The hunt was indeed glorious one if only it hadn't been the fact that when Serberon and his slavehunters returned to home they saw something Serberon could only hope to see in his worst nightmares. The Castle Serberon had been reduced to rubles. The stench of burned flesh and hair was thick enough to cut whit a sword and the ashes on the ground were still warm. "The first wall has fallen," Said Serberon to himself as he started to run towards the gatehouse that was still standing tall on a hill a bit higher from the first part of the castle. But the site he saw there was no way better than the one he had seen below. Even here the ashes were still burning as Serberon made his way to his once noble castle that was miraculously still standing, but as Serberon and his hunters tried to enter they were stopped by the keep door that was blocked from the other side. Whit out loosing any time Serberon ordered his hunters to climb to the top of the keep, enter from the door on the roof, make their way to the bottom of the keep and open the door from the other side.
After about fifteen minutes minutes of waiting the keep door was opened for Serberon. For Serberon's surprise he was greeted by not only the Slavehunters but also by a few pikemen. After a short conversation whit one of the soldiers he was informed that the Imperial guard attacked them. They had done all they could but the imperial guard had a spy on their side and thus the first gatehouse was opened as soon as they attacked, thus leaving the city open for the slaves that attacked whit torches. After the lower city had burned to the ground the Lord had ordered everybody to to retreat to the upper city.
Serberon knew only one person the Pikeman could refer as a Lord other than himself. Serberon walked upstairs to his throne room where he found a hooded figure wearing a long brown robe standing next to the throne. "M'Lord, how good to see you once again." Serberon walked up to the person and hugged him, "Genie, you are still alive, for a moment i thought something might have happened to you." The hooded figure was puzzled, "My Lord, have you been smoking something?" "Ha, cant i even show you how happy i am to see my closest friend still alive after the Imperial guard attacked." "I am also happy to see my King alive and healthy but we have more urgent business to intend to. Please have a seat." Serberon seated on his throne and Genie placed a big book on a "U" shaped table surrounding the throne. "As you saw most of the city is destroyed whit the exception of the second and the North-west walls. We were able to rescue some resources but they wont last for ever so we need to start rebuilding the city this month otherwise we will be out of food in a matter of months..." "Yes, i know. what i need to know is what about people, i cant just send my soldiers to crow grain or apples, now can i?" "it is your castle, you can do what you wish, my lord. But we were able to save most of your personal slaves so you could possibly use them to gather more resources." "Perfect, so lets get to it then, we should hurry though, there is no telling what the rest of the Slave hunters will do if they learn that my castle has fallen."
*Editors notes*
This is an invasion/freebuild map. There are only 3 invasions in total (25, 50 and 50 man armies). The castle is on a higher ground so the invasions shouldn't be too hard to survive. There is a lot of oasis space and many trees to cut. The level is practically overflowing whit stones so getting your walls up should not be too big of a feat. You start the level whit a load of resources (i wanted the level to be playable for even those who only recently started to play crusader). There are several events happening every few years so it should keep you interested for a while. If you wish you can edit the level as much as you wish but if you are going to release it somewhere please give me some credit. The game ends at December 9999 so you can play for a while. As for a bonus the spy (assassin) who opened the gates for your castle is still lurking around the map looking for defenseless workers to kill, see if you can find and kill him. (finding him might be tiering so you should best hope he will walk into your troops by accident).
Please tell me what you think and thank you for playing.
As the editors note reveal, this map offers a very easy level. For example you don't start with zero gold but with many thousands (the slave hunters' treasury had been full).
Really original is the form "castle builder with a special purpose - to rebuild everything a make the castle defendable. It's always puzzling which ways the workers will take though the rocky formations. So I built the gates in a seemingly arbitrary but in this natural way.
There aren't any aims that would turn the map into an invasion scenario. The first group that tried to assault was harmless.
Especially I liked the concept of an inner citadel and an outer part for the village (the dark square on the minimap is the stockpile). The landscape is not my taste actually, some things being made more roughly, some things nicer. Lovely I found the pathways through the valleys.