EaglePrince

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. :)

I have changed the first message in this topic, for others to be clear what are the rules. :)

I like how this text was written - very interesting, and informing for younger players. Still, just not to misinform those younger ones, I'd like to add this. Saladin (or Salahadin) was one of the greatest and wisest rulers of all time. He was, everything what you can see about him in Stronghold Crusader: wise, just, fair, kind... In one battle when Richard lost his horse, Saladin sent him another one, after he noticed how bravely he was fighting! Saladin was the one who spared Christian after taking Jerusalem, and he didn't take away their dignity. This could be because he was a noble ruler, but he was certainly one of the wisest, and he know that one evil leads to another. So there were two kings - both of them were noble and great rulers, and great warriors, but those were the circumstances: they were in opposite sides, and each of those sides had their side of story. :)

The only reason I said that with throwing cows is because dead animals were being thrown into enemy city to bring illnesses there, so cows were indeed effective - but only when being thrown inside a city, because they have no safe place where they could dump dead animal body. But that is not the reason no to throw cows in Crusader, I agree that we shouldn't go too far. I also agree about catapults. I believe we could eject those three orange rules, and to leave only those that are read. So those would be our rules: I apologize, I realize I was writing too much about it, and in the end I came to only those rules I originally mentioned. Essentially, only population spamming is forbidden, and portable shields.

You mean limit on cows thrown by trebuchets at once? That could be good. The only thing I am afraid of, is that too many rules can repudiate players... The rules should be simple. But we could add that to those rules that are not mandatory. There is also one more thing that we could do - to set a limit on catapults that one player can have at one moment. This way it would be less possible to for some players to spam with catapults. Still, on the other hand, some players play defensive game only, and they build their castle with many towers, and to fill those towers with crossbowmen. Such player can be defeated only using catapults, as this tactic exploits crossbowmens greatest weakness - they are slow. :) But we do can add this with catapults (maximum number of catapults) to rules that are not mandatory, and it will be ok mostly? :) I believe 10 catapults / trebuchets would be good enough? EDITED THE THIRD PARAGRAPH.

After speaking to you guys, and some other players, I have come to these: limit at number of woodcutters (30 for example) limit at number of mills (5 for example) limit at number of waterpots (5 for example) no portable shields laddermen trick forbidden (training lots of cheap laddermen only to disband them, and to create high population for taking taxes. similar can be done with any other cheap unit) trick building walls around quarries forbidden catapult firing at troops (mangonels and trebuchets are allowed to do this) no cow throwing unless they are thrown into the castle no fire, or no putting enemy castle to fire only The red rules are the most important once. The orange ones are not mandatory. I mean, we cannot put to many rules - we do not want to simplify the game. We only want to make multiplayer game more enjoyable. Do you agree about these?

I have added two more rules, along with their explanations. Please, share your opinion with others. Those are the added rules: no catapult firing at troops (this doesn't apply on mangonels and trebuchets - only on catapults); and no cow throwing outside enemy castles. Please share your opinion with others.

Unfortunately, even if you did install the patch, you wouldn't know these would happen, so there's no need to apologize. I just hope that we'll be more lucky next time, and that all will work fine with Crusader. :)

It should have the patch to 1.3. This is the one I downloaded. http://www.gamershell.com/download_100085.shtml

Oh, we will! :D

Unfortunately, nothing else is crossing my mind right now... Did you try to reinstall the game? If that doesn't help, we should wait for Chris to respond - he is more experienced that I am. But for now, I can tell this... It is possible that firewall or antivirus causes the problem (some antiviruses could cause problems while playing games in multiplayer). Maybe you could try turning off the antivirus before trying to start the game at GameRanger? Also, speaking about firewall, Stronghold 2 should allowed to communicate through firewall - like this: I wrote this just in case, but for now it seems like it is up to antivirus or firewall...

Great, in that case I am changing game version to HD, so we could all play.

OK. But you would come? :) If yes, I am putting HD version in description.

Thanks for explanation. :)

I'm sorry for writing this again... I just meant to ask if it was intentionally done, or by mistake maybe. Not it is: knight bachelor -> knight banneret -> knight errant. Did we want it to be: knight bachelor -> knight errant -> knight banneret? I don't mean to open this topic again, I just meant to ask it just in case. :)

I'm sorry to hear that, you won't be able to come... But we will play another time. :) Bradley, how are you doing with non-HD Crusader? :)

For Skype one should enter his username, such as username789... Although, if you hesitate to add it - it is unnecessary. If we want to chat, we would most likely come online at GameRanger, as some of us might use Skype, some use MSN Messenger, some other use something else, etc... GameRanger is something that most of us will have, especially because we play Stronghold, Stronghold Crusader, Stronghold 2, and Stronghold Legends using this service.

One my friend from Slavic Warlords will join us as well. His nick is ~SW~ Sille.

Maybe it is a temporary problem... :/ Maybe you could try it again with someone. By the way, which game version do you have? I have tested it versions 1.4 and 1.4.1, and I can also see pother people playing wit those two versions. I guess it should work with other versions as well, but either way, all players must have the same version of the game. Also, after the game is started by GameRanger, minimize the game, and of the firewall is blocking the game.