I find Game Ranger far easier to use for (most of) the games it supports.

Lord Chris: It should be alright. If 1.3 is giving you tech problems, you can just do a reinstall and go back to version 1.2, and that should be fine. I believe I've played games with people using 1.2 before, and there were no problems. Also, EaglePrince: 6 people may be a lot, but hopefully no lag occurs. My internet has been a bit shaky in the evening, but it is still relatively early here (and shall still be when we play), so there should be fewer people using the internet in the continent and slowing down my silly connection. I played with two Europeans yesterday in two matches against AI for some practice for today, and we experienced few connection interruptions.