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|Stronghold Crusader Strategy|
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Game Name : Stronghold Crusader (PC CD-ROM Game)
Publisher : 2002 Firefly Studios
Genre : RTS
Game Size : Approximately 660 MB
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Strategy/FAQ By Dwi Wahyudi alias Pamulankboy
Version Final
E-mail: dwi.wahyudi.14(gnat)gmail(dot)com
Contents
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A. Copyright
B. Foreword
C. Introduction
D. Game Concepts
1. Popularity Rating
2. Buildings
3. Combat
4. Castle
5. People
6. Preparation
E. Units
1. European Units
2. Arabian Units
3. Cathedral Unit (Ouch, they are only Monks)
4. Guild Units
5. Siege Units
F. Buildings
1. Castle Buildings
A. Storage Buildings
B. Walls
C. Training Ground Buildings
D. Gatehouses
E. Traps
F. Towers
G. Defensive Siege Units
2. Industry Buildings
3. Farming Buildings
4. Town Buildings
5. Weapons Producing Buildings
6. Food Processing Buildings
7. Keeps
G. The AI Lords
H. Tips
I. Mails from Readers
J. Thanks
K. Version History
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A. COPYRIGHT (Sorry, but it's important)
****************************************
I, as the author of this document, claim this file as the copyrighted
one. RENTING, SELLING AND REPUBLISHING IT ON OTHER SITES WILL BE
CONSIDERED AS COPYRIGHT PIRACY. Use this file for private use only,
and use it at your own risk. You may distribute this file to your
friends, but not in commercial purpose.
B. FOREWORD
***********
What's up! Dwi Wahyudi is my name. I live in Indonesia.
This time I write a guide about Stronghold Crusader,
one of my most favorite games all the time. I've been playing it for
about 2 years and I want to share my experiences and strategies on
playing it. I do not have any intention to teach you or dictate you,
feel free to play as this is just only some suggestions. If you have
some questions, disagreement or something you want to share, feel
free to email me, no spam, and be polite.
To view this document, I recommend you to use Notepad or any editor
you like.
When you view this file set the font to monospace type.
C. INTRODUCTION
***************
Stronghold Crusader is one of the best RTS game. It consists many
smart-use units, you have to think harder not only for the combat-units,
but also the economic systems and reputation. They will need so many
micromanagements, because this game is so detailed. You will not only
enjoy the combat, but also the castle and civilian constructions (It is
said that Stronghold Crusader is a Castle Sim). It's nice to see your
people and buildings working, it's also nice to see enemy's people and
buildings burning to ash. There is no shroud or fog of war in this game
(none sort of thing covers enemy's base from your view and vice versa),
but you will still need to be careful, the game may end quick but may
also end in a very long run.
The game probably ends quickly, because of any small but fatal mistake
done by the loser. It's right!!! I've ever seen my friend lost a Multiplayer
game because of 1 SLAVE!!!! He forgot to put a well or water pot in his base.
The enemy threw a group of 5 slaves to his Quarry. His archers successfully
kill the slaves... but wait!!! There was 1 slave remained alive and set fire
to his Quarry. The fire spread outside of his castle burning down half of
his farms, and finally spread into his castle. It was too late to build any
well or water pot. He lost the game in no longer than 12 minutes.
The game ends in the long game. It's because both persistent sides have
already many fortifications in each castle, but they do not use their
units well. They attack with many conventional ways to each other, without
considering any alternative strategy and attack method.
D. GAME CONCEPTS
****************
Here are the game concepts in the Stronghold Crusader which are typical
and different from any other strategy games. I hope you enjoy reading it.
1. Popularity Rating (PR)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Popularity Rating (PR) is a distinct concept in this game. It's a
number value from 0 to 100. You can see it as the biggest-sized number
on the book held by a man in lower right corner of your screen. Your
people will leave your castle if your PR is below 50. The PR depends
on the total of your Popularity (Popularity and Popularity Rating is
different). Your people will never deny your want, but they will leave
you IF you fail to manage they want. Note that in the Multiplayer game,
every player start with 100 PR.
You can gain popularity by doing several ways (factors) that I will
describe later. A green face with +n (which n is a number value)
means that you've fulfilled your people want on that factor. A yellow
face means that you've done nothing on that factor. A red face with
?n (which n is a number value) means that you've done something that
the people dislike.
Green faces give you Popularity points, yellow faces give you 0
Popularity points, red faces subtract your Popularity points. The sum
of those points is called as Popularity. If your Popularity is a positive
number with green color, then your Popularity Rating (PR) will
increase (The maximum number of Popularity Rating is 100). If your
Popularity is exactly 0, your Popularity Rating won't increase or
decrease. If your Popularity is a negative number with red color,
then your Popularity Rating (PR) will decrease.
While playing the game, if you don't know what factors cause your
PR decreasing, click the book on the lower right screen, and then
click 'Popularity' to see the detail of your Popularity. You can
see all of the factors that affect your people and your Popularity,
so that you can decide what to do to increase your PR again.
THIS GAME DOESN'T NEED YOU TO ACHIEVE A BIG NUMBER OF POPULARITY,
YOU COULD AT LEAST HAVE +1 POPULARITY. HOWEVER, THE MORE POSITIVE
POPULARITY POINTS YOU HAVE, THE FASTER PEOPLE WILL COME TO YOUR
CASTLE AND THE QUICKER YOU CAN INCREASE YOUR POPULARITY RATING,
AND THE MORE THE NEGATIVE POPULARITY POINTS YOU HAVE, THE FASTER
PEOPLE WILL LEAVE YOUR CASTLE AND THE QUICKER YOU LOSE THE POPULARITY
RATING.
Here are some factors that affect your Popularity
and Popularity Rating (PR).
<A. Housing>
Every people in your castle needs a place to stay and it's a Hovel
(It's only a concept, most civilians gather at the campfire anytime
and anyhow). Peasants are needed to run many buildings, if there is no
peasant at the campfire, the building you've just built won't work and
you will receive a message 'not enough workers available to run this
building'. A Hovel supports 8 peasants at a time. Note that Keep also
provides several housings for your peasants. You can see the amount of
Population on the book in lower right corner of your screen with M/N format
(Just below the PR indicator). M represents the current quantity of your
people (peasants + workers/// Soldiers need no housing), while N shows
you the amount of population capacity. If M is bigger than N, your castle
will overcrowd, then you must build extra Hovels.
Housing factor cannot increase your popularity, but you must take care
on it, because if your population exceeds the number of space supported
by the Keep and Hovels, your castle will overcrowd. Overcrowd negates your
popularity and PR. To solve this problem you can simply build more Hovels
or recruiting some cheap soldiers to decrease the Population numbers.
The more people who don't have house, the more negative popularity point you
will get on housing factor.
There are some reasons that can cause your castle overcrowding:
>> Demolishing or deleting your hovels.
>> Some or all Hovels are destroyed by the enemy.
>> Disbanding some of your military units.
However, do not overbuild Hovel, as it can cause population explosion that
can quickly deplete the foods in your Granary. Just build a proper amount
of Hovels needed, plus 1 or 2 Hovels for housing a group of peasants that
you intend to train as soldiers, so that you won't receive a message
'recruits needed, Sire' when you are trying to build military units.
<B. Fear Factor>
Fear Factor can affect many things in the game:
1. The efficiency of your workers
2. Your Popularity
3. Effectiveness of your combat units
You can choose to become a neutral lord, a good lord or a cruel one.
A neutral lord will build neither 'Good Things' nor 'Bad Things'.
A good lord will usually build many 'Good Things' (Town Buildings)
in or around his castle. These good things can make your people
happier, so that your popularity will increase and your troops will
gain combat bonus. However, 'Good Things' can also make your people
lazier and decrease their willing to work. A cruel lord will
habitually build numerous 'Bad Things' (Town Buildings). 'Bad Things'
will decrease your people happiness, thus decreasing your
popularity and your combat units' effectiveness. However with
the 'Bad Things', your people will be afraid of you and work
much harder, so that increasing their output of production.
A sophisticated concept!!
Most of the 'Good Things' and 'Bad Things' cost you gold.
The more people you have, the more 'Things' you have to build,
to achieve your own best willing.
You cannot affect your people with both things, therefore you can
only choose one of them. If you are sure that your foods and
resources are more than enough and you want to attack your enemy
continually, then 'Good Things' is suitable for you. But, if you
are lacking of goods and you want to attack your enemy tactically,
it seems that you should choose 'Bad Things'.
Both bad things and good things have up to level 5. Every level of
bad things you achieve, your popularity point will be decreased
by 1, your people efficiency on working is increased by 10%,
and your army will suffer 5% penalty on combat bonus. Every
level of good things you achieve, your popularity point will be
increased by 1, your people efficiency will be decreased by 10%,
and your army will gain 5% bonus on combat.
You may see dots above unit's health bar. Number of dots represents
the level of Combat Bonus they achieve. The combat bonus is affected
by Fear Factor, isn't? So that the number of dots also represents
the level of Fear Factor achieved. Green dots represent good things,
so that the units receive combat bonus. Red dots represent bad things,
so that the units' effectiveness decline. For the example, you see
3 green dots above your units' health bar, it means that you've
achieved fear factor +3 (good things) to your people, it also
means that your units received 15% combat bonus.
Note: Here is the concept of lord's strength in the game.
Some Lords have yellow or blue dots above their health bar,
it doesn't have any relationship with the fear factor, however
they indeed affect Lord's attacking power and health. The yellow
bars negate Lord's power, while the blue kinds increase Lord's
Power. No dots means default strength. This concept is called
as lord's strength.
<C. Food>
Food is the most important factor on popularity. Your people need
to eat (The concept is your soldiers don't). If they don't have
something to eat, they are starving and you're losing your
popularity. Food is needed at anytime, from the beginning until
the end of the game. All the foods are stored in Granary. That's
why you've got to build at least a Granary in your Castle (A
Granary can store up to 250 units of foods). Every player in
Multiplayer game starts with a small amount of foods. Note that
you must build it carefully since it's one of the most important
buildings in the game and most of people will try to destroy it.
If your Granary is destroyed, all the foods inside are lost.
There are 4 types of food: meat, fruit, cheese and bread. Meats are
collected from Hunter Posts, Fruits can be gathered from Apple
Orchards, Cheeses are from Dairy Farm, and while Breads are coming
from Bakery (Baker needs to collect Flour first, Flour is coming from
Mill, and Mill needs wheat that is gathered by Wheat Farmer). Here
is the pattern of Bread production,
Wheat --------------> Flour -----------------> Bread
Wheat Farms Mill Bakery Granary
The more food producing buildings you build, the more foods you are
obtaining. The more people you have, the more foods you have to
provide.
You must not running out of foods. You can set the rationing by
clicking your Granary. There are 5 types of rations: no rations,
half rations, full rations, extra rations and double rations.
Decreasing the rations below the full rations will decrease your
popularity but deplete your food slower. You can gain more
popularity by increasing it to extra rations or double rations,
evenly it will drain your foods quicker. You can also gain more
popularity by supplying them with various types of foods.
<D. Religion>
In this game, you can build 3 religious buildings: Chapel, Church
and Cathedral. When a religious building is built, priests will
arrive. They will bless your people. The blessing effect
disappears after a short time, at a point of place that must
be blessed again. The higher the percentage of blessed people,
the higher popularity point at religion factor you will earn.
Churches give +1 additional point to your popularity, while
Cathedral +2. What an easy-to-learn concept.
<E. Tax>
Taxation is one of the most important factors on popularity.
You can gain an amount of gold every month by setting up the
tax. Click the Keep (The building where your lord stands by)
and move the slide bar to the right to set up the tax. People
don't like to pay tax, so it will give you a negative point on
your popularity. The more the tax you set, the more the negative
popularity point you will get. The more people you have, the
more gold you can earn from taxation.
You can gain popularity by giving your people an amount of money
each month. By doing so, you will lose your money slowly, so decide
wisely. The more money you give them as bribe, the more popularity
point you will get. The more people you have, the more money you will
have to pay.
In my humble opinion, if you are deficient of gold and your total
popularity point is more than +3 each month, you can set the tax.
If you have many gold and need some points of popularity, why
don't you set the bribe?
<F. Ale Coverage/Working Inns> (Don't drink alcohol, it will ruin
your life)
If you need a boost on popularity, working inns may sound great
for you. Every time you build an Inn, an Innkeeper will come
to it, and then he will look for available ale at the stockpile
and bring it to the Inn. The ale is going to be drunk by your
people. The more people you have, the faster ale will be
depleted. The more people covered by ale, the more
popularity point you will earn.
Ale is produced by the Brewery, the brewer must first collect hops
that harvested by hops farmer.
Here is the pattern of Ale production:
Hops -------------------> Ale
Hops Farms Brewery Inn
Build more than 1 Inn to get the maximum result. If your Population
is above 50, build 3 Inns with 2 Breweries and 2 Hops Farms.
2. Buildings
~~~~~~~~~~~~
There are several types of buildings which each function. In Stronghold
Crusader, construction of building is easy. As easy as you click the
building and then place it in any location you want in the map, without
any unit which constructs the building. When you've placed a
building that requires workers, you don't need to assist the peasant
at the campfire to the building, they will automatically go to it
and work. In other words, you cannot order your peasants and
workers as you really want, you cannot order them to move as
you wish. I know it's only a concept.
You can freeze your buildings, it means that the building won't work
but still remain. To do so, click the building that requires workers,
and then click a 'Z' symbol. Note that, freezing a building will also
freezing other similar buildings (If you freeze an Apple Orchard, you
will also freeze all Apple Orchards). I know it's only a concept again.
You can delete or demolish a building, by clicking the delete button
and choose any building you want to, then you will be given a half
resource of the building's cost.
In this game, you cannot repair any building. You can only repair
the walls, towers and gates. To repair the broken walls, just
directly replace them with the new ones (doesn't need to delete
the broken walls).
Another concept, you can destroy enemy's Granary and Armory within
their contents, but you cannot destroy Stockpile and its goods. You
also cannot destroy enemy's Keep directly, as long as its lord remains
alive.
There are several rules that you must obey on constructing building,
>> You must build a building not too far from your Keep.
>> You cannot build any building (except farm and industrial buildings)
too close to the enemy.
>> Granary, Armory and Stockpile are storage buildings, if you want to
build multiple of them, you will have to place them adjacent to each
similar building.
>> Build your building wisely, and do not forget to place at least a
Water Pot (instead of well) inside your castle.
3. Combat
~~~~~~~~~
The concept of combat is a little bit easier to give details. All
your military units need no housing, no food, no spell, and no fear
of course!! You cannot heal your soldiers (including your lord) by
any mean, so you must take care of it. Every military unit is
trained from military buildings: Mercenary Camp, Barrack, Tunneler
Guild and Engineer Guild (Cathedral can also produce cheap Monks,
but it's not too important for me). All of your military units are
come from peasants, when recruiting a soldier, a peasant near the
campfire will transform himself/herself to the unit you desire. Note
that, your soldiers need no housing whatsoever, so that after
recruiting units, if your PR is above 50, the peasants will still
come to your campfire.
After being recruited, the soldiers will make their own way to the
building that produce them. They will wait on an empty ground nearby
the building, it is called as Training Ground. When the Training Ground
is full and you keep recruiting soldiers before moving the previously
recruited ones, the units you've just recruited will wait at the campfire
or in the way to the building, waiting for an empty space on Training
Ground. This is another distinct concept.
In this game, combat concept is so realistic (In my opinion, Stronghold
Crusader and Stronghold 2 own the most realistic combat concept of all
in any other game). Evenly it's realistic, but the combat concept is so
fun and nice to do. All units are made so realistic, their ability, their
way to fight and their way to act. For the example, Archery units
(Arabian and European Archers, Crossbowmen) own such a realistic
range of fire. Siege Weapons (Catapult, Trebuchet, etc) also own a
realistic range. There are also some typical but realistic units,
such as Tunneler, Engineer, Arabian Firethrower, Slave, etc.
There are 2 sides available, Arabian Units and European Units.
You can choose to become an Arabian Lord or Crusade Lord. Both lords
can hire both European and Arabian Units. Arabian Units can simply
be hired from Mercenary Camp for gold, while the Crusader needs to
collect weapons first before recruiting soldiers. Collecting weapons
can be done by producing and buying (or taking from the enemy after
killing his/her lord). Recruiting Arabian Units doesn't require weapons,
but they cost more gold than European Units. Arabian Units come within
their own weaponry.
Talking about Stronghold Crusader is also talking about castle
fortifications. There are so many options for you to choose to
defend your castle. The defensive buildings are only the Towers,
which you must order ranged-attacking unit to stand guard. The traps
are so many, from simple killing pit to the deadly short-range
Engineer with Hotpot.
In this game, fire can be set on enemy's buildings and always spread
quickly to the others, how real. There are also so many unique traps
that you will never find in any other game.
High terrain and Towers hold a very important role, because it offers
an excellent advantage. Any ranged unit on a high terrain or tower
receive bonus of increasing range and attacking power against any unit
on the lower land. Any ranged unit will suffer on range against any unit
on higher land or tower (Gatehouses and Walls also offer high advantage,
but is not as good as towers and high terrain). So that you must notice
that castle in a high terrain is harder to attack from the lower land.
However, castle on a high terrain has a downside, what is it? It is
inability to dig moats. Yes, it's right, gentleman. You can't dig moats
if your castle is in a high terrain.
There are still so many combat concepts that I'm afraid don't have
much time to write, but from all I can conclude that the combat-concept
in Stronghold Crusader performs such a realistic-detailed-simple but
deadly units and weaponry.
4. Castle
~~~~~~~~~
This game maximally utilizes castle concept. We all know that in
every mode of game, at least a Castle is involved. There is at least
a Keep (whatever it is), there are walls, towers, gates and of course
castle soldiers. If you build walls surround your castle until
there is no gap between the walls, then your castle is enclosed,
and you are merely safe from any enemy's melee soldier trying to
kill your lord.
Simply, the castle concept makes the walls as one of the most important
things in this game. At all cost, do not let your enemy breaches your
walls, make all the enemy's attacking unit don't even reach your walls.
At all cost too, breach the enemy walls. A strong enemy will have all
kinds of fortifications, including traps. The most important thing you
have to do is to kill enemy's lord no matter what. The castle concept
also brings up siege weaponry which can bring down the enemy's wall at
distant and is out of Archery units' range (too bad, Crusade War didn't
happen in gunpowder age).
5. People
~~~~~~~~~
As I've said, the people in your castle will obey whatever you manage
(the tax, the food, the work, etc). But they will leave you if you
fail to give what they want. At least, you can expect +1 Popularity,
no matter what. Unique to Stronghold Crusader, you can communicate
with your people by clicking them, you can also know what they are
up to at the present.
The job transference is one of the people concepts. They can transform
themselves into workers or soldiers you want. If you delete a building
that requires workers, the respective workers will return to campfire as
peasants. The same condition will also happen when you disband a soldier.
If your popularity is above 50, people will come to your town. They appear
at the campfire just in the front of your Keep for free of charge. They
cannot fight or walk by, they just gather and wait until you call them as
workers or soldiers (It's another distinct concept).
Tips: You can point your cursor at the enemy's campfire to see their current
popularity points.
6. Preparation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stronghold Crusader is a game which takes care about preparation. There
are so many plans you have to do before going to expand your castle,
training military unit, producing foods, defending your castle and
attacking the enemy. So that's why there are so many goods types in
this game. There are also many chains of production. The thing you
need to take care is your chains of production, don't let one of
them get running out of goods output. One of the things you can do
to destroy the enemy is to disarray their chains of production.
One of the examples on preparation concepts is to produce ales, you will
have to prepare some hops. To produce hops, you will have to prepare the
Hops Farms. Another sample, to produce a Swordsman, you will have to
prepare a Sword and an armor, to produce them both, you will have to get
ready the Blacksmith's Workshops, Armorer's Workshops and irons.
Another plan concept is your fortification. All of your fortifications
are needed to be planned first. If you want to dig moats, place traps
or smelt oil, then you will have to take a plan on them.
E. Units
********
In Stronghold Crusader, military units are divided into 2 parts,
European as the invader and Arabian as the defender (This is historically
based on the Crusade War). In this guide, I will divide them into 4 parts
whose each alignment will be explained later.
1. European Units (Barrack Units)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
As the invaders, European Units were prepared in this war, so that they
had better quality in comparison with the Arabian. In this game, the costs
of training European Units are simply cheaper than the ones of training
Arabian. However, you will need weapons to train European Units. You can
produce weapons by building Weapons Producing Buildings and an amount
of woods, irons, horse at the Stable and cows at Dairy Farms. There are
5 Weapons Producing Buildings, Fletcher's Workshop, Pole-turner's Workshop,
Blacksmith's Workshop, Armorer's Workshop, Tanner's Workshop. Each of
them has their own function. After the weapon's made, the workers will
put them in your Armory (So that's why you need to place Armory nearby
the Workshops). Producing weapons take quite long time, while buying
weapons costs you much gold. If you build only European Units in a quick
battle unless you have a great amount of Weapons Producing Buildings
working, you will lose, especially if you want to build them at the
beginning of the game, it's not a wise tactic, you know.
You can recruit European Units from Barrack (15 Stones), after the
required weapons have been fulfilled. Here are the European Units:
a. European Archer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cost : 12 gold
Requires a Bow from Armory
>Speed : Mobile and fast, but slower than Knight.
>Attack Range : Very long, longer than Crossbowmen's but shorter
than Siege weapons.
>Attack Power : Can kill unarmored units at ease; quiet useful against
siege weapons; ineffective against metal armor unless in great number; can
use Braziers to light up pitch ditch.
>Armor : No armor.
>Special : Can dig and fill moats, can climb over the Laddermen.
Description: Archer was backbone of any ancient army. This-ranged attack
unit performs great long-ranged attack against any non-heavy armored unit.
Archer can also easily kill any enemy's worker in range. This unit is best
used on the tower or high terrain, because the Archer will enjoy bonus of
increasing range, thus making any enemy's Archery units difficult to fire
at them. An Archer accompanied with Brazier can light up the pitch traps,
which can greatly damage even aflame any unit passes by. To do so, select
the Archer nearby the Brazier and order him to attack the pitch trap. But,
this unit lacks so much power to fight against heavy iron units, you should
build Crossbowmen to do this.
How to fight against traveling European Archers:
-Evenly Swordsmen can kill them easily, but they walk too slowly.
The enemy's Archers will run by then firing over and over again.
-Use your Archers to fight against his. It should be an equal battle,
unless you build Portable Shields which protect your men.
-Use Cavalry Archers, they can kill enemy's Archers at ease while
moving (Keep them moving). If it's possible, build also an equal
amount of Portable Shields.
-Crossbowmen can kill them in easily, but you must quickly order
them to get in range against the enemy's Archers whose firing
range is greater.
-Fire Ballista can outrange and kill Archers easily.
-Use Knights to chase and kill them.
-Catapult and Trebuchet can throw one or two cows on them,
unfriendliness guaranteed.
-Macemen are also great solution.
How to fight against European Archers on Towers, Gates and Keep:
-The best way is to attack them with your Archery Units protected
by Portable Shields. Clear the siege weapons first.
-Use Assassins to kill enemy's Archers on the Towers and Gates.
-Use Catapults or Trebuchet to bring down enemy's Towers and Gates.
-Use Fire Ballista to outrange them.
How to fight against attacking Archers with Shield:
-Macemen and Knights !
-Pitch Ditch.
-Throw cows.
-A group of catapults would be nice, but they are too costly and
slow moving. OK for small map, not for large map or enemies who
encircle your castle.
b. Spearman
~~~~~~~~~~~
Cost : 8 gold
Requires one Spear from Armory
>Speed : Medium, sprints when engaging enemy's units
(Defensive and Aggresive Stance).
>Attack Range : Hand to hand combat, but is farther than Swordsman,
Maceman, Slave, Assassin and Knight.
>Attack Power : Best to use to fight against non-armored units.
Damage bonus to Cavalry units, however Spearmen cannot deal Cavalry
Archers as well, they are so fast and can kill Spearman while moving,
and you will need to ambush enemy's Cavalry Archer.
>Armor : No armor, so it can be killed by Archers easily.
>Special : Can dig and fill moats, able to climb over Laddermen.
Description: Not a very special unit. It's weak and vulnerable
to any arrow. If you want to use this unit, build in mass. It
will deal a good amount of damage against enemy's Cavalry units.
You can also build this unit as a swarming or ambushing attack.
As we all know, units behind walls and buildings can't be attacked
from the opposite direction by any ranged-attack unit. You can use
the Spearman as the last resort on defending against enemy's Cavalry
Archers by using walls and buildings as covers.
How to fight against Spearmen:
-Archers and Crossbowmen can kill them easily from distant.
-Any lightly armored and heavily armored melee can quickly flush them.
-Ballista can kill them from distant.
-Slingers as the last option.
c. Maceman
~~~~~~~~~~
Cost : 20 gold
Requires a Mace and a Leather Armor from Armory
>Speed : Hasty, but slower than Archer.
>Attack Range : Hand to hand combat.
>Attack Power : Good, but less painful than Swordsman, Knight and
Pikeman. Best against enemy's Archers, Siege weapons and any light and
non armored unit.
>Armor : Light Armor.
>Special : Can dig and fill moats, able to climb over Laddermen.
Description: Fast, furious and useful, all describe the Maceman. This unit
is fantastic for a face paced assault strategy. Crack a wall into enemy's
castle and send out a group of forty to fifty Macemen. Destruction is
guaranteed (Unless there are a large group of defending Swordsmen and a
clump of pitch ditches). When you need quick response units, then Macemen
should be a great solution. Macemen can climb over Laddermen and dominate
enemy's walls swiftly. Macemen are also great for ambushing against Knights
and Cavalry Archers. I usually prefer using Macemen for offensive purpose,
because they are so quick. But their power are less than Swordsmen.
How to fight against Macemen:
-Heavy armored units are effective but they move so slowly.
-Archery units in a medium to large group on towers, can kill them
from distant.
-Cavalry Archers can hit and run against them.
-Knights which are faster and stronger, the best solution I can tell you.
-Ballista and Fire Ballista can also kill them from distant.
-Defending against them, you can use traps, such as Killing Pits,
Pitch Ditches, and Engineers with Hotpot.
d. Crossbowman
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cost : 20 gold
Requires a Crossbow and a Leather Armor from Armory
>Speed : Rather slow, I think it's slower than Spearman.
>Attack Range : Quite far, greatly farther than Slinger's but
shorter than Archer's.
>Attack Power : Good, much better than Archer's, Crossbowmen can
easily pierce enemy's heavy armor, so that's why they are functional
against any heavily armored unit. They fire more accurate than Archers do.
>Armor : Light Armor.
>Special : Nothing.
Description: This unit is best placed on a Tower. This unit has 3 downsides
in comparison with Archer, they move slower, reload his bow longer and own
shorter firing range. However, Crossbowman's weapon is more precise. The
bolts are so deadly even against enemy's heavily armored units. They are so
helpful on fighting against enemy's Swordsmen, Pikemen and Knights.
A medium number (10-12) of Crossbowman on towers is one of the best
defenses against an iron lord (A lord who always creates heavy unit).
3 Crossbowmen are unbelievably more useful than a medium group of Archers
when facing against enemy's heavy units. Mix them with Archers for the best
result. This unit, however is NOT designed to be in a fast paced battle, they
walk slowly and reload the crossbow slowly, they are designed to kill slow
heavy units. If you invest resource and time to build only Crossbowmen,
when a large group of Slaves are going to attack you, you will have a bad
time.
How to fight against defending Crossbowmen, especially on towers:
-Fire Ballista is the best solution.
-Use Catapults and or Trebuchets to bring down the towers,
mortality guaranteed,
-You can also build one or two Siege Tower and send out a throng
of Macemen to climb up and dominate enemy's walls from Crossbowmen.
-Use a group of 12-18 Archers and protect them with Portable Shields,
Cavalry Archers are preferred.
-Knights are also effective to destroy the towers, but not in
a wide open place.
-Use Assassins as the last option.
How to fight against attacking Crossbowmen:
-Archers on tower can outrange and at least hurt them first.
-Ballista can be combined with Archers.
-Set up the traps, including the Pitch traps and Caged War Dogs
which can disturb Crossbowmen's performance.
-Use Trebuchets to throw dead cows upon a bunch of them.
e. Pikeman
~~~~~~~~~~
Cost : 20 gold
Requires a Pike and a Metal Armor from Armory
>Speed : Average.
>Attack Range : The same as Spearman.
>Attack Power : Good,
effective against light and non-armored units, little bit
weak against heavy armored units.
>Armor : Heavy armor (but the defense ability is
somewhat weaker than European Swordsman, it is true).
>Special : Able to dig and fill moats.
Description: This unit surprisingly moves at average speed. It's fairly
effective against light armored units. But I think, with 20 gold more
expensive European Swordsman is much better for overall method of
defense. Too bad, this unit can't climb over Laddermen. But this unit
is of course can take a lot hell of arrows and damage. You might use this
unit in a hot battle to fill the enemy's moat, because other moat digger
units can just die easily.
If anyone can write a better description for Pikeman, e-mail me :-).
### A person named John Gregg has given me his opinion about this
unit as well. You should check it out on Mails from Readers section.
How to fight against travelling or defending Pikemen:
-Arabian Swordsmen and European Swordsmen are effective.
-Crossbowmen are better solution.
-Fire Ballista can easily flush them out.
How to fight against attacking Pikemen:
-Ballista on tower can help your Crossbowmen.
-Set up the traps especially the Engineers with Hotpots, you know
really how!!!
-Use Trebuchets to throw dead cows upon a bunch of them.
f. European Swordsman
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cost : 40 gold
Requires a Sword and a Metal Armor from armory
>Speed : Pathetically slow.
>Attack Range : Hand to hand combat.
>Attack Power : Superior, can destroy any unit and
building (except walls and towers) very easy.
>Armor : Heavy armor (Own a little bit more armor
than Knight).
>Special : None.
Description: Really slow, don't use this unit if you are impatience.
Build this unit in groups for defending your lord. European Swordsmen
are proved devastating, but if you charge these units to a fully
fortified stronghold, you will lose them. They will be taken easily by
enemy's Crossbowmen and Ballista and or Fire Ballista. They can also be
toasted by Pitch Ditch and Hotpot. However, when comes in combat,
European Swordsman is superior for any unit.
How to fight against Swordsmen:
-Build Crossbowmen, they are effective against enemy's Swordsman.
-Ballista and Fire Ballista are helpful.
-Throw dead cows upon them.
-Pitch Ditch traps are very effective.
-Use your own Swordsmen.
-Fire thrower can be the last (effective) solution.
g. Knight
~~~~~~~~~
Cost : 40 gold
Require a Sword and Metal Armor from Armory, also need a horse from Stable.
>Speed : EXTREMELY FAST (The European's fastest
unit in this game, but cannot go on to the walls and keep).
>Attack Range : Hand to hand combat.
>Attack Power : The same as European Swordsman (he
sometimes also uses his flag)
>Armor : Heavy armor (little bit weaker than
European Swordsman).
>Special : None.
Description: Swordsman on a horse, Very fast and powerful. Training
Knights requires you at least a Stable which costs 20 woods and 400 gold.
A stable can provide you up to 4 horses at a time. It's impossible for you
to build a large group of Knights, unless you possess much gold to spend.
However, when Knights come in to the game, they can aid you a lot. Four
strong and fast Knights are worthy for 400 gold you expend, because the
horses are bred for free. Knights are good for both supportive and offense
purpose.
How to fight against Knights:
-A medium amount of Crossbowmen (Especially on towers) can kill them
pretty easy.
-Ballista on towers can aid your Crossbowmen.
-A medium group of Fire Ballista can annihilate them easily, protect
them with your Swordsmen or Knights.
-Build your own Knights.
-Pitch trap can deal an amount of damage (Need a precise timing).
-Do not order your lord to move out of your Keep.
2. Arabian Units
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Arabian Units were not prepared for this war, so that they had less
excellence to be compared with those equipped European units. In this
game, they are simple to build. You don't have to give them weapons,
making them suitable in a quick-fix situation. They cost you more gold,
and their qualities sometimes don't worth it. Some of them have special
features that you won't find in any European Units. Arabian Units are
best built in mass. Different from European Units who likely fight with
bravery and fierce, Arabian Units fight with sneak, horde and fire.
Here are the Arabian Units, you can hire them from Mercenary Outpost
(10 Woods).
a. Arabian Archer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cost : 75 gold
>Speed : Quick, as fast as European Archer.
>Attack Range : The same as European Archer.
>Attack Power : A little bit better than European One,
but they still can't hurt heavily armored units as well, they can also
use Brazier to light up the pitch traps.
>Armor : No armor
>Special : None.
Description: This unit is nearly the same with European Archer,
except in some points. They are trained in Mercenary Post, they
cost more gold, they need no weapon to produce, they wear different
clothes and they speak Arabian, :-).
How to fight against traveling Arabian Archers:
-Evenly Swordsmen can kill them easily, but they walk too slowly.
The enemy's Archers will run by then firing over and over again.
-Use your Archers to fight against his. It should be an equal battle,
unless you build Portable Shields which protect your men.
-Use Cavalry Archers, they can kill enemy's Archers at ease while moving
(Keep them moving). If it's possible, build also an equal amount of
Portable Shields.
-Crossbowmen can kill them in easily, but you must quickly order them
to get in range against the enemy's Archers whose firing range is greater.
-Fire Ballista can outrange and kill Archers easily.
-Use Knights to chase and kill them.
-Catapult and Trebuchet can throw one or two cows on them, unfriendliness
guaranteed.
-Macemen are also great solution.
How to fight against Arabian Archers on Towers, Gates and Keep:
-The best way is to attack them with your Archery Units protected by
Portable Shields. Clear the siege weapons first.
-Use Assassins to kill enemy's Archers on the Towers and Gates.
-Use Catapults or Trebuchet to bring down enemy's Towers and Gates.
-Use Fire Ballista to outrange them.
How to fight against attacking Archers with Shield:
-Macemen and Knights !
-Pitch Ditch.
-Throw cows.
-A group of catapults would be nice, but they are too costly and
slow moving. OK for small map, not for large map or enemies who
encircle your castle.
b. Slave
~~~~~~~~
Cost : 5 gold
>Speed : Quick, as fast as Archer.
>Attack Range : Hand to hand combat.
>Attack Power : REALLY PATHETIC against units, sets up
fire on building (except towers, walls, gatehouses, traps, Oil Smelter,
Well, Water Pot, some of bad things and good things buildings).
>Armor : PATHETICALLY WEAK.
>Special : Can dig and fill moats.
Description: This unit is weak for real. It can be killed with
only one shot from Archery units (Including Hunter who collects foods).
Even a group of 5 to 6 Slaves are lost against a Woodcutter. Despite
the fatal weakness, this unit is sometime dangerous when built in
mass. Their speed can sometime help them avoiding enemy's arrows.
It's really easy to kill them, but it's awfully painful if you don't.
They can be a real threat, when successfully running through your
defense line, they will try to burn any building they encounter.
And also, you should prepare some Wells or Water Pot !
How to fight against Slaves:
-Archery Units can quickly dispatch them.
-Any stronger melee units can also kill them easily, order your melee
units to become offensive and order them to guard your buildings outside
your Castle.
-Set traps, including the Caged War Dogs.
-Dig moats surrounding your base, and build Well or Water Pot.
-Slingers as the last option.
c. Slinger
~~~~~~~~~~
Cost : 12 gold
>Speed : As fast as Archer.
>Attack Range : Short ranged attack.
>Attack Power : Weak, it's worse than Archer. It quite works
only against non-armored units in short distance. Surprisingly, they
sling stones fairly rapid.
>Armor : Really weak, get killed easily by Archers.
>Special : None
Description: If you are looking for the most efficient unit to
kill enemy's Slaves or workers, Slinger is the best solution.
With a cheap price, you can build a throng of them. However,
Archers can kill them easily from distant. If you want to attack
enemy's Archers, quickly order your Slingers to get in range and
attack the Archer, it's easier said than done. In conclusion,
Slingers cannot be the part of your main army, use them only as
the last option against enemy's Slaves and Spearmen. Slingers are
great if you are frustrated against the enemy's slaves, your
Crossbowmen are slow and your Archers just lost track and sometimes
get his firing obstructed by some buildings, Slingers can help you,
they are cheap, place 4 or 5 of thems on each suitable spot to protect
your farming and industrial buildings.
How to fight against Slingers:
-Archery units can greatly outrange and kill them.
-Any melee unit (Except Slave and Spearman) can quickly kill them
in hand to hand combat.
d. Cavalry Archer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cost : 80 gold
>Speed : Extremely fast, the same as European Knight
(Cannot go on to the walls and keep).
>Attack Range : A little bit farther than Archer.
>Attack Power : A little bit better than Arabian Archer.
>Armor : A little bit better than European and
Arabian Archers.
>Special : They can fire while moving, pretty useful.
Description: I think it's the most dangerous Arabian unit in this game.
They are fast and able to fire while moving. They are dangerous for most
non-heavily armored units. They are capable on circling and surrounding
enemy's castle while firing. They can also be a big menace when
combined with Portable Shields, making them almost invulnerable to
enemy's arrows. However, they cannot go on to the walls, keep, gatehouses
and towers, so it's really clear that Cavalry Archers are great for
attacking role or supportive purpose for your main army and Siege Weapons.
A Cavalry Archer costs you 80 gold. Creating a medium group of them
requires you a quite large amount of gold, so decide wisely.
How to fight against traveling Cavalry Archers:
-Build your own Cavalry Archers, protect them with Portable Shields
if necessary.
-Use Crossbowmen or Archers, protect them with Portable Shields.
-Chase and kill them with your Knight.
-Build some Fire Ballista.
How to fight against Cavalry Archers who encircle your castle:
-Place a medium group of Archers on your Towers, accompany them with
Ballista.
-If you can, place also a group of Crossbowmen.
-Place Caged War Dogs, they will slow the Cavalry Archers, while your
men on towers opening fire.
-Hold them with Knights.
-Assassins can also surprise them (I'll tell you why).
How to fight against Cavalry Archers protected with Portable Shields:
-Build one or two Trebuchet, throw one or two dead cows upon them.
-Send out several Macemen and Knights to rush them.
-Mangonel can also tear down some of them, its possibility to kill
is greater when a targeting a crowd of stay put soldiers.
-As the best solution, build a cluster of Pitch traps.
-A group of catapults would be nice, but they are too costly and
slow moving. OK for small map, not for large map or enemies who
encircle your castle.
e. Arabian Swordsman
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cost : 80 gold
>Speed : Rather Slow, but is faster than European one.
>Attack Range : Melee combat.
>Attack Power : Good, but is not better than those European
Swordsman.
>Armor : Good, but is lighter than European Swordsman.
>Special : Nothing.
Description: This soldier is quite weaker than the European Swordsman.
If you have much time and enough amounts of irons, build some Blacksmiths
and Armory to produce weapons needed for training European Swordsmen.
However, if you are in critical situation and need for good melee
combat units quickly, rather than buying weapons, train some Arabian
Swordsmen from Mercenary Camps.
How to fight against Swordsmen:
-Build Crossbowmen, they are effective against enemy's Swordsman.
-Ballista and Fire Ballista are helpful.
-Throw dead cows upon them.
-Pitch Ditch traps are very effective.
-Use your own Swordsmen.
-Fire thrower can also be an option.
f. Assassin
~~~~~~~~~~~
Cost : 60 gold
>Speed : Medium.
>Attack Range : Hand to hand combat.
>Attack Power : Good, equal with Pikeman.
>Armor : Light Armor.
>Special : Can climb the walls, they are also invisible
to the enemies at the fair distant.
Note : They are seen by the enemy if a '!' mark, is
shown on the top of his head.
Description: THE DESERT NINJA IS HERE!!! They are unseen to the enemy,
unless he gets close to enemy's unit or building. This mercenary can also
climb the walls with their rope. With these abilities, you can manipulate
enemy's defense easily. I usually build 2 or 3 Assassins per group. These
are the tactics that I usually use with Assassins.
-Use the Assassins to destroy enemy's farms and industrial buildings,
yes it works!!!!!
-Sometimes the enemy will rebuild a destroyed tower or walls, send an
Assassin to get close to his base but not too close, don't expect him
get revealed. Then the enemy can't rebuild the tower or walls, because
there is an Assassin nearby (See the building rules).
-Use the Assassins to climb the walls and kill the dwelling Archers.
-You can also use them to climb the walls and capture the gate.
-You can use them for the real ambush against enemy's Cavalry Archers.
How to fight against Assassins:
-You will need quick responses units, such as Knights and Macemen.
Macemen are preferred since they can go on to the walls to protect your
Archers.
-Prepare at least 2 Swordsmen at each groups of farms and Industrial
Buildings, order them to be defensive.
-If you can't train a group of Swordsmen, then Slingers and Spearmen
are alternative.
-Train your own Assassins.
-Cavalry Archers can be another solution, keep their distance.
g. Fire Thrower
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cost : 100 gold
>Speed : Medium.
>Attacking Range : Short-ranged attack.
>Attacking Power : Dangerous against building, When In group,
devastating against any unit.
>Armor : Light armor, can withstand 2 or 3 arrows.
>Special : Can light up the pitch traps.
Description: With a cost of 100 gold, this unit is weak in protection.
If you want to burn enemy's castle directly (when there are a few or
none Archers), it's cheaper to build 15 speedy Slaves. However,
the slaves can just suicide themselves in flame, because they need to
be adjacent to the building they want to burn. Fire thrower is
needed, when you can't breach enemy's walls or moats because his weapon
can just fly over them. When you see this unit coming toward
your base, kill him quickly. Fire thrower is also great for
defense purpose against enemy's heavy armor units, but he can
just be killed by the enemy's Archers.
How to fight against Fire throwers:
-Archers, Horse Archers and Crossbowmen are the best solution.
-Fire Ballista can be another answer.
-Slingers are also great.
3. Cathedral Unit
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well, um, the Cathedral unit is only Monk. I will explain the
Cathedral later at Town Building Section. You can train Monks at the
Cathedral.
a. Monk
~~~~~~~
Cost : 10 gold
>Speed : Medium, but slower than Spearman.
>Attack Range : Hand to hand combat.
>Attack Power : Good, equal with Maceman.
>Armor : Weak, just the same with Spearman.
>Special : None.
Description: Within their gospel spirit, Monks are cool units
to fight against enemy's weak units. Training a Monk costs you 10 gold,
it means that you can build a medium to large group of Monks. Two or
three Monks can kill many Slaves. They can also compete against enemy's
Spearmen. However, they can be easily killed by enemy's Archers.
4. Guild Units
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I separate these units, because of their specialty. There are two
guilds, Engineers' Guild and Tunnelers' Guild. Engineers' Guild builds
Engineers and Laddermen, while Tunnelers' Guild builds Tunnelers.
Each of both building cost you 10 woods and 100 gold. Here are the
guild units.
a. Engineer
~~~~~~~~~~~
Cost : 30 gold
>Speed : Medium.
>Attack Range : None.
>Attack Power : None.
>Armor : No armor.
>Special : Versatile, able to build and man Siege
Equipments for both offense and defense purpose, able to man oil
smelter and bring hot pot, able to dig and fill moats.
Description: The most versatile unit in this game. He can build and
man all the siege equipments you need, he can also man oil smelter
while the others bring the pots containing hot oil ready to cook your</pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
enemies. Before you order them to do something, protect them, as they
are easy preys for the enemy. When you want to order them to build
siege equipment, choose them and then click 'build' (the selection
panel is in lower left corner of your screen), select the equipment
and place it in the map (Building siege equipments costs gold). Most of
the equipments require more than one Engineer. If the required
Engineers are not an adequate amount of, the equipment will be unusable.
For example, a Trebuchet needs 3 Engineers to operate, if you have only
2, the Trebuchet won't operate, to make it work, just assign another one
Engineer to the Trebuchet.
To assist it, just simply select your Engineers and left click on
the equipment (you will notice that the cursor is changed). Different
from offensive siege equipments, defensive siege units (Mangonel
and Ballista on the tower) will only need to be placed instantly at a
large tower and then be manned by your Engineers. You can order your
Engineers to leave out the equipment by double clicking on it or selecting
it twice.
b. Ladderman
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cost : 4 gold
>Speed : Quite fast.
>Attack Range : None.
>Attack Power : None.
>Armor : No Armor.
>Special : Providing ladder for some of your units to
climb the wall.
Description: A fast and cheap but defenseless unit who brings a
ladder. Some units can use this ladder to go on to the enemy's walls.
Although weak, when you see this unit come toward your base, quickly
find a way to dispose him or a way to defend your walls. However, if
you own much gold, why don't you replace them with a single Siege
Tower? So that you can bring some heavier units to climb over the enemy's
wall.
How to fight against incoming Laddermen:
-Archery units can kill them from distant.
-Spearmen, Assassins and Pikeman can remove them.
-Macemen is much better.
-Arabian Fire Thrower can quickly kill them.
-Slingers are the last option.
c. Tunneler
~~~~~~~~~~~
Cost : 30 gold
>Speed : Medium, running when ordered to dig.
>Attack Range : None.
>Attack Power : None.
>Armor : No Armor.
>Special : Digging a tunnel toward opponent base and later
collapse the walls or tower or gatehouse.
Description: A weak unit, but sometime is proved useful. When you are
frustrated on facing enemy's walls, Tunnelers come as the alternative
option. Select him, click the shovel icon in the selection panel and
place it on outskirt of enemy's base. He will then find his own way
through the tunnel, and finally damage enemy's tower, walls or gatehouse.
He cannot dig tunnel over river and moats. Unfortunately, this unit
cannot dig moats.
5. Siege Units
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Siege units are special, they have so many usefulness on bringing down
enemy's defenses and walls at ease. Before you can create them, you
must build some Engineers and possess some amount of gold. Select the
Engineers, click 'build' on the selection panel in the lower left
corner of your screen and then click the equipment you need, and
finally place it on the map. You will notice that there will be a tent,
and your Engineers will go into it. In a short time, you will see a siege
equipment you want, awaiting your order. Most of the equipments require
more than one Engineer. If the required Engineers are not an adequate
amount of, the equipment will be unusable.
For example, a Trebuchet needs 3 Engineers to operate, if you have only
2, the Trebuchet won't operate, to make it work, just assign another one
Engineer to the Trebuchet.
To assist it, just simply select your Engineers and left click on
the equipment (you will notice that the cursor is changed). In case
your equipment is in low health, better you order your Engineers to
leave out the equipment and build the new one, because if the
equipment are destroyed, all of its Engineers will be killed.
Here are the Siege Units.
a. Catapult
~~~~~~~~~~~
Cost : 150 gold
Requires 2 Engineers
Note that Catapult needs rocks (It starts with 20 rocks). Look at the
'attack here' button to see the available amount of rocks on each Catapult.
You can get more rocks by clicking the '20 rocks for 10 stone' button
(Note that 10 stone will be deducted from your Stockpile).
>Speed : Slow.
>Attack Range : Very far, farther than Archers and defensive
siege units.
>Attack Power : Powerful, deadly against both buildings and
units. However, it owns a somewhat small accuracy against units.
>Armor : Quite tough against arrow, weak against melee
attack.
>Special : Can throw a dead cow, note that you must have
a diary farm with at least a cow.
Description: A basic siege equipment which can fling stones to destroy
enemy's walls, towers and buildings. Its attacking range is greater than
any archery units even Archers and defensive Siege units on towers.
It can kill any unit in one shot (Though, the accuracy is small).
Catapult can also throw a dead cow upon your enemy to poison them.
How to fight against Catapults:
-Use your fast-moving units, such as Macemen and Knights.
-Archers are also great, but you will need at least a medium group.
-Assassins are cool.
-Ballistas on towers are effective.
b. Trebuchet
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cost : 150 gold
Requires 3 Engineers
Note that Trebuchet needs rocks (It starts with 20 rocks). Look at the
'attack here' button to see the available amount of rocks on each
Trebuchet. You can get more rocks by clicking the '20 rocks for 10 stone'
button (Note that 10 stone will be deducted from your Stockpile).
>Speed : Cannot move.
>Attack Range : The longest, it's about the double range of
Archer's.
>Attack Power : Better than Catapults.
>Armor : The same with Catapults.
>Special : Can fire rocks over the walls, and can also
throw a dead cow.
Description: A powerful siege unit, can fling stone over enemy's walls
with high arc and high velocity (So it can cause high damage too). It
is much better used on a high terrain, since it can deliver more damage.
However, it can't move and has lesser accuracy. Sometimes, it can be a
good defensive unit, since it can throw dead cow from your castle to
outside. Accompany your Trebuchets with Cavalry Archers, Swordsman or
Macemen. They don't move, so it's pretty easy for you to send out your
troops to destroy them.
c. Battering Ram
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cost : 150 gold
Requires 4 Engineers
>Speed : Rather slow.
>Attack Range : Melee Combat, only against structures.
>Attack Power : Great against building, walls and towers,
cannot attack units.
>Armor : Fairly good against arrow, vulnerable to melee
damage.
>Special : None.
Description: A slow and heavy equipment. It can bring down walls, small
towers and buildings pretty easy. It can withstand many arrows, but not
melee damage. Accompany this unit with your Swordsmen and Archery units.
Do not lose it, or you will also lose 4 Engineers inside. When you see
this coming toward your base, prepare your Swordsmen or Pikemen or anything
else that can go on hand to hand combat. At all cost, do not let it
destroy your walls. You can also build some cluster of pitch ditches
as prevention.
Battering Ram can also be a mechanism to protect your Engineers.
Send 6 Battering Rams (along with other of your units to attack the enemy's
castle), when those Battering Rams are nearby enemy's castle (or maybe wall)
and once you assume that their position is safe, get them out from the Rams,
build 8 Trebuchets there :) and command them to drink some ale, no ...
command them to attack the enemy's important buildings ! To Throw cows !
d. Portable Shield
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cost : 5 gold
Requires one Engineer
>Speed : Fast.
>Attack Range : None.
>Attack Power : None.
>Armor : Almost invulnerable against arrow on the
front side.
>Special : To protect any unit standing behind from
any arrows and bolts.
Description: The best unit to combine with your Archery units. The
Engineer can withstand many arrows with his wooden shield, so that he
could protect himself and unit behind. This unit is best used in mass.
When a group of 15 Cavalry Archers and a group of 12 Portable Shields
coming toward your base, you have to prepare a strong and fast-response
units, such as Knights and Macemen. The best solution is to place traps.
Just for information, Portable Shields cannot protect your men on the
towers.
Tips: Group your Portable Shields with Ctrl + 1, and your Archery units
with Ctrl + 2. Order your Portable Shields to move toward a destination
first, do not get too close or too far. Before the Portable Shields
arrive at their destination, order your Archery Units to go to the
same spot, and later make sure they are protected by the Shields.
You can clear enemy's Archers with this method, including those Archers
who defend their Castle and Lord.
Portable Shield can also be meant to protect the Engineer itself, so
if you think that there will be a hot battle, and your Engineer is likely
to die if you send it to somewhere you want them to be, just order them
to build the Shield and send them, just make sure they don't meet any
enemy's melee units. At the destination just get them off the shields.
How to defend against a group of Portable Shields protecting some units
behind:
-Build one or two Trebuchet, throw one or two dead cows upon them.
-Send out several Macemen and Knights to rush them.
-Mangonel can also tear down some of them, its possibility to
kill is greater when a targeting a crowd of stay put soldiers.
-As the best solution, build a cluster of Pitch traps.
-A group of catapults would be nice, but they are too costly and
slow moving. OK for small map, not for large map or enemies who
encircle your castle.
e. Siege Tower
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cost : 150 gold
Requires 4 Engineers
>Speed : Medium.
>Attack Range : None.
>Attack Power : None.
>Armor : Good, fairly resistant against arrows,
vulnerable against melee damage.
>Special : It can stand adjacent to enemy's walls or
gatehouses and provide ladder for your units to go on to walls.
Description: First, you will need to order this equipment to stand
adjacent to the enemy's walls. Once the Siege Towers and enemy's walls
connected, you can order all of your infantries to go on the enemy's walls
via it. If you see this coming forward your base, prepare your melee combat
units, both to the outside of your base toward his/her Siege Tower and to
the walls to protect your Archery units on tower. Note, that after connecting
the Siege Towers, the Engineers inside will be idle and wait for the next
assignment.
f. Fire Ballista
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cost : 150 gold
Requires 2 Engineers
>Speed : Slow
>Attack Range : Far, farther than Archery units' firing range,
but shorter than Trebuchets.
>Attack Power : Deadly, both against buildings and units,
useless against towers, walls and gatehouses.
>Armor : The same as Catapult.
>Special : Can burn building.
Description: A cool equipment, which can burn down buildings and kill
enemy's units from distance. Surprisingly, it shoots much more accurately
than the Catapult and need no ammo. However, it is impossible to bring down
a heavily fortified stronghold with only some pieces of Fire Ballista, use
this unit as support for your main army against enemy's heavy units. When you
see this unit in a mass, you are in trouble, build the Portable Shields to
protect your Archers.
F. Buildings
************
In this game, buildings are divided into 7 types, Castle buildings,
Industry buildings, Farming buildings, Town Buildings, Weapons
Producing buildings, Food Processing buildings and Keeps. Some
of them have chain of productions. Most buildings are vulnerable
to fire, so that you must have at least a Water Pot in your town.
Here I divide them based on their function.
1. Castle Buildings
+++++++++++++++++++
Most Castle Buildings have relationship with combat and are built to
fortify and defend your stronghold. There are seven Castle Buildings,
Storage Buildings, Walls, Training Ground Buildings, Gatehouses, Traps,
Towers, and Defensive Siege Units.
A. Storage Buildings
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
In this game, there are four Storage Buildings: Granary, Stable, Stockpile
and Armory (or Armoury?). If you want to build more than one Granary,
you must place them adjacently. The rule is also applied to Stockpile
and Armory, except the Stable. Note that Stockpile is free and is
undestructible.
a. Granary
~~~~~~~~~~
<Food Processing Building>
>Cost : 5 woods (It's cheap, so don't bother to build two
or three)
>Function : It stores foods, regulates rations and manages
foods consumption.
Description : It's a crucial building and may be the most important
building. There is no way you can win a Crusader/multiplayer game
without it. It stores foods that your people eat. You can collect
food from Bakers, Apple Farmers, Hunters, and Dairy Farmers. You can
point your cursor over it to see the current amount of foods. Click
it and you will see the detail off your foods consumption. You can
change the rations from 'no rations', 'half rations', 'full rations',
'extra rations' and 'double rations'. 'No rations' means that your
people will not eat the foods and you are losing Popularity, 'full rations'
is the default one, while 'double rations' doubles the consumption
rate and you will receive Popularity bonus. You can prohibit your people
to eat one or more types of foods by clicking 'foods consumption toggle'.
Once the Granary is full, the workers will wait until there is space
available. Defend this building at all cost, if you lose the Granary,
you will also lose the foods inside (It's painful, right??)
b. Stable
~~~~~~~~~
<Castle Building, Military Building>
>Cost : 20 woods and 400 gold (It's expensive, isn't?)
>Function : Storing up to 4 horses. These horses are free of
charge and are mounted by Knights in combat.
Description: Have already collected swords and armor? Build Stables,
so that you can train Knights, the European ultimate units. However,
a Stable which costs 20 woods and 400 gold can only support up to 4
Knights at a time, so building a group of Stables to support many
Knights will drain your gold quickly. Once you've built a Stable,
the horses appear freely.
c. Stockpile
~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Industry Building>
>Cost : Absolutely free
>Function : Storing goods (Wheat, flour, woods, irons, stone,
hops, ale and pitch).
Description: You always start with one Stockpile beside your Stone
Keeper in Crusader/multiplayer game. Soon you will need to build
more as you develop your Castle. It provides space for your worker
to store goods. Unlike Granary, Stable and Armory, it's indestructible
and the goods it stores will never be destroyed. I recommend you to
build 4 Stockpiles. You can click the Stockpile to see the amount of
goods currently stored. The goods you stored can sometime be taken by
other workers, for example the bakers will collect bags of flours that
are stored by Millboy who collects wheat that is produced by Wheat Farm.
When the Stockpile is full, the workers will wait until there is space
available. Another unique concept from Stockpile is that your
workers and soldiers can walk upon way on the middle of Stockpiles
whose shape is a cross.
d. Armory
~~~~~~~~~
<Castle Building>
>Cost : 5 woods (Build at least 2)
>Function : Storing weapons.
Description: This building stores weapons that are produced from
Weapons Producing Buildings. Weapons are needed to build European
units in the Barrack. When it's full, the workers will wait until
there is space available. It's pretty vulnerable, so protect it well.
B. Walls
^^^^^^^^
Walls are important to protect your town from most dangers outside.
If you don't build walls, the enemy will easily attack your town and
you might easily be defeated. You must enclose your keep by building walls.
However, Trebuchets and any ranged-attack units from higher terrain can
still harm your town. Fire can also spread through the walls.
a. Normal Wall
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Castle Building>
>Cost : 1 stone for 2 Normal Walls
>Function : To protect and fortify your town.
Description: Just a normal and common type of wall. It can protect
your buildings from Catapults and your Lord from melee units. Build
walls surrounding your town, until your keep is enclosed and do not
forget to build gates and towers. The enemy's melee units will hardly
bring down your walls, but Catapults, Tunnelers, Trebuchets and Rams
can easily collapse them. A smart enemy will also bring many units to
go through your walls, such as Assassins, Laddermen, and Siege Towers.
b. Stair Walls
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Castle Building>
>Cost : 1 stone for 2 Stair Walls
>Function : Stair Walls connect the walls and the ground, so
that you can let your men get on to the walls without walking through
the gate.
Description: You can order your men to go on to your walls via gates.
However, when the gate is destroyed, you can't do that anymore, you must
build another gate. Sometimes, you need to order your men to go on to
the walls quickly to defend your Archers, and then the Stair Wall is the
solution. Note that Stair Walls must lead to your walls. To build
it, just click the Stair Walls icon, place the stair wall adjacent to the
wall and drag it, until it connects to ground.
c. Crenulated Walls
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Castle Building>
>Cost : 1 stone for 2 Crenulated Walls
>Function : To protect and fortify your town, this wall
cannot be scaled by enemy's Ladderman and Siege Tower.
Note : It must be built next to another wall.
Description: Another type of wall. I think it's an excellent strategy
to build these walls, because of the fact that they are impassable and
cannot be scaled by the enemy with any mean. However, you must build
Normal Walls first, so that you can build Crenulated Walls next to them.
Note that Assassin can still climb them.
d. Low Walls
~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Castle Building>
>Cost : 1 stone for 4 Low Walls
>Function : To protect and fortify your town.
Description: Its size is only a half of normal wall, means that the
Low Wall is really weaker than the Normal Wall. Melee units can easily
tear them down. However, its cheap cost can be a solution to hold up any
earlier attack from Slaves, Spearmen and Macemen. With 50 stones, you can
build 200 Low Walls. Low Walls are also great to defend against Catapult
and Fire Ballista (In equal terrain). You can combine Low Walls, Crenulated
Walls and Normal Walls together.
C. Training Ground Buildings
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Training Ground Buildings are the buildings that can produce soldiers.
There are 5 buildings, Mercenary Post, Barrack, Engineers' Guild, Tunnelers'
Guild and Cathedral (I will explain Cathedral later at town buildings
section). Like I've said before, you can just click the building, and
then click the picture of the soldiers you want, and later the people at
the camp fire will transform themselves into the soldiers and go to the
respective training ground buildings, awaiting your orders. Note that you
can also set a gather point from a Training Ground Building, click the
building, press the corresponding number of a soldier based on the order
from left to the right, and finally place it by left clicking on the gather
point you wish.
a. Mercenary Camp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Castle Building>
>Cost : 10 woods
>Function : Calls Arabian Mercenaries.
Description: A tent-like building, which can produce Arabian Soldiers to
your order as long as you have peasants available at your camp fire. This
building is pretty weak and easy to destroy. Arabian units are always used
in mass, and some of them have really cheap costs.
b. Barrack
~~~~~~~~~~
<Castle Building>
>Cost : 15 stones
>Function : Calls European Warriors.
Description: A quite tough building (It's made of stone). This building
produces European units as long as you have peasants available at your
camp fire. Beside gold, you must provide weapons to train European units.
You can see the weapon requirements of each soldier by pointing your
cursor on soldiers' picture. European units fight with bravery and fierce.
c. Engineers' Guild
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Castle Building, Military Building>
>Cost : 10 woods and 100 gold
>Function : Recruiting Engineers and Laddermen.
Description: This building produces Engineers and Laddermen (any better
explanation?) as long as you have peasants available at your camp fire.
Engineer costs 30 gold and Ladderman cost 4 gold.
d. Tunnelers' Guild
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Castle Building, Military Building>
>Cost : 10 woods and 100 gold
>Function : Recruiting Tunneler.
Description: This building produces Tunnelers as long as you have
peasants available at your campfire. Tunneler costs 30 gold.
D. Gatehouses
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
You need gates to allow your people to go inside and outside of your
castle without having worry of enemy's units trying to enter your castle,
because the gate will be locked automatically. If the gate is locked, any
workers and soldiers cannot go through it, so you must quickly kill
the invaders. You can lock and unlock the gate manually by clicking it.
You can also place your Archery units and Brazier to defend the gate.
You can also allow your soldiers to go on to the walls via it. You can
also use the Drawbridge upon moats to expand your gate, moats are
needed to stop enemy's melee units attacking toward your walls.
a. Small Stone Gatehouse
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Castle Building, Gatehouses>
>Cost : 10 stone
>Function : Allowing your people and soldiers to go inside
and outside your walls, allowing your soldiers to go on to the walls,
being the secondary defense line by placing some Archery units and
Braziers on it. It can be expanded by building Drawbridge.
Description: A small and weak gatehouse, you can place some Archers
and Braziers on it to defend the main route of your Castle. Beware of
Assassins trying to take your gate and Ram trying to pulverize it.
Place some traps to protect your gate. If you can, place also an Engineer
with hotpot. If the gate is destroyed, all the people on the top of it
will suffer great damage and sometimes die.
b. Large Stone Gatehouse
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Castle Building, Gatehouses>
>Cost : 20 stone
>Function : The same with Small one.
Description: A large and quite strong gatehouse, need a longer time to
break down this gate. It has the same function with the small one. Still,
the Assassin can steal this gate. It is recommended that you build this
type of gate instead of the small one. It is best expanded with Drawbridge.
c. Brazier
~~~~~~~~~~
<Castle Building, Gatehouses>
>Cost : Free and must be placed on tower, wall, keep or
gatehouse.
>Function : Used by Archer to increase damage and set the
pitch traps alight.
Description: A very useful item, place them on all of your towers
and gatehouses (You can also place them on your keep). Archers and
Arabian Archers use it to flame their arrows, so that they can
inflict more damage and light up the pitch traps to burn down any
enemy trying to enter your base. Note that Crossbowman cannot use
the Brazier.
d. Moats
~~~~~~~~
<Castle Building, Gatehouses>
>Cost : Free, but must be dug by your units.
>Function : Making the ground impassable by anything.
Description: Digging Moats is a nice tactic to stop your enemy's
movement toward your Castle. It also works to stop enemy's Tunnelers
digging Tunnels toward your base. However, your units cannot also move
over the Moats either. Building a Drawbridge next to a gate will allow
your people to go inside and outside your Castle ordinarily. When a
threat comes, the Drawbridge will be pulled up, and the enemy can't
enter your gate or reach your walls, because of the fact that they
cannot pass over the Moats. You must be aware of enemy's units trying
to fill your moats. All the units that can dig moats are able to fill
enemy's moats.
Digging moats: First click the Castle Building, click the Gatehouses,
click a shovel icon, then your cursor will lead a blue box with 2X2 area,
click and drag the area you plan to dig moats, the area you've just
selected turns to blue, when you're happy with the plan, select your
units that can dig moats (Slaves, Spearmen, Macemen, etc), and order
them to dig the blue area (Note that a shovel icon will appear nearby
the blue area). All the blue area you've just made will turn to moats
in a few minutes. You can clear the blue area by clicking a shovel
icon with red- x mark (No Moats) then your cursor will lead a green
box with 2X2 area, click and drag the blue area you want to clear. You can
also delete your own moats.
I note that some units dig moats faster than the other units. The
help screen also tells that some units will reject to dig the
moats altogether.
e. Drawbridge
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Castle Building, Gatehouses>
>Cost : 10 woods, it must be attached to the front
side of your gate.
>Function : Allowing your units and workers cross over
moats.
Description: A bridge that connect your gate with the land across
the moats. It allows your people to walk across the moats. When the
enemy's units come, the Drawbridge will be pulled up. You can raise
or lower the bridge by clicking the gate or the Drawbridge. You can
build Drawbridge upon blue area (the area you plan to dig moats). Note
that the Assassin can steal the bridge and the gate, once he is on the
gate. If the gate is destroyed, so is the Drawbridge.
E. Traps
^^^^^^^^
Setting the traps is a good strategy to annoy, stop or even destroy
enemy's movement toward your Lord. Always fortify your base with some
of these. Some of traps are unseen to enemy's eye. I separate these,
just to bring an understanding of their differences.
a. Killing Pit
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Castle Building, Gatehouses>
>Cost : 6 woods
>Function : Killing an enemy's unit steps on it. It will not
kill heavy unit, but will seriously hurt them.
Description: This small pit contains pointed and sharpened woods that
can kill an enemy's unit steps on it. It is harmless to your people
(What a weird concept). It is also invisible to your opponent. Building
a group of Killing Pits requires you a huge amount of wood, but offer
an excellent defense tactic. It is best used nearby your Keep.
b. Pitch Ditch
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Castle Building, Gatehouses>
>Cost : 1 Pitch for 4 Pitch Ditches
>Function : Damage or even burn enemy's unit mercilessly, when
set alight by Archer nearby the Brazier, Arabian Firethrower, Fire
Ballista and Engineer with Hotpot.
Description: This small pit contains pitch which will be burnt easily.
Once built, you can order your Archers near a Brazier to attack the
Pitch Ditch, and then it will be aflame, spread up to other nearby Pitch
Ditches and the resulted flame can cause really painful damage that
often can burn all things, including enemy's heavy armored units.
c. Caged War Dogs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Castle Building, Gatehouses>
>Cost : 10 wood, 100 gold. Build this outside your Castle.
>Function : Attacking any people and unit they sense, including
yours. Since update patch v 1.1, you can control the War Dogs.
Description: A group of war dogs inside a cage. They are quite useful
against enemy's weak units. Beware though, as they can also attack
your people. Place it outside your Castle, when a group of enemy's
weak units come on the way to your home, release the dogs by clicking
it. My friend told me that it could be used as an offensive weapon.
When you are sure that there is none of your people outside of your
Castle, and the distance between your keep and enemy's keep is not
too far, close your gate/Drawbridge, place the Caged War Dogs outside
your Castle and release it immediately, they will then run toward
opponent's workers.
d. Oil Smelter
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Castle Building, Military Building>
>Cost : 10 Iron and 100 gold.
>Function : Processing pitch into boiled oil. Boiled oil
can be used as a defense tactic against enemy.
>Note : This building requires an Engineer to function,
and additional Engineers to bring the pot containing the hot oil
from the Smelter.
Description: Oil Smelter transforms pitch into boiled oil. Once
built, you need to assist an Engineer, by selecting it and
left-clicking on the Smelter. Once assigned, he will run toward
your Stockpile and get a pitch (if there is no pitch, he will
wait until there is one available) and return to the Smelter to
boil the pitch, the Smelter can hold up to 10 units of pitch at
a time. Assist more Engineers to bring the boiled pitch in pots.
Engineers who bring pots contain hot oil can be placed on walls,
keep, towers and gatehouses. When the enemies come nearby below,
you can order your Engineer to pour the oil on the enemy. The
resulted flame is painfully devastating against any kind of units,
especially those units with slow speed. You can also order your
Engineer to pour the hot oil directly to the enemy without going
to the walls, towers, etc, but sometimes the Engineer might get
injured and died. If the hot oil is successfully dumped and the
Engineer is still alive, he will then go back to the Smelter and
bring another hot oil, he will then automatically go to the last
place where he dumped the oil.
It is the most dangerous and efficient trap. However, Engineers
are weak, as they can be killed easily by arrows. It is also not
as simple as the Pitch Ditch.
F. Towers
~~~~~~~~~
Towers are needed to defend and fortify your town. Towers are nothing
without units on it. Placing Archery units on them is a basic strategy
to defend your Castle. There are 5 towers in this game. You can place
Braziers on all of them to increase the arrow damage and to light up the
pitch, oh cool! Each of them has different price and toughness, the more
expensive the cost the stronger the tower is. Your units can access the
tower by building walls next to it, you know how to get your men get
on to the walls, don't you?
a. Lookout Tower
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Castle Building>
>Cost : 10 stones
>Function : Defending your home by placing Archery units on it,
you may also place a Brazier on it.
Description: Stronger than walls, this building lets your Archers to fire
from high place. This building will also increase Archer's attacking
range and power, because it offers the best height advantage and it
costs you only 10 stones. However, it is vulnerable to medium to heavy
melee damage, Catapult, Trebuchet, even Tunneler.
b. Perimeter Turret
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Castle Building>
>Cost : 10 stones
>Function : Defending your home by placing Archery units on it,
you may also place some Braziers on it.
Description: Just another weak tower, it offers less advantage than the
Lookout one, but it can garrison more people on it. It is vulnerable to
medium to heavy melee damage, Catapult, Trebuchet, even Tunneler. Place
an Engineer with hotpot to defend against melee units.
c. Defense Turret
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Castle Building>
>Cost : 15 stones
>Function : Defending your home by placing Archery units on it,
you may also place some Braziers on it.
Description: This tower is cool, it is tougher than the 2 towers before.
It allows you to garrison more men, and gives you more height advantage.
I recommend you to build this tower, rather than the previous ones.
However, this tower is also vulnerable to Catapult, Trebuchet and
Tunneler. Medium melee units will have a hard time bringing down this.
d. Square Tower
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Castle Building>
>Cost : 35 stones
>Function : Defending your home by placing Archery units and
defensive siege unit on it, you may also place some Braziers on it.
Description: This tower is good, it is much tougher than the
before-mentioned ones. It allows you to garrison more men, and gives
you more height advantage than the Turrets. It is sturdy against
Tunnelers and melee damage. Enemy's Catapult and Trebuchet will
need more time to destroy this, giving you more time to send out
your defending troops. You can place Mangonel and Ballista here to
give more protection.
e. Round Tower
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Castle Building>
>Cost : 40 stones
>Function : Defending your home by placing Archery units on it,
you may also place some Braziers on it.
Description: The strongest and the most expensive tower. It can support
many units and gives you good height advantage. It is invulnerable against
enemy's Tunnelers. You can also put Mangonel or Ballista on it. Enemy's
Catapults and Trebuchet will have a hard time to destroy this tower.
G. Defensive Siege Units
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Building them is not a must, you may add them for additional protection.
In this game, there are 2 defensive siege units, Mangonel and Ballista.
You can directly place a Mangonel or Ballista on a Square Tower or Round
Tower, then recruit 2 Engineers to man it. They may sometimes in critical
situation help you to fend off the attackers. You can also use them as
offensive weapons. It's true when your castle and enemy's castle are
not too far away.
a. Mangonel
~~~~~~~~~~~
<Castle Building, Military Building>
>Cost : 50 gold
Need 2 Engineers to man and need to be placed on a Square or Round Tower.
>Function : Attacking any sighted enemy with shower of small rocks.
Description: A nice and cheap equipment to have, especially when
your castle is not too far away from the enemy's. It can strike at
a fairly far distant. It fires so inaccurate and ineffective.
Nevertheless, it can sometimes kill some people on a crowd,
helping you to defend against a bunch of attackers. Its rock
shower can kill enemy's heavy unit in one blow and quite useful
against walls and buildings as an offensive weapon.
b. Ballista
~~~~~~~~~~~
<Castle Building, Military Building>
>Cost : 50 gold
Need 2 Engineers to man and need to be placed on a Square or
Round Tower.
>Function : Automatically attacking any sighted enemy
with a big arrow.
Description: Another defensive siege unit. It fires a large arrow
and fairly accurate against enemy's units and workers. It strikes
farther than Archers. It can help you to fight against heavy armored
units. A group of Crossbowmen and Archers accompanied with a Ballista
is an ultimate defense method. Though, they are helpless against
Trebuchets.
2. Industry Buildings
+++++++++++++++++++++
Industry buildings have important roles on your castle and military
construction. Without these, you are likely to suffer in a long game.
Build and protect them well, if you don't want to lose your economy.
Industry buildings are usually built outside your castle. They need to
be placed on a specific location.
a. Woodcutter's Hut
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Industry Building>
>Cost : 3 woods
>Function : Producing woods by felling and chopping the trees.
>Worker : One Woodcutter.
Description: Place this building near the trees. Once arrived at the hut,
he will look for a tree, cut it down and bring one by one log to his hut.
Once there are three logs, he will work to carve them into wood planks,
and finally he brings the wood planks to your Stockpile, when enough space
is available there. The default amount of woods he brings is 12 units. Note
that trees are replanted naturally. Once there are no more trees found,
the Woodcutter will have to find another job, and you will have to buy
woods from Marketplace. The woodcutter can fight back with his axe when
encounters enemy's units in hand to hand combat. Believe me, he can bring
down a medium group of Slaves.
b. Quarry
~~~~~~~~~
<Industry Building>
>Cost : 20 woods
>Function : Extracting stone.
>Worker : 3 Quarry Workers.
>Note : You must build it on a group of sandstone boulders.
Ox Tethers are needed for transporting the stones from your Quarry's
stonepile to the castle's stockpile.
Description: Place this building on a group of stone boulders. Once built,
three Quarry Workers will arrive to it and begin to dig and carve the
boulders into stone blocks. The stones will be put on its stone pile,
which must be transported by Oxen nearby to your Stockpile. This building
can be easily under fire, build at least a well nearby. The concept
of stone-extracting different from wood-cutting, you can extract
stones for infinitive amount, as long as your Quarries are functional.
c. Ox Tether
~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Industry Building>
>Cost : 5 woods
>Function : Transporting stones from Quarry to your Stockpile.
>Worker : One Quarry Worker (Also called as Ox Handler).
>Note : You must build it nearby Quarries.
Description: As I said, build this building nearby your Quarries.
Build at least 2 for each Quarry you have. Once built, an Ox Handler
will go to his workplace. He will load the stones from the Quarry's
stone pile to his ox. Once the ox is loaded with 8 blocks of stone,
he will then lead the ox to your Stockpile as long as empty space is
available there. The default quantity of stone brought by each ox is 8.
d. Iron Mine
~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Industry Building>
>Cost : 20 woods
>Function : Producing Iron.
>Worker : Two Iron Miners.
>Note : You must build it on iron ore.
Description: You must build it on a group of iron ores, sigh. When the
two workers arrived, one will work to pull out and smelt the ore into
ingots of iron, while another brings one by one iron block to your
Stockpile, when enough space is available there. The default amount of
iron ingot brought at a time is only 1. Iron is heavy and expensive,
we know it well. The concept of iron-mining is similar with the one of
stone-mining, you can mine an infinitive amount of irons, as long as
your Iron Mines are working.
e. Pitch Rig
~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Industry Building>
>Cost : 20 woods
>Function : Producing Pitch.
>Worker : One Pitch Worker.
>Note : You must build it on oil in marsh. Oil is something
in the marsh with something bubbles and has no weeds on it.
Description: When you need pitches to fortify your base with Pitch
Traps and boiled oil, then you have to build this building on oil
in the marsh. Once built, a Pitch Worker will go to it, begin to
sift the oil into pitch and deliver it to your Stockpile, as long
as there is space available. The default amount of pitch brought
by your Pitch Worker is only 1 unit. Pitch is expensive, so you
must think twice to buy a group of pitches from Marketplace. The
same with Iron Mine and Quarry, you can produce an infinitive amount
of pitch, as long as your Pitch Rigs are operating.
f. Marketplace
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Industry Building>
>Cost : 5 woods
>Function : Trading goods.
Description: This building will give you much help in the game.
By clicking this building, you can trade your goods with gold and
vice versa. The price rates of both buying and selling are fixed,
you can buy goods as many as you can, and you can sell your goods
as many as you can. I know these are only concepts. This building
is really needed, when you are running out of a certain type of goods
you really need to run one of your important chains of productions, or
you just want to sell something to free the space on your Stockpile,
Granary or Armory, or you just want to buy something important like
foods and weapons. Build this on the beginning of the game for buying
woods to speed up your town construction. The buying price is higher
than the selling price.
3. Farming Buildings
++++++++++++++++++++
Farming buildings have relationships on your foods production and
the concept of Working Inns. Most of them must be built on oasis or
grass to function. Build and protect them well, if you don't, you
must buy foods from Marketplace for such irritating prices. If there
is no oasis on the map, buy some bags of wheat and build at least a
Mill and 6 Bakers for small to medium population, while you can gain
some wealth by constructing Industry Building. It is impossible for
you to fight in a land without oasis, iron ore, oil marsh and stone
boulder, I mean an impossible map. Oh, I almost forgot!!! Every time
your worker is planting seeds or something else to make their plants
grow, you no need to spend extra gold or any other resources.
a. Hunter's Post
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Farming Building>
>Cost : 5 woods
>Function : Producing Meat.
>Worker : One Hunter, with a hunting dog, of course :-)!
>Note : Do not overbuild this, as it can't make the deer
become extinct from the map.
Description: An easy way to give food to your people. In multiplayer
or Crusade game, it is seldom for you to find a group of deer to be
hunted. I don't usually build this, evenly there are some groups of deer
on the map, because the hunters hunt too long. Do not build them as your
main foods producing building, it may only support your other foods
producing building. Once arrived at his hut, he will look for any deer
and begin to hunt them with his humble bow. Once he gets his quarry, he
will return to his hut and work to butch the deer, later he will store
the meats to your Granary. The default amount of foods a Hunter can
supply is 6 at a time. He also has a hunting dog, I don't know what it
does. My friend told me that the dog can kill the rabbits. Rabbits can
slow your farm production.
b. Wheat Farm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Farming Building>
>Cost : 15 woods
>Function : Producing Wheat.
>Worker : One Wheat Farmer.
>Note : You must build it on oasis or grass.
Description: This building produces wheat. Once built, a farmer will
arrive at it and begin to cultivate and plant the wheat. Once grown,
the farmer will harvest and take it to your Stockpile. Wheat is used by
Millboy to produce bag of flour which is needed by Baker to produce
breads. The default amount of wheat brought by a Wheat Farmer at a time
is 2 units. In one harvest time, a Wheat Farm can produce more than 20
units of wheats. I recommend you to build this, as bread is the most
effective food to feed your people. However, building a group of bakeries
will take lot of space in your castle.
c. Apple Farm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Farming Building>
>Cost : 10 woods
>Function : Producing Apple.
>Worker : One Apple Farmer.
>Note : You must build it on oasis or grass.
Description: The fastest way to gain foods. However, if you have a large
number of people to feed, apple is not effective. This farm contains a
group of apple trees. Once ripened, the farmer will pick and store them
to your Granary, when there is space available. This farm has large size,
so you must place them carefully. The default amount of apples brought by
the farmer at a time is 6 units.
d. Dairy Farm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Farming Building>
>Cost : 5 woods
>Function : Producing Cheese and breeding cows. Cow is used to
make leather armor by Tanners or be launched as plague by Catapult or
Trebuchet.
>Worker : One Dairy Farmer.
>Note : You must build it on oasis or grass.
Description: Well, this farm produces cheese as one of 4 food types.
Once built, a Dairy Farmer will arrive and start to breed the cows. Once
there are 3 cows, the farmer will start to milk the cows and turn the milk
to cheese. He will then deliver 6 units of cheese to your Granary, when
space is available there. You can let your Tanner to take the cows regularly
for leather armor production. You can also order your Catapult and
Trebuchet to throw cows to the enemy. The cows can cause plague which
is devastating against any unit.
e. Hops Farm
~~~~~~~~~~~~
<Farming Building>
>Cost : 15 woods
>Function : Producing hops.
>Worker : One Hops Farmer.
>Note : You must build it on oasis or grass.
Description: It produces hops. Once constructed, a farmer will arrive
and begin to plant the hops. When grown, the farmer will harvest and take
it to your Stockpile. Hops can't be eaten, because it's not a food. Hops
are brewed by brewer in Brewery (It's right grammatically) to produce ale.
Ale is used by Inn to gain popularity points. The default amount of hops
brought by a farmer at a time is 1 unit.
4. Town Building
++++++++++++++++
Town buildings have relationship with your people. Build and protect them
well, or you may not increase your population. Some town buildings are
used to save your people from certain danger, and some of town buildings
can also be built to affect your popularity and your workers' willing to
work.
a. Hovel
~~~~~~~~
>Cost : 6 woods
>Function : Increasing your population capacity by 8.
Description: Build this to expand your population. Do not overbuild
this, as it can cause a population explosion which can deplete your
foods quickly. See the 'Popularity Rating' game concept on the earlier
section of this file to notice the detail about housing factor.
b. Chapel
~~~~~~~~~
>Cost : 250 gold
>Function : Calling for a priest to bless your people. The more
people blessed, the more you can gain popularity points on religion
factor.
>Worker : A Priest.
Description: This is the cheapest religious building in this game.
Once built, a priest will arrive and start to bless your people.
The more people blessed at a time, the more you can gain popularity
points. A Chapel is good for a small population town. You will need
to build more, when you want to enlarge your town. Protect this
building, as it costs you 250 gold. See the 'Popularity Rating'
concept on the earlier section of this file to notice the detail
about religion factor.
c. Church
~~~~~~~~~
>Cost : 500 gold
>Function : Giving you +1 popularity point. It calls for a
priest to bless your people. The more people blessed, the more you can
gain popularity points on religion factor.
>Worker : A Priest.
Description: It has larger size than the Chapel. It has the same
function as the Chapel. Once, built, it gives you +1 popularity point.
For 500 gold, you will have to protect this building well. It can be
burned easily. See the 'Popularity Rating' concept on the earlier section
of this file to notice the detail about religion factor.
d. Cathedral
~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Cost : 1000 gold
>Function : Giving you +2 popularity points. It calls for a priest
to bless your people. The more people blessed, the more you can gain
popularity points on religion factor. You can also recruit Monks from here.
>Worker : A Priest.
Description: It is the largest building in this game. Not only gives you
+2 popularity points and calls a priest to bless your people, this building
also produces cheap Monks. For 1000 gold, you must protect it really well.
See the 'Popularity Rating' concept on the earlier section of this file to
notice the detail about religion factor.
e. Apothecary
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Cost : 20 woods, 150 gold
>Function : Driving out and reducing the damage of plague caused
by dead cows.
>Worker : A Healer.
Description: What the healer does is strange, he spends lot of time just
to wander your castle. When the enemy launches dead cows toward your base,
the only person you can ask for help is only the healer. He will immediately
dispel any plague in or around your castle. The more Apothecaries you build
the more resistant against plague your people are.
d. Well
~~~~~~~
>Cost : 30 gold
>Function : Extinguishing fires in or around your and your ally's
castle.
>Worker : One Fire Watcher.
Description: It comes with a man holding a bucket. He sits all the day
nearby the Well. When your or your nearby ally's building is aflame, he
will quickly fill his bucket with water and go to the burning building
to put out the fire. He will stop responding, when there is no friendly
building on fire. Sometimes, he can put out fire, from the top of the
walls or tower, if the flamed building is adjacent to the walls or to
the tower where he could stand.
e. Water Pot
~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Cost : 60 gold
>Function : Extinguishing fire in or around your and your
ally's castle.
>Worker : 3 Fire Watchers.
Description: It comes with 3 men holding buckets. They work the
same as the Fire Watcher at the Well. It is more efficient than
the Well. However, this building is somewhat larger than Well, making
it an easier target for Catapult and Trebuchet.
f. Bad Things
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Building these things can reduce your popularity and army effectiveness.
It increases your worker's motivation to work. See the 'Popularity Rating'
concept on the earlier section of this file to notice the detail about
fear factor. Each thing on bad ones have their own pricing, note that
the more gold you pay the less space it takes to build that thing.
-Gallows : 50 gold.
-Cesspit : 40 gold.
-Stock : 45 gold.
-Head on Spikes : Free, BUT CANNOT AFFECT YOUR FEAR FACTOR.
-Burning Stake : 45 gold.
-Dungeon : 40 gold.
-Gibbet : 50 gold.
-Choppers Block : 45 gold.
-Dunking Tool : 40 gold.
g. Good Things
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Building these increases your popularity and your army effectiveness.
It can boost your people to work more efficient and harder, so that
your workers' output can increase. See the 'Popularity Rating' concept
on the earlier section of this file to notice the detail about fear
factor. I always put myself as a good Lord, as I can enhance my
soldiers' combat power.
-Maypole : 25 gold.
-Dancing Bear : 20 gold.
-Communal Garden : 30 gold.
-Town Garden : 30 gold.
-Statue : 30 gold.
-Shrine : 30 gold.
-Flags : Free, BUT CANNOT AFFECT YOUR FEAR FACTOR.
5. Weapons Producing Buildings
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
These workshops and their workers produce weapons. They need some
raw materials from your Stockpile, note that Tanners need cow to produce
leather armor. Once a weapon-maker has finished his/her weapon, he/she
will deliver it to your Armory, so place this building nearby your
Stockpile and Armory. If there is no space available in your Armory,
he will wait until there is. Weapons are needed to train European
soldiers from your Barrack.
a. Fletcher's Workshop
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Cost : 20 woods, 100 gold
>Function : Crafting woods to make bows or crossbows.
>Worker : A Fletcher.
Description: Once built, a Fletcher will come to it. He will begin
collecting woods one by one from your Stockpile and crafting them to
bow or crossbow. Clicking on the building will give you two options to
build bow or crossbow for the next production cycle. In the default
condition, for 2 units of wood, the worker can produce a bow, and
for 3 units of wood, he can build a crossbow. If there is no wood
available, he will await until there is. Also, he will wait if there
is no space available on your Armory.
b. Blacksmith's Workshop</pre><pre id="faqspan-3">
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Cost : 20 woods, 200 gold
>Function : Forging irons to make swords or maces.
>Worker : A Blacksmith.
Description: Once built, a Blacksmith will come to it. He will begin
to fetch iron from your Stockpile and forging it to sword or mace.
Clicking on the building will give you two choices to build sword or
mace for the next production cycle. For 1 unit of iron, blacksmith
can produce a sword or a mace. If you don't have iron available on your
Stockpile, he will not work. If the Armory is full, he will wait until
space is available.
c. Poleturner's Workshop
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Cost : 10 woods, 100 gold
>Function : Producing spears and pikes, by shaping woods.
>Worker : A Poleturner.
Description: This building produces spears or pikes. The worker collects
woods to make spears or pikes. You can order this building to produce
spear or pike on the next production cycle, by clicking it. For 1 unit
of wood, a poleturner can make a spear, for 2 units of wood, he can make
a pike. He will not work, when there is no wood on your Stockpile,
and he will deliver the weapon to your Armory, once there is space available.
d. Tanner's Workshop
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Cost : 10 woods, 100 gold.
>Function : Producing leather armors, by skinning cows.
>Worker : A Tanner.
Description: It produces leather armors for your Crossbowmen and Macemen.
The worker leads one cow at a time from your daily farm, and later he
works to peel it. From one cow, the Tanner can produce 3 leather armors.
If there is no cow, he will wait until there is one. When the Armory is
full, he will wait until space is available.
e. Armorer's Workshop
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Cost : 20 woods, 100 gold.
>Function : Producing steel armors, by smashing irons.
>Worker : An Armorer.
Description: It produces armor for your heavy unit. The worker collects
iron and smashes it into armor. From 1 unit of iron, he can produce 1 unit
of armor. If there is no iron on your Stockpile, well you know what he does.
You will also know what he does when there is no space available in your
Armory.
6. Foods Processing Buildings
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This section will describe about buildings which have relationship with
breads and working inns factor. All of these buildings require certain
type of goods to work. Most advanced players will use them to maintain
and increase their popularity. Have them built inside your castle. You
should place them close to your Stockpile.
(I've explained the Granary on Storage Buildings section)
a. Bakery
~~~~~~~~~
>Cost : 10 woods
>Function : Baking flours into breads.
>Worker : A Baker.
Description: This is the best and the most effective way to produce foods.
From 1 unit of flour a baker can produce 8 units of bread which are later
delivered to your Granary. Though, building a group of this structure
requires a large amount of space in your castle. If there is no flour
available on your Stockpile, the worker will rest and wait until there
is a bag of flour delivered by the Millboy. If there is no space
available in your Granary, the baker will wait with his breads until
you free some space in it.
b. Brewery
~~~~~~~~~~
>Cost : 10 woods
>Function : Fermenting hops to ale.
>Worker : A Brewer.
Description: It produces ale by fermenting hops. 1 unit of hops is
fermented for 1 unit of ale. She will wait, until there is unit of hops
available on your Stockpile, and she will also wait if there is no space
on your Stockpile. This is one of two workers who collect goods from and
to Stockpile.
c. Mill
~~~~~~~
>Cost : 20 woods
>Function : Milling wheat to flour.
>Worker : 3 Millboys.
Description: Once built, three boys will come to it and start collecting
units of wheat from your Stockpile and grinding them to flour. They will
sit and wait, if there is no wheat available. They will also wait, if the
Stockpile is full. From 1 sheave of wheat, a Millboy can grind it to 1
bag of flour. It's another 'from and to Stockpile' building.
d. Inn
~~~~~~
>Cost : 20 woods, 100 gold.
>Function : Treating your people with ale, gives you popularity point.
>Worker : An Innkeeper.
Description: An Innkeeper collects one by one barrel of ale from your
Stockpile and serves them to your people. You will need to build more
as your population growing. An Inn which has ale in it, will be considered
as working inn. The more working inn you own, the more popularity points
you can earn. It's a good way to increase your PR. You can see the working
inn concept details on the earlier section of this file.
7. Keeps (Castle Building)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Keeps are the building where your lord stands by. There are three keeps
available on this game, Manor House, Stone Keep, and Stronghold. You may
choose to build one of them in Castle Builder mode at the very beginning
of the game. You always start with Stone Keep in Crusade and Multiplayer
game. Clicking on the Keep will give you a taxation panel which I had
described at the 'Popularity Rating' in the earlier section of this
document. You will also have to know that Keeps are indestructible and
free of charge, but you will not be able to build them anyhow in
Multiplayer and Crusade mode. Knights and Cavalry Archers cannot step
on them.
a. Manor House
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is the lowest keep. You can only build them at the Custom Scenario
and Castle-Builder mode. You cannot order your soldier go on to it,
so your lord must stand by anywhere else.
b. Stone Keep
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is the normal keep. You can order your men to go on to it. You always
start with this in the Crusade and Multiplayer game.
c. Stronghold
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The biggest keep in this game. It offers great high advantage and space
for your Archery units. However, it is only available in the custom
scenario and castle builder mode.
G. The AI Lords
***************
Here are the AI lords whom you can fight against in Multiplayer or Crusader
game. Each of them has its own tactic and favorite buildings and units.
AI is only program based on the text, so there will be always some
similar patterns of attacking and defending. Lord strength is represented
by dots above lord's head, see Fear Factor concept on the earlier section
of this document to see the detail about lord's strength.
Before I rewrote this guide into version 1.C, I saw that each lord had some
variants. I thought that they were all the same. But later I found that
they are actually different. However, their attacking, defending, farming,
and industry patterns are still the same.
Be noticed that variants of lords are sorted from the weakest to the
strongest. For example, 'Rat, The Weasel' is stronger than 'Rat, Duc de Puce',
'Snake, Lord Python' is stronger than 'Snake, Earl Doubletongue'. It can
also be inferred that 'Caliph, The Desert Rat' is the strongest from all of
the Caliph's AI variants. The stronger the variant, the more units and
structure it will build.
Tips : In Crusade or Multiplayer game, If you want to fight the strongest
variant from an AI lord but you don't want to involve the weaker ones, you
must first select the AI lords a few times until you meet the variant
you want, then kick the variants you do not desire.
a. The Rat (Crusader)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Characteristic : Overconfident, speaks some complicated words,
but actually stupid.
>Type : Neutral lord.
>Lord Strength : The weakest with 5 yellow dots.
>Difficulty : 2
>Fav-units : Spearmen and Archers.
>Fav-foods : Apple.
>Industry : Small, build one Quarry.
>Castle : A cluttered castle without sufficient fortification,
most variants build maze of walls. Tougher variants build a tower.
>Variants : Duc de Puce, The Stoat, The Weasel, The Ferret, Duc
Camembert, Duc Souris, Duc Morceaux.
He is one of the easiest lords in this game. He practically uses
only Spearmen and Archers as the defending and attacking forces.
He builds only one or two light towers, and his castle is poorly
defended with very small amount of troops. He places some walls
adjacent to his keep, so you can clear him out quickly. Defending
against him is also easy, placing Archers on the top of towers will
flush his attacking force.
b. The Snake (Crusader)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Characteristic : Arrogant, give you many ironical words.
>Type : Neutral lord.
>Lord Strength : Weak, three yellow dots.
>Difficulty : 4
>Fav-units : Spearmen, Laddermen, Slingers, Archers and Slaves.
>Fav-foods : Apple.
>Industry : Small.
>Castle : A castle with curved layers of walls and 2 main defending
towers (tougher variants build 3) and is protected by some moats.
>Variants : Duc Beaugard, Earl Doubletongue, Duke Vipertooth, Earl
Poisonberry, Lord Python, Earl Diamondback, Duke Anaconda.
Another weak AI lord, but is more advanced than the Rat. He builds Spearmen,
Laddermen, Archers, Slingers and Slaves. His attacking army divided into
two kinds. First is the Slaves rush, protect your building from them,
by placing some Archers or anything else to wipe out the Slaves.
The ultimate attack contains many Spearmen, Archers and some Laddermen,
you must notice that he also builds a couple of Catapults to wreck
your walls and towers. As the defense, he builds two towers as the
main defending camp. Destroy both the towers and you are ready to pinch
his gate to send in your elite units.
c. The Pig (Crusader)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Characteristic : Ruthless, he also talks with weird and mocking grin.
>Type : Bad lord.
>Lord Strength : Normal, no dots appear.
>Difficulty : 6
>Fav-units : Macemen and Crossbowmen.
>Fav-foods : Cheese.
>Industry : Medium, build many iron mines and 2 Quarries.
>Castle : A rectangle castle with 2 square towers (tougher variants
build 3 or 4).
>Variants : Duc Truffe, Duke of Pigsbury, The Hog, The Old Boar,
Earl of Bacon, Baron Von Bloater, Earl of Hogsbottom.
He is a hasty lord with many dangerous Crossbowmen and vicious
Macemen in his order. Archers won't really work against him. You
will need to build your own Crossbowmen and some Fire Ballista as
the support. Knights are also great to hold his crazy Macemen. Destroying
his Dairy Farms will greatly slow his power. The Pig builds 2 Square
Towers in his castle protected with thick layer of walls. The towers
are defended with many Crossbowmen and many Killing Pits just nearby
the walls. You will need to destroy both of the towers by your
Catapults or Trebuchets. But, destroying the towers is not really
enough, he has still many Crossbowmen and Archers inside the castle,
especially on the keep. Send in many Slaves to his castle, to burn
down his buildings after you punch a hole in it. Cavalry Archers
protected with Portable Shields are the most excellent way to clear
out his Crossbowmen, bring up Swordsmen (or Arabic ones) or Knights
to defend them.
d. The Wolf (Crusader)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Characteristic : Cruel, vengeful and sometimes talks about
'your father'.
>Type : Bad lord.
>Lord Strength : Powerful with 4 BLUE DOTS!!!
>Difficulty : 10
>Fav-units : Heavy units and Siege Equipments, sometimes he
builds Cavalry Archers.
>Fav-foods : Apple, sometimes he also produces cheese.
>Castle : A gigantic and resilient castle with many defense
methods, the tougher the variant, the stronger the castle will be.
>Industry : So many industrial buildings protected with
heavy units.
>Variants : Duc Volpe, Lord Fairfang, Lord Lupus, Earl Redclaw, Lord
Crackbone, Lord Howlingtop, Lord Greyback.
The Wolf holds the title as the strongest lord in this game. He is
somewhat develops his castle slowly. Once fully developed, Wolf can
be the biggest threat for you. He builds many dangerous units from
Cavalry Archers, Swordsmen to Trebuchets. Destroy him quickly, or you
will find yourself frustrated with his heavily defended castle. His
attacking army consists of many Crossbowmen, many Swordsmen, and many
Pikemen, supported with some Catapults. He sometimes also builds many
Cavalry Archers. His defending force contains many strong towers protected
with many Archers + Braziers, Mangonel and Ballista. He protects
his town with very thick layers of walls, making it is impossible for
you to use Tunnelers as the main walls destroyers. Yes, his main power
is his castle's size, but it can also be his greatest downside. Sometimes
you will find that he is unable to keep whole parts of his castle safe.
It's mainly because of his thick walls. If one of his castle's side is
being attacked, the defenders on the other sides may not fire well against
the incoming attackers. When one of his castle's side is destroyed, you
can start to push from that side, providing that, the Wolf has also a gap
between his walls at earlier match. The gap can provide you a nice hideout
for the Slaves or Firethrowers or both, :-). Destroy his towers by
Trebuchets, sneakily send 2 or 3 Fire Throwers to throw grenades from
outside to inside his walls, you should also try to send out a group of
Slaves.
Once his castle is on fire, rush with Cavalry Archers and Portable Shields,
launch also Macemen and Siege Towers to clear out the remaining defenders.
e. Lionheart (Crusader)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Characteristic : Courageous, friendly and noble.
>Type : Good lord.
>Lord Strength : Powerful also with 4 BLUE DOTS.
>Difficulty : 9
>Fav-units : Siege Equipments and European units.
>Fav-foods : Apple.
>Castle : A smart castle, with many mangonel on towers. Tougher
variants build more buildings and units.
>Industry : Heavy.
>Variants : Richard, Richard II, Richard III, Richard IV, Richard V,
Richard VI, Richard VII.
Lionheart is one of the most dangerous lords in this game. He is a nice and
friendly lord, but once he attacks his enemy, he acts like a lion. He defends
his castle with many Siege equipments on towers protected with some Archers.
His attacking force contains many European units. I cannot mention what and
how many. His attacking force is relentless and the pattern always changes.
Send out some Trebuchets to clear out his towers. Don't forget to burn down
his buildings outside the walls. Launch also Cavalry Archers and Portable
Shields.
f. The Sultan (Arabian)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Characteristic : Loves the poetries, get desperate easily.
>Type : Good lord.
>Lord Strength : A little bit weak with 1 yellow dot.
>Difficulty : 3
>Fav-units : Slingers and Arabian Swordsmen, build Arab Archers
occasionally.
>Fav-foods : Apple, he buy the foods.
>Castle : A circular castle with some lookout towers.
>Industry : Build many Woodcutter's huts, build no iron mine.
>Variants : Abdul, Ahmed, Mustapha, Hashim, Karim, Malik, Shaheed.
Another pathetic lord, but this time is from Arabian side. He uses many
Slingers to defend his castle. He also uses a large group of Arabian
Swordsmen to defend the Keep. His attacking force contains a group of
Archers combined with Arabian Swordsmen. He builds many good things so
that his Swordsmen receive 25% extra power. Building a group of Crossbowmen
accompanied with Archers on a Square Tower is more than enough to
withstand his attack. Send in Cavalry Archers to rush his castle, when
he sends out Arabian Swordsmen, kill them with your Crossbowmen.
g. The Caliph (Arabian)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Characteristic : Sadistic, ambitious and egoistic.
>Type : Bad lord.
>Lord Strength : Normal, no dots appear.
>Difficulty : 7
>Fav-units : All kinds of units who use fire weaponry.
>Fav-foods : Apple.
>Castle : A square castle defended with many lookout towers
and pitch traps.
>Industry : Heavy, but doesn't build too much iron mines.
>Variants : The Scorpion, The Jackal, The Camel, The Vulture, The
Crab, The Hyena, The Desert Rat.
This veiled man, uses all sort of fire weaponry in the battle. He will
try to send out a group of Slaves to your base over and over again. He
builds many Lookout Towers and Pitch traps. He also builds many Fire
Ballista outside his castle, he also prepare some Fire Throwers and Engineers
with hotpot to defend his castle. Destroy his Lookout Towers with
Tunnelers or Catapults. After you've successfully destroy his
towers or walls, quickly launch a group of 6 to 8 Knights to
destroy his Granary and other important buildings.
You ought to destroy his Fire Ballista first, if there is any.
Continue destroying his towers until there is no more. Caliph's most
powerful defending tools are the Pitch traps and Braziers.
h. The Saladin (Arabian)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Characteristic : Calm, Wise and Polite.
>Type : Good lord.
>Lord Strength : Powerful, with 4 blue dots above his head.
>Difficulty : 9
>Fav-units : All types of Arabian mercenaries.
>Fav-foods : Breads
>Castle : A powerful and ultimate castle with many towers and
wide moats, the Saladin's strongest variant is stronger than Wolf's 4
weakest AI variants.
>Industry : Heavy, build many industrial buildings.
>Variants : The Wise, The Just, The Kind, The Fair, The Magnificent,
The Honorable, The Noble.
He is the Arabian's strongest lord in this game. He manages the economy
and industry really well. He also builds many good things. His attacking
force contains a horde of Cavalry Archers and Swordsmen, he will also build
some Catapults to bring down your walls. His defending force contains
Archers, Ballista and Mangonel on towers. Destroy one or two towers, rush
him with numerous Slaves and burn his building at the outside of his walls.
You will find the fire will spread deep into the castle, do it repeatedly,
at the same time, send in a group of Crossbowmen and Portable Shields to kill
all the defenders on the walls and Keep.
H. Tips
*******
These tips don't fit in the Castle Builder mode. I hope these tips can help
you on playing the game.
Economy Tips:
-If there is only Oasis available to your resources, concentrate
on Breads production. Sell some of your breads, and start building
good things, until your people pleasantness is maximal. Set your
taxes to some point but don't let the popularity rating got decreased.
-Food is the most important resource in this game, so that's why food
productions matter so much. You might say that, your priority is to have
weapons production buildings first, but if your food is not sufficient to feed
the people, your weapons productions buildings worker will stop working and
they will leave your castle. Get your priority on food first, then your
military. If you have lots of food, just sell them or give them to your
allies. Or you can just balance between foods and weapons productions needs.
The important thing is, food is your priority. No food = no victory.
-Bread is the most efficient way to feed your people, but they need lots of
space in your castle.
-If for example some of your goods are abundant in your stockpile, you should
ask yourself what you should do, either you build more buildings which uses
it, OR you just assign these producers to other jobs. For example, you have
large amount of wheat units in your stockpile, you should think to build more
flour mills to uses them, or just reassign some wheat farmers to other jobs.
The point is to maximize your people and your goods, because using goods is
better than selling them, don't waste your people on producing goods that
is not important to you.
-Most people tend to gather some woods first via woodcutter, i prefer
buying some from market early on to speed up the production.
-If you want, you can delete your current Stockpile and build the
replacement near the resource. If you destroy your stockpile, every
resources on it, will be lost, so sell them first.
-Never let one of your production chains getting down.
You may buy some resources on the Marketplace to keep your chains
of production running.
-Iron or Stone priority? I suggest go with stone, you can fortify your
castle, you can also sell the stones more than irons. Multiple Ox Tether
can be built for 1 Quarry. While a single Iron Mine can only have one person
to deliver the iron to your stockpile. If you have spare amount of woods, you
can just build 1 or 2 Iron Mine, and if you think that you are an iron lord,
build more iron mine later.
-Build more than one Granary and one Armory, build also at least 2 Granary.
If you plan to build a large and strong castle, build 3 Granaries, 3 Armory
and 6-8 Stockpiles. Guard your Granaries and Armories Well.
-At the beginning of the Multiplayer or Crusader game, after you've built
Granaries and Stockpiles, build a Marketplace, and buy some woods
to build farms, town and industrial buildings. Build as many Quarries
and Ox Tethers as possible (min. 2 Ox Tethers for a Quarry). Don't forget to
place Iron Mines and Woodcutter's Hut, along with your castle construction,
build an enough amount of hovels. Don't forget to protect your industrial
buildings ! They are easy preys for enemy's slaves and assassins.
-Bad Things can help you strengthen your economy, but actually demoralize
your combat units. Build these buildings throughout your castle.
-If you want to build Good Things, enclose them with walls/moats,
so your workers won't go there, wasting their time.
-Keep the paths between Stockpiles, Granaries, Armories, Industry, farming,
and weapons producing buildings passable. Stockpile is passable, can you
see a cross that splits the stockpile into 4 parts' The cross is passable.
You should not build any kind of medium to large structure,
adjacent to the Stockpile, as it will block the cross path.
-Working Inns can help you increasing your Popularity. Build at least 2 hops
farm, with 2 Brewery and 2 Inns.
-Resources are very important, exploit them all to your needs, but don't build
something that is not important to you or something that is
too far, especially nearby the enemy's castle.
-If you have some buildings that you don't need temporarily, just freeze
them. For the example, when your castle is really peaceful, just freeze
your Well and Water Pot.
-Granary is an important building, if you lose it, you will also lose all
of the foods inside. If you thing that you will lose your Granary, you
will have to sell some or all of your foods, so that you won't lose too
much.
-Consider the taxes. It can greatly help you to raise your gold. As gold is
versatile it can be traded with any goods. Don't forget to increase your
population so your taxes income will be increased as well.
Military Tips:
-Build towers as far as possible from your Keep. Don't forget to place
Archery units on it. Support them with a defensive siege equipment.
When the enemy sends a group of Melee units to kill your Archers on
that tower, just delete the highestStair Walls. If you want to send
additional units onto it, just build asingle Stair Wall at the place
you destroyed the previous Stair Wall. However you will also need to
place some traps.
-Guard your towers, if you lose a tower, you lose all the troops on it.
-Building towers as far as possible from your Keep, also means that
your men on defense have more time to hold the attack. And you also have
more time to quickly send your army, just before they reach your production
buildings. You have more time to quickly build any other defense structure
or traps, just before they close in. This is good especially if you build
other layers of walls.
-Early game is important, protect your castle right away with walls !
Enclose your keep ! Watch out for quick rush from slaves or assassins !
-Never underestimate Slaves ! Never let your guard down of enemy's
assassins.
-Early game, watch out for early attacks from Slaves or Assassins.
Slingers are the best units to defeat slaves, and Cavalry Archers are great
to defend against Assassins, just watch out and keep their range.
-If the battle is dense and close, keep your towers to guard the firing
range together, so when enemy comes in, two or three towers can defend
at the same time.
-Some enemies are attacking your towers/walls with Siege? Attack them with
your fast response units. Once again, watch out for the assassins.
-If the map is open and wide, be very careful and keep an eye on the
opponents trying to reroute attacks and do some flank damages. Relocate
your troops to the other side of your castle if necessary, but don't take
the bait. This is why, fast response units are preferred. Slow and strong
units are preferred in a close combat situations.
- Always guard the chokepoint toward your castle, this is a common sense.
Especially if they are nearby your castle, a group of pitch ditches is
good tactic.
-If possible, build also moats and drawbridge, they are time saver for you
to hold the enemy before they can actually reach your walls. The earlier
you build your moats, the earlier you get your moats. Moats are not
instantly built, they need to be designated and dug first. Slaves
are the cheapest units you can get to have your moats dug.
-Needs to fill in moats? Macemen and Pikemen should you use. Macemen for
their speed, and Pikemen for their ability to eat lots of damages.
-Never let your Lord undefended. Anything can happen on this game. Do not
order your Lord to get out of the Keep.
-Cavalry Archers with Portable Shields are ridiculously strong and
versatile... Use them. The Portable Shields are ridiculously durable
and cheap. How to hold them? Macemen, Knights and Pitch Ditches.
-Group of catapults are also nice to attack at a group of Cavalry Archers
and Portable Shields, but they are rather more expensive and slow moving.
In a small map, it is OK and good, but in a large map and the war of
attrition, you'll lose the value. Catapults are not built to do this.
-If your archers/crossbowmen/slingers can't do direct attacks (because
they can't directly see the target), order them to do indirect attack,
remember that, in this game, your army has no arrows limits, so just
shoots and shoots. Select your archers/crossbowmen/slingers press
the "Attack Here" button and place it somewhere on their range which
you desire. This is a true strategy if you are attacking the enemy's
town, and your army's vision is obstructed by walls, just fire at will
into the town, and make some damages.
-Swordsmen are great units to have, but they are so slow. When
you are abundant on gold, build some Stables, so you can train
some Knights. And Knights are worth to have, always train them
if possible.
-When you are outnumbered, think to build something that can damage in
a wide area like Pitch Ditch and dead cows.
-Play offensive, but do not ignore your defenses.
-Always have at least two Trebuchets in your Castle as a defense method.
Their job is to throw dead cows to the incoming enemies.
-Crusaders are generally better than Arabian, always train them if possible.
-When attacking an opponent, always target his/her Granaries to reduce his
popularity, target the Armory to weaken his/her army, target the Water
Pot or Wells to weaken the castle protection, so that you can send out
your Slaves to burn his castle.
-Combine your attacking troops. Catapults and Trebuchets are cool to bring
down enemy's structure, accompany them with your Archery Units. Bring also
some units that are strong against enemy's heavy units, such as Crossbowmen.
-Combine your defending troops. Archers and Crossbowmen are enough to hold
most attack methods, train some Assassins, Cavalry Archers or Knight to
destroy enemy's siege equipments.
-Crossbowmen are not replacements for your Archers, keep training Archers
and combine them with Crossbowmen. Both types are distinctive to each other.
Crossbowmen have different roles from Archers. They are not suitable for a
fast paced game. They are designed to kill heavy units that the Archers
don't. However, Crossbowmen cannot use Brazier and they move and fire
slowly.
-Fire Balista can aid you a lot in defense, put them just nearby your castle.
They can give you an early warning if the enemy is approaching to your castle.
Plus they have excellent bolts to put damage even the heaviest enemy units.
-Slingers are cool to kill the enemy's Slaves. They are cheap. In their own
range, they are better than archers to beat down any light units like slaves
or spearmen.
-Build Crenulated Walls to prevent Laddermen and Siege Towers scaling your
walls.
-Bringing Swordsmen and Knights to a fully fortified castle is useless
and sometimes won't help. Use other strategies to deal with the defenders.
For the light towers, use Tunnelers. Use Siege Towers and a group of
Macemen to dominate the walls. Catapults and Trebuchets are also good to
bring down defenses. Ballista can kill Archers and other units from
distant. Cavalry Archers combined with Portable Shields are also nice
to kill all units on towers. Use the Knights to throw chaos in enemy's
castle after you breach his/her walls.
-Use Battering Ram to destroy enemy's walls and structure quickly. You
must notice of the enemy's melee defenders. Battering Ram is great when
combined with other heavy units.
-Build multiple layers of walls, multiple methods of defense and multiple
tactics of invasion.
-Trebuchet is great to be placed on a high terrain, however try to
place them just behind a building or a cliff. You should also try to put
it on a side of a hill or mountain, so you can safely attack the enemy on
the other side of the hill or mountain.
-Armory is also an important building, if you lose it, you will also lose
all of the weapons inside. If you thing that you will lose your Armory,
you will have to sell some or all of your weapons, so that you won't lose
too much.
-Siege Equipments like Catapult and Trebuchet is not the only way to bring
down the enemy's wall, you can just send some units to attack the enemy's
wall to tear it down. But Siege Equipment can do it a lot faster and can also
attack any building inside the castle easily and they can do it relatively
safer because they should not be in enemy's Archers on Tower's firing range.
Catapult and Trebuchet can also throw disease cows, and it is so effective to
kill any units from distant.
-Some players just like to use the hard way, they bring Battering Rams, Siege
Towers, and lots of european units. It should be a dense battle.
-Some player just prefer to use another way, they don't use Siege equipments,
instead they train some Assassins to kill the enemy's archers and manipulate
the enemy's gate. I remember that Nizar the AI is just so dangerous, in some
cases, he is just too dangerous.
-Some players also just like to watch the enemy's castle burn, they enjoy it.
Slaves and more Slaves, some heavy units to draw arrows, while the Slaves get
in and burn anything.
-Some players just like to build their own economy first, focusing on
productions, while the others, they fiercely create cheap units and attacks
from the game starts.
-Some matches involving rules, by forbidding some units or some sorts
of things to use in games. For example: you may not use any slaves or fire
units, or you may not build moats. Some other matches also involve "No Rush",
for example 10 minutes of No Rush, means you cannot attack
your enemies for 10 minutes early game, thus you can focus on your economy
first. I cannot recommend anything involving "No Rush" game, because
personally I've never played such rule.
-So far, I have analized 6 kinds of common strategy game players, it also
works on this game. I hope you like my analysis.
I. Defender, this player will do anything to defend his/her
base/castle from the beginning 'til the end of the game, mostly,
they are newbies. There is an exception. Sometimes, in Stronghold
Crusader your castle and your enemies' are close by, then
philosophy "The best defense is the best offense" may work.
II. Supportive player, this one mostly defends their base/castle,
waiting his/her allies to attack the enemies. He or she will help
his/her allies with small amount of troops. Mostly they are newbies.
III. Aggressive player, this one starts to take enemy's attention.
He/she will send any troops he/she owns to attack opposition's
base/castle continuosly, creating non-stop fear and panic to enemy.
In Stronghold Crusader, fear and panic can turn the tide of the game
swiftly.
IV. Ready-to-explode player, Either the first or the second kind may
sometimes transforms their way of playing to this one, losing our
already assumption of his/her newbness. He/she waits and defends
the base/castle while preparing main army. When the time is
right, he/she will assault with massive number of powerful units.
This could be done easily in Stronghold Crusader, by remembering
that you need no time to train your men.
V. Balanced player, this one will defend his base while attack his/her
enemies. This player will have to observe the terrain, situation
and available resources carefully. If you do not understand, what I'm
saying about, at least you could watch AI-Lionheart.
VI. Warlord player, this one is owning. You could only watch this player
in a map with abundant resources. He/she will try to amass as many
powerful units as many possible and attack his/her enemies continously
and mercilessly. This player will likely never consider his/her
resources.
-I also analize some kinds of players based on units they build. Hope u like it.
Archers are not included, most people build it.
1. Iron Lord, I guess you know what this player should use in most time.
Yes you're right, heavy units, Pikemen and Swordsmen.
2. Dominator, this player uses mostly Crossbowmen, Macemen, Siege
Towers, Cavalry Archers, Portable Shields and Tunnelers.
3. Striker, this player uses mostly Catapults, Trebuchets, Fire Ballista
Cavalry Archers, and always try to get benefit from high terrain.
4. Saboteur, this player uses mostly Assassins, trying to capture enemy's
gate, or just to destroy enemy's farms and industrial buildings.
5. Firesick, like AI-Caliph, this player uses mostly fire units.
6. Hordelike, mostly prepares hundreds weak units, such as Slaves, Slingers,
Laddermen, Spearmen, and even Monks. They are cheaps and easy to produce.
7. Ruler, the combination of the first and second kind. For example,
a player who sends out a pair of Siege Towers, along with groups
of Cavalry Archers, Swordsmen, Macemen and Pikemen. Cavalry Archers
fires from afar protected by Portable Shields, while melee units scale
the wall via Siege Towers. The aim is not to bring down the wall but
dominate it. By dominating enemy's wall, victory is at hand. On the
defense, this player will mostly uses Heavy units, Macemen and
Crossbowmen with Cavalry Archers and Portable Shields. This player
tends to play offensive.
8. Obliterator, the combination of the first and third kind. For example,
a player who strikes opposition's castle with Catapults, Trebuchets,
or Fire Ballista. The aim is to bring down the wall. Fire Ballista and
Cavalry Archers needed to eliminate enemy's defenders. When enemy's
defense is low, he/she will sends out groups of heavy units. The
defense contains heavy units, Trebuchets, Cavalry Archers and Mangonel
or Ballista.
9. Demolisher, the combination of the second and third kind. This kind
is suitable on fighting a large castle. For example, a player who
attacks enemy's castle on a side with Trebuchets, Catapults, and or
Fire Ballista, while on the other side he sends out groups of Macemen,
Siege Towers, and Tunnelers. The aim is to dominate enemy's defense
and to create such a painful destruction on the other side of
castle. Hit and run strategy is employed by this player. On the
defense, this player mostly uses Macemen, Crossbowmen, Cavalry Archers,
and Trebuchets.
10. Crusader, the combination of the first, second and third kind.
This player is a pro. He/she will try anything to bring down or to
dominate enemy's wall. Later, he/she will invade with heavy units.
If done correctly, the enemy won't stand a chance.
11. Bandit, the combination of the fourth and sixth kind. This player
will send Assassins to manipulate enemy's defense, by capturing the
gates or killing defenders on towers. Later he/she will rush with
at least one hundred of weak but cheap units, ussually Slaves.
The Slaves will try to burn enemy's farming or industrial buildings
It is also possible they will enter the castle via captured gate.
Remember that fire spreads quickly, even through the wall.
Once enemy's defense is low, Assassins kill the Lord. The defense
contains Assassins and many-many weak units.
12. Infiltrator, the combination of the fourth and fifth kind. This
player uses Assassins and Fire Ballista to kill defending Archers,
later he/she will sneakily sends a group of Firethrowers to a side
of enemy's castle. This player's aim is not to play aggressive, but
to devastatingly weaken opponent's economy and military productions.
This kind has a similarity with Bandit, that is Slaves. This is
the master of defense. He/she mostly uses Pitch Traps, Fire Ballista
Firethrowers and Boiled Oil, while Assassins is melee defenders.
13. Chaosbringer, the combination of the fifth and sixth kind. This
player uses fire weaponry and horde of cheap units. Fire Ballista
will take out the defenders. While Slaves... You know what they do.
It is possible to bring more than 150 Slaves. This kind is weak without
any sufficient heavy units to kill the Lord.
14. Desert Soldier, the combination of the fourth, fifth and sixth kind.
Assassins combined with Fire Ballista, Slaves and Firethrowers. On the
defense is filled by numerous cheap units, Assassins and Fire traps
OMG... On a resourceful map, this kind should prevail.
I. Mails from Readers
*********************
>O>O> Here is a mail from someone named John Gregg <jtg12345(gnat)gmail.com>
"I have some facts about pikemen and units that you probably don't
know. ( i will always be excluding the lord as a unit for this message).
I will refer to different forms of damage which include fire, spike traps,
hand to hand combat units, disease, crossbow bolts, slinger stones,
fire ballesta bolts, ballesta bolts, fire arrows, and arrows. It does not
include large and small rocks flung from seige equpiment. First of all (you
will find this weird), pikemen have the best defence in the game to every
form of damage accept arrows, slinger stones, and crossbow bolts.
However, referring to hand to hand combat now, they will only win in a
one on one fight with a slave, spearman, tunneler, and a black monk.
they will lose to every other hand to hand combat unit. the reason
is because of their crappy attack. They have the highest defence in the
game, but an attack with power very similar to that of a spearman. It does
have a small advangtage on towers though. I have even done tests on
swords men. A spearman will to the same amount of dammage to a
swords man in 3 seconds as a pikeman will, I don't see that they have
any advantage on horsemen either (although that is a logical assumption).
Here is a list of all melee fighters from most powerful to least powerful
as in who will win in a fight. I will not include rangers' melee.
Swordsman(great melee and great defence.), knight(great melee, not
as great but still great defence), araibian swordsman(good attack
good defence), assasin(good attack, ok defence), maceman(good attack,
ok defence), pikeman(poor attack, great defence) black monk( ok attack,
ok defence), tunneler(poor attack, poor defence), spearman (poor attack
and poor defence) slave( awful attack and awful defence)it's all around
3-4 times as weak as a spearman. but we all love them cause they burn
stuff lol. Honestly, pikemen are good in large numbers and spearmen
in large numbers are useless. Knights have a defence that barely makes
it to the catagory of great. It takes three crossbow bolts to kill an
arabian knight. these facts are based only on units with a 0% combat
bouns. My main point is to say that pikemen are heavily armore, but
they have a very weak attack. They still are good for defence because
they last a long time."
Then he added,
"a great use for pikemen is to use them as a first assault against an
opponent that uses spike traps. it takes three spike traps to kill a
pikeman I forgot to mention that."
###My Answer is,
Have you upgraded your Stronghold Crusader to v 1.1? Well, I wrote my
guide based on that version. Anyway, I will still try to analyze your
response. I will give another answer later, many thanx for your
participation.
I've tested it many times. In my opinion, they have less defence than
Swordsman and they do inflict slight bonus damage to Cavalry units.
I don't know why we have difference opinion here? (Maybe I was wrong,
but I'm sure I play the original Cd of Stronghold Crusader) But let's
look our opinion similarity, they are not the best unit, right? Also,
I didn't write that it's a bad unit. I always use them to defend my
castle. I would spend my woods to create Pikes rather than to create
arrow or Spear.
Your tips about using Pikemen as a first assault against an opponent
that utilizes Killing Pits are so useful, thanx. But, this method
is effective only if the enemy has no more Crossbowmen.
>0>0> A mail from someone named "Black_Coaster", he/she asked me not to
write his/her e-mail in this document.
Hi there! My name is Black_Coaster. OK, let's get to the point. I've
seen your Stronghold Crusader Guide on gamefaqs and I got a different
point about the Pikeman. I think that Pikeman is not a special unit.
This dude has no good potential in comparison with maceman or Cavalry
Archer. I don't think that this unit can be effective to fight against
any mounted unit. Although there is opinion saying that it has the
best armor, still they don't pack a punch.
Anyway, don't put my mail address on your guide, I'm a loner ;-(
>0>0> A mail from Thomas Alexanderson <thomasforfun(gnat)bgl.uk>
Hello, mr pamulankboy!! I read your guide and i have some questions
about this game.
1. By considering price, effectivty and versatility, which is the
best, Pikeman, Arabian Swordsman, or Crusader Swordsman?
2. My friend loves to use Assassins to fight against me. They are
so versatile and are hard to stop, if he amass the Assassins,
I will then tend to lose the game. They are cool when used either
alone or in groups. What should I do??
3. Coud you give some tips to stop tunnelers from destroying my
castle?
Would you write a guide about CnC 4 Tiberian Sun? How about Rise
of Nations?? How about Starcraft II?
###My answer is,
1. I think that European Swordsman is the best unit. They are
expensive, but are nice to have to protect your lord. They are
also expendable on frontline because of their ability to absorb
many arrows from Archers and inflict heavy damage. However, you
will have to accompany them with other units. They are weak
against bolts, you know.
2. See the Assassin section. Other tips, set some Killing Pits
and protect your outside buildings with your own Assassins. You
may build some Firethrowers and place them on walls/towers/gates,
but still Firethrowers are easy to be killed by Archery units. Or
you can build some Pitch Ditches. My best suggestion is to create
Cavalry Archers.
3. Build strong towers, place a Ballista on them. Have a group of
Cavalry Archers to defend your outskirt.
About CnC 4 TC.
Sorry, I don't like that weird "fantasy" game. I still play CnC
Generals:Zero Hour you know. Lot of my friends who also dislike
it, they still play Generals ZH. I will reconsider my words, if my
friends play it too.
Rise of Nations?? Hmmm, it's a complicated game, really! I don't
think that I'm able to write it down on paper myself.
The next guide I will write perhaps is DOTA Allstars for Warcraft III:
The Frozen Throne Mods.
For now, I only write Stronghold Crusader. I don't have much time
to write guide as I'm taking my IT lecture. I will think to write
a guide about Starcraft II. Be patient, Starcraft II is not yet
released in my country. I'm really sorry.
>0>0> A mail from Jordan Chilensky <jpchilensky(gnat)gmail.com>
I read your guide and wanted to compliment you on it.
Good Job. I have a few details to add that you might
want to include. File these under "Less than Honorable
Tactics."
When you build Good Things put a wall or moat around
them to prevent your villagers from resting as much
This trick can be really helpful when you need a break
to rebuild. Place a woodcutter or ox tether in front of
an enemy gate. Unlike most buildings they can be built
right next to an enemy and if you cover the gate entrance
with two or three woodcutters the enemy will not be able
to leave until they have destroyed them. Also, when
playing Extreme build a dozen or so woodcutters in the
path of the enemy spawn huts if they have slaves. The
slaves will set them on fire and it will kill off or
wound many of the enemy troops coming for you.
In Extreme it can be helpful to hide your lord in a
remote part of the map at first. Send him, a dozen
swordsmen, and a dozen fire balistas to some far off
corner and watch the enemy troops head right for the
empty keep. Once in a while troops will come after the
lord, but the swordsmen and balistas should keep them
from killing him.
Delete your first stockpile, but do it quickly so you
dont lose too many resources. This lets you place it
wherever you want. Try placing the stockpile near Iron
or Stone a good ways from your keep and if you use the
hide lord trick above you should have a good economy
going while they swamp your empty keep.
##My Answer is,
Wew, I didn't even think about it. Your tactic is sneak
but is cool to do. Thanks...
>0>0> A mail from someone named Feng_Chod <feng(gnat)yahoo.com>
Hey I'm Feng_Chod. I have a question 4 u. U said that we can
patch our stronghold crusader to version 1.1. How????
##My Answer is,
Download the executable patch file at the net. Just type,
"Stronghold Crusader patch v1.1" on Google and enter.
After you've downloaded the file, install it.
>0>0> A mail from Thomas Alexanderson <thomasforfun(gnat)bgl.uk>
Hey, it's me again. I have one question, how to stop Knights rush?
##My Answer is,
You could see my suggestion on fighting Knights in this guide.
But, well I will answer it, use Fire Ballista or Assassins.
Use also your Knights, Crossbowmen, Swordsmen and Pikemen.
>0>0> A mail from Stefaan Neijmeijer <duke_watermelon(gnat)yahoo.ca>
Hey I read through some areas of your Faqs guide, enjoyed what I
read, the fire balisteas have new uses for me now, however I feel
that in the E-mail feed back the pikeman has been badly protrayed,
namely the damage.
People seem to feel the pikeman is an underpowered unit due to the
fact that they believe its attack is that of a spearman, well that
might be true, I'm not sure I've never bothered using the spearman
due to the fact of crossbow pwnage. HOWEVER the pikeman is all
together one of the best european units in the game because
-walks quickly in heavy armor
-can dig/undig moats
-only costs 20gold, half of a swordsmans cost with little difference
in armor
-effective against walls/guarding them
-survives better against castle traps
-pikes are made quicker
And if the damage is to low for you make your people happy, if you
don't want them idle use the tip sujested by Jordan Chilensky
keeping these things in mind you can create yourself a very powerful
army, though most, I believe, will keep a larger force of swordsmen
I've always liked to work with pikemen, assassins, and crossbowmen,
the assassins actually have the same damage as a swordsmen, just less
health, however their stealth(unless they have an ! over their head
in which case they're seen by the enemy), and wall climbing abilities
make up for it because you can then take over the gate house,
allowing for the pikemen to enter, and crossbowmen to take out
the walls as the assassins clear them off (also why its nice to
have a moat, or pikemen on the walls...guards against assassins)
in a counter point if the enemy had a moat you couldn't pull this
strat off without pikemen....or retarded ammounts of slaves.
whoa, I wrote to much, feel free to cut what ever (but please cut
this bit) jsut keep in those 6 points, thanks again for the FAQs =D
-Duke_Watermelon
J. Thanks
*********
>> Firefly Studios and all of its partners, for making such a great game.
>> Gamefaqs.com, for hosting my FAQ/Guide.
>> Ms Word and Vim, I wrote this guide by using these.
>> For people who wrote mails to me.
>> You, for reading this guide.
>> And to anyone who had helped me wrote and published this guide.
I wish the best health, wealth and fortune for them :->
K. Version History
******************
Version 1.A
~~~~~~~~~~~
-The first release.
Version 1.B
~~~~~~~~~~~
-Correcting the text margins.
-Many Minor Corrections.
-Adding Tips section.
Version 1.C
~~~~~~~~~~~
-Correcting many minor mistakes.
-Adding variants information on AI Lords section.
-Adding some tips.
-Little addition in Combat Concept.
-Adding Thanks section.
Version 1.D
~~~~~~~~~~~
-Adding Mails from Readers section.
-Fixing some wrong informations.
-I will head to the final version next, I'm going to write a guide
for another game.
Version Final
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-Some small enhancements on Tips Section.
Version 2014
~~~~~~~~~~~~
-Some minor fixes and updates
-many minor additions
-fixes some formatting
===========================================
