Kerak, Reynald’s Treachery
Objectives
| No difficulty choice | ||
| Destroy the cathedral | ||
| Time limit of 4 years only | ||
‘Reynald is hosting a wedding party in his castle’s keep. Lay siege to the castle and tear down the cathedral to show our intent. There’s no time to capture the city as reinforcements from Jerusalem are already on their way. Instead, teach him a lesson by bringing down the cathedral in the eastern part of Kerak.’
Resources
| Starting troops | ||
| 72 Arabian slingers | ||
| 3 assassins | ||
| 26 Arabian swordsmen | ||
Notes
This is a great second mission introducing one of the new units for Crusader, the assassin. They open up a new type of game play not really seen before – stealth. You only have three assassins, and you need to use them wisely. If they are lost, your job will be a lot more difficult.
Start by immediately moving the assassins to the section of high wall, to the east of the main gate. Keep them away from the range of the archers. I found that the crossbowmen can strike if they are too close.
The aim here is, in line with the tips you are given, to open the gatehouse and allow your troops to flood in. If you are unaware of the uses of the assassin, they are able to ‘capture’ gatehouses allowing you to take control and in effect opening up the gatehouse to allow your troops to enter a castle or city. Incredibly useful, but remember that if they are killed, the enemy can retake the gatehouse and thus removing your control over them.
I chose to wait until the enemy swordsmen, who patrol the section of wall your assassins need to scale, had moved just slightly to the east of my position. Immediately ask the assassins to scale the wall (they will respond to an ‘upwards’ movement if you hold the mouse cursor over a wall, gatehouse or tower). As they are scaling the wall, move both your slingers and Arabian swordsmen to the main gate. I chose to move the slingers independently of the swordsmen as they are quicker and would allow me to have some troops in Kerak castle quickly.
Meanwhile, your assassins should have scaled the wall. As soon as they have done so, move them over the gatehouse, and they will take control of it (you should get a message stating this has been achieved). Move as many of the troops as possible into the walls of the castle and use some slingers to immediately climb the stairs near the gatehouse and climb into the towers, taking out the archers and crossbowmen in there. Be careful here, the enemy swordsmen will be marching back along the wall to you. Consider leaving one assassin on the gatehouse, the remaining two to attack the swordsmen along with about 30 slingers. These swordsmen need to be killed if you are waiting for your Arabian swordsmen to access the gatehouse.
The last part of this map is relatively easy. You should have most if not all of your swordsmen available to destroy the cathedral. Guarded by a couple of enemy swordsmen, they won’t be a problem as your numbers will easily overcome their attacks. The map ends when the cathedral has been destroyed.
For info: if you fail to destroy the cathedral within 2 years, the game ends. You start in Jan 1185 and the map must be won by Jan 1187. In Nov 1186 there will be an army of 40 or so knights appear on the horizon.
* denotes a former staff member.