Mission 18 – The End of the Pig

Base map

Start date: January 1280

Objectives

All difficulty levels

  • Kill the Pig

You have been charged to overthrow the Pig’s final county by laying siege to his stronghold. You have besieged this castle before but it has since been rebuilt and now has a full garrison so will prove to be a far greater challenge. Our simple direct approach with the battering ram may not now be enough. Build some siege towers to scale his tall walls.

Resources

Troops

  • 32 archers
  • 504 spearmen
  • 545 macemen
  • 13 crossbowmen
  • 32 engineers
  • 27 laddermen
  • 2 siege towers
  • 1 ram
  • 2 tunnelers

No trade options are available in this mission

Notes

First of all you will not need to build the siege towers, they will be manned and ready at the start of the scenario.
Apart from the increased number of troops both in and outside the stronghold, there are a few other changes. The moat on the west side of the castle is far wider than the original one. There are also several packs of wardogs waiting to be released in the outer courtyard.
Unlike the previous attack you made on this castle you will not have to hurry up, as there is no time limit or impending attack.

I started out using the few crossbowmen and archers I had to take out as many of the Pig’s crossbowmen and archers as they could. Strangely enough, it’s easier to take out the ones located atop the tall towers than the ones hiding behind the crenelations. You have to be careful here as the ground towards the castle is littered with stakes and pitch. I lost about half of them to various traps, but at least they managed to kill most of the enemy defending the west wall.

Once I’d cleaned the walls as best as I could, I sent in small squads (10-15) of spearmen to fill in the moat next to the outer courtyard. I lost several scores of them before I managed to reach the wall. Due to the large number of crossbowmen inside the castle, my little guys died like flies.

With a path leading to the wall, I decided to mine the walls; however, my poor digger was too close to the enemy and they filled him with arrows. The ram had better luck and managed to breach the wall before the overwhelming numbers of bolts and fire arrows turned it into so much kindling.

Now the wall was breached I sent in several small (10-15) squads of macemen. These managed to kill a few of the archers and crossbowmen in the inner courtyard but, more usefully, managed to turn out the wardogs. These cute puppies must have really hated the Pig’s troops as they sped up the staircases and started tearing my enemy apart.

With the outer bailey more or less cleared of missile troops I sent in 3-4 scores of macemen and a siege tower. I really love that roar of rage and anger your troops produce when you send them in en masse. After some clicking about I got the siege tower in position and my macemen swarmed up the walls. By now the west side of the outer bailey was alive with flames, but only a few of my bruisers died in the fire. The rest tore into the enemy and quickly cleared out most of the towers on the south and east side of the castle.

Meanwhile, I sent in another 2-3 score of macemen to clear the round tower and the north tower of missile troops. By keeping to the walls, and kiling the archers, the inner keep was still in pristine condition.

The walls were now clear of enemy troops and a lightly battered squad of macemen rushed the main keep and quickly dispatched the remaining crossbowmen before splattering the pig’s brains over the battlements.

Victory was mine!

Finished map

Total losses: 38%
My Score: 11,200

Download this finished map

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