Mission 16 – Fighting Retreat
Start date: September 1239
Objectives
Easy
- Acquire 100 stone
Normal
- Acquire 200 stone
Hard
- Acquire 300 stone
Very Hard
- Acquire 400 stone
Hold off against the Pig’s attacks long enough to help the monks collect the stone they need, then make your retreat. The swamp is your biggest advantage here, as a natural defence and as a source of pitch. The monks have told you about their ‘River of Fire’ so use pitch ditches to good effect. This land is also favourable to the production of apples.
Resources
Supplies
- 106 wood
- 30 stone
- 15 iron
- 10 pitch
- 600 gold
Troops
- 6 archers
- 10 spearmen
- 15 monks
Trade
Resource | Buy | Sell |
Meat | 8 | 4 |
Cheese | 8 | 4 |
Bread | 8 | 4 |
Wheat | 23 | 8 |
Hop | 15 | 8 |
Wood | 4 | 1 |
Iron | 45 | 23 |
Pitch | 30 | 15 |
Bows | 31 | 15 |
Spears | 20 | 10 |
Maces | 58 | 30 |
Crossbows | 58 | 30 |
Leather armour | 25 | 12 |
Notes
This mission is another mission without a time limit. You will face attacks as long as you haven’t collected the necessary stones. The attacks will show an increase in the number of troops involved most significantly in the number of pikemen fielded by the Pig and the addition of crossbowmen after the first 2-3 invasions. Luckily you will not see any siege equipment employed by the enemy.
The map has a pre-built keep and some stone towers and walling near the passage through the marshlands.
During the beta testing I had a lot of problems with this map, and I believe it was Reckless Rodent or even Zen who suggested I should dig a moat or two. So this is what I started with.
I dug a moat all the way from the one side of the marsh to the other, more or less cutting off access to the keep. In the mean time I added a few woodcutters and dairy farms and started cranking out crossbows and leather armour. I invested the stone in an armoury and a few bits of wall, while spending enough money to buy kit for five crossbowmen.
The first attack, mostly macemen, rushed the main keep, ignoring the archers on the towers, and a few got in before I managed to kill them. They didn’t do much damage though.
The next invasion came a few years later. By this time, I’d put a wooden wall in to protect the quarry and iron mines I’d placed. The enemy managed to walk around the shoddily built defences for the keep, but, again, were soon killed before they could do much damage.
By the time of the third invasion, I was ready for them. My people were fed apples and cheese and stone was coming to my storage yard. I’d used some pitch to create several ditches and when the first batch of macemen had burned and the second walked to the east, I cooked most of the Pig’s pikemen in their armour. With opening the gate and lowering the bridge I managed to keep the Pig’s troops returning to the frying pan and all his troops ended up dead.
I used some of the stone to reinforce the gatehouse with a tower mounted ballista and added some stone towers to the wooden wall protecting the quarries. The next invasion was even bigger and I found out my castle had a back door. A handful of macemen were crawling through the forest on the hill top and made for my keep. I was lucky to have some macemen of my own available and got rid of them quickly. As soon as they were gone I blocked the access to the backdoor with a wall.
Two more attacks followed with some minor enemy incursion inside my walls, mainly at the point where the wooden wall met the moat. Pitch ditches proved very useful and eliminated a large amount of the enemy troops before they could become a bother. Defense was fun, though, but eventually I got all the stone I needed.
Total losses: 30%
My Score: 12140
Note: You get 10 bonus point for every stone over the required number.
Download this finished map