EaglePrince

What I am do pretty often is to attack and defend with only two unit types - one range unit type and one melee units type. In fact this was my style of playing before I started playing in multiplayer. As a Crusader lord, I was finding it easier to decide what units I want to use before any fight begins, as I need to decide what weapons to produce. Those are mostly archers or crossbowmen and swordsmen. I also use engineers every time, so it would make three unit types, but still - those three units are the only units I would use. This always worked pretty well for me I must say. :) As about attacking with only one unit - I guess it could be an impossible mission at some cases. Even if those units are horse archers or crossbowmen, unless you have already taken down some opponents and you are able to train more troops than your enemy can! For example, I believe ti would be pretty hard to kill Caliph only by sending swordsmen with no archers to backup them. Also, the smallest, but still the best defended Wolf s castle would be pretty hard to conquer using only those guys because he can have lots of crossbowmen on his castle, but even then you would have to send more crossbowmen than he has. Maybe we could play a little with those stuff! I could start a game against some AI lords including Wolf and Caliph and to give them 8000 gold (crusader game). After I manage to build my defenses, I could send my save file to you guys, and we could see if some of those things are not possible? :) I do remember very well how I was trying to win Principality of Antioch mission (the third Crusader States mission), when I was fighting against two Pigs which were across the river. This missions was almost impossible for me to win, because I didn't know how to construct catapults and how to train European army - I was trying to kill him with assassins and Arabian swordsmen, but most of those wee failures. In fact, I did manage to kill the southern Pig relatively easily, but the northern one was really hard to defeat. Oh, and by the way, this is the mission where I learn how to trade. :D I was building market, but I was expecting for it to bring me gold somehow (just like iron miners bring me iron without my commands), although I saw nothing was happening - in this mission I saw what options do I get when I click on my market. :) Sweet memories. :) Perhaps in this same missions I found out how to produce produce weapons and how to train European units, but I'm not sure about that. I am certain about finding out how to get gold from selling goods. Also, I do remember how I was playing this same mission and how I was producing weapons there, but that could be some other attempt to win this mission again.

Nice tactic! When I attack Caliph, as I often use swordsmen as the only melee units, my tactic is to send them in groups of twenty men. I first attack him with catapults or trebuchets, and when I destroy few towers in front of his keep, I send the first group of swordsmen, and some crossbowmen. The job of crossbowmen is to take down engineers with boiling and flame throwers. Just after the first group of swordsmen I send another group, and after that one I also send the third group (if I have more then 40 swordsmen). This way it will not be possible Caliph to burn all my invading army at once - I can lose up to 10 or 20 men in fire - no more than that, before I make it to kill him. I wasn't thinking about use of spearmen much (except in some war scenarios), but now when you said it, they might be very useful. :) Now when I think about it, in this case - when besieging Caliph, they could be better choice for the job not just than swordsmen (which is not very hard to notice) but than pikemen as well. Spears are being produced pretty fast as I noticed - one can easily raise a massive spearmen army... By the way, I used spearmen in one multiplayer game yesterday - the map we played had no iron, and opponents were buying iron to produce swords and armors for knight, while I was attacking with horse archers, assassins and spearmen. It was pretty interesting and dynamic game. My team won, by the way. :)

Then I see only what I should be able to see.

That's right.

You're right, that's especially useful when you haven't enclosed your castle yet, and when horse archers come close to your keep and start killing your people. Although it will depends of how many archers does the enemy have on his castle walls. If he has lots of archers, like Snake or Caliph, I'm afraid you will have to destroy almost every tower before sending spearmen to attack him. Similar thing is when you want to attack a castle inside of which are lots of strong melee units - such as macemen inside Pigs castle. Still, they can be useful, but in my opinion, you would have to quick fast all the time, and always to be ready to attack again. Also, you would have to refrain from sending those guys too quickly on enemy. But it is all possible, and perhaps it could be easier to kill the opponent this way than buying iron (if you have no irons mines) to train stronger units. I used slingers a lot when I was a kid - I was combining them with Arabian bowmen, and they were doing the job. :) And speaking about fire throwers - the are far from underrated, at least to me. :) I do remember :) , although I must say that horse archer are not weak units - they are stronger then European archers, and they can fire while riding which is great. Yes, it would be, but if you have swords and armors, and enough gold. :) Training macemen or knight is always better than training spearmen when you can train same amounts of those units, especially if we consider that the speed we can train our troops is limited. :) If those slaves are the only units attacking your castle, then yes, but certainly 4-5 archers are not enough for me to feel safe. But if your castle is under attack by horse archer for example and slaves at the same time, one of them can reach your granary and set it to fire. ;)

This is what I was able to see when you created a new tread: http://i1189.photobucket.com/albums/z427/samir89ns/images%20for%20forums/ssstrongholdnation1.jpg And this is what I saw when I followed the link to see the tread: http://i1189.photobucket.com/albums/z427/samir89ns/images%20for%20forums/ssstrongholdnation2.jpg

Well, I guess that every forum which is tending to grow into a larger community is a real magnet for those guys with no good intentions. :) I also agree BB code is easier to use. :)

Now I saw you replied me there, Chris. If you did create another topic, or post a reply in some older topic there - I wasn't able to see it this time. :)

After your reply I googled a little... There are ways to automatically convert html code to bb code, which is nice, and I'm sure I'm gonna use those. :) I understand that about html code - there are lots of people who just wait to misuse those great options html offers. :/

Well, in Stronghold Crusader and in Stronghold 1 each units has its advantages. The only problem is when we don't see how we could use those cheap and weak units. Spearmen are the ones that are the most underrated among all units perhaps! Besides slingers maybe... But still, in some skirmish games I have recently started to use spearmen: I always build several fletcher's workshop (for bows) and poleturner's Workshop (for spears). Spearmen are too weak when you send them outside our castle, they are especially vulnerable to enemy archers, but if you are aware of this, you will keep them away from enemy archers, and they will be able to defend your archers from enemy melee units. They are especially useful when opponent send slaves or other units to your castle, quarry, or something else. They are very useful when you need melee units to protect your granary, armory and other vital buildings, AND you can save more of your people and resources. When a swordsman kills few of your woodcutters, oxes and fletchermen, you also lose those goods they were carrying. In fact, whatever units you use, you always have to pay attention to their vulnerability, because each of unit has them. :) I could say archers are underrated as well, but they are better than crossbowmen in stopping spearmen army, or slaves on their way to burn down your castle.

I have created a test topic there, and I can access it (just as I should be able to). As far as I see it, it works just the way it is supposed. There is only one more thing still... I believe that members can see if something was posted there, just like I saw that you were posting something, and I saw names of those topic with names of members who posted latest (unread posts there). Maybe you could do those two thing, just to test it once again - maybe that was fixes later: to post a reply on a topic in which I wasn't involved, and to create a new topic. I would tell if I can see some of those info. I guess I shouldn't be able to see none of those thing.

Hey, guys! I don't know if you wanted to do this thing this way, or this is something you're not aware of... When some regular forums members visit the website (counting me as well) they can see your forums Castle Courthouse and Site links, but they are not accessible, as they are protected. I assume you also wanted to hide those two? I am providing a screenshot to show what I'm exactly talking about. Regards!

Hi, I meant to ask if it is possible to enable us to choose HTML or BB code for description of our files? It's not that I want to do something with HTML there, it's just that Stronghold Heaven has HTML descriptions, and if I wanted to submit my files I uploaded there before, I could simply copy the code (and do some minor corrections perhaps). This way, if I have some more images in those descriptions there, I wouldn't have to "translate" those from HTML to BB code... :)

I'm glad you like them. I also hope you like the English one enough to use it in game. :) EDIT: If you want, I could using same method create a shield for you, Chris? I do remember you have the one with dragon in flaming background - I could easily use that one for Stronghold Crusader shields as well. :)

I have finished my work on shields for Stronghold Europe. I hope you'll like them, they are available for download now, and they can be used in game.

I have created two new shields. Their faces.bmp files have not been published, but if someone wants, I would send them to him. For now, the plan is to create some more prior to publishing.

Well, that's something I'd call a sufficient internet speed... I had 1.5 megabits until recently.

This is my edited face. You shall see it in our next battle! :) I have moved the sword a little, and changed the color of steel to brighter colors, and some other stuff... I think it's satisfying now. :) This time I am posting it with red background, as sword hilt is more visible this way.

In that case I shall use that "Oaf" taunt. :) By the way, what is your internet speed, Charles?

I will join in, only I will see what exactly shall I do. :) I'm a gonna post a screenshot of my castle, or perhaps something else. I was thinking about creating shields for Stronghold Crusader inspired by shields that will be in Stronghold Crusader 2. Does anyone have pictures of those shields that should be included there? Also, I came to an idea how to make my shields better, and to look almost like the ones originally created by FireFly. Using this method I have created a new shield for myself, and I think it looks good. This is how it looks right now, although I am considering to recreate it, and to put there a different sword... I'll see about that. I was creating those shields before, but with this method I achieve the face to look more like it has smooth edges... I've always struggled with that problem.

I agree. :)

I build lots of woodcutters myself, but I believe I always have less then 30 of them though... Although I'm not sure about that, but I do believe most of us build less then 30. Nevertheless, I don't say using "sleepers" should be forbidden - if you need to build an army fast, than why not to use this thing - an AI lord would use it as well. You may need that to strike an enemy once again before he repairs his castle and defenses, or you may find your castle vulnerable, and in this case why not to use this to build a bigger army. You also don't need to shut down weapons workshops - I always tend to shut down those ones who are less necessary at the moment. For example, stone quarries, or even iron mines (if I have lots of iron on stockpile). Sometimes I also shut down bakers and mills as well - there nothing wrong in shutting down those, the only problem is when someone builds more of those than he needs for his economy. Well, yes, portable shields themselves are interesting part of the game, and they are nice thing, but if players don't exploit them putting them and archers in the same place it would be better... Still, it is hard to accomplish something like that, and also, since it is possible to send shields on towers, it is better not to use them in my opinion. Well, I guess we should add that as well, I haven't used that, and I didn't cross my mind while writing those rules. Besides that we could also add building small walls before high walls, which also disable assassins from sneaking into the castle. They would be able to climb on smaller one, but that cannot climb from small to high... There is a natural way to stop assassins - one can always dig moats, and that is the best protection. :)

In that case, TeamSpeaker would be nice to be added to profile info. I do know some guys use TeamSpeaker while playing, as it enables player directly to speak to each other, which can be useful. :) Although I would like to add that I have noticed that many players now use the "Oah" taunt (F1) when they want quickly to tell his ally to pay attention to something. That can be useful one as well. And, by the way, I do not want to suggest that we should all have TeamSpeaker and use it during the game - I only say it can be useful, but I believe I saw some players using it, and they were causing lag. Maybe this won't be the case now - now people have faster internet connections though...

I just meant to tell. I won't be able to play this evening, but I did assume that the contest is open until tomorrow midnight? When I was thinking that, I also meant on midnight in my country, but then I remembered it is not the only timezone in this worlds. :) So it is open until tomorrow midnight by the latest timezone, right? :)

Thanks for reminding! I did try this scenario, and I will try to make some nice score this evening or tomorrow. :)