Mission 8 – Dealing With the Devil

Base map

Start date: 1104

Objectives

All difficulty choices

  • Acquire 10 Ale
  • Eliminate all Enemy Units

Timed mission

Spies report that the Rat is due to launch a do or die attack on our lands and you must intercept and delay his forces. There is no time to raise an army but Duc Beauregard (the Snake) will send a large force to help us in return for a shipment of ale. Once the Rat’s siege force is defeated, Beauregard has agreed to let us take the Rat’s neighbouring-county without resistance. Grow hops and brew ale to send to the Snake but be warned, it will be hard to keep your people in line whilst meeting the deal. Use any means at your disposal even cruelty if necessary, the Rat’s force must be defeated here.

Resources

Supplies

  • 150 wood
  • 80 bread

Troops

  • 10 archers
  • 6 spearmen

Trade

ResourceBuySell
Meat84
Cheese84
Bread84
Wheat238
Wood41
Stone147
Bows3115

Notes

This is a nasty mission. You have a lot of resources, but you’re basically stuck to the valley, which gives the enemy the benefit of higher ground.

I spent a few tries figuring out how to close off the valley with wooden walls in a way no enemy soldier would just march up to my castle. This took several tries to figure out. I ended up concentrating my troops in the keep and did not build much more than few farms (one wheat, one hops), three woodcutters and a quarry. The assault concentrated on the keep and I suffered very little losses.

Soon after the enemy was gone I expanded the walls to double thickness, lining the insides with stone and building a few archer platforms. In the mean time I added the military structures and food industry and a hovel or two to have enough people to run the industries.
A second attack followed in the third year which was easily repulsed although I suffered losses from the enemy archers.

Hop weevils will strike your hop production and after a few years the Snake tells you he needs five more barrels of ale before he’ll help you. I added another quarry and lowered tax as my favour was getting close to 50. While I was expanding my arms production I got a message from my scribe that the Pig had taken a neutral county.
A little while later the Snake tells me he now wants 20 barrels of ale for his help.

In the fifth year I expand my food production and actually place a gatehouse as an archery platform, but leave the gate barricaded by a wooden wall.
All walls now have an outer covering of two layers of wood and are crenelated.
At the end of the year I received another attack warning

This attack is quickly beaten off, but I suffer more losses amongst my archers and train some more. I also add another wheat and a hop farm. Favour reaches 100 and I raise my tax once more. The hop production overtakes the beer production and I add another brewery. My peasants need food so I buy some bread and add another bakery.

June 1138 the ale shipment is ready and sent off to the Snake. The counter in the mission objectives starts running. Beer is now available and I open a pub to allow me to increase my tax a little more. The Snake’s troops, some 20 archers and 20 spearmen, arrive and I place them along my walls and archery platforms.

Pretty soon the Rat arrives with a force almost four times as large as the previous one. This time he’s also bringing siege equipment and portable walls. I mis-click on a few of the Snake’s soldiers and they go haring off in the distance; meanwhile my walls are breached, but the archers manage to take out most of the attackers.
The rest flee.

Finished map

Troop losses: 29%
My Score: 12,100

During debriefing you are told the Snake has broken his promise and taken the county.

Download this finished map

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