Asophix

Follow-up to my comment: I checked the potentially dangling bytes and I'm not too much smarter, but: potentially there is a pattern that could help us prevent malformed castle definitions. A little lengthy, savvy summary comes: LordBritian's parser in the original SHK identified two types of marker data: rally points and defenses. Rally points can contain position (x;y coordinate, 4 b each), and elevation toggles (4 b each). Maximum of 10. Defenses only have position (x;y coordinate, 4 b each). Maximum of 20. His assumption was that the component values for the X and Y coordinates are never 0, which is fine for most of the time. The catch is that this is not always true. My parser was ran on two potential marker sections that have no positional data, but filled bytes in the elevation data: Unknown 1 has a fixed first byte set to 1. This is uniform for all vanilla castles and carries no valuable info for us, so we can safely ignore this one. Unknown 2 has as many bytes set to 1 as there are guarding troops markers. Also: Troop Pool markers have as many bytes set to 1 as there are ranged defence markers. I struggle to understand what these bytes may toggle/influence. One possibility is default stance, another is that the bytes are simply references, kinda required helpers for the assigned troops to behave properly. It may take a little time to make sense of all of this.

That's been a long-standing bug that seems to be more related to the game itself. I'll have to double-check the definition more in detail.

Greetings to All! The Castle Editor for Stronghold Legends has been serving us well for almost two years now - at the time of writing -, as it allows for modifying castle layouts for all the Legends lords, in an intuitive and considerably user-friendly way. One example would be the Vlad Enemies pack by @ Sir Windows , which brings us Radu and a handful of other characters to fight in Skirmish mode. However, it is obvious that the Editor's design and overall serviceability does not hold up to what we would expect in current times, since this application is essentially a re-compilation of Lord Britian's SHK Editor, intended for SH2 from 2006. Even though the source code had been somewhat modernised and extended with a handful of nifty features, the underlying visual tech is still the original one. Due to its dated presentation appeal and challenging maintenance hurdles, I decided to start working on a re-implementation. The new Castle Editor aims to bring a similar editing experience that feels more like present times, powered by the same tech presented by our Lord Editors, while also preserving portability for your comfort. The key advantage is that the source code would be fundamentally similar, while the visual style can also reminisce that of SHL with colorful backgrounds and visual elements adapted from the game itself. Some more advanced features could also be added upon request, as always. As a recap, allow me to list the core features to be expected for the Castle Editor: Displaying a Lord's castle on a 100x100 grid overview, with small pictures sized exactly to the footprint of each building. Setting the order of buildings based on their priority. Placing troop markers in the layout to tell the AI where to send its defensive and patrolling units. Placing traps in various key locations. Placing 'no build' tiles in order to restrict the AI from building in places of patrol points, or the way of rolling logs. Taking note of a file history so that you can recall your favourite files from a bullet list. Automatic saving option. And more to come. At this point, the parsing and creation of a castle file is done, and the presentation is being worked on. Should you have any remarks or feature requests, feel free to comment or send a DM to my profile! Until next time, Asophix

Once upon a time, two influential and adventurous lords under the name of @ Asophix and @ Sir Windows decided to try their lucks in the vast desert. The tale of a prosperous, yet winding and long road with unforeseeable end on the horizon immediately hooked them on a quest. The initial conquest went admirably: dispatching rival warlords like harvesting wheat proved a far from difficult task for the two. Reaching the sixth signpost however on the trail, they met a large rival alliance in their path, who were protecting a large swathe of the land ahead. The two wanderers were forced to dig in on the narrow coastline, as the opposition were beckoning with their full might. This cooperative mission involves a whopping of 6 opponents - three Kahinahs, two Nomads and a safely tucked away Saladin - with a large real estate and a lot of resources. Asophix in the red colours took on the responsibility of protecting Sir Windows in green, who could safely build an initial economy, however the team had to be vigilant to quickly erect a rudimentary defense line, bracing for impact. For a Bloke to Go Broke The initial minutes were hurtful. Asophix knew from an earlier attempt how the immense pressure requires a steady number of troops, so he got up some walls with a tower in front with some help from his ally. He noticed that a rogue Bedouin Outpost was also pumping out troops, so he dispatched about 15 Camel Riders to dismantle the structure. In the meantime, Sir Windows was also immediately mustering a force of Crossbowmen reinforcing the front lines, while also building his economy in the nearby marshlands and the southern patch of oasis. Thanks to the defensive efforts, Asophix gained a stable foothold in his domain, but the AI enemies also were yet to arrive. And did they arrive in force. For the next 30 to 40 minutes, Asophix was heavily reliant on financial support from Sir Windows to hold his ground. The steamroll waves from the enemies concentrated around the stone outcropping close-by, defined by the Nomads' Skirmishers and Camel Riders and the Arabian Bowmen of the Kahinahs, who required slightly more time to build their siege forces. Asophix initially failed to seal the gap in the line, scraping the bottom of the barrel for Slingers and eventually for a few Slaves to dig moat where stone was inadequate. The southern part was supplied moat and a small Gatehouse, with Sir Windows deploying troops to these new locations. After a few unsuccessful siege attempts, he sounded the alarms with high volume: the Kahinah waves have arrived. Take the Brunt to Avoid a Punt Fire ballistae were constructed by the heathen temple guards, forcing to build a Tower Ballista while making gold off of excess wood and only one Fletcher's Workshop. Sir Windows mobilised the court carters and provided his ally with trickles of gold and equipment for Crossbowmen, which were used partially for gold as well. The computer-controlled units started putting a dent in Asophix's ranks, claiming the lives of some standing troops and Slingers. Brave Slaves were also thrown javelins at who were desperately trying to complete the front fortification lines. The camp suffered from the computer steamroll greatly, but the tower and the walls still stood. Whenever possible, Asophix built additional fletcher shops, while deluding his citizenry by spreading knowledge about the nutrition value of Ale. The peasants did not tarry to seek out the famous Inn in the town, forgetting their conservative dieting ways. Sir Windows's jaw also dropped upon seeing that his cheese shipments had nowhere to go, as Asophix's granary was not rebuilt after the Nomad's raiders destroyed it. Such a foolhardy decision goes against all principles - he thought, but he reluctantly pressed on as his teammate was integral at holding off the pressure, regardless of being a jester or not. Eventually, the defense line was complete. Sir Windows kept reinforcing its ranks with Crossbowmen and Skirmishers backed up by a few Fire Ballistae, while Asophix churned out the lesser mercenaries and ensured that stone is always available for closing the gaps in the north and in the southwest. Some Slaves also snuck out to quickly dig moat in the southeastern path to the oasis, resulting in the deletion of computer buildings and granting full claim over it for the valiant Sir Windows. Asophix was desperate to repair any holes in the line of rudimentary low walls, but eventually a moat was added to that section as well. Lashing Out to Leave No Doubt Sir Windows's green army was slowly accumulating behind the comfort of defense. His industry was going strong and the combined arms under the protection of Mantlets and Catapults eventually ventured out to take on the blue Kahinah, who was suffering high casualties constantly from our sentries overlooking the forest between the two teams. After a few more minutes, the economic power allowed Sir Windows to slowly crawl forward and methodically level one side of the Kahinah. The temple guard was huffing and puffing promising all sort of things that eventually never came true, as the green contingent of Skirmishers brought the Kahinah's heroic epic and heartbeat to a full stop with a dagger. With the blue troops' pressure relieved and receiving a nominal value of two thousand gold coins, Asophix's fletcher empire grew to unseen heights: fifteen fletchers were crafting crossbows from expensively imported wood, and eventually enough stone was bought to seal off the heart of the northern oasis. Additional square towers were added and parts of the main lines were pushed further west to secure the stone outcroppings. While the stabilisation of these positions took quite an effort, it paid its worth in full, as five stone quarries and an additional one from Sir Windows were built to bring in additional materials to cement (sic) control over the foothold. Sir Windows decided to give the word 'lavish' a new subtext by constructing his personal castle quarters in the heart of the lands, with some gardens for good measure. Soon the second Kahinah followed. Asophix got enough income to hire Arabian horse archers and field an army to repel the never-ending waves of computer troops, while Sir Windows were pushing forward with some reinforcements obtained from his castles. The black Kahinah was dispatched quickly in the same manner, however the red Horse Archers were showing their usefulness by picking off the small defender squads on towers. The purple Kahinah could not do anything else but watching his soul evaporate in the same way, as the red-green combined attack descended on her castle. Asophix did eventually bring in a few Assassins to capture a gatehouse and gravely wound the Lady, however she was still standing. Sir Windows eventually opened a big gap in the walls to unleash his Skirmishers and bring death on the Kahinah by a thousand cuts. No Nomad, No, No Mad The next logical pick would have been Saladin, however the Nomads proved to be vastly more annoying with their persistent trash unit raids. Without discussing the strategy, both humans brought their own armies to the orange Nomad, who was having a lot of troops, but not enough range to counter the 200 red Horse Archers and the 160 Crossbowmen + Skirmishers from Sir Windows. Even with deliberate targeting the Bedouin Outpost from horse archers, it took a few levelings to make the Nomad run out of gold and eventually reinforcements, which was made use of by Sir Windows. Once the skirmishers were thinned out, he ran in with his own batch to claim the Nomad's life. The yellow Nomad quickly followed. Asophix's assassins were lagging behind, but the momentum did not subside. This Nomad fielded a lot more skirmishers, who trade very well against the first green wave, leaving Sir Windows in a large need of troop replenishment. Asophix's horse archers quickly dealt with the majority of the skirmishers, clearing the path for the assassins, who were given a sacrificial wave of preceding slaves to spring killing pits. This net the first kill for the red player. While Sir Windows reinforced his ranks, Asophix decided to attack Saladin's castle with one fell swoop after his probing fires against farms were ineffective. The bloodbath was immense: out of 250 horsemen 50 met their demise in the wasteland, at the cost of Saladin's entire ranged force manning the walls. After the mangonels were destroyed by the concentrated fire, the entire outer line was clear. The red assassins were also commanded to charge in, as the green allied formation also came closer and started putting a number in Saladin's ranks. Some cyan horse archers were desperate trying to get out and best the attackers in melee, however the ever circling horse formation made them run into closed gates. This bought all the time for the 60 assassins to arrive, and kill off Saladin's lord unit. Conclusion An epic match with lots of pressure and also showing the importance of vigilance & teamwork. Thanks @ Sir Windows for the stellar teamwork! Here is the final statistics:

Well, I found the pauses again in the Crusader: Definitive Edition castle files. 😄 The pause effectively signals the AI to halt construction for a long time. Back a few years when I was experimenting with custom AI castles for vanilla SHC, I found that the bot was much more stable financially, and it could set up its patrol groups much earlier than he usually would, if at all. But this could set back the defensive capabilities of the AI, given how it can build its first walls for free. In the case of Frederick and Marshal, stables came after the first pause. Frederick usually builds his first walls along with a few workshops, then extends his castle with moat and more buildings, finally comes the complete castle. Marshal is sort of like this, but his castle is kinda unremarkable so all you see is that he adds more stuff. To be fair I doubt that this is supposed to be a leash mechanic, as Frederick has a balanced personality and Marshal's economy is not very strong on some maps (with the weapon buys included). On another note: Crusader 2 also has a list of build order on top of the castle definitions, where certain buildings cannot be skipped in the list. There the AI castle is also not allowed to loop, meaning that the castle gets stuck on the same development level for some time until the AI can build the building (mostly walls or a tower).

Stronghold Crusader for its time had a fun little Artificial Intelligence. Above all, that was - and still is - defined by a pre-defined castle template that varies per character. The AI tries to build a castle gradually, where each building has an order (1 being the first one, etc.), so the castle can be built starting with the essential buildings, with the less important ones added later. Some opponents build include a few pauses in their construction, allowing for a more gradual build-up. This is in force for example for Frederick and the Marshal, who don't build their full castles right away, but rather build in three or four larger steps. I was wondering, what purpose a pause could have? While construction is paused, the AI seems to devote its efforts towards building up defenses and patrols more instead of attacking, but is it meaningful at all? In later games such as SH2 and SHL, the pause mechanic is present but seems to be completely unutilised by the opponents. Crusader 2 and Warlords has completely phased it out, so even Firefly deemed it an excess feature. Do you think having pauses is an advantage, or rather a disadvantage?

The thing is, men-at-arms are quite capable as a shock trooper, but not as a prolonged fighter, which makes them less attractive then e.g. a maceman. For years I didn't recognise this former value. 🙂 Granary variety is fantastic, but seems redundant or at least very difficult to keep up very early on. After 90 population or so, you can make room for the bread chain, or replace a few dairy farms with apple farms; I've not yet arrived to this stage. A gradual build-up of both bread and apple production may however very well be viable. In early peace time I'd still buy in food only until rank 3 or 4, then the Pantry offers a similar source of bonus honor. I used to play by buying up food aiming for max variety, but this drains a lot of gold, and you may be losing out on the arms race, when peace time ends. Gawain's shield protects against projectile-based stuff, which the Ice Mirror also qualifies for. There are a few cases, such as Merlin's or the Sorcerer's area ability, which I haven't tested yet. The rule of thumb is that the projectile landing inside gets negated, but splash effects don't. In some cases, a unit running into the shield and being shot at by the Ice Queen's regular attack can still get frozen, as the ice bolt connects with the area in the unit's wake.

Hi All! On the day of writing this post, I had a very intense match with @ Lord_Chris as Arthur against Ice. I also wrote a detailed article about a year ago to-date about how the Arthur faction is vastly the underdog compared to Ice and Evil, at least when it comes to utilising their faction-specific toolkit. This prompted me to revisit the idea and share my findings with you. Point 1 - Arthur is not a muscle faction Like in my previous post, I pointed out how Arthur's Knights of the Royal Table are geared towards controlling an area and exerting control there at an opportune moment. They are indeed excellent and there are definitely a few who you always want on the battlefield. This doesn't mean however that they are the workhorse of your military. Quite the contrary. Special units are very expensive and given how Legends feeds you only so much honor with a proper economy, you can't always rely on them, not to mention their gynormous ability cooldown time! Siege Tower concentrations with missile troops and casters are a common thing, which you can't immediately remove by your siege engines, or your Green Dragon. Even if you manage to take out a bunch of enemies, they will just print reinforcements. Moreover, the enemy caster often comes in under the forest of mantlets to safely erase your army. Not even hundreds of men-at-arms chew through that much wood. This is where a paradigm shift comes into play: you are supposed to play by trying to overwhelm your enemy with control. You are supposed to divert their attention. Let's just face the fact: Arthur's army's unit power is the WORST among all three factions at maximum size. Ice can always pump out Giants, Evil can always bring Werewolves, not to mention Bats and Stake Hurlers can just rain on your carefully constructed siege position at whim. Instead, if you create a second or even third army and try to create opportunistic attacks elsewhere, the enemy will suddenly be unable to solve all their problems right away. Getting around an entrenched position may mean running down enemy estates left vulnerable, flying in your Dragon or sending in Percival as a major threat, only to strike somewhere else by setting up a second siege camp and running down their defenseless flank. Point 2 - Men-at-arms should be your core unit Men-at-arms are cheap units that are easy to sleep on: their staying power is relatively low, they don't generally do much damage, and they are bad in sieges. What they excel at however, is mobility and skirmishing. Usually with Arthur you can't afford all those shiny troops right away, and even if you do, you will find how your other options all come with a drawback: Macemen are very expensive and they tend to get bogged down in melee once engaged. Even though they are a decent shock troop, they have problems taking over garrisoned village halls or wall defenses. Crossbowmen are very slow, even though they declare an area a pin-cushion in their immediate vicinity. They make a bad response troop, due to their abysmal movement speed. The same can be said for Pikemen and Swordsmen. Archers are another mainstay unit, however once the enemy starts fortifying its key positions, they barely put a dent into shields and crossbowmen. Moreover, their firepower is insufficient when the enemy approaches en masse. On the contrary, Men-at-arms are a great candidate as a core unit, because: They are cheap. Even if you don't build poleturners, their equipment is easy to come by on the market, consequently they are always available for recruitment. They are fast. As interceptors, Men-at-arms can traverse the battlefield quickly. It's not uncommon for an enemy to throw a bunch of troops against your outlying guards or flanking your position into your Siege Camp. These interceptions are what give you the option to intercept, or show up on another front to cause mayhem, where the enemy forgot to put sufficient troops. They throw javelins. Believe it or not, Men-at-arms' javelins actually cause respectable damage against light troops and siege engines, even Mantlets. If the enemy tries to wear you down by deploying Catapults, streams of White Wolves / Hellhounds, or other shooty things, Men-at-arms can run them down and pick them apart in a cost-efficient way. They can bait expensive stuff. Men-at-arms are such units that could be thrown into the mouth of the enemy army with impunity. An Ice Queen or Sorcerer is attacking them, or a caster is throwing an ability at them? Who cares! Replacing 30 weak units isn't as regrettable as replacing 50 Crossbowmen, or heavily armored units. Baiting out abilities and drawing firepower to an extent can make room for your own special units to attack or strike with your own ability. Surely, Men-at-arms are a one-timer, which loses efficacy as the game goes on, however their mobility and ability to counter certain ground units makes them a prime affordable troop. Their reinforcing and intercepting ability is second-to-none, and they may even stand their own ground if controlled correctly against smaller formations. Point 3 - Bedivere & Gawain can always find value In the previous post, I alluded to how Gawain has insane potential, but wrote off Bedivere. Turns out they both carry value throughout the game. Gawain is the core unit beside Merlin and Percival. His ability to conjure a shield that absorbs all types of projectile attacks can declare a zone safe for quite some time, giving your main army a good way to advance from a bogged down area. While a large army doesn't fit under it fully, this protection can make all the difference for attacking the enemy's impenetrable defenses, or allow your casters to fire off an ability or two. A lesser known fact is that Gawain's shield negates the projectile-based effects from the Ice Queen's and the Ice Dragon's freezing attack, divebombing Bats and even siege projectiles' knockback. Consequently, it can also be used to protect against these devastating abilities as a reactionary tool, if your army is caught bare out in the open, or in an entrenched position. Bedivere is kind of a one-trick-pony due to his very obvious niche ability. What however cannot be underestimated is his ability to circumvent an area and create an opening in the opposition's defenses, causing a quick ruckus. On larger maps where the enemy can be attacked from multiple positions, the Horn of Camelot assigned to an attacking infiltration group can cause the enemy to react haphazardly, or divert reinforcements from their main position to deal with the threat. Combined with Men-at-arms and Archers, a commando can cause noticeable damage or even conquer the Keep, if the enemy forgot to fortify it even slightly. Point 4 - Streamlined build order trumps economy This section is obviously geared towards games with peace time and/or with low starting tech. Probably moreso than the other factions, Arthur loves to enjoy a fast Rank 8 due to the unlocked units and Automarket. Getting to this point ASAP however comes at a cost of your ability to partake in the arms race that comes with the expiry of peace time. Here is a build order that served me well in various versions throughout the eco phase (assuming 10-15pt, rank 1): Immediately set taxes to -16, build the granary and give +8 rations. Buy 5 non-meat food if starting with no food. Build two or three chicken farms from your sold stone and starting gold. You may be able to squeeze in a dairy farm if you are extra greedy. Build a wood camp when you can't build anything else. Until you build your first hovel, you can freely sell food and buy wood for additional farms. We prefer buying wood over having it delivered from wood camps, because the workers are considerably slow and peasants come at a premium early on. Keep selling meat whenever above 5 units and try to get at least one unit of food of each type to leverage potentially +12 honor per month. Don't forget about popularity. If your rate approaches 55, dial back taxes to -8 to break even with your granary. After the first hovel we prioritise building farms, slowly shifting to cheese. Build chicken farms for 'firefighting' purposes, however dairy farms will eventually bring in cheese. Because of the increased granary consumption, we switch to a pantry without any production, set royal food consumption to double and buy royal food there. Keep selling cheese and meat whenever above a combined 10 food. Keep buying wood for your industry, building hovels whenever low on free peasants (constant influx is required due to reduced migration speed!). When your farms bring in a steady stream of food, you can eventually start adding iron mines. Add tethers only when the miners produce ingots, or ingots start piling up. Also build an eel pond fairly early to slowly ease the burden on your coffers. Always sell excess iron. Build stone quarries once you are nearing 5-6 minutes peace time left. About 3 or 4 quarries should do, constantly add tethers to prevent storage overflow. Once your stone quarries deliver, start investing into a Church and chandler's workshops. Keep a keen eye on your stocks and once your production is steady (about one chandler per hovel), then raise the mass to extravagant level to cash in on honor and raise your popularity back to 100. Once done, set taxes to -12. By this point, you should be nearing the end of peace time. Buy assorted weaponry (a little bit of everything) for your preferred troops, and be ready to face thine enemy! Closure Hope this tablet of text has entertained you and provided you valuable insights. Any time you would like to ask questions and leave comments, you can do it either here, or in a DM to happily discuss the matter further. See you on the battlefield!🙂

Hello All! Firefly Studios recently unveiled details about their next "Winter" update for Stronghold Crusader: DE, which is scheduled to release on February 3, 2026. Much like the Autumn Update, it will feature free additions to the base game, as well as a paid downloadable content called The Sergeant and the Lioness for 5 EUR / 5 USD / 4 GBP. Take a look at the contents below. Contents - Free Update 3 new maps A new cooperative trail Custom Trail Editor Create your own skirmish trail up to 50 custom skirmish missions, with a selection of opponents and maps tailored to your liking. Trails can be exported and shared with other players too! CPU Lord and Castle Editors Akin to our editors offered for SH2 and SHL (as well as the UCP!), Firefly will also grant us the ability to customise the preferences and castle layout templates built by any AI opponent. Both utilities seem to be standalone applications, with the Castle Editor visually greatly resembling its earlier counterpart for vanilla Crusader. Contents - DLC New Sands of Time Trail: Trail of the Cobra New AI opponent: The Sergeant Metal man! An aspiring veteran of a "dozen campaigns", who earned fame in his battles prefers his armored troops to chew through enemy defenses. Builds similarly to the Marshal, erecting large castles divided into multiple elongated quarters, and lots of towers on the sides. Seen using the sturdiest troops there are: Crossbowmen, Pikemen, Arabian Swordsmen, Demolishers. New AI opponent: The Lioness A bloodthirsty but playful dame? She is the proclaimed "Queen of the Sands", being an all-rounder overall. Her castles are much like an upgrade on the Kahinah, featuring an outer wall, moat and better productivity. Seen using a mix of Arabic and Bedouin troops: Arabian Swordsmen, Arabian Bowmen, Skirmishers, Heavy Camels.

Speedy recovery, Chris! 🙂 I read on a random Stronghold game store page that since January 2024, the client only supports Windows 10 and upwards. Due to security risks, it may be worth upgrading to Windows 10, or using Linux for a more seamless experience.

I found this mission challenging too due to the limited gold you get for your siege engines, forcing you to be creative and extra mindful of your resources. Salutations and good job on this nerve-wrecking endeavour!

Could actually un- and reinstalling Steam work? Or, try moving the installation directory by specifying it to a different location in the settings. I haven't encountered issues like this, however my Steam recording feature started misbehaving one day and it had some settings stuck, pointing to an older location. I remedied by moving the capture folder, so might be relatable.

Thanks for the acknowledgement, @ Sir Windows ! Hálás vagyok a magyar ellenfélért! Hunyadi feels kinda slow to build up, but he is fun to play with once he gets stabilised. It's hard to find a map where he plays on full swing. His consistent attack rate is something I like, kinda like Lancelot. He may be in need of more farms, as he tends to break even on consumption sometimes ~ selling food for gold could improve his standing. Holy Knights with the update is way more consistent, he actually attacks very fast now. His raids are also somewhat annoying, as you can never suspect him bringing out a mounted knight, or just a small band of archers. As a footnote: I noticed some minor graphics differences as well, even though I don't know how the animations work in either SH2 or SHL. In SH2 Steam Edition the swords texture is consistently missing from the armoury, but not in Legends. Simply replacing the one from SHL did not resolve the problem.

Hey, can we expect to see updates soon-ish to the existing or the newfound lords? 🙂 The lords each have been given a lot of custom content, so I take it is no small effort to get everything in place.

The version had to be re-uploaded again due to a last-minute fix for a text oversight. The latest submission at the time of writing should work normally.