Stronghold Lordpack Discussion

[Sir Windows 55]

Greetings!

Today my big lord pack for Stronghold Legends was approved, and I thought a thread going more into details on its contents would be a good idea. Mostly, I want to give a more in-depth rundown on the six new lords featured in this lord pack and the thought process behind them.

I am looking forward to feedback, comments, questions and suggestions on the lords.,

Links to Download Section

Richard the Lionheart

"My banner will fly atop your keep before this day is out!" 

Spoiler

 

King of England, avid crusader and in my opinion one of the most memorable characters from Crusader, translating Richard into Legends ended up a more complicated task than expected. While Richard himself was a pretty straightforward lord, there was the huge issue of him overlapping too much with King Arthur. For one, they're almost identical when it comes to castle design and unit roster. The initial plan was to give Richard a castle based on his largest castle from Crusader, featuring an outer wall and basic towers. Unfortunately, I ran into the issue of Legend's maps being somewhat too small. As such, Richard uses a more classic castle design. To differentiate him militarily from Arthur, he doesn't use all round table units, while his raiding forces have been augmented by macemen and men-at-arms. This way Richard should be a more aggressive opponent, exerting pressure on his enemies early and continuously. 

Melee units: Swordsman, Pikeman, Maceman, Men-at-Arms, Gawain, Galahad, Percival

Ranged units: Archer

Siege: Trebuchet, Catapult, Siege Tower, Battering Ram, Mantlet, Cat

Preferred colour: Blue or Red

 

Sir Longarm

"We fight for the honour of those that have gone before!"

Spoiler

 

Good old Sir Longarm is back for more. Unlike Richard, this old knight didn't prove too difficult to translate into Legends. Replacing Lancelot, he plays a very different game. Sir Longarm takes it slow from building up his castle, economy to using some of the most expensive units in the game. As a master of knights, he utilizes the round table to its maximum while also training a hearty amount of knights from his barracks. Sir Longarm might not be the quickest attacker, but one shouldn't underestimate him nonetheless, since once his knights ride out, there is no stopping them.

Melee units: Swordsman, Knight, Knights of the Round Table

Ranged units: Archer, Merlin

Siege: Trebuchet, Catapult

Preferred colour: Teal

 

The Rat

"You impudent upstart! I shall take great delight in dispatching you myself."

Spoiler

 

The rat is well known as the weakest opponent in any Stronghold game. This is also the case here. Although he is slightly more competent than in Crusader and has regained the ability to use siege weapons like in the original Stronghold. His castle is small, poorly designed and easy to besiege. His economy is nothing much to speak of either, but both are set up relatively quickly and cheaply, giving the rat the ability attack faster than any other AI. The rats armies are mostly made up of men-at-arms and archers.Since the rat is part of the ice faction, he also uses a limited amount of magical units for raiding. The idea here is that the rat administers his lands so poorly that wolves, bears and witches run rampant and even begin to spill over into neighbouring lands.

Melee units: Man-at-Arms, Pikeman, White Wolf, Polar Bear

Ranged units: Archer, White Witch

Siege: Catapult, Mantlet

Preferred colour: Orange

 

The Pig

"Blow the horn, bang the drum! The Pig is coming to town!"

Spoiler

The pig was one of those characters where the design choices seemed very obvious. He likes macemen, he is very violent, crude and his castles were always pretty square shaped. Making him part of the ice faction seemed the obvious choice since the square aesthetic fits him well and giants fit his style perfectly. Taking inspiration from the first Stronghold, the pig also uses pikemen for both defence and offence. His castle is on the smaller end of things. Initially he had a very large castle, but just like Richard he often ran into space issues. The pig takes some time to get his castle and economy set up, but once he's ready, he's coming in force.

Melee units: Maceman, Pikeman, Giant

Ranged units: Crossbowman, Archer

Siege: Catapult, Battering Ram

Preferred colour: Dark Red

 

 

The Snake

"Can you hear it, hm? That's your death drawing near."

Spoiler

The snake was something of a late addition. Initially, his spot was occupied by the Jackal from SH3/SHC2. The decision to scrap the Jackal in favour of the snake mostly came down to the fact that all other characters were using the SH/SHC voices and designs. The snake presented something of a challenge. For one, he was missing numerous voice lines, both due to using a messenger in SHC and due to not appearing in SHC2. Eventually the snake ended up using whatever voice clips he had in Crusader combined with some unused lines from SH2. The next challenge with the snake came down to his military. Looking at his appearances in previous games, one notices that the snake is either a beefed up rat (Crusader) or a weaker pig (Stronghold). What set him apart in Crusader was his usage of mercenaries and slaves for quick and early aggression. In Legends this is mostly represented by his two favourite units being demons and outlaws.

Melee units: Maceman, Demon, Outlaw, Vampiric Creeper

Ranged units: Archer, Giant Bat, Black Dragon,

Siege: Catapult, Fire Ballista, Burning Cart, Mantlet

Preferred colour: Yellow

 

 

The Wolf

"Soon you will see what it means to wage real warfare!"

Spoiler

The wolf is the strongest opponent in the game and was surprisingly easy to implement. He builds a strong castle, fortified by crossbowmen, pikemen and swordsmen. It takes him some time to set up completely, but whenever possible he sends out strong forces to harass his enemies. His raiding forces range from hardy pikemen and swordsmen to hellhounds and werewolves. Once ready the wolf sends out the strongest siege force out of all the AIs consisting of swordsmen, werewolves, crossbowmen and many deadly siege weapons. He is an opponent not to be underestimated.

Melee units: Swordsman, Pikeman, Knight, Werewolve, Hellhound

Ranged units: Crossbowman, Sorcerer, Giant Bat 

Siege: Catapult, Fire Ballista, Trebuchet, Mantlet, Cat

Preferred colour: Grey

 

 

[Lord_Chris 282]

This is amazing!

I've featured this on the main website 🙂

This will become even better with future improvements and additions to the editor. Thank you so much for your contributions!

[Sir Windows 55]

Thank you very much. I'm honored to be featured on the home page. 😃

[Planewalker 22]

Now this is the kind of awesome potential I was thinking about. :D

[Sir Windows 55]

Thread moved to modding club section from Legends general discussions.

Also in light of new features added to the editor some updates were made to existing AIs.

The rat has lost his swordsmen. His assaults will now consist of men at arms only. His defensive swordsmen were replaced by pikemen.

The snake received a major overhaul. Gone are the Saxon warriors and men at arms. His armies and raids will now contain a large number of outlaws instead of men at arms. The Saxons have been replaced by macemen.