Decided to take a break from NS2 and return to some good ol' Stronghold.
Probably one of the most frustrating missions in the campaign. You inherit one of the worst designed keeps imaginable. The barracks is taking up precious space near the stockpile. Not a single fucking tower along the wall (I built the lone tower you see). No safe access to land outside the "castle" (Again, I built the rear gatehouse). Gah, it's just un-fucking-believably bad. The siege you see comes only a few minutes into the map. It's a rush to buy bows, recruit archers, finish the moat, and get at least one tower up before it arrives.
Now this is what this game's all about. Delicious, delicious sieges
Aftermath from the above siege.
This map is trivial compared to the last...even on very hard. Goal: Population of 100 with 75% blessed.
I, of course, don't exactly rush to fulfill the objective and instead decide to build up a massive garrison for no other reason beyond that I can.
I did, however, fuck up and fail to get any combat pictures. The sieges were fairly basic, though. Catapults along with a small contingent of mace men and archers. Main problem was that the catapults would fuck up my quarries every siege.
Once again, no combat pictures. The last siege of the mission came and I repelled it so easily I didn't even consider that it would've been the final one.
Military might through economics, baby. All but eight of those buildings are producing weapons (The other eight are bakeries). I'm nearing the point where I literally can't recruit any faster as the game has a hard cap on the rate of population growth.
This was the first mission that you face off against swordsmen. The first siege with swordsmen is tiny, but you don't have crossbows at the start and swordsmen can take a massive beating from archers before dropping. The five swordsmen on the first siege did more damage than the entirety of the final siege.