First off, this is one of my all-time favourite maps and I've beaten it from a couple of starting locations at Normal but never before tried it at Very Hard.
However I've now beaten it at Very Hard too, so I can join the Honour Roll for this one.
Playing Level = 15000
35 Months Early = 3500
114 Fruit Extra = 570
3 Swords Extra = 150
89 Meat Extra = 445
74 Gold Extra = 74
Score = 24039
For playing at Very Hard I bravely hid myself in the north-west corner, (position 1); the majority of the farmland is here and it's a fairly simple place to defend.
From this position I produced enough food to keep approx 100 peasants on at least 'extra rations' for the whole game. With full ale coverage and a bit of help from churches, this let me run taxes at around -8 for most of the game. Having a very good gold income allowed me to buy most of my iron, I wasn't too worried about collecting it myself - the north-east iron mines were a very long walk away, so I just didn't bother!
The invasions were troublesome but the single gatehouse and long pitch-lined approach to my defences dealt with them well enough. I used mainly spearmen as my melee force inside my walls if ever the gate was breached. Though I did have a small group of 5-10 macemen and swords as back-up. The archers arrived in good number and the vast majority survived the whole game, it pays to be religious in this map, doesn't it?
As you can see, my keep was on high ground, but I did seperate the stockpile and place it lower down making it more acessible for my peasants and industry.(turned 180 degrees)
This is a superb map from Duke Of York, brilliant design and a very entertaining play. I was pretty confident I could beat this at Very Hard by hiding in the corner. I think I'd have a far harder time of it with my keep located out in the open, but I really must try!
(Sparrow, I did beat Challenge 4 at Very hard too, but I think you must have missed that post - I still haven't done Map 5 though).
[This message has been edited by brave sir robyn (edited 03-22-2006 @ 11:34 AM).]