Stronghold 1; April 29, 2015

Lord Banshee told me he would want to test another map of his. He didn't insist on entire game, but still, why not play an entire game if we can. :) So I am making this event now hoping that several of us could join.

April 29, 2015; 20:00 (Central European timezone, Novi Sad, Serbia)

(21:00, Moscow; 19:00, London; 11:00, Vancouver/San Francisco; 14:00 New York)

• Game: Stronghold 1
  
• Version: 1.3, HD
  
• Known participants:

1. 
   
2. @EaglePrince
   
3. @LordBanshee
   

Weekdays are usually bad for me when it comes to gaming with other timezones. At that time tomorrow, I will still be in a class. :( Otherwise I would attend. Good luck to you both (and whoever else joins), and I hope to read what happens! :)

I'm sad to hear that. I'll keep in mind that for future events. :)

I will try to join you on this, but 18:00 London time is still early for me. So if I dont show up, just go ahead and don't wait.

Mainly, I am interested to see if I can even get into a game via GR. I have never done it so far.

I'll keep that in mind for future events. Also, it may not be too late now at this moment to change the time of the event. Perhaps we could delay it at least half an hour, or an hour. Of course, if you don't make it either way, no problem, we will meet another day. :)

I have changed time of the event, it will be at 19:00 by London time.

If you don't make it, no worry. :)

ah, very good.

I actually got online right now and trying to find the game - or one of you gys at Game Ranger ....

I saw Lord Banshee half and hour ago, and I asked him if we could delay it a little, as I didn't find a chance to ask him that any time earlier today. After that I posted the new message here.

I'm sorry I didn't do that earlier, but I hope this fits us better. :)

I just came here to bring you my battle report. :)

Yesterday was a good day to fight. We played Lord Banshee's map Delta, it's one more map pretty difficult for running economy, as each of us has limited space, and therefore we needed to use that space wisely. Here we were able to build some more economy buildings - I had three iron mines, three stone mines, and my castle was on low ground, so I was able to feed my people with bread, and to give them some ale. Some time later my defensive structures were taking a little bit more space, so I had to sacrifice some wheat farms, but I managed to place them on other locations, which were not easy to find.

In year 1075 we started our fight. I was the first one to march into an attack, as I had some army, and I also had some gold - around 2000 gold, which was enough for building trebuchets. My plan was to attack early, and I chose to attack Lord Banshee as he was the stronger one. I did realize that this way we could let Nigel become strong, but if I spend some more resources fighting Nigel, then Banshee would attack me soon, and I would be weaker. Also, like they say - attack is the best defense. Still, I lacked few things while attacking him. I was better organized than in the previous was we fought, but that just wasn't enough. I didn't give up swordsmen, and they were easy targets for Lord Banshee's trebuchets throwing cows on my army. If I was able to build some stables it would be much different, but I was able to build only one, which wasn't enough.

After I saw my attacks failed I retreated to my castle, but then Lord Banshee start raiding my villagers - he destroyed one stable I had, he was destroying my quarries, and he was destroying my houses and inns that were far from my castle walls. Nevertheless, I did manage to take back control of my lands, and to rebuild what was lost, and I did what I needed to do earlier - to send some more troops further from my castle, to defend my remote buildings. Still, from now on I had no stable, and perhaps that was one of my mistakes - I did have some more gold now, but what do I have from gold, when my army is easy target to his trebuchets. He was using macemen which were moving faster, so I wasn't able to do the same to him that effectively. Then I faced some large sieges, but somehow I managed to survive. Those were hard times, but Lord Banshee retreated at some moment, and if I got that right, he had to do that, as his popularity went low, and he had no recruits.

I also had few clashes with Nigel's troops too, although those were small battles. Nigel sent some of his men to the hill in the north from my castle, and his archers were killing my villagers in the north. I did have few villagers there, but that was where I was able to get more wood, so I headed north with small group of men, where I managed to conquer the hill in the north where I was guarding it by those swordsmen and crossbowmen I sent.

My battles with Lord Banshee started again, and I was giving my best to survive his attacks. My mangonels were having hard time in destroying trebuchets which were hidden behind small hills.

For a short period I did have an ally in this war, but as soon as Nigel knew how to cancel the alliance, he canceled it - he just wanted to keep it a free for all war. Then I said him I will destroy him if he doesn't want to be my ally. :) All that happened after Lord Banshee told he would kill us both, and I felt like I wasn't able to stop him by myself. At least not without those knight I wasn't able to train. If he was my ally I would be able to build those stables near his castle, or inside of it, which would benefit me a lot - beside having his army by my side.

As I saw I am certainly loosing the war I wanted to finish what I promised to Nigel. :) I trained around 50 swordsmen, and I knew that if I leave my castle in a mission to destroy the trebuchets - those swordsmen would surely fail, and if I don't do anything with them, they would die inside the castle. One more problem I had were leather armors - during those sieges I wasn't able to produce them, as Lord Banshee was destroying my only diary farm I was using for producing them. Unfortunately I had built it on another location which was exposed to enemy attacks. Because of this I had 30 crossbows which I wasn't able to use. At this moment I split my army into to groups: one smaller headed east to face Lord Banshee, and the other larger group headed north along with engineers. I didn't wasn't any time, as soon as engineers reached their passion they started building siege towers, and along with swordsmen they went towards Nigel's walls. Using those towers I managed to get on top of those walls with majority of my army not facing Nigel's melee troops. I killed most of his archers and crossbowmen on his walls, and as soon as I reached his gate I opened it, and I moved towards his lord. He still had some more crossbowmen that were firing at my troops, but they were unable to stop my troops. I have paid my debt to Nigel, for not joining my side. :)

I would also need to tell that Nigel was the one who fought most honorably! He is the one who stood with his men in front of his castle, just like we could have seen in Troy, but I was the one who attacked by surprise, who didn't face his troops, and who's goal was to kill Nigel's lord, while he didn't run with his lord, and he faced my troops on his keep.

I wasn't the only one who paid his debt; Lord Banshee has revenged his lords death from the previous war. My lord left the castle in company of few swordsmen and crossbowmen. Then he ran with his macemen with support from trebuchets throwing cows, and the macemen finished the job. My lords poor bones now rest in those forests.

Nice review! I have some screens from this battle -->

Thanks for those images Banshee! So, here we can see Nigel attacking preparing to attack my castle with few catapults, and my paying my debt. :) You can also see Banshee's troops raiding my villagers in the south. :)

Very nice @LordBanshee! Perhaps you could consider uploading them to our Gallery too? That would be awesome ;)

Yes this was a nice battle indeed.

And, Lords Banshee, this is a good map. I like it that you have limited building space and are forced to make do with a relatively small castle. A great way how you solved this for SH1 which does not have the estates system of the later games.

EaglePrince, it is always good so see a lord who stands true to his word - be they promises or threats :)

I had some nice little skirmishes with Lord Banshee, too, and managed to destroy one of his catapults and some of his farms.

Most of all, I am glad to see how well this game can still be played - my first time on Game Ranger. GG