Kester |
Posted on 10/28/04 @ 12:00 AM (updated 11/03/04)
Mission 16 - The Desert Hunters
This mission pits the Human Lord against both Saladin "The Wise" and Saladin "The Just". You start off with 2000 gold, and your opponents each start off with 4000. Gameplay starts in 1355.
I tried various strategies for a quick victory, and none of them worked. Here are some of the things I tried: quickly building a small force and advancing on either of the enemies; trying to hinder the enemies' production with combinations of pikemen, macemen, Arabian horsemen, archers, and slaves; building perimeter towers around my keep and quarries to hold off attacks, rather than walling in the keep (in order to have more stone to sell). None of these worked!
Here is what finally did work:
I began by buying enough wood to place the following: the granary, 4 woodcutters, 3 quarries with 2 oxen each, an iron mine, the marketplace, 2 apple farms, one wheat farm, a hops farm, a bakery, brewery and inn, the mercenary post, the barracks and armory.
Next I quickly walled in the keep, also encompassing the stone and iron areas for protection. As wood production got underway, I added as many more quarries and iron mines as would fit, then started weapon production. I crenelated the walls around the keep, and lined them with archers and crossbowmen with braziers.
I then added one square tower adjacent to the walls, as well as two round towers and a lookout tower further out. I put ballistae on the round towers and archers on the other towers. The towers placed further from the wall prevented the enemy catapults from reaching my walls, and cut down on a lot of time that I had previously spent rebuilding the walls.
For the next few game years I concentrated on building up my forces. In previous attempts I'd tried marching on the enemy with what I thought was a full army, only to be demolished. So when I finally marched on Saladin "The Just", my army had about 40 each of pikemen, Arabian knights, knights, as well as an assortment of archers and horse archers. Sheer numbers allowed my army to breach the gate and overrun the keep. Saladin "The Just" was killed in February 1363.
I then regrouped my forces, and spent several more game years building them up. When I finally marched on Saladin "The Wise" I had 637 units and about 300 gold. It seems like overkill, but trust me, it wasn't! In several prior attempts, I tried with fewer numbers and lost. Saladin, meanwhile, had a mere 145 military units, but 80,000 gold to instantly replace any that were lost.
The army I compiled before the final assault had the following: 33 archers, 106 macemen, 57 crossbowmen, 43 pikemen, 51 knights, 64 engineers, 20 laddermen, 3 rams, 4 siege towers, 6 catapults, 17 Arabian archers, 10 slaves, 8 assassins, 46 horse archers, 154 Arabian knights and 13 flamethrowers.
I approached from the west, first with catapults to tear down the walls and towers. Next came a contingent of macement (along with the rams) to take down the gate. Be sure to have the rest of the army in place to immediately follow them inside once the gate is down - the quarries are protected on the other side of the keep, so Saladin will immediately rebuild them if you wait too long. Once the gate was down, I directed all forces to attack Saladin, and he finally died in July 1370.
This is a long mission - I'm afraid I couldn't find any shortcuts! There was a great feeling of satisfaction at the end, however, due in part to having built up a highly efficient economy to support my war efforts.
Good luck with this one!
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