EaglePrince

I think you don't have to look into any solution. I believe that this what happened was only a bad luck, because we had no problem during entire game, and at one moment it started to lag. I think it was about some update being downloaded or something like that - I'm almost sure it was nothing about internet or router settings. I hope you will be able to play with us. It depends of how you fight I think. If you give him enough gold, like we did it our latest game, he would be sending lots of troops to attack. Also, Wolf is probably the strongest, and he also trains some troops that Lionheart (such as Arabian bowmen and crossbowmen), and he uses some other tactics, such as cow throwing, and putting pitch around his castle. He can be a tough opponent, but sadly, sometimes he builds too large castle - he spends too much resources on that, and that makes him weaker. Also, bigger castle he builds, it is easier to besiege, as his troops are not concentrated. His smallest castle is the most efficient - in attack and in defense alike. Also, Caliph can be tough, especially if you put him close to you. If you don't watch, he could put your castle on fire, and would be a problem. :) Wazir is strong as well - he is similar to Caliph in a way, but he has larger economy, and he is able to send powerful attacks - he uses horse archers a lot. The downside is the fact that his castle is exposed to fire, but if he is behind his allies, he could be a problem to you. Emir is also strong, but his tactics are not so great - he relies on massive Arabian swordsmen army, and he is easier to kill. Saladin can also be powerful - you only need to give him time to build his castle - so it is better to put him behind his allies (Caliph for example).

I still see nothing. :( I still haven't seen "new items" there.

Thanks, Chris! :) Both of those two maps are great! But, if you ask what's that we would like to see in some newer map (to fight the AI lords), then I think that a map similar to Anderton would be great. The only differences I would ask for it that the one player which is on the southern hill not to be on a hill, but on the same level as most of the map. Than that position would be more challenging, because this way catapults almost always miss their targets. Still, I wouldn't like that to be entirely flat - some smaller trench or something like that could be fitting there. Those trenches on Anderton are really great - they really made my fight against Caliph a lot harder while playing the game few days ago. Also, a map on which one player would be in front of the two of his allies would be really nice. :)

I have submitted the map, it's called The Lost Crusade. Only I will only have to ask moderators to move the map from Crusader skirmishes to Crusader Extreme skirmishes. I chose the wrong category. Sorry about that.

Here's an idea then!:) Next time wi sitch positions with Vetka? Then you would have to deal with Caliph as well! Also, one advice for fighting him, when he's close to your castle, and has more gold. Most likely you will not be able to defeat his bowmen on lookout towers; if that is the case, it is smarter not to bulid a castle with keep in center. Then I build my castle and economy as far as possible from him, and I avoid the conflict with his bowmen. In this specific case, I would build almost all economy western from my keep. Later you can build mangonels, and fire at him from distance.

For now I have that edited The Host map. I'll see if I'm gonna be able to create a new map, as I still have a lot of work to do. I passed that exam, but now I have another task to do at the universiti. Nevertheless, if I find some time, I would definitely create one, or at least edit one of the old or original ones ones.

You can count me in. :) By the way, I have edited Extreme map The Host. I will post that version later today at downloads section. I removed all outposts from the map, and I moved one keep from the island to the southern coast. We could play that - my idea was us to be north of the river. We could play the same map we played yesterday, but I came to this idea because this way we would be closer to each other, and we would be able easier to work together. I feel like Vetka didn't like his position yesterday. :( Also, we could create a whole new map as well, where one of us would be under constant attacks, while others would be behind helping him. I do realise this is a Crusader event, not Crusader extreme, but if we could have more participants with Extreme, we could play that. We don't have to use powers at all, and also, we wouldn't be limited with army size for example. I also hope Chris will manage to fix his problem with Crusader. :)

Vetka, Mathew and I played an Extreme game on Vetka's Anderton map. I was in the western position, Mathew was in the south-west, while Vetka was on the southern hill. We picked those positions because I assumed my position will be the hardest, as Vetka would have tactical advantage being on the hill, and Mathew was protected by the two of us. We fought against two Caliphs (north-west and south-east), and three Lionhearts giving them 8000 gold and setting it to Crusader game. Just like we expected it was a hard game. The map is unbalanced, so we had no stone, unlike our opponents. After a while Mathew and I built our castles, while Vetka was only building his economy with few defensive structures, but he did train a large army of horse archers. Those horse archers did help to me once, as I was under constant attacks. I was very slowly growing stronger. After the game dropped us two times, Vetka wasn't able to continue, so Mathew and I continued the fight alone. Soon we launched our first attacks! Mathew tried to take down the Caliph in south-east, but his first attack failed, although he did deal him a lot of damage, and he was close to kill him. At the same time I was attacking the Caliph in the north, as killing him was the key for me growing stronger. My castle was being attacked by Lionhearts catapults and trebuchets, so I needed stone that from the valley desperately. Soon I decided to launch my attack to strike down the Caliph in the north. I sent about 30-40 crossbowmen and about 50-60 swordsmen, hoping those crossbowmen would eliminate the flame throwers on Caliphs keep. Sadly, crossbowmen failed, so swordsmen were left alone inside Caliphs castle while flame throwers were still there ready to burn down my invading army. After fierce fighting inside that burning inferno, they made it to reach the keep, and to put down the Caliph. They returned home as heroes! At that time Mathew was launching the new attack on the remaining Caliph. I sent my troops that had just returned home to help him. I sent those swordsmen, and I also sent some crossbowmen. At the same moment my army arrived to the south, Mathew was attacking Caliph. He killed him, while I helped him there only with my crossbowmen. The Caliph was killed before my swordsmen could reach his castle. After those two were killed, the Lionhearts were easy pray to our invading armies which became massive by that time. I believe we had more than 150 swordsmen, and more than 100 swordsmen (combined), and we also had engineers and gold to build any siege equipment we needed. We were also sending reinforcements to that army. I also sent more than 100 horse archers before attacking the one in the middle, and about 60 more swordsmen before attacking the last Lionheart which was positioned on the hill in north-east. So, the first one to fall was Lionheart in the east, then the one in the middle, and soon after that fell Lionheart in the north-east. After killing the last one I received 7000 gold, which I shared with Mathew sending him half of that. :) It was an exciting game, and I'm sad Vetka was not able to continue to play with us. I'm sure we'll be more lucky next time. :)

I'm sad Chris wasn't able to join our fight, but I hope he will be able to fight side by side with us some next time. :) The game itself was great - we played a similar game like Vetka and I did last time, only we played Crusader game giving AI lords advantage (8000 gold). I'm only sad that Vetka was not able to continue the game, so Mather and I had to continue the fight on our own. At some moment the game started to lag, and Vetka's ping was high (about 1000). At one moment we were all dropped from the game, and at one moment only Vetka was dropped, due to those lag. I am sure it was some temporary issue - perhaps Windows (I guess it would be possible) started downloading the update or something like that, or it was some temporary issue with the connection. As this was a great fight, I will write about it at Stronghold Crusader epic battles.

If you start to fight, and face a defeat, have a look if I'm online. Then we could return to that same land together, to pay those AI lords our dept! :)

I'm still in bus, and I'm coming home. I think I would come in 20-30 minutes. But you don't have to wait, I understand. ;) When I arive home I would come over at GR, to see if your game crashed or something like that. :D I don't want to take too much of your time waiting for me. ADDITION: I would be able to come by 8:00 by Central European timezone, but Vetka does have work to do later today.

Hey, guys, I'm sorry I wrote nothing till now.. I will not be able to come when planed, so if you guys want to play, feel free to start without me. I'm going to be about one hour late. I stayed at work longer than I expected. :( ADDITION: I wanted to let you know earlier, but I have only short five minutes breaks, and during those I don't make it to do almost anything.

I'm glad to hear that! Well, I think it was slow on both parts, because I did set it up too easy. Also, my idea was to play a normal game with computer advantage, but it is possible that I forgot to give AI lords the advantage. :/ Maybe I did not forget that, I'm not quite sure. I think that too! Of course, if one more person wants to join the game, we could give them 40000 gold I think.

We play another one tomorrow. :) Sorry, I wasn't clear about that - I added that to my previous message now. I have created another event for that game.

Vetka and I played a nice game yesterday. We do play to play another one tomorrow, but giving the AI lords more gold, because with 4000 they were not as strong as we expected. On the other hand, this is what happened when I gave them 20000 gold. :) Vetka and I fought against two Sultans, Lionheart, Wolf, Caliph and Saladin. Today I tried to fight against similar alliance: only I fought against three Lionhearts, Sultan, Wolf and Caliph, and in alliance with Snake. This was the outcome - although I didn't finish the game. I am sure I will do better with human ally. :)

That does sound interesting! We could try that. Do you want to try that now (I know you said you have work to do). I would find some map where you would be protected by my stronghold and troops, and you could be behind.

What I meant to ask is - do we need to produce as much bread as possible (in that case we wouldn't have to save that bread), or we need to gather the bread (in that case we would need to have as much bread as possible in our granaries). From your answer I did realize that it is the second case - we need to have the bread in the granary. :)

Well, do can play Extreme as well! Only I think that none of those two is working to Chris right now. On the other hand, if you were able to play, it would be better to play an Extreme game, than not to play. That way you don't have to reinstall the game, and Extreme is almost the same as Crusader. We can play Extreme without outposts and using powers. :)

I will join this contest. By the way, until when is it open? :) ADDITION: Do we need to produce bread, or we need to gather the bread?

I'll try to think of some solution.

I'm sorry for asking this - I believe you already wrote that somewhere... You cannot install the older one, and the reason for that is your older CD being damaged or something like that? If you did write about that, could you give me the link to that topic, so I wouldn't be asking questions you already answered? :)

I taught you were able to play HD version... How about Stronghold 1? I really taught how Crusader is compatible with Windows 7. :/ Well, if that's so, I am never switching to Windows 8 or Windows 9 (which is going to be released next). Or I could try installing some version of Windows 8 or 9 (if I have to), see if Crusader works (without entering the code), and if not - back to Windows 7. :D

You mean, you can run it, but only HD version? Or you cannot run it at all? :(