EaglePrince

As you still don't know whether your game will arrive till Sunday, we will wait until Saturday, and then we will decide. My idea at this moment is to have the list of players who would want to join, and you are among them (as far as I understood it now). For this reason, I would be pleased if anyone who would want to join the game, let us know - no matter what version he, or she, prefers, or what version he, or she, is able to play with.

Hi, I'd like if we could gather at sunday, and play a Stronghold Crusader game. I hope Chris has solved this issue with game version. If not, I would be grateful to other, if they would reinstall the game, just so we could all gather and have fun. At this moment, my game version is 1.2, but I can easily patch for this event to version 1.3. As about the map - I am open to suggestions. Also, please let me know about the version - what version should we agree to play?

The main events will start at 13:00 (1:00 PM) EST, which equals 18:00 (6:00 PM) GMT. We will be using Game Ranger. Look at @EaglePrince's thread here for my Game Ranger ID to friend me. My friends list may be full, but you should still be able to message me. For those interested who cannot attend at those times: I may be available at other times during those days, and at certain times on other days. You can send me a private message over the forums to schedule another game if you wish. In case a bunch of people jump at the opportunity, I will be accepting people in order of those who contact me (be it on here or GR or another way), with a few reserved spots. Feel free to post below to reserve spots if you so desire, and if there are any suggestions for maps. Feel free to ask questions. :)

I'm glad you like the idea, I will post the template today. As about the last one, I do have a better solution - you will see it when I post the template.

Hi, I created this topic, as I believe we may function a bit better, when we want to schedule a gaming event. My motivation for this is our failure to organize ourselves yesterday to play Stronghold Crusader (some of us might not be aware of this, but I was in position to see those stuff), although we did have players who were willing to play. In this specific case, Charles of Tour was willing to play, and lord Chris was willing as well. I, as I informed you, was unsure, whether I will be able, or not. Nevertheless, Charles did come on GameRanger, and Chris did not, as he taught he wouldn't be able to participate this event because of the issue he's having with HD patch for Stronghold Crusader. So, my propositions are the following - this would be, what we would need to do, at organizing each event: to have a list of the potential participants (who said that would most likely join the game); all of us to agree which version of the game we'll be playing (this way all potential participants may prepare their games to be patched to the right version. Also, it is possible that one player is unable to get some patch, and if other are willing, (and of there are not many of those "others") they may reinstall and patch their games to the version the one participant with the issue has); to make two treads for the event, if the event is expected to last for two days (not necessary!) (this one is not necessary, it is all possible in one tread as well, but players should not be telling just "I will join, count on me", they would have to tell "I will come both days", or "I will come the second day, but I will be unable to join the first day"). For Stronghold 2 and Stronghold Legends have those versions that are common to be used in multiplayer, so this thing about the version is not necessary for them, but speaking about Stronghold 1 and Stronghold Crusader - players of those games are divided into those which do have HD patch, and those ones that do not. Sadly, as it turned out in our attempt to play less than a week ago, it is not possible to play a Stronghold Crusader multiplayer game, when some players have HD versions, and some do not. I believe we may assume the same applies for Stronghold 1 as well. Kind regards! EaglePrince

I just meant to tell, that I may be unable to play tomorrow - if I don't arrive in time, you may assume I'm not coming. I played one game with lord Chris this evening - it was an interesting game. :) We played one against the other, but with AI lords - I had one ally, and Chris had four of them, as he wasn't playing Stronghold Crusader in a while. Next time we play Stronghold 2, I am going to be the one who could use any help possible. :D

I have created new faces after: Gandalf the White, and Boromir from Lord of the Ring, and king Stannis Baratheon from Game of Thrones.

At gameranger doesn't matter who hosts the game - we will each other online, and then one of us will create a room. :) If anyone else wants to join our game, he may join - only we will be playing with non HD versions.

It was a fun game indeed. :) Speaking about the great fire - it happened to me once that my whole economy was caught by fire from the outside of the castle. I had thick wall just like you now, and I also had moats... It was a bit disappointing to me, as it does not seem to be much likely to happen, but it is possible in the game. As about your suggestion, I hope we won't be putting any limit on assassins. :) I will write down few things about them here, and I may also use some of that in some new tread "dealing with the assassins" if that could be useful for someone. It is pretty easy to defend from assassins, or at least to protect your lord from them: one most famous way is digging the moat. Even if you don't dig this moat around whole your castle, if you do it on the front size, it will still be effective, as this way assassins would have to attack you from behind, and this way it is more likely for you to notice them in time. another way to defend from them is to exploit the fact that they have no armor - they are pretty vulnerable to archers and bowmen. So, if you can hold them a bit with some melee units, or in any other way, you can give your archers enough time to wipe those assassins out. Also, crossbowmen are pretty effective against them. there is also one more thing that might help. You're not an AI lord, you're human, so you can do what would a human in real life in such a situation do - you can run a way from assassins. If you have enough archers, then you won't be forced to run away from your castle, then the only thing necessary would be to move away a bit, only to give your men enough time to slaughter them. Also, if you do not have enough archers, then you can completely run away to your ally's castle, and wait for him to set your castle free. This shouldn't be a difficult task if your ally has the right tactics. They are vulnerable to archers, so horsemen archers are probably the most effective unit against those guys. this one advice I'm giving right now is not about what could one player do - it's for the team. If one of your allies is attacked by assassins by surprise, you can all help him by sending him weapons and gold. He could train swordsmen and pikemen then, or maybe even assassins or Arabian swordsmen, and some more archers. The one who is under attack can have those recruits from his bakeries, mills, breweries and workshops that are inside of his castle. This will slow down the economy, but this might save your life. Of course, you can always combine more of those tactics. Besides these arguments "this might be pretty easy to deal with assassins", there is one more. I believe assassins are one of the most interesting parts of Stronghold Crusader, besides setting enemy castle to fire. :) Those two elements of the game are the two ones that are able to turn entire war. Even the most powerful player on the map can lose, if his economy is set to fire: then he will lose his population, his food, his economy - everything... He might survive only if he has enough army on his walls, so he can repel few more attacks and to stop setting up a new fire... But this will certainly cripple him for some time! Just like fire, there are assassins - they just come up by surprise, and just like we saw it, they can kill one of enemy lords by surprise... I believe this is the exciting part of the game - why would it have to be, that the one who is most powerful must win? :) Everyone can get killed by assassins or anyone's castle can be set up on fire if he's not on the watch. Also, I believe you might know how effective they are against knights. :D So I hope we won't be setting limits to assassins. :)

I could come to play at 20:00 (Belgrade - GMT +1), which would be 19:00 in London. :) If we don't finish the game, we can save it, and continue it next evening, or few days later.

I won't be able to play today, but we might play some other day. I would contact you through this forum when I am able, I can't afford to myself to play too often. :( ADDITION: I could play a game tomorrow in the evening. That would be at 21:00 (Belgrade), and in your time zone, it's 20:00 (London) I believe? I hope this could fit right for both of us? We could try playing a game against AI lords giving them 40,000 gold, or we could also try one of lord Vetka's Stronghold Crusader Extreme maps. We could try Ivrkard, or we could play Abertine. I would more gladly play Ivrkard, by the way. :) Also, if we play those, we would play without outposts (we wouldn't have them, AI lords on the other hand would), and we wouldn't use any powers. I hope you like the idea? :)

It says "The video you have requested is not available."... :( Well, we did learn something out of all that struggling to make the game work nicely. It is necessary to have all HD or non HD versions. After the game I have reinstalled the game, and it's 1.2 again, and if I am supposed to play a multiplayer game with people who have 1.3, I will simply patch it again. That's because some of guys with which I play sometimes as well have 1.1 version. So, Chris, if you want to play a multiplayer game, and you don't manage to patch it to 1.3, you can always play with me. :) We can start a game against AI lords and give them more money, and we can also play one against the other, but you can have some AI lords as allies. This could turn out to be pretty interesting, and I assume some other player would join us as well. :) By the way, did you try to install the patch from different sources? Maybe that could do something? I mean, maybe you downloaded the patch from gamers hell, and some other patch could work correctly - it is the fact that there is not only one HD patch. I believe mine is 1.3.00003 or something like that...

We have just fought a great battle, and I wanted to write about here something about it. But, before I start talking about that, I would like to apologize to those who might believe my ways of playing were unfair. We did agree that we wouldn't use sleepers, and I taught that I could turn off my quarries to get workers. I was thinking that, what I wasn't meant to do is building lots of woodcutters, mills and water pots only in order to recruit army from them and to take taxes. Those are trick I don't want to use either, I that is something I wouldn't call an honorable fight. Nevertheless, quarries I was shutting down were needed for my economy, and with turning them down I was losing some stone in fact. Also, if someone has five quarries, quarries can give him up to fifteen additional recruits, and that is not much - then this player would have 24+15=39 recruits available. Besides that, turning down your economy is something that would AI lord do as well - if he need many troops to defend himself, he would shut down his entire economy, and if he has gold and weapons, he would train as much men as necessary... The other thing is that I killed Ak with assassins. His castle was purely defended with archers only, and I saw my chance and I decided perform a surprise attack. I didn't rush him with assassins, I only attacked him, and in that moment, we were fighting a lot. Now few words about the game itself. :) We fought on the map The Wet Lands, we started normal game - with 2,000 gold in beginning, and we had 10 minutes no rush. Those were our position: lords Aleks S. I Ak Leto EaglePrince Charles of Tour This is really an interesting map - there is little oasis, enough stone, and some iron in the middle, which we should fight for. In the beginning, we all played a bit more defensive - I'd say I was the most aggressive one in this game. Leto, Charles and Ak took the iron in the middle with no fight - there was no way to stop them from that, as the iron was close to Charleses castle. As I saw Leto was the most powerful opponent, and as I taught he could only become more powerful by the time, I decided to attack him. This attack of mine failed - I tried to attack him with trebuchets, and crossbowmen guarding siege engines. After I destroyed some parts of his castle, I decided to send some assassins in, but when he trained swordsmen, and some crossbowmen, my men had no chance. Later I retreated. After that, I decided not to attack his castle - what I should do first was to attack iron mines in the middle of the map, and to weaken him this way. For a while we were struggling in the central part of the map around those iron mines, until Aleks and I made it to take control over that are. We even attempted to take down Charles, but we failed there. The next thing I decided was to continue fighting in central part of the map, so I was still sending the reinforcements there, but I was also collecting assassins, which I would send at Ak's castle, as he had no melee units guarding his lord, and he had only archers on the walls. Nevertheless, he was helping Charles a lot while we were attacking him a lot. This surprise attack succeeded! After Ak fell, I sent some assassins to destroy Charleses economy, as he was less guarded at that side of his castle. Aleks send some slaves to burn his economy, and this turned out to be pretty effective - his whole castle burned, and during this period we prepared to attack Charles while his economy was on the knees. The first attack at his castle failed, but he was weakened after this one. After that I was training more army to attack him again, so Aleks and I would attack him once more, and take over his castle, as he moved his lord to Leto's castle. I built two towers, and I attached those to his walls - our men climbed his walls, killed his archers and crossbowmen, and we took control over his castle. This was Charleses castle being controlled by Alekses and my units. After we succeeded in this I started my preparations to attack Leto from my castle, and Aleks was preparing to attack Leto from Charleses castle. When my trebuchets started aiming Leto's walls, the unexpected happened - Leto send his lord at Alekses knight which were inside Charleses castle, thus killing him self. Charleses lord was left alone where was Leto's keep - I sent my pikemen on his lord, and Aleks sent his knights. Knights were faster. I am sorry the game ended this way, but it was real fun! It was a challenge as it was 2 against 3, and those ones who were controlling the iron in the central region of the map were in a better position, as it was the only iron on the map. This was my castle from the game. I hope someone from the northern alliance will come here, and to tell us their side of story.

It turned out that the version does matter... The game was without you as well, after what I decided to patch my game to HD, as that was the only possible solution left, and it worked. I hope you will be able to install this patch, although I believe it is more simple for others to have 1.1 and 1.2 versions, and you to buy another copy of the game, like you said.

I have patch 1.4 and Deluxe. I can always look at the bright side. :) It is the fact that sometimes I didn't want to use those, as they can hurt or kill my men while attacking opponents... Nevertheless, it is a nice thing when one can have them in one place and support his units with them.

I have tried that, it didn't work.

I did try that, but there is no option like that offered for fire ballistae. :( I only have options for formation, and those ones for attack, patrol, stop, and disband. I'm playing 1.4 version. Should that option be available somewhere else?

I will also try to play with 1.2 version, and I hope it won't cause any problem. If some problems appear, we'll see what to do. :)

Hi, I wanted to ask you about this one... As far as I remember, fire ballistae were attacking the enemies when they come into their range (just like an archer would), but I have tried building those now, and I see that they take no action when an enemy appears. Is this a common behavior of them, or is there something I could do, so they do attack the enemy, and act aggressive? Thanks in advance! Regards, EaglePrince.

Are we sure, by the way, that the game won't lag if too many of us joins the game? Although I do like this, when we have an opportunity to start a game with more reliable players, I'm afraid it might be possible to for game to lag. Nevertheless, if it would lag, I suppose we could try playing without no rush - I hope this way chances would be smaller for game to lag. At least after some of us die. :)

I have added you id to the list, and I have also updated my own id number - this is the first account I have created, and I have decided to use this one, instead of that newer one.

In that case, I will try playing with 1.2 version, but I shall also have patch 1.3 prepared just in case. :)

Sorry for double posting, but I do it now, as I want you to see my new post... I guess we should deal what versions to use in this game..? As far as I have seen, versions 1.2 and 1.1 work fine together, but if some players have 1.1 or 1.2, and some have 1.3, that makes problems. I believe we should all have 1.3, or non HD versions?

Thanks, Chris, I certainly will! :)

Hehe, I like building a castle as well - I don't like to connect walls with edges of the map too. :) The only thing I could do is connecting the wall with a cliff. Whatever map we choose, it will be fun. :) Those two maps both look nice.