A Crusader remake of the final mission of Stronghold, where you are the Wolf. Expect vast hoards of both Arabic and Crusader armies to attack you. Your castle is set on a rocky outcrop with only one entrance. It is very easily defended, but the oncoming army is vast...
Wolf’s Castle is an interesting invasion map by Lord Thingol, but it is not nearly so hard as the final mission of the original Stronghold version.
You don’t have to be anxious about the start position concerning your strength of troops. You should group most of your men right from the scratch on the southern walls and towers next to the main gatehouse, then you’ll be forearmed against the soon forthcoming hostile attacks. Ordering a handful of macemen digging moats in front of the castle, will give you an almost invincible fortification.
Fortunately, your treasury chambers are sufficiently filled, so that you’re able to buy additional leather armours and crossbows. I personally trained 70 crossbowmen who reinforced the frontline. Thus, I was well prepared and I just had to watch my men eliminating all storming enemies. There are three signposts outside the southern area, but they aren’t far away and in the sphere of mangonels placed on several additional towers. Ordering sustained fire will decimate the gathering hostile troops before they’re blowing the horn for charge.
Economically you start with 12 peasants and you should strive for using all the existing areas inside the castle mainly for different farms and workshops for food supply. Both raising your population and achieving a constant high popularity are the basis for a stabilized economy. The immense initial goldstock is extremely helpful for your military and economic projects. The most critical part will be that special moment, when three events (theft, big fire, and plague) are simultaneously triggered striking back your economy and devastating wide areas inside your castle if you’re not careful. Nevertheless, you quickly will recover from these evil events by using your huge amount of gold to rebuild all the destroyed buildings.
Map Design: It’s a good, solid work, but nothing is exceptional here, no eye-candies and a few unoccupied prebuilt workshops at the beginning of the scenario.
In my opinion creativity and story are the weaker parts and need a little bit more effort, for example by applying events that are more challenging or by making it less easy to defend your strong position. There isn’t any accompanying story, it’s just a brief and “casual” description of what the player will expect.
Well done, Lord Thingol, but it might be a little bit harder.