Epic battles

Hi, I remember how we had similar tread at Stronghold Knights, and, in my opinion, it was really great stuff!

I wish to start with one singleplayer match which I am really proud of! It is the last mission of Crusader Warchest Trail, and for those who forgot about this one, or maybe for those who haven't reached that mission, I am posting this one.

The reason, why am I proud of winning this one is the way I won this mission. As you can see, you start with 3000 gold, while you opponents start with 40000. Considering the fact, that you have no resources - no stone, no iron, and no oasis, it could seem like impossible mission. I have seen some walkthroughs, and as far as I remember, they were all including some tricks which I didn't want to use, cause I find them dirty. For example, suggestions of some players were using shields, but I don't find it fair, cause computer doesn't use them as well. Also, what do you think - is that right those shields to protect archers better then walls and towers battlements? I think not, and for that reason, I consider it as an exploit, a glitch, or something like that. It just wasn't supposed to be that way, but, oh well, we figured out that we can place 30 shields and 60 archers in the same place, and some of use will use it. :) There are also some ways of earning gold out of large population - not of working population, but of population made by some unfair ways. At least when you fight against computer. :)

Anyway, what I made it to do here, was to make a large production of crossbows (in beginning to train army, and later to sell them for gold as well), build breweries to take taxes, and to build a wall with few towers and gatehouse at the side where the attacks were coming from. I had to buy hops, wheat, and also wood in order to maintain the production, and after I finished my castle, I started producing swords and armors to train swordsmen (what crusader I am without men in shiny armors :D ). All this was time consuming, but it was very interesting game. This was my castle in that game.

Later, the first one to fall was Nizar. I tried to kill Caliph first, but that attack failed, cause I could not attack Caliph without confronting others armies. So my next attack was at Nizar, as I was able to send my men across the narrow isthmus, and attack him from there. After Nizar, I attacked Caliph, but this time, from direction witch fitted me more - from where Nizars castle was. After that, I had more resources, and I was not under constant attacks. The next to fall were Emirand Lionheart, while the next one, Wolf, was the strongest one among them all. After I got carefully prepared for him, I besieged his castle, and I made it eliminate one more opponent. The last one was the weakest one, as he was closest to me - just across the bay, and I was destroying his castle and economy with mangonels during entire mission. So I only ordered my mangonels to stop, ad walked in his castle slaying the last of my enemies.

Topic stuck as requested :)

Thanks, Chris! I hope this is gonna be a useful tread for those seeking for challenges, and also a nice place where forum visitors, where they could write us about their successes on battlefield, or anything else.

I would also like to use the opportunity to write something about my latest success. :) I played Lord Vetka's scenario Trading post. I haven't been playing scenarios so much, and I was almost always playing skirmish games of multiplayer. This one is really great, I would recommend it to anyone to try. In this scenario, you begin on a small hill with no resources around, and your only task is to survive the attacks. I would write something more here -about how I made it, what were the problems I faced, but I taught it would be better not to talk much, and just let the others to play. But I am going to say this much. I started it in one way, in some moment I taught it would be better to change the tactic (about running my economy), and that turned out better, I think. I was repelling the attacks, and at one moment something happened I wasn't expecting, and that stopped my progress at a moment. After that, I moved on, and made it to grow stronger then before. The last attack I fought off in front of my stone keep, after enemy army destroyed my gatehouse and entered the castle.

Hey EaglePrince! It's been ages since we last chatted, mostly because of the shutdown of Stronghold-Knights. A great idea to bring this idea back to life!

I've recently gone back to Crusader's trails and campaigns, and am having difficulty with the Tyre mission in the campaign in which one must gather 1500 bread. I will see about putting up some screenshots and some text here, once (or if) I beat it. I wonder, has anyone else had difficulty with that mission?

Hey, nice to see you, after all that time. :)

I remember winning that mission before, but right now I do not have it unlocked. I would like to play that mission again - could you tell me just in which Historical Campaign is it? We could both post here after we make it, and I have no doubt you will beat it.

Success! Just after my last post I decided to give the mission "Tyre, Drawing the Line" (second mission from The Kings Crusade) a try again. Below is my castle design. I built two wheat farms and a pitch rig at the outcropping to the south, and used the two closest oases for farms: the top one filled with wheat farms, and the bottom filled halfway with wheat and halfway with hops.

I loaded this from a save from some time ago, so I forget my earlier steps, but the first thing to do is to delete all of the starting castle and replace it as above shown. Do not place the pitch until you hear reports of "large" or "massive" Arabian armies coming in. When under attack, it is key to keep the inner gatehouse open so that the bakers in the outer ward can still work. If the outer wall is broken, fire can spread from the buildings in that ward into the keep, including your granaries.

I placed my barracks somewhere isolated up north, only using it to train troops with the starting weapons given. I did not bother collecting iron or stone, but placed some woodcutters near my farms. Whenever the enemy attacked, I deleted all buildings outside of my walls (except my barracks, which distracted some slaves) for a little bit of extra wood instead of losing it all to the enemy slaves.

For the last three attacks or so, I concentrated all of my archers on the outermost square tower, putting a ballista in each. During the second-to-last attack I accidentally used all of my pitch, but relied on my luck after burning some of their swordsmen and battering ram. After that assault, I had very few troops left (as shown in the above screenshot), who perished during the final attack. My luck held, however, and I had just enough wheat and flour to secure a victory, just as I spotted enemy swordsmen nearing.

This mission is probably the hardest in the Crusader campaigns. It has annoyed me for ten years, and now I can proudly say that I bested it! :D

Whoa, that was quick! :D Nicely done, Charles!

Also - nice castle. It looks pretty cool near that coast. :)

I agreed to try one of Lord Vetkas maps, and just as we both expected, it was a nice fight and very exciting!

This map is called Areboth, and it will be available later in our downloads section, but Vetka wants to do some more work on it.

It was a Stronghold Crusader Extreme game, and I was playing against two Caliphs, with me starting with 4000 gold, and them starting with 2000 and each of them having one outpost training Arabian army. I had pretty enough oasis, and enough wood to make a good production - I focused on food production and producing ale, so I could take taxes from my people. I also had three iron mines. It is possible to win more resources - if I kill one Caliph, I would get more iron, and if I kill the other, I would get stone. That's a really nice idea. As about army, I was training macemen, archers and ctossbowmen. I decided to take more iron mines, so I killed the one Caliph in the west (that was in 1193.), as I needed it to produce more maces. I was able to buy all stone I needed to finish the castle, and of course - to destroy Caliphs walls and towers with catapults.

After the first one fell, I felt way safer, so I finished the castle, made my triple walls and some more towers, which were not necessary, but one win a game without completing his castle. :) After that I trained more army to kill the other Caliph (in 1198.). It was a really nice fight, and really an exciting game.

Also, I wasn't using any of powers (or however they are called), I was fighting only with my men! As I could have seen, computer lords don't use those powers as well, so I find it fair. I could using the power to heal my men, but I wasn't doing that either.

Also, I could have made it easier to me, if I was destroying the outposts when I could with my army (after I killed the first Caliph), but that didn't cross my mind. :D

I will post some screenshot from the game. :) Now I see I didn't save the screenshot of completed castle, but you can see how it was looking like unfinished.

Nice going EaglePrince, well built castle, glad to see you had an exciting battle.

I gave you enough resources, maybe to many, but the iron and stone had to be fought for, I don't want to make it to easy for you.

When I tested the map, my towers went on the points and finally one in the middle, I never did use any walls, my game play is a little slow so I did use the extra powers, good for you to not use the powers.

Having the outposts there for the enemy makes for a more exciting map, I put in 2 euro outposts and tried it with euro Lords, again good fun, I will post the map soon.

Yesterday I made a new map, 400x400 with 3 enemies across the map and 1 Allie beside you, tested with 3 Caliphs and Richard as my Allie, I forgot to give him an outpost so he was done fairly soon, the 3 Caliphs swarmed him, then me, but I did use the powers again, mostly gold.

I will add in euro outposts on this new map and make a few adjustments and post it soon as well.

A fine idea you came up with EaglePrince, giving the outpost to the enemy and not you then playing in Skirmish mode makes for some fun gaming. I will do some experimenting see if there are more things to make it better.

I will post the map soon.

I'm glad to hear that, I look forward to it.

Yesterday I made a new map, 400x400 with 3 enemies across the map and 1 Allie beside you, tested with 3 Caliphs and Richard as my Allie, I forgot to give him an outpost so he was done fairly soon, the 3 Caliphs swarmed him, then me, but I did use the powers again, mostly gold.

I guess the attacks became too powerful for both of you to handle. Also, I would like to say that sometimes it is more interesting to have a weaker ally (such in this case), so you don't need to defend yourself only, but to defend your ally as well, as you don't want to let him down. I remember how I was a little sad sometimes when I get snake as an ally in some crusader trail mission against powerful foes. Later I started thinking this way - this ally is not here to win the game instead of me - we are here to fight together! It's also more interesting when your ally castle is positioned in such a way, so he is protecting part of your economy, or something that is important for you, so you have interest in protecting him.

One example just came across my mind: Mission 3. in Crusader Trail - This Dusty Land (you and Richard vs two Caliphs). In this mission Richard is protecting your back, and he also manages, in first stages of the game, to destroy some parts of the southern Caliphs castle! Later in the game the northern Caliph stops attacking you, and they both start attacking Richard after what they will manage to kill him, unless you send him help. (I remember playing this mission for the first time - it was the hardest mission at that time - more than ten years ago. :) Later I won the game after I learned how to build catapults - that was hell of revenge. :D )

A fine idea you came up with EaglePrince, giving the outpost to the enemy and not you then playing in Skirmish mode makes for some fun gaming. I will do some experimenting see if there are more things to make it better.

Yeah, at this moment I just got interested in Stronghold Crusader Extreme.

As about powers, gold is a nice one, and beside ability to heal army, one of the least unfair to our enemies. I've just started playing Crusader Extreme trail - some missions are way too easy with those powers (if you tend to rush): during the attack you can use stone if you want to destroy the gate and enter the castle more quickly, and also, you can use arrows to kill all enemy flame throwers. Then almost nothing stands on your way. But there are also some interesting ones, where you don't get 20,000 gold in beginning, and there are pretty interesting. Mission 2. - Bird In Flight for example... Interesting map!

Does someone know, do AI's use any of those powers? It is obvious they don't use rock and arrows for example, but maybe they do get gold... I believe that would not go unnoticed, if your enemy just had few gold, and in the next moment more then 6,000. :)

We have just fought a great battle, and I wanted to write about here something about it. But, before I start talking about that, I would like to apologize to those who might believe my ways of playing were unfair. We did agree that we wouldn't use sleepers, and I taught that I could turn off my quarries to get workers. I was thinking that, what I wasn't meant to do is building lots of woodcutters, mills and water pots only in order to recruit army from them and to take taxes. Those are trick I don't want to use either, I that is something I wouldn't call an honorable fight. Nevertheless, quarries I was shutting down were needed for my economy, and with turning them down I was losing some stone in fact. Also, if someone has five quarries, quarries can give him up to fifteen additional recruits, and that is not much - then this player would have 24+15=39 recruits available. Besides that, turning down your economy is something that would AI lord do as well - if he need many troops to defend himself, he would shut down his entire economy, and if he has gold and weapons, he would train as much men as necessary... The other thing is that I killed Ak with assassins. His castle was purely defended with archers only, and I saw my chance and I decided perform a surprise attack. I didn't rush him with assassins, I only attacked him, and in that moment, we were fighting a lot.

Now few words about the game itself. :)

We fought on the map The Wet Lands, we started normal game - with 2,000 gold in beginning, and we had 10 minutes no rush. Those were our position:

lords Aleks S. I Ak Leto EaglePrince Charles of Tour

This is really an interesting map - there is little oasis, enough stone, and some iron in the middle, which we should fight for. In the beginning, we all played a bit more defensive - I'd say I was the most aggressive one in this game. Leto, Charles and Ak took the iron in the middle with no fight - there was no way to stop them from that, as the iron was close to Charleses castle. As I saw Leto was the most powerful opponent, and as I taught he could only become more powerful by the time, I decided to attack him. This attack of mine failed - I tried to attack him with trebuchets, and crossbowmen guarding siege engines. After I destroyed some parts of his castle, I decided to send some assassins in, but when he trained swordsmen, and some crossbowmen, my men had no chance. Later I retreated. After that, I decided not to attack his castle - what I should do first was to attack iron mines in the middle of the map, and to weaken him this way.

For a while we were struggling in the central part of the map around those iron mines, until Aleks and I made it to take control over that are. We even attempted to take down Charles, but we failed there. The next thing I decided was to continue fighting in central part of the map, so I was still sending the reinforcements there, but I was also collecting assassins, which I would send at Ak's castle, as he had no melee units guarding his lord, and he had only archers on the walls. Nevertheless, he was helping Charles a lot while we were attacking him a lot. This surprise attack succeeded! After Ak fell, I sent some assassins to destroy Charleses economy, as he was less guarded at that side of his castle. Aleks send some slaves to burn his economy, and this turned out to be pretty effective - his whole castle burned, and during this period we prepared to attack Charles while his economy was on the knees.

The first attack at his castle failed, but he was weakened after this one. After that I was training more army to attack him again, so Aleks and I would attack him once more, and take over his castle, as he moved his lord to Leto's castle. I built two towers, and I attached those to his walls - our men climbed his walls, killed his archers and crossbowmen, and we took control over his castle. This was Charleses castle being controlled by Alekses and my units.

After we succeeded in this I started my preparations to attack Leto from my castle, and Aleks was preparing to attack Leto from Charleses castle. When my trebuchets started aiming Leto's walls, the unexpected happened - Leto send his lord at Alekses knight which were inside Charleses castle, thus killing him self. Charleses lord was left alone where was Leto's keep - I sent my pikemen on his lord, and Aleks sent his knights. Knights were faster.

I am sorry the game ended this way, but it was real fun! It was a challenge as it was 2 against 3, and those ones who were controlling the iron in the central region of the map were in a better position, as it was the only iron on the map.

This was my castle from the game.

I hope someone from the northern alliance will come here, and to tell us their side of story.

I don't have any screenshots from that game, but I will write a quick summary of my perspective. :)

In hindsight I realize that I started my economy off poorly by attempting to rely on apple farms on the small patch of grass to my north. I would later replace these with hops and wheat farms to feed my large population. My castle took some time to build, looping walls around buildings I placed as I went, and I focused most of my forces on the front walls. I did this because I know Leto to be a seasoned campaigner who could hold his flank, but it was also a risk, as this was only Ak's third game.

After Leto withstanding two or three waves of attackers, I realized that Eagle and Aleks were aiming to attack the iron mines. Seeing this, I asked both of my allies to hold that crucial, central position. After several glorious battles, we pushed off the enemy but were badly bloodied ourselves, even though we had inflicted far more casualties than were taken. For this, I congratulate the force of monks I recruited. :P

It was too late when I noticed a mob of assassins scaling Ak's walls. I realized that one of my flanks was exposed, but did not act quickly enough to stop the destruction of my economy. One thing that still bothers me about Crusader is how fire can seep through walls, which caused the first Great Fire of 1204. This would happen once or twice more when my walls were breached, Aleks sent in slaves to burn down my bakeries.

I sent my lord to Leto's castle when I thought I would surely lose, but astoundingly, the first wave of enemies was beaten back. I knew they would return in greater numbers, so I decided to take a vacation in my ally's keep. When my castle defenders were slaughtered, I knew that was the end of the Northern Alliance, but I rebuilt my granary behind allied walls and bought some food. When Leto's lord charged the enemy, I was left standing behind his grave, and ran to defend my granary to the bitter end, with the final words of "My granary - fooooooooood!"

It was a fun game, I think, but next time we'll have to put a limit on assassins ;)

It was a fun game indeed. :) Speaking about the great fire - it happened to me once that my whole economy was caught by fire from the outside of the castle. I had thick wall just like you now, and I also had moats... It was a bit disappointing to me, as it does not seem to be much likely to happen, but it is possible in the game.

As about your suggestion, I hope we won't be putting any limit on assassins. :) I will write down few things about them here, and I may also use some of that in some new tread "dealing with the assassins" if that could be useful for someone. It is pretty easy to defend from assassins, or at least to protect your lord from them:

• one most famous way is digging the moat. Even if you don't dig this moat around whole your castle, if you do it on the front size, it will still be effective, as this way assassins would have to attack you from behind, and this way it is more likely for you to notice them in time.
  
• another way to defend from them is to exploit the fact that they have no armor - they are pretty vulnerable to archers and bowmen. So, if you can hold them a bit with some melee units, or in any other way, you can give your archers enough time to wipe those assassins out. Also, crossbowmen are pretty effective against them.
  
• there is also one more thing that might help. You're not an AI lord, you're human, so you can do what would a human in real life in such a situation do - you can run a way from assassins. If you have enough archers, then you won't be forced to run away from your castle, then the only thing necessary would be to move away a bit, only to give your men enough time to slaughter them. Also, if you do not have enough archers, then you can completely run away to your ally's castle, and wait for him to set your castle free. This shouldn't be a difficult task if your ally has the right tactics. They are vulnerable to archers, so horsemen archers are probably the most effective unit against those guys.
  
• this one advice I'm giving right now is not about what could one player do - it's for the team. If one of your allies is attacked by assassins by surprise, you can all help him by sending him weapons and gold. He could train swordsmen and pikemen then, or maybe even assassins or Arabian swordsmen, and some more archers. The one who is under attack can have those recruits from his bakeries, mills, breweries and workshops that are inside of his castle. This will slow down the economy, but this might save your life.
  

Of course, you can always combine more of those tactics.

Besides these arguments "this might be pretty easy to deal with assassins", there is one more. I believe assassins are one of the most interesting parts of Stronghold Crusader, besides setting enemy castle to fire. :) Those two elements of the game are the two ones that are able to turn entire war. Even the most powerful player on the map can lose, if his economy is set to fire: then he will lose his population, his food, his economy - everything... He might survive only if he has enough army on his walls, so he can repel few more attacks and to stop setting up a new fire... But this will certainly cripple him for some time! Just like fire, there are assassins - they just come up by surprise, and just like we saw it, they can kill one of enemy lords by surprise... I believe this is the exciting part of the game - why would it have to be, that the one who is most powerful must win? :) Everyone can get killed by assassins or anyone's castle can be set up on fire if he's not on the watch. Also, I believe you might know how effective they are against knights. :D

So I hope we won't be setting limits to assassins. :)

I came to tell about one really interesting game I had yesterday! One human ally and I fought against AI lords. It was Close Encounters map, and the settings were Crusader game, computer advantage (giving them 4000 gold). This is how we were positioned - I put Saladin in the place where my ally was, and we fought against all others.

Just as the fighting began, it was relatively hard, but it didn't seem to be a hard game. I made it to enclose my castle, and I did have several towers to defend from catapults, and I had archers on those towers as well. At some moment, those attacks became stronger, and just after I tough I was safe, they started attacking me with greater armies. At some moments whole one side of my castle was destroyed - the towers and the large gatehouse at the north-east part of my castle were destroyed. After that I called my ally to help me - he made it to kill Rat, and he was fighting the Lionheart north of him, while all others were attacking me. He sent his horse archers to help me. After some time we made it to repel those attack, and he also sent some catapults, and he destroyed some parts of Caliphs castle. He also sent me stone, and some gold, and that helped me to recover. Soon after that I had my towers with mangonels up, destroying enemy catapults and trebuchets, and I had more crossbowmen this time. Soon I took down Caliph with a small crossbowmen and swordsmen army (his castle was still damaged after my allies attacks). Later I went after Lionheart north of Caliph, and Wolf was the one who fell next. At some moment my ally made it to kill Lionheart north of him - I also helped him in his final attack with my horse archers. After him, we killed the last our enemy, and won the fight!

It was really an exciting fight!

Vetka, Mathew and I played an Extreme game on Vetka's Anderton map.

I was in the western position, Mathew was in the south-west, while Vetka was on the southern hill. We picked those positions because I assumed my position will be the hardest, as Vetka would have tactical advantage being on the hill, and Mathew was protected by the two of us. We fought against two Caliphs (north-west and south-east), and three Lionhearts giving them 8000 gold and setting it to Crusader game.

Just like we expected it was a hard game. The map is unbalanced, so we had no stone, unlike our opponents. After a while Mathew and I built our castles, while Vetka was only building his economy with few defensive structures, but he did train a large army of horse archers. Those horse archers did help to me once, as I was under constant attacks. I was very slowly growing stronger.

After the game dropped us two times, Vetka wasn't able to continue, so Mathew and I continued the fight alone.

Soon we launched our first attacks! Mathew tried to take down the Caliph in south-east, but his first attack failed, although he did deal him a lot of damage, and he was close to kill him. At the same time I was attacking the Caliph in the north, as killing him was the key for me growing stronger. My castle was being attacked by Lionhearts catapults and trebuchets, so I needed stone that from the valley desperately. Soon I decided to launch my attack to strike down the Caliph in the north. I sent about 30-40 crossbowmen and about 50-60 swordsmen, hoping those crossbowmen would eliminate the flame throwers on Caliphs keep. Sadly, crossbowmen failed, so swordsmen were left alone inside Caliphs castle while flame throwers were still there ready to burn down my invading army. After fierce fighting inside that burning inferno, they made it to reach the keep, and to put down the Caliph. They returned home as heroes!

At that time Mathew was launching the new attack on the remaining Caliph. I sent my troops that had just returned home to help him. I sent those swordsmen, and I also sent some crossbowmen. At the same moment my army arrived to the south, Mathew was attacking Caliph. He killed him, while I helped him there only with my crossbowmen. The Caliph was killed before my swordsmen could reach his castle.

After those two were killed, the Lionhearts were easy pray to our invading armies which became massive by that time. I believe we had more than 150 swordsmen, and more than 100 swordsmen (combined), and we also had engineers and gold to build any siege equipment we needed. We were also sending reinforcements to that army. I also sent more than 100 horse archers before attacking the one in the middle, and about 60 more swordsmen before attacking the last Lionheart which was positioned on the hill in north-east. So, the first one to fall was Lionheart in the east, then the one in the middle, and soon after that fell Lionheart in the north-east.

After killing the last one I received 7000 gold, which I shared with Mathew sending him half of that. :)

It was an exciting game, and I'm sad Vetka was not able to continue to play with us. I'm sure we'll be more lucky next time. :)

Yes it was a battle, the Caliph to the east of me could reach the right side of my castle, you had the same problem the first time we played this map EaglePrince, it makes the right side of your castle a bit useless, my Horsearchers did save the day though and I had some support from you guys as well, it was looking good until I got bumped from the game, glad to see you guys managed to remove the enemy lords for the win, congratulations.

Mathew you were worried you would not do to well, you did fine, how did you like the game?

I hope we have better luck next time!

I loved the game. It was the best game I've played in a while. Perhaps next time I can have a more challenging role too :cool:

I loved the game. It was the best game I've played in a while. Perhaps next time I can have a more challenging role too :cool:

Here's an idea then!:) Next time wi sitch positions with Vetka? Then you would have to deal with Caliph as well!

Also, one advice for fighting him, when he's close to your castle, and has more gold. Most likely you will not be able to defeat his bowmen on lookout towers; if that is the case, it is smarter not to bulid a castle with keep in center. Then I build my castle and economy as far as possible from him, and I avoid the conflict with his bowmen. In this specific case, I would build almost all economy western from my keep. Later you can build mangonels, and fire at him from distance.

To bad about the stalling and getting booted out, it was going to be a good game, I will be looking into a solution.

With all of the things going on I wasn't thinking about my Horsearchers, I should have run them over and took the range units out of the Caliphs towers and get a few Ballistas there to knock his Ballistas out, then it would be OK.

I will try and be ready for this game, but...don't hold your breath.

I like the way we played with supporting rolls, this is the second time we tried it, a few adjustments and it could be quite fun, then Mathew you would not feel the need for a more challenging roll, but I do like the idea of all of us working together to attack the AI castles.

Well I hope you can make it as I look forward to it. Who is the strongest AI opponent? How about we use all of them against us and then set the starting goods to complete AI advantage :D

To bad about the stalling and getting booted out, it was going to be a good game, I will be looking into a solution.

I think you don't have to look into any solution. I believe that this what happened was only a bad luck, because we had no problem during entire game, and at one moment it started to lag. I think it was about some update being downloaded or something like that - I'm almost sure it was nothing about internet or router settings.

I hope you will be able to play with us.

Who is the strongest AI opponent? How about we use all of them against us and then set the starting goods to complete AI advantage big_smile

It depends of how you fight I think. If you give him enough gold, like we did it our latest game, he would be sending lots of troops to attack. Also, Wolf is probably the strongest, and he also trains some troops that Lionheart (such as Arabian bowmen and crossbowmen), and he uses some other tactics, such as cow throwing, and putting pitch around his castle. He can be a tough opponent, but sadly, sometimes he builds too large castle - he spends too much resources on that, and that makes him weaker. Also, bigger castle he builds, it is easier to besiege, as his troops are not concentrated. His smallest castle is the most efficient - in attack and in defense alike.

Also, Caliph can be tough, especially if you put him close to you. If you don't watch, he could put your castle on fire, and would be a problem. :) Wazir is strong as well - he is similar to Caliph in a way, but he has larger economy, and he is able to send powerful attacks - he uses horse archers a lot. The downside is the fact that his castle is exposed to fire, but if he is behind his allies, he could be a problem to you. Emir is also strong, but his tactics are not so great - he relies on massive Arabian swordsmen army, and he is easier to kill. Saladin can also be powerful - you only need to give him time to build his castle - so it is better to put him behind his allies (Caliph for example).

 

Sounds like a great game, Saladin can be a good ally, and against the Wazirs and caliphs, way to go!

 

I had Saladin as an an Ally with the Caliph in the North with me in between them and 3 Wazirs and 2 Nizars on the new map I made, I gave the AIs 4000 gold and me 2000 gold, I won the game and Saladin took out one of the Wazirs on his own, then to see, I played the same way but set to lots of troops and gold, gave the AI 20000 and me 7000, I was out in about 10 minutes, but I watched for a while and Saladin was taking it to the enemy along with the Caliph, but after a little while the Caliph fell and Saladin was soon to follow.

 

Getting the right starting gold is important for the type of game you want to play, 3 against 5 strong AIs and you give them 20000 gold and you have a major fight on your hands, give them 4000 gold and it's to easy!

 

Glad to see you guys had a fun game!

The tread has been closed, and I found this tread the most suiting to reply this message.

Well, after those few games we played, I got feeling how those settings: giving AI 8,000 gold, or 20,000 gold, or 40,000 gold might be the most exciting.