EaglePrince

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)

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

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. :)

Well, yes, that is my weak point, those buildings can get burned, but I tend to build those behind my castle, so Caliphs slaves can't reach them nor any ballista is able to set them on fire. Regarding those two missions you just won, you did it great! Speaking about your castles there, well, you weren't actually able to do something like that, that map was too small, and it was more important to have defensive structures... And of course, in this case Lionheart would have fired from mangonels at your castle if you didn't do that first, so it was all necessary. Also, you were able to build a small castle afterwards, but that wouldn't be much fun though, considering that the was was already won. :) You are correct, their tactic isn't much impressive, but that's why I find it fun to fight against AI lords with as less starting goods, and less resources around my castle, while I also take care that AI lords have enough resources to give me their best. :) If he doesn't have enough stone around he wouldn't decide to build some iron mines instead just to sell those and buy stone if needs or train more troops. I mean, that's just one simple thing, while I understand that it's not an easy task to make AI lords more intelligent when it comes to fighting. Maybe in other games, but in Stronghold when they should know how to attack a castle (which may have plenty of defensive structures) most effectively - that wouldn't be indeed a hard task. :)

Thanks. :) The map is called Petrovaradin. It can be downloaded from Stronghold Nation downloads central. My mom made the map, and this time I was playing with her. I was in northeast while she was in southeast. Northwest from me was Caliph, while southeast was the Pig, and in the northwest position was the Wolf. In the valley were two Wazirs and Emir - Emir was in the western position, while on the other two, closer to us, were Wazirs. It was a crusader game, and we gave computer the advantage - they started with 4000 gold. We tried with 8000 gold as well, but I haven't played Crusader for a while, and we couldn't handle it this time like that, we gave up. :) Then we decided to give them only 4000 gold, and then it was less a mission impossible. :) First I took down Caliph (after I set my economy and defenses), and then I heard the Pig talking "Pig don't like this...", and I was like "oh, right, I could kill you as well"... :D Before attacking these two guys I had weakened them by mangonels by the way. Later we started attacking Wazirs from the hill with trebuchets and ballistae - we destroyed their defenses and we set their castles to fire. Later we easily killed both of them. Emir was next one to go, now we both had huge armies he simply wasn't able to handle. After that we had even more troops, and Wolf was defeated pretty easily as well. :)

Well, I'm glad I got you in the mood, you now showed us a nice castle. :) Regarding multiplayer, I know... There are many players who spam buildings that they don't "actually need". That is, they don't build mills so they could produce flour faster, they build it to get troops fast, and also to get more gold - they make large population, they set food rations to zero and taxes to maximum. People would slowly leave the castle, but as there are so many "unneeded" workers the players economy wouldn't suffer even they people don't have food and people pay those cruel taxes. We here consider that as a "less honorable" way of playing, and we avoid using any such tricks and exploits of the game. ...so, if that is why you don't prefer multiplayer, that's because you played with the wrong people. :) Or, to be more precise - there are people who like to play in your playing stile. They care more about winning, while we care about other things more. Oh, and regarding those "sleepers" (that's how we call those unneeded workers), even though we don't build buildings we don't need only to get those sleepers, it is useful that you are able to shut down a group of buildings to get more troops fast, and then to turn them on again... You can always do that, but you do that with buildings that you actually need: if you shut down bakeries you will have less bread, if you shut down quarries you will lose some stone, etc... I myself in multiplayer only shut down quarries and iron mines now and then, others don't like doing that at all. :) I don't do that with woodcutters, as that way one can get "cheap sleepers" - 3 wood per 1 sleeper only. That's useful if you don't want to let your opponent recover from your attack and to attack again quickly, or if you need to defend yourself. :) Here are my castle, and castle of my ally - we played a game yesterday.

Thanks for sharing this with us, Mathew. There are some of us here that play games without going online on Steam, and we wouldn't notice this issue.

Nice battle report, my lord. :) Speaking of way how we build our castle - yes, it always depends of our mood, whether we want to play a relaxed game, or we simply want to fight. :) Also, in essence, I still do similar thing as you did this time - first I build defenses towards the enemy, that is on the side where I am most likely to be attacked. After I build defenses there, then I would enclose the castle. Enclosing the castle is not my primary goal here, it is also a matter of aesthetics or a principle... Well, to be more precise, in singleplayer it is like that, but in multiplayer I enclose the castle as soon as possible, as with human opponent you never know what's next they're going to do. :)

You did great there I see. :) Good job, and I see while attacking Saladin you took no risk. Thanks for the screenshots, that way we can see a little bit more how you fought. I see you like wall up yourself, I usually build a "complete castle" - just like an AI lord would. I mean, I don't make only walls in front of my castle, I build it around the keep. And, of course, just keep us posted, we here like Stronghold games, and we like to speaking about that topic, and here about battles others fought. :)

Glad to see another Stronghold knights come here. :) You may not know me, or remember me, from there, as I came there relatively late considering that the game is from 2001. I starting spending some time on places like these since 2009. or even some time later. Sure, no problem, in fact, that's exactly what I had in mind, and I believe that it will suit me just fine - I'd be chilling in my castle while you do all the fight. :) In fact, I could try limiting myself only to training archers, spearmen and constructing catapults - that way I could be able to help you in defense, help in your attacks, and send you some goods and gold, while it would be really hard for me to kill an opponent. Nice avatar though! :D

Welcome to Stronghold Nation, Frankel! I see fun times are upon you. :) Oh, also, now it came to me - if there is any mission you find interesting to play with someone, let me know. I would find it interesting to join a mission with you - you to fight on the same position where you are in the Crusader Trail mission, and your opponents as well, while I would be somewhere aside with my small castle as a support. I could send you some goods and gold to help you, or even some troops into your defense, though I think it would be more interesting not to help you in attacks. :) By the way, I'm guessing that you meant on Stronghold Knights when you said "the old site"? :)

Thanks for these explanations. I didn't know about those two offline modes how you described it. Very useful. :)

Thanks! Yes, it does help, and even though those stores are from US, some of them are certainly in Europe as well. I think there is Walmart in Germany, and from there shipping shouldn't be a problem. :)

Well, that would also be interesting, though it would be even better if we had fog of war in this game. Regarding January, I think that most of us have the same issue, we can't tell anything for sure. :)

Even though I won't be able to fight side by side with you, I am looking forward to read your battle reports. :)

I agree about the screenshots. And yes, the map seems really good, too bad I wasn't able to fight with you, my fellow lords. :)

I am sorry guys, it turned out I won't be able to play on December 17, I will have to stay at the university longer than I taught... :( I mean, normally I would come home around six o'clock (Central European time zone), but this time I will have to stay there at least until eight... I am sorry, guys.

I won't be able to join because of work, but I came here for another matter. :) It is interesting to see how you Russians tend to speak English similarly as we (from Serbia) would do. :D In English it is topic - what we call tema (????) in our language, so I believe it is not a coincidence that you chose to say "theme" instead of "topic" or "tread". :) Also, I don't say that you shouldn't have said "theme", I'm just saying I find it interesting what word you chose.

It is fixed, thanks, Chris. :) Sure, no problem. :)

Indeed, and if only others could see your fancy lord, that would be even greater. :)

This seems really good. Count me in. I may not be able to test the map quickly because of my work, but I try to do it, and I would find that quite enjoyable. :)

We shall see about that, but even if no ones else joins it will be fun. :) By the way, we could play Forest Realm map I made if you want. http://stronghold2.heavengames.com/downloads/showfile.php?fileid=2424 You can download it from here as well. http://www.stronghold-nation.com/downloads/category/stronghold-2/kingmaker/ @Lord_Chris, when I try to see the description I get a page with this message:

Sure, I have already sent you one personal message here at Stronghold Nation. :) Well, I could play around 19:00 by Central European timezone. What about others? Is someone going to be able to join us? :)

Thanks, Chris. :) We shall see about maximum number of catapults yet. In my opinion a player can defend from catapult attack relatively easily by using mangonels - if he has enough stone in the stockpile that is... I indeed managed to defend from bunch of catapults, in some battles I myself taught I won't make it, but in the end I did it. Catapults themselves don't hurt you so much, the problem is when the opponent manages to raid your workers - that's when catapults become a problem. For example, Banshee, I hope you remember that war with Nigel - what costed me my lords life the fact that you raided my stone quarries. Nigel was also doing his part in the north, I needed more wood when his archers started killing my woodcutters there. :)

Oh yeah, we should test that. :D My castle wouldn't fall before six catapults. :D:cool: