Stronghold 2, Sunday, April 10, 2016

[Nigel 71]

This was a really good game. I enjoyed it a lot.

Also, big credits for Chris for going solo against us. Although I do not feel too bad about that. For while this story is told from my perspective - and I make a big show about my macemen scaling the walls - the truth is, that my own contribution was rather small and Eagle Prince carried the real weight of the attacks. Maybe indeed Chris made a mistake in the building phase. I wouldn't be able to tell. But Eagle Prince is the true champion of that day.

 

Here is his castle on the day of his victory. :D

 

 

 

Gah, this post ended up on a new page. Make sure to read page 1 for the full story.

Edited April 11, 2016 by Nigel

[Mathew Steel 151]

Sounds like it was a good battle. Whenever I've played Chris his defence hasn't always been his focus, although it was nice to see what his type of defence would be :)?also, he usually tends to win due to his huge number of knights.?

I've also played with EaglePrince and last time I checked he was a big fan of swordsmen, again, another change!

 

Nigel, I don't believe we've met on the battlefield yet. Perhaps in the near future :D

[Lord_Chris 284]

My main problem was that I was preparing defence rather than thinking of recruiting knights. And by the time I'd actually made a (fairly) decent defence, I had no gold or anything left to recruit troops, you were waiting on my doorstep and I had a total of two estates, the first one being so far away was an error.

 

I should have focussed more on recruiting knights but part of the problem with that is that I was so concentrated on getting promotions and getting ahead that I didn't plan or think where my buildings should go. Mind it was very tough, there were an awful lot of trees placed sporadically around my estate and this made it extremely difficult to get any kind of building structure that worked. The first thing I did was place hundreds of saw pits to clear all the trees, and I kept selling that gold. At one point fairly early on in the game, I had 11,000 in gold - but I foolishly spent it all on statuses because my honour was so low. I never really recovered from that - as by that point, most of the trees had been cleared and wood was my main source of income.

 

This was pretty much the point where we started - I had a quick call to arms, but because my attention was on clearing the trees, and creating a defence, I played much poorer than usual which I believe cost me the game. I like to compare my armies to the Roman army- brilliant in a standard formation, taking hours to setup .etc. But when ambushed, or a small number of troops caught off guard by a bigger number, or not having the time to prepare - they will lose every time! :D

[EaglePrince 261]

I've also played with EaglePrince and last time I checked he was a big fan of swordsmen, again, another change!

 

Oh, there has been no change with that, my friend. :D It's just that I started pretty well in this game, and that I wasn't recruiting almost any army early - because we weren't fighting in early phases of the game, that would have been a waste of gold. So, before we started to fight I was expecting Chris to have knights in large numbers, and as I had a lot of gold and honor I decided to train knights instead. I mean, I love swordsmen - I like them more than knights, but as I was about to have army at full capacity, and I was expecting from Chris the same, so I expected that my swordsmen army would have been crippled by his knights. :) Also, I had smaller production of swords and armors - I didn't produce those in my villages.

 

Too bad to hear that Chris. Hopefully it will be better next time.

 

And regarding that estate that was far from you - if you wanted you could have traded it for another one even before we started to fight. I would buy you a closer village, while Nigel would take that one. ;)

[Nigel 71]

Nigel, I don't believe we've met on the battlefield yet. Perhaps in the near future :D

 

Indeed, Sir Mathew, that would be very nice. Look forward to crossing swords with you sometime.

 

 

 

And regarding that estate that was far from you - if you wanted you could have traded it for another one even before we started to fight.

 

And talking about trade, is it possible to send carters to enemy estates?

I could have said, "I will buy that estate off you for 200 iron ingots" or something like that :)

[EaglePrince 261]

I will try that (sending goods to an enemy castle), and let you know about the result. That would be really interesting, this way you would not only be able to send iron, but weapons such as swords and armors as well. Though what I had in mind was that I had a lot of honor - I mostly had more than 1,000, so I was able to buy a village next to him, and leave it undefended for him to take it. We can say that this is another way to trade with goods as well, as there villages which produced iron and stone, so he would alsmost would get this way not only a village, but a lot of iron and stone as well. :)

 

Still, what you described could be an interesting deal as well. :)

[Lord_Chris 284]

I don't believe that you can send goods to enemy estates - at least not enemy AI estates as I've tried before.

[EaglePrince 261]

Chris is correct, it is impossible for you to order your carter to transport goods to an enemy estate.

 

Still, like I said, we can trade in the game with estates, which is nice actually. :)

[Nigel 71]

Still, like I said, we can trade in the game with estates, which is nice actually. :)

 

 

That is a neat idea. We can set up one "market estate" just for trading. You put something there that I want, I take over the village and cart the goods to my castle and bring the payment goods to the estate and then you take over the village again.

 

Stock Exchange in the true sense of the word :D

[EaglePrince 261]

I agree, that would be interesting, but still, that may not be as appealing in the game as it seams - at least because carters are able to carry only 50 of each good, and that is too little to trade with something. That is why I think that trading with estates themselves would be far more interesting, though we could say "ok, I'll leave you this village with 100 swords and 100 armors in exchange for [something, like not attacking me for a while (this this may be something others wouldn't like :P )]". It's just that a village itself is far more valuable then an amount of resources, because if you build a large food production there - they would be producing thousands of food units. :) Only not all villages are the same - some have iron, some villages don't, and some are small, while some can be vast, and, which is also very important - some are closer to our castles while others are further. :)

 

Selling territories is something that we used to see in history, and it has also been a resource by which you can buy yourself peace. :)

Edited April 14, 2016 by EaglePrince

[Lord_Chris 284]

Well what we could do, is use different kinds of levels of "negotiations". If a lord wants to negotiate and he's being attacked, he could send out a message, the other player could temporarily withdraw their troops and then we could start negotiating. If that fails, the troops could be moved back in. Depending on how much the other lord wants (e.g. whether they want the full estate and goods or just goods) will depend on what exactly is left to them.

 

But of course, once the gods have been delivered, the estate can be taken over by the other lord again so it can be temporary.

[EaglePrince 261]

I agree, but still - even if the two lords negotiate over one territory (or about single shipment, or continuous shipments of goods), why wouldn't another lord be able to take it for himself? :P

 

Maybe we're overthinking right now. It can be put simply - players can negotiate about whatever they like, they can trade estates, goods or whatever, but as long as it is not teaming up against another lord (which we agreed before that it would not be honorable). So, for that latest reason this non-attacking agreements could be against this rule which regards teaming up against someone.