As Sir William secures the king's safe landing, Brother Gerard undertakes a far more perilous task. For the whereabouts of Sir William's father have been established -- and a daring rescue mission must be carried out.
(Note: This file is now "download friendly"! Just unzip the file to Program Files/Firefly Studios/Stronghold.)
(If you have trouble, the Official Usurper Walkthroughs can be found in the Utilities section.)
This is Chapter 5 of a ten mission campaign. Set in a fictitious realm, it chronicles the suffering, struggles and battles of men who are loyal to the true king.
This is a nice scenario that requires a lot of studying to figure out what to do. It is basically a Siege Map as you have no ability to build anything.
PLAYABILITY: If you like puzzles, this is a fun map! As a retired Air Force guy with 5 years spent in Special Forces the scenario seemed like a Medieval-era SF infil/assassination to me :)
There is little margin for error due to your low number of forces and the enemy hunters tend to ruin the day if you end up between the hunters and the deer herd. I lost one guy before I ever even found him. Hunters killed him... twice! On my second restart, I finally figured out where he was and what was killing him. To me, it was a nuisance, as it added nothing to the overall gameplay but did create a small frustration factor. When your number of troops are so limited, it sucks to know you lost a guy you didn't have time to find. After I saw what was happening, I was able to keep him out of harm's way until he could hook up with the rest of my force.
The hunters can be a prob one time you play and not a prob the next. It just depends on where the deer herd moves. Pay attention to it - if you end up between the hunters and the herd, you are going to take unwanted fire from the hunters. You don't have room to take extra hits.
You really have to scope out the castle well to figure out where to attack. If you don't use the space bar, I doubt you will ever see the optimal route because the walls hide it.
Take your time. Don't engage anyone you don't have to - you need almost all your strength to beat the Wolf and his men.
BALANCE: Extremely well balanced. You pretty much need every person you get. The smallest of tactical errors will cause you to restart.
CREATIVITY: A creative approach to a siege and the storyline. I have seen other rescue missions, but this was the first where the rescue was done Special Forces style.
MAP DESIGN: As you can tell, I disliked the hunters and the deer herd messing with my troops. The challenge of solving the puzzle of the best route to the Wolf is so strong that worries about the hunters detracted from the experience. It is very easy to be concentrating so hard on unraveling the mystery of the route that you don't even realize a hunter is shooting your guys. Oops... another restart is in order...
STORY/INSTRUCTIONS: Conceptually, the story was very good. However, there were some typographic ("the the") and punctuation/syntax errors.
Players looking for a "normal" invasion map might be disappointed with the lack of economic capability, but players who like puzzles in a Siege-type environment will most likely add this to their favorites list.
NAT
Posted on 09/27/03 @ 12:00 AM
Rating
4.6
Breakdown
Playability
4.0
Balance
5.0
Creativity
5.0
Map Design
4.0
Story/Instructions
5.0
This is an excelent map - sneaking into a huge castle with very limited men was very clver. At first when you see the castle you think you will never be able to do it but you find a way! Lost a point in playability mainly due to some of the map being a bit boring - waiting for walls to fall down etc. Very well balanced, extremely close on normal so top marks there. Very creative - a prison castle, you sneaking into it - absaloutely brilliant. Would be a six. Map design however fine nothing particularly exceptional although a good solid well designed castle. Storyline very good, been a five every time. Another great map from Gordon!
Posted on 01/01/02 @ 12:00 AM (updated 01/09/02)