SHC Skirmish Trails

[Frankel 8]

Mission #29 - Rivers of Blood

3 teams: Me vs [Rat, Rat, Rat, Rat, Pig] vs Sultan

High starting goods and 10,000 gold - What more can one ask for in SHC? This was a straightforward mission. I placed the usual buildings & stockpile and added two square towers to the rear of the keep with one mangonel in each - one for each of my two noisy neighbours.

I hired at least 60 archers, 30 for each tower, and hired some slaves to moat off the southern river crossing. In this mission I would advise to attack the Sultan last as he has the useful habit of occupying the pig for a large part of this mission.

http://i.imgur.com/Yp8vKJF.jpg[/img]

I continued to fortify my caste, as you see in the picture above, making full use of the ample resources allocated at the start of this mission. My economy was predominantly driven by weapons and food production. When I had built up a small army of arabian swordsmen and crossbowmen I replaced the mangonels on the towers above with ballista and sallied forth to dispatch the two rats.?

 

Gold on this mission is easy to come by, and when gold is easy to come by that usually means horse archers. Around this time I started getting attacked by the Sultan and the Pig, however my four towers were more than a match for whoever approached. By the time my small army had defeated the next two rats across the river (usual tactic of blocking the gathouse, destroying the barracks and picking off units until I decided to knock a wall and finish the lord), I had a sizeable army of horse archers who quickly dispatched the pig's defences (helpfully aided by the pig sending an assault to my keep minutes earlier) in time for my arabian swordsmen (and handful of macemen) to kill their lord. Finally it was time for the Sultan and I shall let you guess how that ended up from the picture below.

http://i.imgur.com/qEwdBv7.jpg[/img]

 

I may keep to one mission per post going forward if there are no objections. It is easier for me to keep track of my thoughts (I have a habit of rereading my post to ensure I am not repeating myself too much).

[Crusader1307 302]

Impressive Mounted Defensive Forces.......................

[Frankel 8]

Mission #30 - Eye of the Camel

2 teams: [Me, Richard] vs [saladin, Sultan]. 2000 starting gold (vs AI 8000)

This was a relatively straightforward mission so I shall keep it brief. Saladin had prime location on top of the hill and I had the Sultan as my noisy neighbour. Still, this was nothing to worry about. My usual starting buildings (stockpile, granary, market, armory, barracks, woodcutters, 2 wheat farms, hops farm, dairy farm, quarry, oxen, mill, bakeries, houses). I added one tower slightly north of my keep, added a gatehouse, a ballista and hired some troops for it. I kept my units split between the keep and that tower until I manged to add a second tower (mangonel), wall and units to man it. As for the other side of my keep, I hired some slaves to dig a moat knowing most of saladin's troops are not fond of a shovel.

http://i.imgur.com/Xta6NSj.jpg[/img]

(The two lines of stone wall you see at the north west of my base were there to protect my towers from catapult fire. I got fed up of repairing them).

 

Once your defense is set this becomes a relatively simple mission. Lionheart keeps wearing away at Saladin and the Sultan is a simple adversary. Once the Sultan is out of the way you have plenty of room for an economy boom. If you have patience you can use the high terrain in the north to siege Saladin's keep, however I went for a mass army of Pikemen and Crossbowmen (with my two knights kindly taking out the mercenary post in advance).

 

On a side note, it seems as if dirty tactics are not beneath the Lionheart. He played the old 'ox tether in at enemy keep' trick with an apple farm, drawing plenty of fire from the enemy mangonel.

http://i.imgur.com/H4S1wsb.jpg[/img]

[EaglePrince 261]

You did it quite well, interesting battle reports. Though, you said that you didn't rush in the mission with two Pigs not to make it easier to yourself, but I believe it would be pretty hard to rush those two pig so much close to each other and with that much starting goods, while you get only 2000. Maybe you could make it to kill one of them, but killing the other as well... I don't know, it just seems more challenging to me. :)

 

I would like to add that I started that mission slightly differently from you - I was using mangonels from very beginning, it seems to me as a better option when opponents have more gold and I have little. The only thing I was doing and you may have not was - firing upon their castles as soon as possible. It doesn't matter if I cannot attack any of his buildings, I just aim in front of his castle, and the damage will be done - like you said, those are not that accurate. :) We can use that in our favor sometimes. Also, it could be even better if I fire upon a spot where he tents to build a catapult - this way you make him constant damage, and if he tries to construct a catapult there it is possible that mangonel hits one of those two engineers. :)

[Frankel 8]

Rushing one of them with assassins would be possible, especially the top pig given he wouldnt be able to hire recruits, although having played the mission and knowing he can't recruit I agree I would have been worse off.

As for the mangonels, funnily enough thats exactly where I did fire upon although perhaps my luck had deserted me. If I had built farms to the north though a mangonel would have been much more viable I feel as the catapult would only have targeted my quarry at worst.

Edited February 8, 2016 by Frankel

[EaglePrince 261]

Well, that's the same thing I thought while reading your report. Mangonels are usually effective - especially when the opponent builds several catapults, but it usually works decently against one catapults as well, but you just didn't have enough luck with it.

 

Regarding assassins, I think Pig is one of those lords that is damn hard to be killed by assassins. :) His crossbowmen are really effective against assassins, and similar thing I could say about Caliph - Arabian bowmen kill assassins easily, plus he will be putting them on fire. They move fast and they can cross over walls, but they have no armor. That's why Pig and Caliph were toughest opponents for me when I started playing Crusader, my tactic was to storm assassins toward him, and my army would be cripples each time. :D Later I learned how to construct catapults, bwahahaha... :D

[Lord_Chris 284]

Lord_Chris - Of course! If you feel it would be useful to people, then please go ahead. As for the help thread, I'm happy to help out people with what little I know however I have still never completed the first skirmish trail (not to mention the second) so I fear I may lack the knowledge of certain missions just yet.

 

Wonderful, thanks! I'll see how quickly I can get some articles up, I still have some from @Tokamaps to do - massively lagging behind on my duties here :(

[Isaiah 32]

Well, hi, I haven't played in awhile as indicated by my absense from the site.

 

I'm still on the one against Sal and the Rat --> I'm bad at attacking, and space is so limited on that level. Plus, haven't played recently.

 

Hello Frank, it seems you are doing well in your campaign.

[EaglePrince 261]

Hi, Isaiah. Can you tell us what is the mission you are talking about? :)

[Frankel 8]

Hi Isaiah - Good to see you back. Perhaps between us we could look at an online game sometime :)

I have also been slacking off myself as of late (work/holiday). I haven't got around to starting my latest skirmish vs. three Wolfs (Wolves?).

[EaglePrince 261]

Mission 31 where you're an the hill surrounded three of them? That is an interesting mission. :)

[Frankel 8]

That's the one surely. 30 missions down, 20 to go (lets not mention the second trail for now?:D?).

[Nigel 71]

That's the one surely. 30 missions down, 20 to go (lets not mention the second trail for now?:D?).

 

I am sure you are not going to get bored anytime soon :D

[EaglePrince 261]

Well, those interesting missions are yet upon the brave lord. :)

[Isaiah 32]

Its the small one right after the Oasis -- Me & Rat vs. Saladin & Sultan

[EaglePrince 261]

Oh, I know, it is an interesting one as well. :)

[Frankel 8]

Maybe we could all shake off the rustiness with an multiplayer game this weekend?

[EaglePrince 261]

I agree! I would be glad to play a game - no matter if it all vs AI lords or against each other. However you like it.

[Nigel 71]

Nice suggestion.

Unfortunately, I wont be able to play this weekend.

Weekends are often difficult for me. But if you ever feel like arrangeing a game on a workday evening, count me in.

[EaglePrince 261]

I could do it on working day as well. :) Maybe it would be better to see about that option then.

[Frankel 8]

I could do it on a weekday also, however it would probably be quite late in the day for the rest of you!

[EaglePrince 261]

For me it would be fine to play until 24:00 Central European timezone, though it would be the best if we could finish it until 23:00.

[Frankel 8]

Most evenings it would be ~21:30 CET before I can start. Probably earlier (19:30) on Thursdays and much more flexible at weekends.

[EaglePrince 261]

21:30 would be fine by me. Still, we shall see if that fits others. The best would be if we could start about 20:00.

Edited February 26, 2016 by EaglePrince

[Nigel 71]

If CET means Central European Time (i.e. GMT+1) then 21:30 is fine for me.

 

But please don't feel obliged to move your battle date only because of me. If you want to play this weekend, by all means do. I can always join you for another battle at a later date :)