FAQ - Guide for Stronghold

                   (       Stronghold FAQ 0.4        ) 
               :    )         by Skroll             (    :
               '   (     [email protected]      )   ' 
                    )  http://www.disemboweled.net  ( 


==============================
------[ News & Updates ]------
==============================
 v0.4 - Internet connection lost due to unforseen bout
 with networking cable.  Excessive work done in a single
 Sunday, realization of a lack of a life.  Added unit
 information, along with part of the walkthrough.

 v0.2 - Revised menu headings, added table of contents,
 have a structure building.

 v0.1 - FAQ freshly started, castle building started,
 along with some pitch information.  Submitted to GameFAQs.com

==============================
----------[ Sites ]-----------
==============================
 +-+ Firefly Studios (http://www.fireflystudios.com)
     Developers of Stronghold.

 +-+ Gathering of Developers (http://www.godgames.com)
     Publisher of Stronghold

 +-+ Disemboweled.net (http://www.disemboweled.net)
     My site.  Just a plug, it's pretty dull.

 +-+ GameFAQS (http://www.gamefaqs.com)
     The only place you should find this at, if you see
     it anywhere else, report it to me at [email protected]

==============================
------[ Introduction ]--------
==============================
   Well, this is my first FAQ I've ever written, so it's part a FAQ, and
 part of an experiment.  I figure, since my early receival of the the
 game, along with alot of extra time to play it, I'd figure I would write
 my findings, along with any information I came up with.

   If you find any errors in my FAQ, fact, grammatical, or otherwise,
 please feel free to contact me.  Also, if you have any additions to the
 game, write me as well.  However, I cannot help with specific parts of
 the game, on an individual basis.  Sorry, but I am working 2 jobs, and
 I can't reply to those kind of questions.

==============================
-----[Table of Contents]------
==============================

 1-1 Walkthrough
      1-2-1 Combat Missions
             1-2-2  Gathering the Lost
             1-2-3  Finishing the Fort
             1-2-4  Eliminating the Wolves
             1-2-5  The Hidden Lookout
             1-2-6  Between a Rock and a Hard Place
             1-2-7  The Rat's Proposal
             1-2-8  Breaking the Siege
             1-2-9  Dealing with the Devil
             1-2-10 The Rat's Last Stand
             1-2-11 The Snake hunt Begins
             1-2-12 First Blood
             1-2-13 The Ransom
             1-2-14 Snake Eyes
      1-3-1 Economic Missions

 2-1 Castle Building
      2-2 Initial Planning
      2-3 Starting the Castle

 3-1 Units
      3-2  The Lord
      3-3  Archers
      3-4  Siege Engineers
      3-5  Spearmen
      3-6  Pikemen
      3-7  Monks
      3-8  Macemen
      3-9  Crossbowmen
      3-10 Swordsmen
      3-11 Knights
      3-12 Laddermen
      3-13 Tunnelers
    
 4-1 Strategies
      4-2 Pitch Traps
 
==============================
------[1-1 Walkthrough]-------
==============================
   There's no definitive way to finish the game.  Different strategies
 work in different situations.  This guide will run down possible
 difficulties, and problems I faced in the game.

______________________
1-2-1  Combat Missions
----------------------
   As the name implies, these missions center around combat, although
 you'll have your share of economic strife.  They almost all revolve
 around you killing off some sort of enemy.


________________________
1-2-1  Economic Missions
------------------------
   These  missions  are  non-combat  related,  although,  there  are  times
 when  there are  things to kill.  (bears  and wolves and somtimes rabbits).
 You  will deal  with  constant  plagues, hop  weavils,  rabbit  explosions,
 wolf  attacks, and  everything  you  can  imagine,  all trying to hold you
 back.

_________________________
1-2-2  Gathering the Lost
-------------------------
   Your  army is in  sorry  shape,  indeed.  Site   your keep  somewhere  by
 the  trees.  Place  your granary  anywhere, and plop down  three woodcutter
 huts,  and three hunter  posts.  Place the  woodcutter  huts by  the  trees,
 and the  hunter  posts  nearby the  granary.  Sit  back  and watch your men
 collect  the needed  supplies,  because  you just did  all there  is to  do
 here.  If you can't do this one, might as well give up.


==============================
----[2-1 Castle Building]-----
==============================
   Castle building often depends on your mission.  If you're not to the part 
 of the  game that requires stone to build, don't  worry about it then.  You 
 won't  need it.  Same  with  iron.  I'm  going  to  assume  that  you  have
 available, every  single building and  unit available in the game.  You can 
 substitute  stone for wood, and so  forth, but  it's not until you have the 
 different units that the game becomes really interesting.
 
___________________
2-2 Initital Layout
-------------------

   Before laying out a castle, you have to take a few things into
 consideration.  First off, your location.  You wan't the most
 resources available nearby.  You probably don't want trees too close,
 because you cant build walls through them, which gives the enemies
 easy access inside your castle, and soon enough, macemen are charging
 through the walls, slaughering yor archers and crossbow men.  This,
 of course is not good.  So, keep your castle close to tress, but with
 enough space to place infrastructure.

   Next up, is the stone and iron.  Quarrys and mines cost way too much 
 to get destroyed and make you build them over again.  It is best to 
 have them at the rear of the castle, if possible, and defended with archers.  
 So, make sure your castle starts nearby the stone.  Plan to have your 
 farming on the outside of your castle, especially if you're on high ground
 (you can't have farms on dirt).  But keep any production buildings inside
 the walls.

   Last, in combat, elevation is god.  Archers on a tower are great, but
 archers on a tower on a plateu rains wooden (and often fiery) death onto 
 any oncoming attack.  Consider this in your planning.

_______________________
2-3 Starting the Castle
-----------------------

   First, place  your  keep  where  you  want  it.  Next, site your  granary,
 as the guy with  the repetitive and  irritating  voice tells  you to.  What
 he doesn't  tell you though, is that the granary will be  there for a while,
 and you  can only build more granaries  attached to the  original, creating
 one big granary.  Therefore, leave room  for a  few more  granaries, so you
 can  stockpile food later.  This  also  leads  to the stockpile, right away,
 build a  few more connecting to the  original  one.  (they're free, anyways)
   
   Next, wood  choppers  should get cranking, about  three  to  start.  Also,
 an extra hut wont hurt, as long  as your quick on cranking out food.  Start
 with   hunters, they  are  a  nice  starter  food, especially  with  a  low 
 population level.  Once  food starts coming in, build  dairy farms, because 
 they take a bit to start going, but produce a new food source, and multiple 
 types of food increase your popularity.
 
   Afterwards, either  go for  barracks, and crank  out  some archers, or if
 there's no  immediate  threat, get the rest of  your  infrastructure  going.
 Set up  the walls any way you want, however, crenulate them  as soon as you
 can.  Gates are  a must, and should be heavily  guarded (they are weak, and
 if destroyed,  you  have a  HUGE  gap in your walls).  Multiple  food types 
 should  come  first, and then  you can raise  taxes a bit. Religion  should 
 always come last.

==============================
---------[3-1 Units]----------
==============================

____________
3-2 The Lord
------------

 Type: Melee
 Requirements: None
 Cost: None

   The Lord is the most important unit in the game, and with good cause.  If
 he should  die, the game's over.  So  protect him.  You  don't  have direct
 control  over him, except for  the  fact that  you can  tell him  to attack
 enemies.  When  there is no combat, he  will just wander around your castle,
 and  talk with your  military  units.  However,  when  a large  siege comes,
 he'll  retreat to the top of your keep.  Put  some sort of defense up there,
 a mixture  of ranged and  melee fighters, to  keep him from  dying too fast.
 His attack is  very powerful, but a  handful of macemen will  kill  him all
 too quickly.

___________
3-3 Archers
-----------

 Type: Ranged
 Requirements: Bows
 Cost: 8 gold

   In the early stages of a mission, Archers are your best defense.  Putting
 them  up on walls, they rain down showers of arrows onto a ttacking targets.
 Their long  range and fast firing, will take down the bulk of a siege force.
 But once  armored units start moving in, they are almost useless.  They are
 best for taking  care  of  laddermen, when  you want  to  concentrate  your
 crossbowmen on more powerful targets.

___________________
3-4 Siege Engineers
-------------------

 Type: Siege
 Requirements: none
 Cost: 30 gold

   Siege  Engineers  are very  versatile units.  They  are used  to man  any
 mounted  defenses  on your  castle,  and  to  power siege units.  Also,  if
 you are  boiling oil,  they can pour  it onto  enemies attacking you  walls.
 They only cost gold, but die quickly, so protect them well.

____________
3-6 Spearmen
------------

 Type: Melee
 Requirements: Spear
 Cost: 8 gold

   Spearmen  are another  defense for  the early part of a mission,  or they
 are good  filler  for  a  siege.  They die  quickly, but  are  good  in the
 masses.  Also, you  can line them up on a  wall, to push off any  laddermen
 that  are  on your wall.  They are  also good  for filling in moats  of the
 enemies castles.

_________
3-7 Monks
---------

 Type: Melee
 Requirements: none
 Cost: none

___________
3-8 Macemen
-----------

 Type: Melee
 Requirements: Mace, Leather Armor
 Cost: 20 gold

_______________
3-9 Crossbowmen
---------------

 Type: Ranged
 Requirements: Crossbow, Leather Armor
 Cost: 20 gold

   The Crossbowmen  will be your main defense.  As they  should be, because
 their  attack is very strong, although  a bit slower  than the Archer.  If
 behind a  crenulated wall  though, they  are VERY  strong.  Their  leather
 armor  makes them superior to  the Archer.  A  huge  group  of Crossbowmen
 will  slaughter  the attackers fast, but  don't  make  the  Crossbowmen  a
 replacement  for  Archers.  Crossbowmen's s lower shots  are wasted on the
 laddermen that will eventually be charging your walls.
______________
3-10 Swordsmen
--------------

 Type: Melee
 Requirements: Sword, Metal Armor
 Cost: 40 Gold

   Your elite  footmen, they come in, get the job done, slaughter everybody,
 albeit slowly.  Heavily  armored,  they  move slow, but  shrug off Archer's
 arrows.  Crossbowmen  can pierce  their armor, but  normal  Archer's barely
 hurt   them.  Cover  them  with   supportive   fire,  such  as  Archers  or
 Crossbowmen, and s urround them  with  macemen.  Because   once  they   get
 inside the castle, they will raze it, and bring it to the ground.

____________
3-11 Knights
------------

 Type: Melee
 Requirements: Sword, Metal Armor, Horse
 Cost: 40 Gold

   Knights are  practically  Swordsmen  on horses.  They  are  armored, move
 fast, and  are very lethal.  Once  again,  they  should be  kept  away from
 groups of  Crossbowmen, because they will  get  cut down fast.  Knights are
 ideal for  probing your  enemies  defenses.  Also,  they work  good for hit
 and run  attacks, destroying  farms  or stone  quarries, and taking off for
 home before the enemy can move his defenses over to them.

______________
3-12 Laddermen
--------------

 Type: Siege
 Requirements: none
 Cost: 4 gold

   Quite possibly  the  worst job in the world, the  laddermen's job  is  to
 rush the  walls a castle  and hold a ladder to it, and  let attackers climb
 up.  Spearmen  can  knock  them off walls  with  ease, so you need  a large
 volume of  them  to work.  They  only  cost  4 gold, so bringing thirty  or
 so of them to attack is not uncommon.

______________
3-13 Tunnelers
--------------

 Type: Siege
 Requirements: none
 Cost: 30 gold

   Tunnelers  are the  perfect  opening for a siege.  Simply put them near a
 castle  you want  to  attack, and  send them to  do  the  dirty work.  They
 tunnel  underground  towards  a castle, and  burn  the  supports underneath.
 They can  take down  towers,  stone and  wodden walls.  However,  they  are
 useless if theres a moat surrounding the castle. 

==============================
------[4-1 Strategies]--------
==============================

_______________
4-2 Pitch Traps
---------------

  Pitch traps are a very powerful, one time defense.  Probably the first
thought that comes to mind, is that you should just lay down a huge pit
filled with pitch.  This is a very LARGE waste of pitch, and here I'll
explain why.

  The fire from a pitch ditch spreads quickly.  Well, actually, the initial
blast is the most fiery, causing a great deal of spread, and a very intense
flame.

A little experimentation revealed some helpful information.  I decided to
place a single spot of pitch down, and fire an arrow at it.  The results
are interesting.  Below, is the pitch map I made, rotated 45 degrees, so
it is no longer isometric.  On each map, I aimed for the center, and hit
it.

.....x..
.x....x.
xxxx&xxx
.xxxxxxx
..x.xx..
xxx...x.

The (&) is the initial piece of pitch I laid down.  Remember, it is only
one square.  The (.) were spots that weren't burnt, and the (x) is where
the fire spread.  This is a random occurance, Sometimes the fire spreads
more, sometimes less.  Either way, its a very large spread for such a small
piece.  Here's another map.

.................
.......xx........
....xxxxxxxx.....
..xxx&&&&&&x.....
...xx&&&&&&xx....
....x&&&&&&xx....
...xx&&&&&&x.....
....x&&&&&&x.....
....xxxxxxxxx....
.......xx........

Same key.  Lets do some math now.

On the first map, I laid down one square, and got 25 burnt squares.
Excellent.  On the second, I laid down 30 squares, and got 67 burnt
squares.  So, one square produced 24 burnt squares, and 30 squares produced
37 burnt squares.  Thats only 13 more squares, with 30 times more pitch used.
Not cost efficient.

Next example.

.................
.......xx........
....xxxxxxxx.....
....x&x&x&xx.....
...xxx&.&.&xx....
....x&xoxoxxx....
....xx&.&x&x.....
....x&x&x&xx.....
....x.xxxx.xx....
.......x.........

It's hard to read, I know, but its for the sake of warfare. :)  And we
introduce a new symbol.  (o) is a square that had pitch laid down, but
wasn't burnt.

15 squares produced 28 burnt squares, and left 2 unused.  I used half
as much pitch as last time, (15 less squares), and only produced 9 less
burnt squares, but wasted 2.  Still, it's more economical, and saves
precious pitch.  Saving 15 pitch may not seem like alot, but imaging it
on larger scales.  On a patch 4 times larger, you'd save 60 squares.
However, you leave spots that aren't getting burnt, and is a waste unless
you fire a second shot quickly.  Either way, it's a save.

What does this boil down to?  Well, this helps you think up some
strategies in building these things.  Heres one of the best set
ups I've come up with.

xx.x.xx.
.x.xx.x.
xx.x.xx.
.x.xx.x.
xx.x.xx.
.x.xx.x.
xx.x.xx.

Just keep repeating that pattern.  It uses less pitch, and causes
a total coverage (most of the time) of the whole area.