I survived with 1 crossbowman who only had 1 health left...thanks for this video! Have no idea how I passed this level 15 years ago without knowledge from the internet.
Stronghold was one of the first computer games I ever played, me and my mom were never able to get passed this level. Now I’m 20 and I still have a very hard time getting passed this level. I’ve only done it a few times one I started playing again a few years ago. The first time I did it I was like “YESSSSSSSSSSS! YESSSSSSS!! YUSSS!”
It is very challenging Mission i'm playing it after 10 years of this video in the new version Stronghold definitive edition. Same fun! , Thank you for this video
Classic dumb devs randomly spiking the difficulty of some bosses/levels to insane levels or leaving no clues, for no reason. A story as old as games. Won't be the last time either.
6:17 I had the same problem with that tower. (Steam version) When I proceeded to ignore the remaining crossbowmen and dig in the moat, they managed to whittle down my spearmen down to a point where I didnt have enough to finish the mission. However I tried a tactic today where I placed my crossbowmen near the rock formation at the beginning and fire at the rightmost tower from a safe distance, then proceeded to move towards the leftmost tower with all my ranged units and worked my way to the right like you say in this video. I managed to save enough archers to help protect the ram and eventually won the siege 👍
Thanks, finally finished this level finished. It is so annoying because when spear men filling the moat, they don't stay in place and continue filling up. Some times they wonder around and get self killed without even making step further. If this game had a better path finding system, some of the levels wouldn't be so annoying.
Thanks to the vid I finally managed to beat this damn mission, it still took me a few tries though. Funny thing is, my last attempt still progressed further but I still ended up losing all my spearmen, macemen and the ram. I didn't use Tunnelers or the Laddermen as shown in your vid and all the enemy had were 2 Crossbowmen and an Archer in the tower next to the 2nd GH left...so as a last minute panic and desperate move, I sent in the laddermen to the wall as a distraction while I used the Tunnelers to dig next to the tower. 4 survived and took the tower down and those few tunnelers that were left I told to attack and they won too lol What a pain, but with a bit of last minute luck it's done :D
+HunterOfDarkness Haha, I probably would have given up at that point. This level can vary so much from try to try. Glad you got there eventually though.
+Digdogdug Yeah, definitely seems to be harder these days than it was back then and looking at other comments it seems they did in fact increase the difficulty of this...I love this game but sometimes it annoys the absolute high hell out of me and simply sticks it finger up at you haha
Marvelous, worked flawlessly. I tried sending my surviving archers/crossbows to a tower, but they got prioritized and killed instantly (after I breached the first wall.) Guess that just meant a few less arrows for my main force to tank.
I just completed it on Normal difficulty, it was unbelievably easy and fast! The green bar of Pig's army was still on half when i finished lol.. I took some of your advice from the beginning, used the archers and started shooting the tower on the bottom left corner. Waited for the macemen to come out and shot them down. But then i didn't continue attacking the main door like usual, instead i attacked the left side of the castle. I cleared the archers on those 3 towers on the left side, while spearmen were digging the moat. Then i used only 4 tunnelers to knock down the walls from both sections of the castle. 2 tunnelers for each section, placed the tunnels one behind the other. Once the walls were opened, i just sent my whole army inside on aggressive stance, they started causing mayhem everywhere, climbing up towers and mowing down everybody lol! More than half of my army were still alive at the end. You can even skip the tunnelers and use the ladders for a faster completion once those 3 towers are cleared. But the tunnelers are better because your army can move freely everywhere.
Great suggestions. I had thr idea too to attack the western walls but needed this video to learn how ro clear towers. Worked very well. 68% odlf troops survived.
Thanks so much. I tried using archers first a few times but didn't follow through after I guess and kept dying. watched a few others walkthrough videos as well and yours was the one that did the trick. Thanks so much :)
... Im an idiot, I won, but I had 3 mace men after like 60 tries I used archers as basically flares, the AI targets them above all else, at least enemy archer do, so I used spear men to fill in moat while i grabbed like 8 archers and just kept dodging arrows with them and then retreat as soon as the moat was filled, used tunnelers to break first wall, move my whole army in and battering ram, used the ram to break a tower and my men to clear the now available walls, as soon at the ram destroyed the tower I charged the end of the base, and wrecked the walls with my 32 mace men, they almost all died but 3 but I won.
+Toner Onion This is by no means the only way to do it, just the most consistent/easy in my view. Your way is pretty risky, but at least it worked for you - that's all that matters.
I just got spanked by this level 10 times in a row, the closest i got was they were all dead except 2 pikemen. I'm going to try this way tomorrow, thanks!
Thank you for this guide; I playedthe original Stronghold 20 years ago and remember getting really stuck here and also on level 18. Ive just used these tactics on Stronghold defininitive and it worked really well :) thanks again
Thank you for your guide. I was trying to beat this mission today. I tried to go through the left side. However, I would run out of steam having to assault the first gate from inside. My issue here was that I did not realized that you were supposed to use archers and crossbowmen to clear walls and towers, because duh. Real life does not work that way.
Thanks for the guide, i don't think i would be able to get through myself... Surprisingly, with this tutorial, i finished with still around 90 units lol.
Thank you , this mission was a Kind off thing for me and my das since 15 yeahrs, ever one kind of tryed and failed, but thanks to u I have finally made it ^^
Very clever strategy, thanks for this. I had a similar idea to reposition my troops towards the left so they wouldn't get shot and use a battering ram from the left side of the Pig's Castle--but your strategy is much safer and well thought out =).
For a suggestion of minor fine-tuning, pull the archers and c-bow men in reserve after they get to the second tower, breach the first gate, and have the macemen take the pikemen, and spears clear the tower, position ladders at the second row of walls, and then take those walls with the surviving spearmen. Position your surviving bow men in the last tower once it's cleared. They'll supplement taking the keep very well.
They have made this mission STUPID HARD on normal in the last patch. Its's fine up until you get into the courtyard but they added a bunch more crossbowmen in the turrets that just pummel the shit out of you so by the time your gatesmasher get the second gate down, you're dead from a rain of arrows from all sides.
+Phaylen Fairchild I haven't played since I recorded this video, but if that is the case, it may be best to use the diggers to take the second wall down so your macemen/spearmen can charge straight in. If any archers are still up, just use the laddermen as a distraction.
GUYS i just figured out a better way to do it!.. too bad im too lazy to make a video about it (bear with me, english is not my native language) is pretty simple, starts pretty much the same as this video get all the archers crossbowman and follow the video until 3:41 but instead of going to the main gate, you must go west and clean the crossbowman and archers in the two towers on the west wall (ignore the archers on the corner they are too far and would murder your remaining archers) then you can send a few (like 3 or 4) spearman to open a path between the two towers you just cleared out and noone will be able to shoot them then, you send the ram to open a path in the walls finnally you send your unaharmed army of macemen and spearmen to get to the towers and kill the remaining archers, then use your ram to destroy the gate to the main entrance and zerg your way to the towers... i did it and a a big chunk of my army survived :) I was playing in normal, don't know if it could work on very hard but is worth a try ... if it works for you, let me know :P
my younger brother always watches these walk through videos, however I don't. finished crusader and now I simply can't go past this mission. my brother is sleeping currently, he will be surprised in the morning when he finds out I completed the mission lol. also it's the first time that I actually could'nt get through a mission hahaha
I attacked from the west, and distracted the shooters with a small detachment of archers. Archers dodge arrows, while spearmen pave the way for sappers and battering ram.
that´s basically cheaping it and that´s how i´ve always done it when i was a kid too. now for the replay i was looking around if theres a proper way to do it but apparently there isn´t. this could have actually been a fun mission if you had proper siege equipent and not just a useless battering ram
Apparently the sadic devs put the diggers and the ramp carriers in the level for nothing, just to bait you into trying traditional frontal assaults over and over
I am not sure how I beat this mission a while back but I couldn't figure it out again until this video. lol Cuz I vaguely remember having troubles with the wolf, though maybe I was playing economic or something.
great tactic. I wonder if you can use the diggers and ladderman as a distraction to keep a few more archers alive at the start (if you can get those into a tower later they can dish out some hurt) I'm going to try it and let you know. Thanks a bunch!
What happens when you "set your soldiers to agressive?" I've played this game for hundreds of hours passing every mission, but I just tell my soldiers what to do, I've never understood what the "set" feature is for.
Its really not that effective in a Seige as your troops will simply attack the closest npc, even if it's a cow or a peasant. You're better off clicking a new target asap and keeping your soldiers focused.
after 2 hours of searching for this exact thing to see if i could actually win with this strategy, i ended up using cheats to give myself two catapults and just killed the entire front gate with 0 losses xD
Every time I try this strategy, My archers are nearly decimated by one fire-arrow guy to the right of the main gate before I can even move down the line to him.
Archers and crossbowmen have a tendency to misfire and shoot into the ground. I also tried using cheat codes to get past this level, but for some reason, they don't work. Either I'm using them incorrectly or GOG disabled them. This level has been a small headache.
Just finished on normal...first used 100 spearmen to bury the moat then used tunneler to get through the first wall. Use all other macemen and spearmen to clear up the axemen and archers/crossbowmen on the first wall, and get my own range units up the wall as soon as possible. At the same time march the siege weapon to the second gate to knock it down. This seems to be the least cheesy way I can think of, but still lost almost 80% army and I cannot do it like this on hard.
+Yang Song If you can get rid of all the archers on the first wall/towers, you don't need to use the tunnelers for the first wall. You can then use them for the second wall and charge straight in. A lot of it comes down to luck on whether you can take out the archers on the wall, sadly.
