Stronghold Walkthrough by Stumbleine

Version 1.0

Introduction

Stronghold is another historical sim brought to us by the same team that
made the wonderful Caesar series. Firefly have managed to perfectly
blend the tactical and economical factors of the game so that both are
of equal importance. This Walkthrough should elucidate any problems you
might have playing the Economical or the Invasion Campagne. If you have
any questions about this FAQ you can contact me at the email address
below. I hope you enjoy playing the game as much as I did. Now go! Your
Stronghold Awaits!

General Advice
- I have played through all the missions on Normal or Hard ; I can
therefore not vouch that these tactis will work on the Very Hard
difficulty setting and you may find you get absolutely massacred.
- The tradepost is your best friend ever. Build one whenever you have
the resources to do so and don’t forget to use it to equilibirate your
stacks of food, supplies and gold.
- The crossbowmen (xmen) are quite simply the best unit in the game as
they aren’t too expensive to train and can mow down rows of swordsmen,
knights, macemen and halbediers. Place them in strategic positions like
towers and high ground.
- Boiling oil is also a must have for any castle defender. If you use
your mecanics wisely you can stop whole units of men with one simple
cauldron.
- Your Lord is a real wimp and can’t fight very well at all. He’ll kill
off 5 spearmen or so, or maybe 2 or 3 macemen but that’s about it. Make
sure he’s well protected by some bowmen or infantry : you lose him, you
lose the game.

INVASION MISSIONS

Mission 1

 Place your Saxon Hall near the group of trees in the middle of the map
then build 4 woodcutter huts (WCH from now on) near the trees and 4
hunter posts near the granary. Fall asleep for 10 minutes then build
another hut to increse production if you want.

Mission 2

 Build 4 WCH near the trees, but taking care to keep them inside your
stockade. Build 4 hunting posts near the granary. When you have enough
wood you can finish the stockade. You shouldn’t need to increase the
population but if you decide to do so build some more hunting posts to
accumulate the ammount of food necessary.

Mission 3

 The wolves can only cross the river at 2 points so start by blocking
these two points off. As in previous missions build some WCH and hunter
posts.Your next prioirity is to accumulate enough wood to build a
pallisade around you saxon hall big enough to hold a flecher, an armory
and a barracks.You’ll need to kill a few of the Rat’s men who wander
onto the map from the northern side about halfway through the mission.
Once your pallisade is complete build a flecher followed by an armory
and finally a barracks. Two or three archers should be sufficiant to
kill all the Rats men. To kill the wolves simply place a couple of
towers near the river crossing points and tell your archers to fire at
the wolves.

Mission 4

 Build your castle to the far south west then build 3 WCH near the
trees. With the remaining wood build some dairy farms. The high ground
offers excellent defense against the rat’s troops and your stronghold is
already partially protected by the rocky terrain. You’ll want to fill in
the gaps in between the rocks to completely protect your settlement,
then build a fletcher/armory/barracks to start training archers. As the
wood production rises you can build more dairy farms and eventually a
peasant hut or two for farmers. With the remaining wood you should build
some towers and distribute your archers to protect your weak points.
Repair your stockade if it gets damaged by the Rat’s attacks. You may
also want to consider adding a second wooden wall infront of the first
for added protection

Mission 5

 You’ll need loads of wood for this one ; I’d recommend five WCH in
total : two on the island and three near the trees to the south. Wheat
farming is long to get going to you’ll need 3 or 4 farms on the southern
plaines as soon as you can. Your next priority is to wall off the 3
northern crossing points ( 2 onto your island and one onto the island to
the west) using either gatehouses (ghouses from now on) or a wooden
wall/tower combination so you can defend it with arches. Then get your
fletcher/armory/barracks up and running. When you next get some wood
build a hut, a windmill and a couple of bakers as you should have some
wheat by now. You should then increase baker production accordingly as
the flour will start to pile up. Strengthen the walls around your
crossing points and wall off the northern part of the island with 2 or 3
thick wooden walls depending on wood stocks. Your remaining workforce
should be set to work as fletchers, wheat farmers or bakers : if you
lose too many archres build more fletchers if wheat is low more farms
and if flour stocks are high more bakers. The final attack will be
devestating : you’ll want to make sure the main island is protected even
if you have to sacrifice a few frams to the south.

Mission 6

 Hmmmm..... the cowardly scumbag killed all your men! The flames of
vengence must now be burning in your eyes ? don’t worry he won’t survive
for long. Build your keep near the quarry to the south west and some WCH
slightly north near the trees, a few hunting posts for quick food and
some daury farms near the quarry to the south. Next get your stone
production working with some oxen to ferry your stone rapidly to your
stockpile. Then build an armory/barracks and start training those
archers. Finally surround your settlement with a stone wall complete
with a ghouse, and get your archers up there. As you get more stone
expand your walls to the east where there is plenty of fertile land for
more cow farms ansd some wheat fields. Remember wheat takes a longgg
time and needs at least 5 peasents to function (1 farmer, 3 for the
windmill and 1 baker) so only expand into wheat production when you are
sure to have enough resources to do so. As your wood stock grows you can
build some more fletchers. Once you are satisfied with food and weapon
production you can build another quarry and a crenelated wall round your
settlement. Use any stone you have to bolster your defences. The Rat’s
first attack won’t occur for quite some tim, but it’ll be stronger than
anything you’ve faced up until now. Use your archers efficiently to wipe
out invaders attacking your walls and repair when you can. Build 4 or 5
fletchers to churn out those archers and you should send him running.

Mission 7

 Pull back the archers on the wooden wall back to the stone defences
asap (you may have to open up the ghouse to let them in) and quickly
mass your own troops onto the stone wall, holding back the spearmen
until you see the enemy ladders coming towards you. Once you’ve pushed
back the first assault build a wooden ghouse to complete the first
stockade and repair where necessary. Food may be a problem : you have
plenty of flour so build more bakers to get some bread. Next another an
other quarry with oxen for stone production, another fletchers or two
and eventually a poleturners workshop and another wheat farm. Place a
token force of archers to defend the wooden pallisade and pull them back
to the stone wall when the enemy gets too close. As soon as you can
you’ll want to build a stone wall behind the wooden one and maybe a
stone ghouse. Once this is completed if you keep training archers the
enemy will find it tough to get close.

Mission 8

 This one is tricky but fairly easy if you place your stockade in the
right place : you’ll need to divide your wooden walls into three parts ;
the first on the south eastern side of the valley between the two rocky
outcrops, the second slightly to the north inbetween the swamp and the
high plateau where the enemy arrive and the third in betwwen the swamp
and the large plateau to the west where your castle keep is. If you do
this correctly, using the spacebar to make sure you’ve filled in all the
gaps, you’ll have closed off the valley floor. Once food and archer
construction is underway you can start building a few hop fields and a
quarry to strengthen the wooden pallisade with stone walls. Try to make
good use of the valley floor : it can only hold about 7 farms and you’ll
need 2 or 3 hop fields. Hold back the spearmen as a mobile reserve unit
if the enemy manage to break through a section of your wall. The first
section will be attacked the most frequently, place most of your archers
here.

NB : Make sure your walls aren’t too close to the enemy signpost or
you’ll lose it when the enemy first appear!This can be VERY annoying

 With food and hop production coming along nicely you can start building
some brewers and getting those barrels of ale rolling out! With
remaining wood build some bakers, more fletchers and a poleturners.
You’ll need quite a few archers for this one.

Mission 9

 Time to lay down the rat poison! This mission is quite difficult as you
have to decide if you’re willing to divert stone and men to defending
the quarry. On easy and normal you can probably abandon it. Food
shouldn’t be a problem but you may wan’t to build a few hunters posts.
You’ll need at least 3 fletchers if not more and a poleturner. You also
have plenty of wood so build a wooden wall on the far side of the moat
which  a) slow down the invaders and b) be targeted by the catapults
instead of your nice stone walls. The first attack comes very quickly
(after 5 mins or so) and is very tough! You must protect you granary
from catapult fire at all costs or you’ll be in deep trouble. If your
quarry survives long enough you’ll have enough stone for a tower (I
advise the south east corner) or even another stone wall. Remember to
repair damaged walls and to keep the moat dug out. If your WHC are
destroyed build some more inside the main keep. Keep up archer
production and use wood ansd stone to build up your walls : build wooden
walls 5 o 6 blocks thick if you can and you should be able to survive
until the end of the mission

Mission 10

 Time is against you on this one so rush the macemen in the keep with
your spearmen and tell your archers to fire at the enemy archers in the
tower, then finish them off with the remaining spearmen. The quarry is
fairly defendable as you can easily surround it with a stone wall an
place archers on the wall and on the cliffs above. You’ll need to send
some archers to deal with the bears roaming near your WCHs to the
northwest. Build another quarry, some more oxen, a couple more wheat
farms, a windmill and a couple more bakers. I usually surround my wheat
with a wooden wall to protect it from wolves and the rabbits to the
west. Stone production is essential here : use it first to build a stone
ghouse at the bottom of the slope leading up to your keep, a stone wall
running from the cliffs to the west to your ghouse, and from your ghouse
to the cliffs to the east (encompassing the two quarries of course!).
Send your archers to kill the wolves and the rabbits. With wood build
bakers to keep up with food consumption. As soon as your defences are in
place start building chapels : the more you have the more people you can
bless. You also need to get your population up so build some dairy
farms, afletchers, a barracks and an armory. Once you’ve filled the top
plateau with farms start building hop farms on the vally floor and
brewers.Keep a close eye on food consumption ; once you have some ale
you can open an inn : the combined religion + ale factors should let you
cut food rations if you need to (and as you near 50+ peasents you
probably will). Once you’ve taken back the castle the Serpent won’t
attack for another 20mins or so which leaves you plenty of time

Mission 11

 This one is pretty dificult! I suggest plcing your keep behind the
large rocky area so you can use the river to the west and the cliffs as
natural walls. Place a wall between  the river and the cliffs to the
west and between the cliffs and the edge of the map to the east. Build a
couple of dairy farms using the flat land you can find, some WCH, an
armory, a barracks, a tanner, a fletcher and some hunting posts. Start
training archers. Use any excess wood you have to build more fletchers
and some wooden walls. You may want to build you quarry now or wait
until after the first attack when you can defend it better. If you don’t
want to build a quarry, build a tradepost and trade in some food to buy
the stone you need to finish your defences. I thouroughly recommend
building a tradepost at some point during this mission to make up for
lost resources. If you have enough stone you can wall off your quarry,
if not block the passageway in between the two cliffs or the enemy
troops will pour through the gap there. Whatever you decide to do, you
will find it difficult to defend the quarry during the first assault as
the Wolf sends in some swordsmen who are practically invincible against
your archers. Concentrate all your fire on each one individually and try
to get them to chase your spearmen who are pretty much dead meat anyway.
Eventually with a little luck you will push them off and a robed monk
will give you the plans for the crossbow. Your armory should be nicely
stocked with leather vests from the tanner so set all your fletchers to
making crossbows and get them working (you should have 3 or 4 fletchers
by now). Kepp up a steady flow of wood , build another tanner if
necessary and a quarry if you haven’t already done so. The crossbowmen
(xmen from now on, and no corny jokes on the comic superheroes please!)
are tough chaps and even if they take a while to reload their metal
bolts go through just about anything. If you keep up xmen production
further attacks from the Wolf will be shattered by a rain of steel bolts
that mow down macemen, archers and swordsmen with relative ease.

Mission 12

 The weakest point of the castle is the western corner. Get some xmen
and archers up into the hills to the west an have them wipe out any
enemy within bow range. Then set up your tunnelers beyond enemy lines
and tell them to dig towards the northern part of the western wall near
the enemy armory. Once the tunnels are nearing the wall send in the
macemen. The combined assault on this section should open up a section
of the wall your men can pour through. Keep up supporting fire from your
xmen and bowmen. Once you’re into the castle grounds split your men into
two groups : the first should wipe out the archers on the walls and
towers and the second should head towards the keep killing everything on
ground level. Once the castle is yours bring in the spearmen and have
them start digging a moat, then send any macemen left alive to help
(they dig fast). Now it’s time to face facts : you’re gonna lose those
dairy farms, hunting posts and probably the quarry. I usually just build
a small wall inbetween the cliffs and the western wall of the castle but
it never lasts long. Instead use the free space inside your walls wisely
: there’s enough space for a couple of dairy farms and a hop or wheat
field as well as a windmill, a couple of bakeries and a fletcher and/or
a tanner for xmen construction. The inn is up and running so get those
taxes up! I generally build a ghouse in the southwestern wall and extend
my battlements in this direction, filling up the space with more fields.
Unless you lost loads of macemen during the first attack you can sell
off the metal at the tradepost for cash.Bread can also make quite a tidy
profit so it’s worth building plenty of wheat farms and bakers for bread
production. Keep the macemen in the keep and the spearmen on the walls
to push off enemy ladders or your xmen will get massacered. 95% of your
defenders should be on the western wall and the others in towers around
the castle. After each enemy attack rebuild the walls and the moat.
There are several other ways to increase the money flow : if you
increase your population your taxes will increase but so will your food
consumption, if your popularity is high you can decrease rations to sell
off extra food or stop them eating a food of a specific type like bread.
Finally you can sell off extra wood and ale if your’re making more ale
than your population drinks. Remember never to lose sight of your
objectives : don’t spend more than you have to on food and men and don’t
bother building any non essential buildings (like a forge).

Mission 13

 This mission has an annoying bug that makes the game quit if you
completely wall off your keep! This includes trees and other natural
elements like rocks etc. The key to getting round this bug is to build a
long corridor one block wide in the middle ? the enmy will have to come
at you one at a  time and you can pick thelm off from afar.
 Start by building a stone wall to the south to portect your dairy farms
and quarry ? remember to surround the quarry or you’ll be attacked via
the forest. I would build a second quarry straight away as you’ll be
needing a fair bit of stone for this mission. Your food stocks should be
alright for the time being so use the wood to build some iron mines,
another fletcher and a couple of tanners. I normally place the entrance
point to the keep with the long corridor to the north near the barracks.
The first 20 mins will be hell as the Pig will atack often and your
defences won’t be 100% complete. Use the xmen and macemen to block andy
weak points. Once you get some extra wood build some hop fields, a
couple more bakeries and some breweries. Then build a forge and start
training macemen. Your gold will be quite low , but the breweries will
give you some ale and you can open an inn and start taxing the peasants.
Keep on training macemen and xmen ? you’ll need about 30 macemen to
attack the Serpent’s keep and defend your catapults, but it’s up to you
how many you want ? there’s no time limit. You can now also build a
mecanics guild. You’ll need 9 mecanincs (catapult plus wooden shield = 3
mecanics) to build 3 catapults and their defences. Keeping your
catapults as far away from the enemy as you can, destroy the middle
tower with the seige engine then bung a few cows across to kill off the
macemen. Then destroy the second tower with the seige engine. At all
times keep your macemen near the catapults to defend against the Pig’s
troops if he tries to attack them. With both of the ballistas out of the
way you can have fun smashing up the rest of his castle for as long as
you want. When you’re ready send in 5 macemen to set off the pit traps
then rush the main keep with the rest of your men.Once you kill the
Serpent you win. If something goes wrong train some more men at your
castle barracks.

Mission 14
  This one is pretty easy. The key is to use all men to defend the
southernmost ghouse. Start by strengthening the walls and building a
wooden wall infront of the stone one (protection against rams). Then
build a tradepost so you can buy stone and use remaining wood to put
some pit traps down infron of the ghouse. Train all available troops and
send them down to the bottom ghouse along with all the men defending
your other walls. You should now have enough men to push off the first
assault. Set your fletchers to xbow. When the Pig attacks use the
balista to take out the ram then aim at stopping his men breaking
through the stone wall. Keep your own macemen in reserve. After the
first assault buy enough stone for a second large tower and place it to
the east of the small one. Put a balista in it and build a mecanincs
guild then 2 mecanics to operate the balista. With your defenses
complete you can concentrate on training cossbowmen and planting pit
traps. You can start raising taxes at this point in the mission as it
doesn’t really matter if people start to leave your castle. The Pig
won’t stand a chance.

Mission 15

 Pretty tough this one as you have a limited time limit. Send your xmen
to the far rocky outcrop to the east and have them take out the xmen on
the eastern tower. At the same time send some archers to the hilly
gorund to the west and have them kill all rhe xmen on the western tower.
If you place your men correctly you’ll be out of enemy bow range and
won’t lose a single man. Once the xmen are dead take out any other
targets you can without being fired upon and send a group of about 20
spearmen to set off the pitch on the ground near the moat. Pull them
back as soon as the pitch lights and you might be able to save a few.
Then send in your spearmen in groups of 20 or so to fill in the moat.
You have to monitor tem closely all the time or the’ll fill in the wrong
bits. Once you have filled in a small patch of water your tunnelers can
take down the ghouse. The next bit is tricky. I normally send in the
macemen to kill of all the remaining archers from the first wall, get
the battering ram attacking the second ghouse and the ladders againt the
wall into the castle grounds. Use the pause button and the spacebar to
give your orders clearly. Send the maceman up the ladders to kill off
the archers and xmen in the towers around the ghouse then some of your
remaining spearmen towards the keep. They’ll set off the pitch traps and
die. Bring in your archers and xmen (the xmen will have to come in
through the broken wall section ? they can’t climb ladders) and send
them up into the towers to rain fire down onto the defenders. Finally
send in all remaining spearmen and macemen to the keep, then wipe out
the archers in the last tower. You must kill all the enemy troops to win
this one. Don’t panic and make lots of saves in case something goes
wrong.

Mission 16

 Pitch is what you’ll need for this one to run smoothly : pitch and
wood. You’ll need to start by getting your food and pitch production
online. Build mostly apple farms (4 or 5) and a dairy farm. Then build a
wooden wall up to the cliffs to the north and across to the cliffs to
the east. Put a stone ghouse in the center and some braziers along the
walls and in the towers. Build an armory . When the Pig first attacks
try to wait until the halbediers are on the pitch before setting it
alight.. When the attack has been pushed back start building some
quarries down to the southeast and protect them with a wooden stockade.
Send some xmen down there asap and put them on some wooden towers. Keep
replacing the pitch infront of the castle and  make sure you set it
alight at the right time. Xmen can’t use fire so you’ll need your
archers near the braziers . As time ticks on you’ll have to build more
farms and quarries (you’ll probably  need about 15 peasants working at
the quarries and you’ll need food to feed them). It’s up to you to
decide if you want to fortify the wooden walls with stone ones. I
usually keep the wooden walls and trust my xmen, pitch and eventually
monks (!) to hold off the Pig ? this way you can finish the mission a
fair bit earlier. If running low on pitch you can either trade for some
more or build more rigs. I don’t think it’s worth building a church or
an inn here unless food stocks start to get too low.

Mission 17

 Finally you can use the boiling oil! Pitch is important so wall off the
rigs to the west of your castle. I normally extend the walls northwards
slightly to fit in some more dairy farms, a couple of WCH and hunter
posts, a few wheat farms, a windmill and a cathedral (or your people
will sulk). You can build some bakeries,tanneries and fletchers against
the walls of the inner keep. You get 10 halbediers (= pikemen) at the
start of the mission and some macemen so I never bother with anymore
infantry. On the otherhand you’ll need plenty of xmen and mecanics.
Build a barracks and a mecanics guild and put some mecanics up on the
wall at strategic points like over the ghouse and in the towers. Put a
balista in the large tower. Your food should be okay cos you start off
with loads of wheat and  if you have enough bakers you’ll be able to
feed everyone. If food runs low cut rations, if food is high raise taxes
and don’t forget the +3 pop bonus from religion. Another possibility is
to play with the fear factor to get more resources or happier people.
Use the tradepost to buy and sell resources. Build more rigs if you can.
The Pig will attack in force so keep some stone for repairs. If you have
loads of pitch you can build some pitch traps and train some archers to
set them off. I normally build a second large tower in the southern wall
and put another balista up there. When the Pig attacks use the ballistas
on the rams and the xmen on the macemen and archers. Let the halbediers
reach your walls then tell your mecanics to pour hot oil down onto them
and watch them burn.............

Mission 18

 NB If you wait around long enough (no time limit) you can see people
get tortured by the Pig’s men....burnt, decapitated and hanged : very
instructive

 This mission is tough. You can use some of the tactics from Mission 15.
Send some archers to the hills to the west and put the men on the rocky
outcrop to the east to kill all the xmen in the 4 towers on the first
wall. You should be able to kill them all without losing any men
yourself. The Pig will send out some macemen to attack your seige
engines so protect them and slaughter him with your men. Once the 4
towers are clear start sending in groups of spearmen to set off the
pitch and fill in the moat as previously (Mission 15). As soon as their
is a large enough space infront of the first ghouse attack it with your
2 tunnellers , followed by the two rams. As soon as the ghouse is down
pull back the rams and send in about 20-30 macemen to set off the pitch
inside the first wall. Some should survive long enough to wipeout  the
remaining archers from the first wall. The next bit is tricky. Once the
fires die down send your ram to  attack the second ghouse, a seige tower
to the wall left of the ghouse, a seige tower to the right of  the
ghouse and get any ladders you have up against the castle walls. Divde
all remaining macemen into two groups (one for each tower) and get them
up onto the walls then have them kill all the archers they can. Procede
to move your macemen round the enemy battlements and towers wiping out
all the other bowmen in the towers. At the same time send in 50 or so
spearmen to set off the pitch in the main castle grounds, and try to get
some of your own xmen and archers up into the enemy towers.Once the
pitch has burnt out charge the main keep with everything you have left
and send his porky butt straight to hell. Note that unlike Mission 15
you don’t have to kill all the baddies to win, but just the Pig himself.
The important thing is to keep tight control over your men using the
spacebar and the pause button. You especially need to do this to stop
your macemen rushing across the castle grounds once they get up onto the
second wall or they’ll set off the pitch and die instead of killing off
the annoying archers on the walls. You also need to keep a close eye on
your diggers when they are filling in the moat ? keep them concentrated
on once specific part to lose a minimum ammount of men. As always save
often.

Mission 19

 Quickly wall off your farms at the bottom of the cliffs with a strong
stone wall and 3 large towers. Buy two mangonols and a balista and train
the mecanics to operate them. Train some archers and put them up on the
first wall with some braziers. Buy some pitch from the tradepost and put
some pitch infront of your walls. Build a wooden wall infront of the
pitch ditches. Build a tanner, a fletcher, an armouer and a forge as
close to your stockpile as possible (except for the tanner). Build a
couple of bakeries and a windmill, and send 3 or 4 mecanics with burning
oil up to the first wall in the towers. The Wolf will attack in force
but if you had time to do all of the above you should be able to hold
him off. As soon as the Wolf retreats get all available men out to build
a moat and build a ghouse with a drawbridge so they don’t get stuck out
there. The moat is important cos it will slow down the swordsmen and
make them more vulnerable targets. Use remaining stone to repair the
walls. Use the wood to build fletchers and tanners. Replace damaged
seige engines and put a mangonol on the large tower on the cliff
overlooking your keep and some archers next to the brazier on the wall
near the tower. Train xmen for the walls. Train some swordsmen and send
them up to the roof of the keep to act as a bodyguard for your Lord. If
all else fails 6 or 7 swordsmen will be able to hold off the enemy for
quite a long time. Finally there’s a tactic I usually use which is to
fill the space between your first wall and the cliffs just behind them
with pitch. This means that when the enemy break through the first wall
(and let’s face it they probably will) you can kill off a whole lot of
them before they even reach the second ghouse. When the Wolf finally
attacks start pulling your troops back from the 1st wall when you  see
he has filled in the moat and is attacking your walls. Don’t forget to
use your mecanics with the boiling oil before you pull them back! The
second ghouse isn’t really very defendable ? I only leave a few men here
and send most of them back to the third ghouse which is much more
defendable. The Wolf will send in a massive group of swordsmen so wait
until they get onto the ground you’ve covered in pitch and set to fire
to it with your archers. This nice fireworks display should wipe out a
fair number of his troops before they even get to the second ghouse!
Keep training swordsmen and xmen and if the Wolf breaks through the
second ghouse harrass his men all the way up the slope to the third
ghouse. If they ever break through you should by now have plenty of
swordman protecting your Lord and the few enemy that manage to make it
this far will get cut to pieces.

Mission 20

 This mission is fun as you have massive stocks of food, weapons, men
and gold! You should start by buying some xmen to strengthen the
defences on your first wall along with some mecanics with boiling oil.
Use pitch the finish off the ditches infront of the first wall (buy more
if needbe) and cover the area in between the first and second wall with
pitch (where the dog kennels are).Build a wooden wall infront of the
pitch ditches. Train as many knights as you can. These men will have the
honor of sacrificing themselves to protect your walls. Finally get some
seige weapons up into your towers big enough to hold them. As before the
Wolf will attack twice. As soon as his seige engines appear send out
your knights and try to destroy as many as possible before the main bulk
of his army appears. If you are lucky and pull them back at the right
time you might be able to save some of them, but most of them will
probably die. The Wolf will probably break through the first wall so
don’t hesitate to set off the dogs and the pitch if thing are looking
grim. Use your boiling oil to kill his more important troops like the
swordsmen and knights. Try to kill as many tunnellers as you can before
they reach your walls (again you may want to use knights for this, it’s
up to you). If you manage to hold him off, build a quarry for some
stone, replace the pitch ditches and repair the wooden and stone walls.
You might want to consider digging a moat. Go crazy on the xmen and
swordsmen and some knights (you may have to build more stables), raising
taxes if you have to. Put half the swordsmen in between the two towers
near your keep infront of the pitch, and the other half up in the keep
to protect your Lord. The Wolf’s final attack will be devestating.
You’ll need to send some knights or macemen  on a suicide mission to
destroy as many seige weapons you can. Don’t forget to keep training
swordsmen and xmen. The Wolf will almost definitly break through your
second wall this time, so when you see he’s starting to do so retreat
from the second wall and everyone back to the third wall defending the
keep. Light the pitch once the Wolf’s men break through your first unit
of spearman and start to climb the slope. If anyone ever gets as far as
the keep the swordsman there should be able to hold them off.

Mission 21

 Well this is it the final showdown! I had some difficulty with this
level although some people find it pretty easy. Start by massacring the
maceman and knights the Wolf sends out to attack you then set up archers
to the west and the xmen to the east beyond enemy bow range. Kill all
the archers in the towers, the kennels and any mecanics you can get to.
Next build your stone throwers as close as you can without being fired
upon. Destroy the first three seige engines ( I can’t reach the 4th one
it’s too far away, but if you can take that one out too). If  the worst
comes to the worst finish off the towers with the catapults. Bung some
cows to kill off the halbediers and more importantly the mecanics with
the boiling oil. Once all this is done use the same tactic as in
previous missions to fill in a part of the moat with your spearmen. Use
the catapults to take out the ghouse, or the rams if you prefer, but
they’ll probably get too damaged. Send in the remaining spearmen and
retreat as soon as the pitch lights up, then send them back in to wipe
out any remaining archers and mecanics. They will probably all die
during this, but honestly who cares? I sure don’t. You can then set
about destroying the second gatehouse with your maceman and two rams.
Destroy all troops and seige weapons  and use your macemen to set off
the pitch. Hopefully some of your macemen will survive. Send your rams
and macemen to attack the third ghouse while at the same time moving in
your swordmen, knights and bowmen. I expect your macemen and rams won’t
last long so finish the job with any catapults you have left and your
knights. The entire area between the third gate and the keep is covered
in pitch so your knights will go down screaming. Ignore their plees for
help and send in your swordsmen to kill off the seige engines in the
towers, then charge them all towards the keep. You’ll lose some to an
annoying mecanic with boiling oil on the keep roof, but at least 15 if
not more will make it into the keep and send the Wolf flying over the
battlements. If all fails another tactic I’ve tried is to fill in the
moat in the southwest corner and use the seigetower to get my men up
onto the walls, or use more cows, or to use the catapults on the second
gate and not the third one ? it’s up to you!

ECONOMIC MISSIONS

Mission 1

 Easy and boring. Build lots of dairy farms and lots of hop farms then
go and make a cup of tea and come back 10 minutes later

Mission 2

 You’ll need plenty of wood for this one. Start by blocking off the two
crossing points which should keep you safe from bears and wolves. Build
some orchards. After about 5 minutes Robin Hood and his merry men (and a
merry monk) will show up so have them kill off the wolves, bears,
rabbits etc. Build some fletchers and an armory to start making bows.
Extend your stockade outwards and build more farms and a couple of hop
fields. Once you have some hop build a brewery or two and an inn, then
build a tradepost. You can either sell off food or/and raise taxes to
buy iron. Build a couple of forges. After a while build a barracks and
train some archers. Put them on towers or a ghouse to the east. Keep a
close eye on weapon production and raise taxes or build more
fletchers/forges if you need to even if this means your popularity
drops. The earlier you finish, the better your score will be.

Mission 3

 Place plenty of wheat fields and hop fields, a windmill and 5 or 6
bakers, some WCH, some breweries and a tradepost. You’ll need two or
three inns to get the maximum popularity bonus. Once there’s no more
space for wheat fields build a quarry and get some stone to build a
church. The ale and religion factors should give your popularity a big
boost and you can then either raise taxes or reduce food supplies. Sell
off excess resources and buil a stockade round your fields and/or train
some archers to kill the rabbits

Mission 4

 This one is a tough one! I suggest you start off by building some WCH,
an armory, a barracks, some dairy fields, a quarry and some wheat
fields, an iron mine and some wells in that order. Don’t bother trying
to protect the quarries you don’t have the stone to spare! Next build a
fletcher, a forge and a tanner followed by some bakers and orchards. You
will be plagued with negative events all through this mission so once
you have loads of food you may want to raise rations and give the people
some bribes or  numerous fires and bandit attacks will knock down your
popularity and people will start leaving your castle : the worst thing
you want to happen when you have to collect resources. To add insult to
injury  you can’t build a tradepost so there’s no way to make up for
lost supplies. When fairs and jesters arrive raise taxes and cut food.
As wood increses build more tanners, forges mines, quarries or farms
depending on which resource you’re the most behind on (I never have
enough stone). DON’T complete your castle until the last minute or the
bandits will attack your quarries. Train as many archers as you can, and
once your tanners have made the required number of leather vests, use
any extras to make xmen.

Mission 5

 Easy this one. Build several farms of each type and plenty of WCH cos
the forest  is quite far away. Three food types and double rations gives
you a +11 to popularity! If you decide to open an inn you’ll get another
+3 which means you can really kill them will extremly high taxes. Build
some pitch rigs once farming space is used up and sell resources at a
tradepost. I would also suggest building an apothecary for this one as
plagues break out quite frequently.


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