And then AI puts wooden traps right on top of your woodcutter hut or any other building. Or they sometimes even can build apple orchard on a grass spot where the regular tree is.
ox tether is better at this, it has a bit more HP and is more mangonel resistant. Against pit trapped opponents you can use box formation of these buidings (they can destroy them but by that time their gold/economy would be dropped severely) - I hate Wazir because he can't be blocked
@@Masterwagner Not really. It's VERY weak to catapult fire, as it out-ranges the archers on the towers and the fire ballista. Lookout towers crumble only after a couple direct catapult strikes, rendering the otherwise 'impressive' look his castle has to utter rubble.
Is it just me or you guys think all so think that sheriffs defence is the worst. His castle can't survive 1 fire ballista. Even rat can do that. You put his castle on fire and he never manages to put it out because he keeps placing buildings. You can literally make him useless with just 1 fire ballista.
Almost 20yrs old game and still alive being played today. One of the best classics and must play, even Stronghold Warlords are not on par on this for some reason.
@@cracknotgood I don't like any of the other Strongholds as much as Crusader, not even the original. My reason for this is it was the perfect combination of experience and sheer heart. The first was obviously the one they tried the hardest with, in no small part because of the fact they had to start from scratch. Crusader also has heart but has a lot more experience as well, more quality of life features and more lords, units, missions, etc. From there, the graphics improved but it feels like they got lazy. SHC2 is fun but it doesn't have the charm of the original. The only problem I have with Crusader is that even by early 2000s standards, the graphics are ass. Compare it to other RTS games like AOE and its not even close
A stupid disrespect for Islam we don't make fun of your religion and other religions because Allah prohibited us in the Islamic teachings from doing so and look how are you treating us
@@ahmedmohamad689 I'm trying so hard to figure out which part of it was offensive/disrespectful towards Islam, By that logic isn't Stronghold Crusader disrespectful towards Christianity?
The problem with wolf is that 2 out of 5 of his castle designs are so crazy big that he either spends all gold on it or ends up stuck in it himself. either way everyone already gnaws on his castle before he even finishes it
In most of the matches some stone or iron makes a way open in to their castle bcz they r so big I like the smallest castle with 2 towers and the big one of 4 castles in front bcz that castle looks cool
@@mrCvele Брате, буквално сам данас узео да играм Стронгхолд Крусејдер после дужег времена, и баш данас ми напишеш овај коментар, хахахаха. Најјача игрица икад. Поздрав брате!
I got killed by Frederick once... Simply because I forgot he's in the game, so I was focusing on killing other lords on the other half of the map instead of looking out for my castle :D
Great video. I mostly agree with the ranking as overall lords. I only disagree with the lion hearts placement as I think he might be slightly higher because his attack can be massive over time. And Saladin, he’s great but he’s terrible at putting out fires usually. Often times I light him up and his entire castle will burn as he keeps replacing building which then catch on fire tell he’s broke. So Saladin would be lower because of this. Again ty for the video. I love this old game. So many command and conquer games out there but not many with an actual economy like this one.
My personal ranking 1. Wolf 2. Saladin 3. Emir 4. Lionheart 5. Wazir 6. Nizar 7. Frederick 8. Sheriff 9. Abbot 10. Pig 11. Snake 12. Caliph 13. Philip 14. Marshal 15. Sultan 16. Rat
I agree on everything except the Lion heart, he's too weak, I did a death match against him with Wazir and Wazir ended him, but I can respect your list.
I'm surprised Richard is so low given the explanation why Emir is first. Richard is basically Lord of Destruction in this game, he attacks often and HARD with tons of heavy units and siege equipment. He's the main reason why Thunder Hill is pure hell.
It is based on a 40000 starting gold game with perfect map lay out. If you go for a 4000 gold start is is probably the best lord in the game by far. Except for the Snake and Rat , he is the only one that can attack and finish his castle early.
Yeah, I think Richard killed me more than any other lord combined in the campaign. Wolf is tanky IF he actually gets up his economy but rarely much of an offensive threat, by the time he attacks you usually have something going. Snake has probably been the second most dangerous to me iirc because of his eco harassment strat, I think he raids earlier and more frequently than Caliph does.
Had a testmatch with Saladin and Emir as allies. And Emir did not as often refuse as Saladin did. At the end Saladin also burned up my Horse-Archers while sieging Wolfs-Castle with Fire-Ballista.
you forgot one glaring weakness of Wolf's: castle area. put him somewhere with loads of rivers or non-constructible tiles and he'll stop functioning altogether. I don't know if they have patched it, but the last time I played it was still that way. also, a bit of idea: do you think ranking lords in terms of politeness would be interesting?
As an old player of the game I approve of this list. The only thing I hate about the AI in this game is when the map they play in small and then get stuck and can't build their economy nor defenses.
I remember playing a 3-hours siege to bring down a fully build Wolf and still had a very hard time. Had to use every tricks in the book as it is a nightmare to even get close to his base. Still the best AI for me
Well what i do is make 200 hoursemen archers and make them round around his base and shoot arrorws so his army will die faster and make the assassind to kill him simple😊
it hurts me so much that Frederick doesn't really play the game. Bu he did die before arriving in the holy land so maybe that explains it - He is already dead and all he left to his 2nd in command were some castle blueprints
Also the Abbot/Adhemar died of disease before the 1st crusade reached the lavant, at Antioch I think. While Philip Augustus went back to France after reaching Acre or maybe Cyprus
I would've ranked Wolf to be number 1. Emir's arab swordsmen spam is just a crossbow check, cuz they die easily. He also doesn't have crazy defenses like pitch or killing pit, which makes killing him easy. Also would've put Lionheart higher in the list due to his agressive siegeing habits. His siege attempts are on paar with Saladin at least, even though his castle is a joke. But back to Wolf, no one gave me the same amount of grief as him. Even if you deplete his gold, he still has the best defense in the game imo, making sieges againts him the longest or second longest if you count moat digging time. Also the Sheriff can be annoying with his fire ballistas, if left unchecked, but yes, his castle just calls for fire, *LET IT BURN* .
Hell I still can't believe I put Wolf #2 lmao, it's still a tough choice But you're saying Emir's swordsmen spam is a crossbow check, that's true but that's basically every lord in the game. Emir makes so much more units compared to everyone else What you said about Lionheart is true, he uses tunnelers and rams and not sure if he makes trebuchets too can't remember. Overall he hits harder but not that hard to deal with imo (Like Caliph and Nizar are both harder I think)
@@Jefflenious Yes, everything is dominated by crossbows, but it's doubly true for arabian swordsmen. But I can see if that's overwhelming for some players. Nizar is only an issue, if I can't use, or haven't finished my moat. Caliph on the other hand is like the arabian version of Snake. More on the annoying than the harder side. When I face against him, I always destroy every tower of his, so I won't get burned. And because I like destroying him :)
@@proximityclockworkx1572 Arab swordmen die to 3 crossbow bolts too which is pitiful compared to swordmen and pikemen. And when you're good enough at the game that no lord can every really touch you, defense matters more. Wolf is the only lord who can still kill my first attack wave and I have to think before sieging.
@@Stevenbfg Weather you win in Stronghold or not usually only depends on the first minutes in my opinion. If you can defend at the start you always win, because once you build up you are invincible since the KI is so bad. Therefore Lords who attack the hardest early are the hardest to play against.
Syeriff has a great economy, i mean, he make ale, he make ton of workshop, also have religion building too, with bad factor that will be OP to gain gold. If he just put large tower there or water pot more, his castle will be more strong.
I once made a custom 3-player map where one player is unreachable and the other 2 face 1v1 in a balanced setting with all resources available. I used that map to make a AI 1v1 direct elimination tournament with the help of the website challonge. The 2 semi-finals ended up being Lionheart vs Nizar and Wolf vs Saladin won by Nizar and Saladin respectively. The Nizar ended up winning the tournament and the Wolf won the small final for the 3rd place. So I can confirm this video is pretty accurate.
If you use the UCP with the aggressive AI modifier this List gets turned on its head. The Abbot becomes such a top tier lord with it that he can easily compete with the top three.
When i was 10 y old, i always played 1v1 with The Wolf. I loved these 1v1s. I had so many freetime as a child cuz sometimes i played free-for-all with 7 same lord like 7 The Snake, 7 Lionhearth..then i coiped one's castle and played like him. The Pig's castle was my favorite.
What an honor, as the Emir is my favorite in the franchise. I think the Emir can afford a lot of arab swordsmen because he buys european archers, which means less gold spent on the arab counterpart. So for every european archer bought via fletcher shops, that’s 63 gold saved for spending on arab swordsmen.
Also it depends highly on map, i remember playing against fredrick who was in bottom left cornor.... But he builded gate facing that corner so he was base locked entire game
In my opinion Wolf is massively overrated. AI lords are a problem only in the early stages of the game, once you've properly set up your defences it doesn't make much of a difference whether you're being attacked by Saladin or Rat. And in early game you barely even notice Wolf's presence because he's too busy building his castle, 4 out of 5 times he doesn't do anything of significance in the game. On the other hand, Saladin is almost always a bit of a challenge (and Wolf's castles aren't really more difficult to destroy than Saladin's, they're only more tiresome), and Richard and Caliph are most of the time. Hell, even Pig is more likely to represent an existential threat before you get on your feet than Wolf.
In aggressive UCP Frederic is so op he can destroy some lords before I even finish my economy. Richard siege ability in aggressive UCP is insane aswell.
I have a real weak spot for the Marshall. He tries to be competent but has just become too slow in his old age. I always try my best to keep him alive whenever I'm allied to him. His small but effective armies help me secure a victory every now and then.
I agree. Although I almost was gonna vote Wazir the Terrible as the hardest. I had a match with him that was an absolute nightmare. Seemed like his castle was complex and thick . And his unending troops he would send.. won’t ever forget it.
@@FarizyangHitam Yeah, I played recently and he hit me with the same thing. I hereby take back my words. It's just his economy sucks. How do you put so much units in one spot like the AI do anyway?
Personally my top 5 of AI opponents to play against would look as follows: 1) functioning Wolf - especially in the end game hard to conquer and massive attacks 2) Wazir, bc of the horse archers and the solid defence (fire, etc) 3) functioning Nizar, strong defence bc digging is just bugged. Also assasins can be so anoying if there are other AI opponents in the game. 4) Richard, attacks extremly early in the Game, however poor defence 5) Saladin, well balanced AI
The thing about Saladin compared to other lords is the fact that he could somehow find a way to flourish and become the economical powerhouse among other lords, even when every lords including himself has little to no resource. Edit: I forgot about the Emir. And, yes, Emir is somewhat similar to Saladin, except attack much more often.
Agreeing with most, though sometimes its situational and can vary. Just wanted to add that the Sheriff once performed the most impressive attack I've ever witnessed a bot do. He used assassins to capture a Caliphs gatehouse, cleaned the walls with macemen and then killed him with another wave of macemen. To be fair, the Caliph was already quite damaged before the attack, but its still impressive how smartly the Sheriff did it. He might not be very aggressive, but he is relatively intelligent. I'd love to see a Lord ranking list in terms of Lord vs Lord instead of Lord vs Human.
"He's basically Frederick if he was playing the game." God damn, as someone who played this game growing up, I could never relate so close to something like that even if I tried. Made me damn laugh too.
Funnily the guy based on him died in a River and didn't really contributed much to the 3rd Crusade. But even in that state Saladin diverted a lot of his forces to face an army that doesn't exist or at least one that disbanded.
BTW The other lords based on real people not including the obvious 2 includes King Philip Augustus is Philip (Arch rival to King Richard and left the 3rd crusade early possibly because of internal issues back home.) Emperor Frederick Barbarossa as mentioned The Marshal is probably Robert de Sablé Grandmaster of the Knights Templar. Nazir is likely based on Rashid al-Din Sinan Old man on the Mountain and Master of the Order of Assassins/Hasashim The Emir is probably Al-Adil I Saladin's Brother who administrated Egypt during the Crusades (one of the richest places in the medieval world) The Caliph is probably Nur ad-Din Sultan of the Zegrid dynasty (srry he was actually Saladins ally but he was known to be fairly brutal.) but he died before the 3rd Crusade so it could be others who disliked Saladin before his rise to power. The Abbot is probably Adhemar de Le Puy the defacto Bishop organizer of the 1st crusade.
And lastly the Wasir again he could be one of the many enemies Saladin had during his Rise to power after Nur ad-Din's death. (fun fact Saladin started out as a Vizier of Egypt)
@@forickgrimaldus8301 Wow, thanks for all of this! I knew some things already, but I love it when people spill this much background/possibly unknown info about the characters (some) in the game.
In my opinion, I ranked Saladin higher than Emir because... - While Emir's attack is frequent and high in military power, Saladin's attack is much more tactical despite of smaller siege force. - Saladin's fortress contains more various equipments which are quite helpful against enemy's siege engines. Although Emir's castle is stronger and more imposing. Moreover, Saladin's economy strength allowed him to recover quickly after his city suffered major destruction, unless he get overwhelmed by number of enemy lords (in chapter 78 for example).
But he has too many buildings for a castle that is too small. 20 slaves are enough to burn down his entire castle. Just burn a building outside. His whole castle is on fire and he will fuel the fire by rebuilding these buildings.
Very good list A tip Against saladin I always do the same thing and its very efective, I put 100 slaves /100 horse archer and 50 assassin. slaves go on first and i start a massive fire in his Castle so he doesnt make any more units and it stops the economy then i send the horse archers to clear the towers once most of the buildings collapse because of the fire I send in the assassins and i always kill him he doesnt have time to defend.
Now its time to rank their personality, I guess. I would watch it at least! Mine would be: 1. Richard 2. Emir 3. Snake 4. Caliph (actually) 5. Marshall 6. Saladin 7. Sultan The rest doesn't really matter that much Although I really like when Wazir is an ally, and you defeat someone, he says "you killed one of our enemies, *leave the next to me!"* it's quite awesome
I've been playing the Crusaders' stronghold for 10 years, but the clip helped me very much and I will rely on it to make the fight interesting. Thank you🌹
At the On the Edge level, we will fight Abbot and Marshal who are in an alliance, I immediately recruited an assassin to kill the marshal and then played normally. but then abbot made a mistake that cost himself, the defense of his castle made troops and workers unable to get out, but I'm confused why his gold is always a lot, that's why he recruited a lot of Monks totaling 1400 more I made a lot of archers if only he could get out, but still he lost🤣, I'm just surprised how many Monks piled up in his kingdom
Generally speaking, your arguments seem compelling. However, my personal ranking, based on my experience, would be different. E.g., I found the new european lords less strong than the old Pig and Snake. In particular, I think they're quite more aggressive, so they can be a really pain in the ass in early games. Instead, King Philip, Frederik and the Marshall are quite passive, other than weak "economists". The Abbot is more aggressive, and his defence is sturdy, but relying on the monks alone can be dangerous against ranged troops like archers or crossbowers. Only the Sheriff can be considered as a reliable enemy. Otherwise, I agree with you about the arab characters. In particular, I found the Emir who more than the other characters "wants to win": not only his defence and economy are solid, but his attacks are frequent and reasonable. Instead, Wolf has the stronger defence and a good economy, but his attacks are unusual and very sloooowwww. As regards Saladin, he often reachs a good balance between a strong defence and a mighty economy (the strongest IMHO), but his attacks are weak, even if more frequent than Wolf's. This is my personal ranking: 1. Emir (basically the Sultan with much more attitude towards war, he is a very dangerous enemy) 2. Wolf (the most resistent castle and a good economy knowledge, if only his attacks would be more frequent and less predictable...) 3. Sultan (the best lord in terms of building a solid economy, very good defensive skills but his attacks are not so dangerous) 4. Richard (good offensive and defensive skills, however his attacks are a little bit slow and predictable even if frequent) 5. Nizar (maybe the worst lord to fight if you're unable to dig a moat, good defensive skills even without walls, try to believe) 6. Pig (the good old Pig relies only in macemen and crossbowmen, who are, IMHO, among the best troops in terms of efficiency as well as of gold and weapons required) 7. Wazir (average defensive skills, he's one of the few characters who knows the military strenght of the horse archers, if only his attacks would be more frequent...) 8. Sheriff (he has a good defence and a diversified economy, however he has just average offensive skills) 9. Caliph (one of the characters who loves the most to destroy your economy and burn your troops, but his castle and his economy are not so resistent) 10. Abbot (his tower and his economy are very solid, but his attacks are predictable and his monks are too exposed to ranged troop's offensives) 11. Snake (his defence and economy are not a real threat, but he often tries to hinder your economy by burning buildings with slaves and enrolling a lot of archers and spearman) 12. Frederik (solid walls, but very few ranged troops to be a reliable defender) 13. Marshall (balanced strategy, but he attacks with very few troops and he always leaves one side of his castle undefended) 14. Abdul (the weakest economy and defence, even if his attacks are frequent and his troops always gain a +25% bonus) 15. King Philipp (literally a Mouse that has discovered swordsmen and stronger towers) 16. Mouse (senseless management of troops and economy)
by 3.Sultan ,i think you meant Saladin? cause if not then why did you put him up there or even count him twice in 14.Abdul? solid comment tho. i agreed on almost everything. except that i think Caliph is higher than Sheriff.
@@lordsnia2152 Yes, Sultan is Saladin, I must admit that it was easy to make confusion. BTW, maybe I fough not enough battles against the Sheriff. The gap between him and the Caliph is not so large. Certainly the Caliph is the perfect annoyer, but with some sieges his castle fall down quickly.
@@lordsnia2152 yess to bring down caliph's towers you need a constant attack of catapult because he will rebuild it again quickly until he runs out of gold. But for sheriff it only need one fire ballista and he is basically crippled
I kind of have to disagree with you on wolf and emir. Arabian lords could simply be held at bay with cross bow men shields and balistae. Maybe some regular archers for faster shots when it comes to slaves. European troops take way more punishment from crossbowmen and can brute force their way through. Also wolf has much better defended castles.
Spawn with 7 wolves with 2k gold, ez. Spawn with 7 snakes with 2k gold, have a nice time putting out the fire every 5 seconds if you can even build anything that doesn't get on fire instantly
From what I remember Snake has potential to be the most annoying lord for beginners on 2k gold starts when starting positions are close (which as a single player person I would consider the standard).
@@МомчилГеоргиев-ш4е I must agree with you mate. In close match up, the hardest ai for me is wolf, caliph and probably saladin. Wazir is much better in offense but his defense isn't that good imo
That feeling when you push up on caliph, get closer and closer, you think you got all the fire units, it seems like you are clear of the pitch... then you hear it. WHOOOOOOOOOSH
I can't believe Lionheart is so low but your arguments - true. About Emir... i can't get him №1. when he attacks fortified castle - his horse archers stayed out and attack when the walls are already destroyed, but unlike him, the wolf doesn't leave his crossbows without attack.
What I do to defeat wolf is that just killing his archers with my horse archers and with help of assassins I put my own archers on his towers (with braziers) and rest is just using some meele units to kill him
It's... acceptable Even tho Emir's agreesion is high, you could add yet another thing: "Strenght of attacking army" or something like that. All you need against Emir are crossbowmans. If Wolf have unlimitted resources and enough space, then it's for sure number 1, but because he likes to build enormous castles, he can't finish them because of the map, he also won't be able to build his perfect economy, because he either decided to place walls over grasslands, stone or iron, rather than use them properly or the map doesn't have that much of it. He is sometimes even weaker than Richard.
This comment indeed made me reconsider my thoughts that saladin>emir. So I made them fight as groups of 3. 3 emir vs 3 saladin. If you put 4v4 then it becomes a keep to keep battle. I should try that aswell. Anyway they fought 2 times with 2k starting gold on fair maps. Saladins won both of them.
For me, the far i love to make my ally is Saladin and Lionheart. They rarely refuse to help me if i need guard (send bunch of troops) and attack when i need to... The worst ally for me is Caliph . He just sucks and egoistic lord . Someday i need help and he got bunch troops , but he doesn't want to... He's a lord who aren't listening to order. Even sultan who's poor lord would help to if urgent... lol
I would rank Frederick higher and still would put Wolf in first, even tho it’s a fair point that Frederick is not as good against humans coz he is so slow. Still Arabian swordsmen fall so easily , especially against crossbowmen, that’s why I would rank the sultan below Philip and emir behind Wolf and Saladin.
@@ramos4461 he built his huge castle Frederick beat wolf because of his knights he destroyed all his stone production and outside economy and wolf went broke and then slowly Frederick finally destroyed him
@@The_Dodge_Meister If you put it like that, it sounds doable, but in my experience Frederick takes forever to finally be able to use knights and they die quickly due to crossbowfire from above. I dunno man, maybe you just got real lucky with Frederick's performance 😅
Personally, I think ya'll are sleeping on the Pig. I've also never had any problems with the Nizar, 30-50 arabic swords knocking down his EXPOSED gates kills him every time for me. But that's just my opinion
The Rat and the Snake are the most annoying Lords for me because of their hypocrite nature. They would just spam you with their bratty speeches and then when you make a slight move they suddenly start worshipping you. 😤 Saladin and Emir are my go-to allies because of their soft nature and great war tactics.👑 The Caliph is annoying but easily manageable. All you need is some mangonels to break through his lookouts and he's as good as done. 🤗 The Wolf and Emperor Fredrick have the coolest character. "We move from strength to strength." - I love that delivery. 😅❤
The Virgin Vanilla Marshal: -Slow grampa -Doesn't even buy weapons -Big snore fest -Cool knights, are they gonna attack or just sit there? The Chad UCP Marshal: -Woah there, slow down, gramps! -Figured out how the marketplace works -Actually aggro -Why are there 12 knights heading my way!? We just started!
I'd like to see a enemy lord playoff bracket on a custom map tuned for it. Start off with matches like #1 emir vs. #16 rat and #2 wolf vs. #15 phillip "Here comes the fire lord" I cracked up
Original Crusader: 1) Saladin - Very strong early, mid and late game. Powerful economy, great at recovery. Strong diversity in units, between mobility & expensive troops. Great with few resources. Great defense. Usually Saladin wins most match ups due to him quickly expanding in reliable resources, having enough troops to defend early to avoid being crippled. Only falls to players with more resources or have been less attacked or a Wolf that's late game with a strong economy, however location usually determines the outcome. 2) Wolf - Not #1 Because his base takes forever to complete & inconveniences him. Saladin & Caliph have a waaaay better early game that's usually enough to cripple him. Slow recovery once injured. Expensive large armies. If he has a strong foothold his base is extremely strong and armies large. 3) Caliph - Well balanced aggressive player. Loves to make people suffer. Majority of army is rush in and burn. Against great defense player like Saladin most of his troops is lost by archers. Economy holds him back late game. (Usually Ranks below Saladin, only beats Wolf early, outclasses the rest). 4) Lionheart - Great economy. Strong expensive troops. Lack of troops defending base is his downfall. Does not have the aggressive nature of people above him. If crippled early, lack of troops and slow recovery is usually his downfall. If he has a strong foothold his army can contest a Wolf. 5) Pig - Slow start, Very powerful with loads of gold. Very expensive troops, lack of diversity and mobility when it comes to ranged units. Loses most of army due to archers and aggression, once macemen wait on crossbows to join fights. Pig can contest with Lionheart and an early Wolf, but archers from above usually cripples him. 6) Snake - Low defense, quality of troops. Aggressive with a burn strategy. (Overpowers Rat and Sultan with sheer quantity of troops). 7) Sultan - Passive, Economy Medium (Okay with few resources), Defense & troops bad. 8) Rat - Aggression Hard, Economy Bad, Quality of troops Poor, Defense Pathetic.
@@somber8233 I have ran several simulations of the players. Testing with little gold, many gold, few resources, many resources. Bases starting close to each other & far. Little troops, many troops at start. In most cases, if they start next each other Caliph over powers with his amount of archers. If Lionheart immidiately rushed with his swordsmen he can win, but never really does. On low resources Lionheart takes up to 15 min to get a solid economy... More than enough time for Caliph to cripple his resources and granary with fire The only way Lionheart wins is if they're far away and starting on plenty gold OR if there are other opponents that takes Caliph's attention while Richard builds his economy. Caliph has plenty of archers surrounding his base (much more than Lionheart) and over powers in medium range. Rarely plenty of archers are sent in long distances, only slaves... Which allows Richard to stand up against him. As the game progresses and drags out both players with send more and more troops with each invasion. Its only then that the amount of Richard's swordsman will overpower Caliph and can sometimes take up to 6 hours of gameplay. Caliph wins 7/10 of their match ups.
@@eksteinmalan3517 Interesting. My tests were a long time ago and I might be biased towards Lionheart But I do remember Lionhearts siege being mostly unchecked because the Caliph only uses lookout towers and so Lionheart would just pound on his towers and walls unchecked with his large amounts of catapults and trebs. I'll test again in more scenarios.
@@somber8233 Yes, that's the scenario how Richard wins at far distance with a stable economy. His offence is great overtime but unfortunately he severely lacks in defence (amount of archers on towers). Once he's up and running Caliph send too few archers to take down his defence. And yes he just bombards with catapults. Let me know how the simulations go and what version of Stronghold Crusader you use? I'm curious if they buffed him.
Dude, please review it again with bots, but with the improvement of the unofficial patch. It's just that the abbot, marshal and frederick have such military passivity due to the lack of buying weapons. The emir does not buy bows either, but this does not bother him in any way.
@@Jefflenious I remember skipping school in 2009 playing Warchest. I really did not like that half of the new bots did not buy weapons: because of this, Frederick and Marshal attacked for a long time and saved money, and if they were in mortal danger, they would not have been. You always need to quickly buy weapons for money (+5 like bots are bought) and fight back, you know what I mean?
Richard the Lionheart was the greatest hero of the Crusades Saladin is the Western name of Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, the Muslim sultan of Egypt and Syria who famously defeated a massive army of Crusaders in the Battle of Hattin and captured the city of Jerusalem in 1187. At the height of his power, he ruled a unified Muslim region stretching from Egypt to Arabia. but in the game wolf is number 1
Me : Wolf why you still not attack? Wolf : My castle is not fancy enough to build an army. Me : Omg you the worst AI companion. True story when you play with the Wolf, he will ask you for everything.
I always thought about doing a video like this but never did. Have a lot of disagreements though. Don't think Frederick sucks as much as you claim and AI battles prove this where he'll always beat Lionheart who you claim is a better version. Emir for me is nowhere close to number 1. He attacks frequently yes but his attacks don't hit as hard as some others and his defenses are kind of mediocre. I don't really have to step back and think before attacking him like one of Wolfs big castles. Abbot is also quite underrated and has a stronger economy than you think. For me through study of attack, defense, economy and AI battles, my top 16 are: 16: Rat 15: Sultan 14: Phillip 13: Snake 12: Marshall 11: Pig 10: Sheriff 9: Abbot 8: Caliph 7: Nizar 6: Lionheart 5: Emir 4: Frederick 3: Wazir 2: Saladin 1: Wolf
I answered you another comment, this isn't about which AI can beat the other AIs, It's about which AI is harder to play against. (Because I believe that's a different list) That's true if it was about that Emir would be so much lower and sure Frederick can probably beat Lionheart in a 1v1 match. Problem is Frederick is too slow at playing the game, just load up the game give him 40K gold and watch him play. It takes him ages to get going and that's what makes him drop in the list for me. Eventually he might become even better than Lionheart but honestly it's not difficult to play against him at all. Emir's defenses are not special right, but I'm not sure about him not hitting as hard as the others. Out of all the Arabian Lords he and Wazir hit the hardest in my opinion (And if we count European Lords Wolf and Richard could be somewhere up there as well), But ofc Wolf and Richard are both not as aggressive as Wazir and Emir, and the main difference between Wazir and Emir is that Wazir runs out of gold due to his poor economy while Emir never stops attacking the player Also you mentioned Abbot, His economy and defenses are good and he attacks very frequently due to the low gold cost of monks. But his attacks are only monks, If he had better units he would be so much higher on the list but I don't think he's better than Pig or Sheriff (Maybe better than Marshal though)
@@Jefflenious Monks are actually quite underrated. They're better to use against crossbowmen than arab swordmen due to taking the same number of bolts but being slightly faster and can take down walls much faster too. Abbot amasses a pretty big army of Monks too to compensate. As for Frederick, the problem is he doesn't buy swords and shields (Marshall has the same problem). If you put him in a map with plenty of iron in close proximity, he produces troops much faster due to quicker weapon production. The unofficial patch even fixes the weapon buying problem and easily puts him in top 3, although I suppose that technically wouldn't count as its "unofficial" for a reason.
I never seen some of this lords before. My first game i had at my first PC(long ago), was a CD with this game. But looks different. Btw, love your content, bring a lot of memories of me and my uncle playing it.
- i like having the abbot as an enemy because his castle design allows me to spam siege towers, and then rush archers up his castle on his own towers. - Emir i find is the also the most responsive lord in terms of defending you when order, and despite me being irritated at being sandwiched with him in "We're Surrounded!" his aid was invaluable in that mission and earned my eternal respect, as did his frickin character. His taunts and responses are frickin hilarious. "My date farms wilt, my camels grow barren and you.... Well! I can at least do something about you!" - However, I must profess that between the Wolf and the Emir, while i find their aggression nearly equal to deal with, its their castles which make the Wolf leagues ahead of the Emir, solely because Emir can't build tower ballistae which makes sieging him a bit less stressful. Trebs outrange mangonels and if properly setup his mangonel towers will be down in no time. Other than that you can just spam pults and/or set the inside base on fire once you lure the swordsmen off his keep. After that its a matter of ensuring keep troops are dealt with especially the oil pot engineers. - Trying catapult spam against the Wolf on the other hand still leaves all the nasty crossbowmen, oil pots and armored units atop the keep, and i've had many sieges fail just because of them alone as without hefty arrow spam they tend to murder any invading force and any amount of pults by their lonesome. - Plus between the two of them the Wolf just has the best failed siege taunt. "You ah weak, and not fit ta cammand an army!" just bites you to the bone after said keep troops decimate your masses of crossbowmen, pikemen and swordsmen. Although credit has to be given, "Hot rain, what a fight!" is just as awesome to hear. - Any opponent which uses positive fear factor scares me for some reason. I think its because of Misty River. - any lord that uses oil pot engineers or fire throwers atop their keep earns my eternal irritation.
I'm not exactly sure I'd call Wolf's castles leagues ahead of anyone. Many of them are poorly defended and weak against a tower + macemen combo. Wolf is also notoriously slow. I remember playing a game against him. He had 40 grand, I had 3 grand. After a while I had 26 grand, he had 46 grand and I was attacking. And in anything other than deathmatch he's literally useless, because he cannot build his castle fast enough due to the sheer cost of it.
The Sheriff is NOT on the level of the Pig. Neither is he better in defense than Richard. He positions his crossbows to shoot his own people, rather than enemy's. Most of his AI Castles have just 1 Gate, securing the outer ring of his economy. His own castle makes him worse than the rat. No joke. Sure you can't attack him from the back, but he puts all his weakest Parts on the Front, and due to the paths he creates for his workers to walk, that if his front closes he is done in seconds. A lot of enemy's glitch out at his Front Wall, since its so huge that the preparation to attack him literally means every one waits to attack him directly at his wall, the gate closes, he has no income and so much to lose since he is never on good popularity, sells taxes and has his people frightened. So if you just close his Gate, because even one archer standing in the shadows at his gate, just kills em. Noone of his crossbows reaches, his time to recover from a gate closed is almost always as long as it takes for anyone to attack him again and he is literally a sitting duck that MAY send out some small amounts of units to harass, but the rat killed him so far every time. I have experienced a lot with the KI, and I don't like any meta. I love the weak units to see if they try. But by God is the sheriff bad. I love em, but you can't tell me he is top 10 anywhere. The only time I'd say he is under the top 10, is for the art of his Castles. It looks super cool, but I must say there is no weaker force than this guy
He mainly got there because he's annoying to siege, compared to the previous lords Since none of the previous lords hit that hard he got there Also he's not better than Richard, his defenses are gimmicky he burns his own buildings to stop attacks while Richard's defenses are actually reliable
Hey dude, just discovering you channel and I am really enjoying the content so far. Stronghold is such a fun game! One note I’d like to add though is I am not a fan of the text to voice chat. You should really try to record with your voice and everyone will naturally get to know your personality better!
Can you PLEASE explain why lords lose if you woodcutter's hut at their gates? By the way, this video explains the things as they are, no wrong stuff :D
Not the most in-depth explanation but basically their pathfinding and stuff doesn't work anymore so they think they can't access the outside world and they're trapped in their castle forever And I'm pretty sure you can't attack that woodcutter's hut even if you're a human lord (Units get stuck inside the gate) but well even if you can, surely the AIs can't figure it out lol
I remember when i was younger i played this game and i wasnt best (XD) my favourite lord was Lionheart because he always gave me resources, and ofc wolf because he is master in everything.
Hey I've seen some people particularly in the German community make custom AI and I think some of them were just them in their play style... That would make a interesting video for sure if you found them... By that I mean translate their websites lol😁
Frederick is indeed a sleepy lord but when he attacks I once counted 120 units at my castle and this is slowly expanding. He can make the biggest wave anyone has ever seen.
Emir's not good at defense but he's the best at attacking, but the other two are better at defense Might do one ranking for each castle design. Expect Wolf to dominate that list lol
An interesting note about the Snake: One of his castle designs has him accidentally blocking off his entrances so his workers and units can’t even get around.
16. The Rat 15. Phillip 14. Marshal 13. Sultan 12. The Snake 11. Abbot 10. The Pig 9. Nizar 8. Caliph 7. Sheriff 6. Lionheart 5. Wazir 4. Emir 3. Frederick 2. Saladin 1. The Wolf
When I was a kid I loved Sultan and shit my pants playing against Sheriff, but the lord I liked the most was definitely Marshal, due to cool-looking castle design and usage of mounted knights.
Would you make a video about ranking AI lords about which one of good for being your ally? Like if they would give you supply if you need them, or help you out if things went badly
Ok, So I have never realized anything special about the emir up until this discussion. An attack is not just about spamming some useless slow units and sending them my way. While there are two types of attacks, (attrition and strong attacks) emir performs poorly on both. Caliph, and Saladin perform the best attrition attacks and wolf and lionheart then saladin and Nazir perform the best strong attacks. Early on (the really crucial part of the game), either type of attacks can break you. Lionheart sometimes sends you a single catapult that can make your life hell. Neither wazir nor emir ever made my life hell in early or mid game. In terms of defense my ranking is wolf then caliph then saladin then wazir and nazir. No one else survives my boring standard attack of 100-120 macemen (+ 8-24 knights if my economy allows it). Emir could be taken by even fewer macemen if I remember correctly. Wolf’s only weakness is lack of adaptability or versatility as many have pointed out. That could be fixed if someone can patch it up to favor his smallest castle in some situations. However it is much easier to penetrate. Overall, for me 1) Wolf 2) Saladin 3) Caliph 4) Nazir/Lionheart ( lionheart requires another AI closer to shield him) 5) Wazir/emir Then everyone else
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No matter which AI lord, they all lose if you place a woodcutter's hut at their gate.
And then AI puts wooden traps right on top of your woodcutter hut or any other building. Or they sometimes even can build apple orchard on a grass spot where the regular tree is.
And you can build a house on their Barracks or mercenary post ground before they build it. Before they destroy it of course
@@kagetoshin9761 that's the speedrun strat
Try out the UCP and Krarilotus efficient castles. You ll be amazed!
ox tether is better at this, it has a bit more HP and is more mangonel resistant. Against pit trapped opponents you can use box formation of these buidings (they can destroy them but by that time their gold/economy would be dropped severely) - I hate Wazir because he can't be blocked
Emir is the best ally you could have. Also I love "I March!" every time I ask Richard to attack
Yes he is
That Lionheart line is so epic, I have to march regardless my army is ready or not...'for glory !'
@@abccba5125 Deus Vult!
@@LightForxes watch your back, knight ! watch your back...
@@abccba5125take no prisoners! Kill them all
My opinion (based on 15 years experienced)
Defense Ranking (0-100 points)
1. Wolf - 100
2. Nizar - 85
3. Wazir - 80
4. Caliph - 75
5. Emir, Saladin - 70
7. Emperor Frederick - 65
8. Abbot - 60
9. Pig, Sheriff - 60
11. Snake - 55
12. Lionheart - 50
13. Marshall, King Philip - 35
15. Sultan - 20
16. Rat - 5
Attack
1. Wazir, Emir - 85
3. Wolf, Saladin - 80
5. Lionheart, Emperor Frederick - 75
7. Caliph, Nizar - 70
9. Pig, Sheriff - 65
11. Marshall, King Philip - 60
13. Sultan - 50
14. Abbot - 35
15. Snake - 30
16. Rat - 10
Army
1. Emir, Saladin, Wolf - 85
4. Wazir, Lionheart - 80
6. Caliph, Emperor Frederick - 75
8. Marshall - 70
9. Nizar - 65
10. Pig, Sheriff - 60
12. King Philip - 55
13. Sultan - 50
14. Abbot - 45
15. Snake - 40
16. Rat - 10
TOTAL
1. Wolf - 265
2. Wazir - 245
3. Emir - 240
4. Saladin - 235
5. Nizar, Caliph - 220
7. Emperor Frederick - 215
8. Lionheart - 205
9. Pig, Sheriff - 185
11. Marshall - 165
12. King Philip - 150
13. Abbot - 140
14. Snake - 125
15. Sultan - 120
16. Rat - 25
That's good but caliph has to much good defense
@@Masterwagner Not really. It's VERY weak to catapult fire, as it out-ranges the archers on the towers and the fire ballista. Lookout towers crumble only after a couple direct catapult strikes, rendering the otherwise 'impressive' look his castle has to utter rubble.
A great list! However, the Nizar's castle practically begs you to fire ballista it.
@@krrys_ exactly my point
Is it just me or you guys think all so think that sheriffs defence is the worst. His castle can't survive 1 fire ballista. Even rat can do that. You put his castle on fire and he never manages to put it out because he keeps placing buildings. You can literally make him useless with just 1 fire ballista.
Almost 20yrs old game and still alive being played today. One of the best classics and must play, even Stronghold Warlords are not on par on this for some reason.
No other Stronghold was ever on par with Crusader, though Warlords is the best one since years and extremely aesthetic as well.
Only if Stronghold Crusader is remade with tad good graphics + more cool lord dialogues with exact same gameplay it will be #1
Just remaster stronghold crusader with more troops, more characters, and more ways to get resourcers and i'll definitely buy it for sure!
@@The_Greens_you should play cossack's 3 in that case
@@cracknotgood I don't like any of the other Strongholds as much as Crusader, not even the original. My reason for this is it was the perfect combination of experience and sheer heart. The first was obviously the one they tried the hardest with, in no small part because of the fact they had to start from scratch. Crusader also has heart but has a lot more experience as well, more quality of life features and more lords, units, missions, etc. From there, the graphics improved but it feels like they got lazy. SHC2 is fun but it doesn't have the charm of the original.
The only problem I have with Crusader is that even by early 2000s standards, the graphics are ass. Compare it to other RTS games like AOE and its not even close
Finally somebody who appreciates my guy Emir. He spawns out a ton of Arabic swordsmen as if Allah calls them for an islamic crusade
LMAO
Lmao
A stupid disrespect for Islam we don't make fun of your religion and other religions because Allah prohibited us in the Islamic teachings from doing so and look how are you treating us
@@ahmedmohamad689 I'm trying so hard to figure out which part of it was offensive/disrespectful towards Islam, By that logic isn't Stronghold Crusader disrespectful towards Christianity?
@@Jefflenious damm
The problem with wolf is that 2 out of 5 of his castle designs are so crazy big that he either spends all gold on it or ends up stuck in it himself. either way everyone already gnaws on his castle before he even finishes it
Either he chocked himself to die, or a really powerhouse. Even then, his walls are useless in the eyes of assassins
In most of the matches some stone or iron makes a way open in to their castle bcz they r so big
I like the smallest castle with 2 towers
and the big one of 4 castles in front bcz that castle looks cool
@@shironee_2384 but he make moats in his biggest castle designs
Build huge or go home nigga.
The really big one with 3 thick af walls is useless even if you feed him 100k gold he doesn't have any space for economy in it
5:07 his qoute "Watch your back knight..." haunts me in dreams.
as every thing burns to ashes
АХАХАХАХАХААХАХАХАХАХА од детињства брате..
@@Povest1389 Ja pa volim calipha nekako mi je super lik hahaha, mada iskreno svi su super i igrica je sama odlicna
@@mrCvele Брате, буквално сам данас узео да играм Стронгхолд Крусејдер после дужег времена, и баш данас ми напишеш овај коментар, хахахаха. Најјача игрица икад. Поздрав брате!
@@Povest1389 ako oces mozemo zajedno da igram multiplayer 1v1 da se zezamo, taman mi fale ljudi :D
I got killed by Frederick once... Simply because I forgot he's in the game, so I was focusing on killing other lords on the other half of the map instead of looking out for my castle :D
lmao that sucks
kekw
Lol
💀💀
Wow you are sucks man💀💀💀 I'm sorry, it's just like Madara got beaten by Sakura
Great video. I mostly agree with the ranking as overall lords. I only disagree with the lion hearts placement as I think he might be slightly higher because his attack can be massive over time. And Saladin, he’s great but he’s terrible at putting out fires usually. Often times I light him up and his entire castle will burn as he keeps replacing building which then catch on fire tell he’s broke. So Saladin would be lower because of this. Again ty for the video. I love this old game. So many command and conquer games out there but not many with an actual economy like this one.
the only problem with Richard is, when we put the tower and destroy where he spawn his attack troops, He's basically useless
My personal ranking
1. Wolf
2. Saladin
3. Emir
4. Lionheart
5. Wazir
6. Nizar
7. Frederick
8. Sheriff
9. Abbot
10. Pig
11. Snake
12. Caliph
13. Philip
14. Marshal
15. Sultan
16. Rat
You got a point
why caliph so low? he is at least in top 8
Caliph is better then pig IMO
There's no way you would put Caliph below Snake. I can't respect this list.
I agree on everything except the Lion heart, he's too weak, I did a death match against him with Wazir and Wazir ended him, but I can respect your list.
I'm surprised Richard is so low given the explanation why Emir is first. Richard is basically Lord of Destruction in this game, he attacks often and HARD with tons of heavy units and siege equipment. He's the main reason why Thunder Hill is pure hell.
He only used a basic archer, not like wolf, wolf using crossbow
It is based on a 40000 starting gold game with perfect map lay out. If you go for a 4000 gold start is is probably the best lord in the game by far. Except for the Snake and Rat , he is the only one that can attack and finish his castle early.
ah, Thunder Hill. Spent quite some time there.
Yeah, I think Richard killed me more than any other lord combined in the campaign. Wolf is tanky IF he actually gets up his economy but rarely much of an offensive threat, by the time he attacks you usually have something going. Snake has probably been the second most dangerous to me iirc because of his eco harassment strat, I think he raids earlier and more frequently than Caliph does.
I always take Saladin as ally, then march on enemy castle together because he rarely refuses.
his troop production is really good, and above all Saladin is Wise my friend...
10/10 Would tend his camels.
Had a testmatch with Saladin and Emir as allies. And Emir did not as often refuse as Saladin did. At the end Saladin also burned up my Horse-Archers while sieging Wolfs-Castle with Fire-Ballista.
you forgot one glaring weakness of Wolf's: castle area. put him somewhere with loads of rivers or non-constructible tiles and he'll stop functioning altogether. I don't know if they have patched it, but the last time I played it was still that way.
also, a bit of idea: do you think ranking lords in terms of politeness would be interesting?
This is a disappointing weakness- his economy is often suffocated by his castle design.
@@jamesburtle3681 yup. imagine my surprise when I hear him defeated and rat laughs right after.
Rating the lords based how useful they are as an ally?
if you have like more than 1 Wolf in a game, chances are that one of them just turns his brain off 2 minutes into the match
@@fadhilyudistira8819 this actually made me laugh
As an old player of the game I approve of this list.
The only thing I hate about the AI in this game is when the map they play in small and then get stuck and can't build their economy nor defenses.
Yeah especially Wolf
It gets mostly fixed with the unofficial patch though.
I remember playing a 3-hours siege to bring down a fully build Wolf and still had a very hard time. Had to use every tricks in the book as it is a nightmare to even get close to his base. Still the best AI for me
Well what i do is make 200 hoursemen archers and make them round around his base and shoot arrorws so his army will die faster and make the assassind to kill him simple😊
It’s all about game knowledge. You can win against 7 wolfs teamed up in around 1-2 hours if you know how.
@@xPlatiinHD how
I just use a lot of horse archers, crossbowman, and catapults to bring any castle down lol
@@Schwainermitai LMAO
it hurts me so much that Frederick doesn't really play the game. Bu he did die before arriving in the holy land so maybe that explains it - He is already dead and all he left to his 2nd in command were some castle blueprints
Also the Abbot/Adhemar died of disease before the 1st crusade reached the lavant, at Antioch I think.
While Philip Augustus went back to France after reaching Acre or maybe Cyprus
I would've ranked Wolf to be number 1.
Emir's arab swordsmen spam is just a crossbow check, cuz they die easily.
He also doesn't have crazy defenses like pitch or killing pit, which makes killing him easy.
Also would've put Lionheart higher in the list due to his agressive siegeing habits. His siege attempts are on paar with Saladin at least, even though his castle is a joke.
But back to Wolf, no one gave me the same amount of grief as him. Even if you deplete his gold, he still has the best defense in the game imo, making sieges againts him the longest or second longest if you count moat digging time.
Also the Sheriff can be annoying with his fire ballistas, if left unchecked, but yes, his castle just calls for fire, *LET IT BURN* .
Hell I still can't believe I put Wolf #2 lmao, it's still a tough choice
But you're saying Emir's swordsmen spam is a crossbow check, that's true but that's basically every lord in the game. Emir makes so much more units compared to everyone else
What you said about Lionheart is true, he uses tunnelers and rams and not sure if he makes trebuchets too can't remember. Overall he hits harder but not that hard to deal with imo (Like Caliph and Nizar are both harder I think)
@@Jefflenious Yes, everything is dominated by crossbows, but it's doubly true for arabian swordsmen. But I can see if that's overwhelming for some players.
Nizar is only an issue, if I can't use, or haven't finished my moat. Caliph on the other hand is like the arabian version of Snake. More on the annoying than the harder side. When I face against him, I always destroy every tower of his, so I won't get burned. And because I like destroying him :)
@@proximityclockworkx1572 Arab swordmen die to 3 crossbow bolts too which is pitiful compared to swordmen and pikemen. And when you're good enough at the game that no lord can every really touch you, defense matters more. Wolf is the only lord who can still kill my first attack wave and I have to think before sieging.
@@Stevenbfg Weather you win in Stronghold or not usually only depends on the first minutes in my opinion. If you can defend at the start you always win, because once you build up you are invincible since the KI is so bad. Therefore Lords who attack the hardest early are the hardest to play against.
Syeriff has a great economy, i mean, he make ale, he make ton of workshop, also have religion building too, with bad factor that will be OP to gain gold. If he just put large tower there or water pot more, his castle will be more strong.
I once made a custom 3-player map where one player is unreachable and the other 2 face 1v1 in a balanced setting with all resources available. I used that map to make a AI 1v1 direct elimination tournament with the help of the website challonge. The 2 semi-finals ended up being Lionheart vs Nizar and Wolf vs Saladin won by Nizar and Saladin respectively. The Nizar ended up winning the tournament and the Wolf won the small final for the 3rd place. So I can confirm this video is pretty accurate.
If you use the UCP with the aggressive AI modifier this List gets turned on its head. The Abbot becomes such a top tier lord with it that he can easily compete with the top three.
hello, im super interested in this, where can I find this?
@@thomaspostma2329 look up firefly studios on RUclips there a video they posted on the ucp patch
I tried two different ucp and got errors on both. It didn’t work for me. Maybe it’s because I have a aiv editor?
When i was 10 y old, i always played 1v1 with The Wolf. I loved these 1v1s. I had so many freetime as a child cuz sometimes i played free-for-all with 7 same lord like 7 The Snake, 7 Lionhearth..then i coiped one's castle and played like him. The Pig's castle was my favorite.
yes i did the same thimg too. not only i copied their castle, but i copied their economy, military, and playstyle
Yep and i decided to follow the caliph castle design with a bit of upgrade version
Very cool ranking, but I would make the following changes:
1. Wolf
2. Saladin
3. Emir
6. Lionheart
7. Caliph
Who's number 4 and 5?
@@mohamedmido1498 same as the video!
Ok
agree with your list alot better, when I would put two saladins against me it was attack after attack lol
@@VPLewr this is wise
Wolf and Emir are really at the top. I dont really care how you put them on the list, I see them as equally strong at their own battle style
Emir is the Best. He send 70+ swordsmen after the 20 min.
What an honor, as the Emir is my favorite in the franchise. I think the Emir can afford a lot of arab swordsmen because he buys european archers, which means less gold spent on the arab counterpart. So for every european archer bought via fletcher shops, that’s 63 gold saved for spending on arab swordsmen.
Also it depends highly on map, i remember playing against fredrick who was in bottom left cornor.... But he builded gate facing that corner so he was base locked entire game
A obzvlášť tá misia so 7 Snake-mi
Horda podpalačov, katapultov a útočních vln - naviše zdroje sú ďaleko od hradu. Skrátka-
*🔥PEKLO🔥*
In my opinion Wolf is massively overrated. AI lords are a problem only in the early stages of the game, once you've properly set up your defences it doesn't make much of a difference whether you're being attacked by Saladin or Rat. And in early game you barely even notice Wolf's presence because he's too busy building his castle, 4 out of 5 times he doesn't do anything of significance in the game. On the other hand, Saladin is almost always a bit of a challenge (and Wolf's castles aren't really more difficult to destroy than Saladin's, they're only more tiresome), and Richard and Caliph are most of the time. Hell, even Pig is more likely to represent an existential threat before you get on your feet than Wolf.
In aggressive UCP Frederic is so op he can destroy some lords before I even finish my economy. Richard siege ability in aggressive UCP is insane aswell.
You read my mind, two days ago I was looking for an AI ranking
same here..
Same lol. I used to always think about doing a Crusader tier list / ranking but never did.
2 years I still play this game
I have a real weak spot for the Marshall. He tries to be competent but has just become too slow in his old age. I always try my best to keep him alive whenever I'm allied to him.
His small but effective armies help me secure a victory every now and then.
Also because he is based on Robert de Sablé he really doesn't have have the numbers to fight Saladin.
Thank you, old friend
I agree. Although I almost was gonna vote Wazir the Terrible as the hardest. I had a match with him that was an absolute nightmare. Seemed like his castle was complex and thick . And his unending troops he would send.. won’t ever forget it.
I really like the Marshall as an ally. I think it's his personality that I really like.
I would put Phillip above Sultan. At least his early Knight raid was annoying
Yeah that's a bit hard to judge, one has more potential with more gold and one's good with his knights
Bruh, i raided Sultan with 40 pikeman, i don't know that his Swordsman is actually more than 50,it ended massacre of my army
@@FarizyangHitam Sultan's emergency spam when he has a warchest is just absolutely insane, he is definitely better for that alone.
@@FarizyangHitam Yeah, I played recently and he hit me with the same thing. I hereby take back my words. It's just his economy sucks. How do you put so much units in one spot like the AI do anyway?
Personally my top 5 of AI opponents to play against would look as follows:
1) functioning Wolf - especially in the end game hard to conquer and massive attacks
2) Wazir, bc of the horse archers and the solid defence (fire, etc)
3) functioning Nizar, strong defence bc digging is just bugged. Also assasins can be so anoying if there are other AI opponents in the game.
4) Richard, attacks extremly early in the Game, however poor defence
5) Saladin, well balanced AI
The thing about Saladin compared to other lords is the fact that he could somehow find a way to flourish and become the economical powerhouse among other lords, even when every lords including himself has little to no resource.
Edit: I forgot about the Emir. And, yes, Emir is somewhat similar to Saladin, except attack much more often.
Agreeing with most, though sometimes its situational and can vary. Just wanted to add that the Sheriff once performed the most impressive attack I've ever witnessed a bot do. He used assassins to capture a Caliphs gatehouse, cleaned the walls with macemen and then killed him with another wave of macemen. To be fair, the Caliph was already quite damaged before the attack, but its still impressive how smartly the Sheriff did it. He might not be very aggressive, but he is relatively intelligent.
I'd love to see a Lord ranking list in terms of Lord vs Lord instead of Lord vs Human.
" Prints units " that explains a lot now 😂
"He's basically Frederick if he was playing the game."
God damn, as someone who played this game growing up, I could never relate so close to something like that even if I tried. Made me damn laugh too.
Funnily the guy based on him died in a River and didn't really contributed much to the 3rd Crusade.
But even in that state Saladin diverted a lot of his forces to face an army that doesn't exist or at least one that disbanded.
BTW
The other lords based on real people not including the obvious 2 includes
King Philip Augustus is Philip (Arch rival to King Richard and left the 3rd crusade early possibly because of internal issues back home.)
Emperor Frederick Barbarossa as mentioned
The Marshal is probably Robert de Sablé Grandmaster of the Knights Templar.
Nazir is likely based on Rashid al-Din Sinan Old man on the Mountain and Master of the Order of Assassins/Hasashim
The Emir is probably Al-Adil I Saladin's Brother who administrated Egypt during the Crusades (one of the richest places in the medieval world)
The Caliph is probably Nur ad-Din Sultan of the Zegrid dynasty (srry he was actually Saladins ally but he was known to be fairly brutal.) but he died before the 3rd Crusade so it could be others who disliked Saladin before his rise to power.
The Abbot is probably Adhemar de Le Puy the defacto Bishop organizer of the 1st crusade.
The Sheriff is of course the Sheriff of Nottingham who in turn was based on William de Wendenal
And lastly the Wasir again he could be one of the many enemies Saladin had during his Rise to power after Nur ad-Din's death. (fun fact Saladin started out as a Vizier of Egypt)
@@forickgrimaldus8301 Wow, thanks for all of this! I knew some things already, but I love it when people spill this much background/possibly unknown info about the characters (some) in the game.
Thanks to the youtube algorithm for this, nice content mate
In my opinion, I ranked Saladin higher than Emir because...
- While Emir's attack is frequent and high in military power, Saladin's attack is much more tactical despite of smaller siege force.
- Saladin's fortress contains more various equipments which are quite helpful against enemy's siege engines. Although Emir's castle is stronger and more imposing.
Moreover, Saladin's economy strength allowed him to recover quickly after his city suffered major destruction, unless he get overwhelmed by number of enemy lords (in chapter 78 for example).
But he has too many buildings for a castle that is too small.
20 slaves are enough to burn down his entire castle.
Just burn a building outside. His whole castle is on fire and he will fuel the fire by rebuilding these buildings.
Saladdin weakness is fire, i tried burning his castle one, and he didn't even try to put it down
Very good list
A tip Against saladin I always do the same thing and its very efective, I put 100 slaves /100 horse archer and 50 assassin. slaves go on first and i start a massive fire in his Castle so he doesnt make any more units and it stops the economy then i send the horse archers to clear the towers once most of the buildings collapse because of the fire I send in the assassins and i always kill him he doesnt have time to defend.
I usually do this after he atacks me because he has less units defending is castle
Now its time to rank their personality, I guess. I would watch it at least!
Mine would be:
1. Richard
2. Emir
3. Snake
4. Caliph (actually)
5. Marshall
6. Saladin
7. Sultan
The rest doesn't really matter that much
Although I really like when Wazir is an ally, and you defeat someone, he says "you killed one of our enemies, *leave the next to me!"* it's quite awesome
Another cool thing about him is when we send our men to help he will tell don't make ur men die for me.I think he is a good guy
I've been playing the Crusaders' stronghold for 10 years, but the clip helped me very much and I will rely on it to make the fight interesting. Thank you🌹
the combo of snake and caliph is like the number 1 threat to any lord i think
not if you have bunch of archery . But i knew it was a troublesome cause they send so many slave and fire things to burn.
At the On the Edge level, we will fight Abbot and Marshal who are in an alliance, I immediately recruited an assassin to kill the marshal and then played normally. but then abbot made a mistake that cost himself, the defense of his castle made troops and workers unable to get out, but I'm confused why his gold is always a lot, that's why he recruited a lot of Monks totaling 1400 more I made a lot of archers if only he could get out, but still he lost🤣, I'm just surprised how many Monks piled up in his kingdom
literally had the same thing happen to me 2 hours ago I was so confused he had like 2000 monks
The just and powerful Lord in this game is Saladin Than Emir ,Wolf ,Loinheart
Generally speaking, your arguments seem compelling. However, my personal ranking, based on my experience, would be different. E.g., I found the new european lords less strong than the old Pig and Snake. In particular, I think they're quite more aggressive, so they can be a really pain in the ass in early games. Instead, King Philip, Frederik and the Marshall are quite passive, other than weak "economists". The Abbot is more aggressive, and his defence is sturdy, but relying on the monks alone can be dangerous against ranged troops like archers or crossbowers. Only the Sheriff can be considered as a reliable enemy.
Otherwise, I agree with you about the arab characters. In particular, I found the Emir who more than the other characters "wants to win": not only his defence and economy are solid, but his attacks are frequent and reasonable. Instead, Wolf has the stronger defence and a good economy, but his attacks are unusual and very sloooowwww. As regards Saladin, he often reachs a good balance between a strong defence and a mighty economy (the strongest IMHO), but his attacks are weak, even if more frequent than Wolf's.
This is my personal ranking:
1. Emir (basically the Sultan with much more attitude towards war, he is a very dangerous enemy)
2. Wolf (the most resistent castle and a good economy knowledge, if only his attacks would be more frequent and less predictable...)
3. Sultan (the best lord in terms of building a solid economy, very good defensive skills but his attacks are not so dangerous)
4. Richard (good offensive and defensive skills, however his attacks are a little bit slow and predictable even if frequent)
5. Nizar (maybe the worst lord to fight if you're unable to dig a moat, good defensive skills even without walls, try to believe)
6. Pig (the good old Pig relies only in macemen and crossbowmen, who are, IMHO, among the best troops in terms of efficiency as well as of gold and weapons required)
7. Wazir (average defensive skills, he's one of the few characters who knows the military strenght of the horse archers, if only his attacks would be more frequent...)
8. Sheriff (he has a good defence and a diversified economy, however he has just average offensive skills)
9. Caliph (one of the characters who loves the most to destroy your economy and burn your troops, but his castle and his economy are not so resistent)
10. Abbot (his tower and his economy are very solid, but his attacks are predictable and his monks are too exposed to ranged troop's offensives)
11. Snake (his defence and economy are not a real threat, but he often tries to hinder your economy by burning buildings with slaves and enrolling a lot of archers and spearman)
12. Frederik (solid walls, but very few ranged troops to be a reliable defender)
13. Marshall (balanced strategy, but he attacks with very few troops and he always leaves one side of his castle undefended)
14. Abdul (the weakest economy and defence, even if his attacks are frequent and his troops always gain a +25% bonus)
15. King Philipp (literally a Mouse that has discovered swordsmen and stronger towers)
16. Mouse (senseless management of troops and economy)
by 3.Sultan ,i think you meant Saladin? cause if not then why did you put him up there or even count him twice in 14.Abdul?
solid comment tho. i agreed on almost everything. except that i think Caliph is higher than Sheriff.
@@lordsnia2152 Yes, Sultan is Saladin, I must admit that it was easy to make confusion. BTW, maybe I fough not enough battles against the Sheriff. The gap between him and the Caliph is not so large. Certainly the Caliph is the perfect annoyer, but with some sieges his castle fall down quickly.
your description of Phillip brought smile to my face.
@@fabriziocorona3588 you could also write the rodent, it would be hilarious lol
@@lordsnia2152 yess to bring down caliph's towers you need a constant attack of catapult because he will rebuild it again quickly until he runs out of gold. But for sheriff it only need one fire ballista and he is basically crippled
Totaly agree with the list emir is op as hell but i put the wolf on the 1 place with emir ans the sultan stop playing got me 😆
Your channel is growing fast congrats man!!
Thanks to you guys it is!
I kind of have to disagree with you on wolf and emir. Arabian lords could simply be held at bay with cross bow men shields and balistae. Maybe some regular archers for faster shots when it comes to slaves.
European troops take way more punishment from crossbowmen and can brute force their way through. Also wolf has much better defended castles.
Spawn with 7 wolves with 2k gold, ez. Spawn with 7 snakes with 2k gold, have a nice time putting out the fire every 5 seconds if you can even build anything that doesn't get on fire instantly
From what I remember Snake has potential to be the most annoying lord for beginners on 2k gold starts when starting positions are close (which as a single player person I would consider the standard).
My 3 strongest lord is Wolf, Caliph, and Wazir. Especially when you're so close to them and they have complete the castle. Oh My Not fire again
Yeah caliph and wolf are the strongest but for me wazir is very easy to play against
@@МомчилГеоргиев-ш4е I must agree with you mate. In close match up, the hardest ai for me is wolf, caliph and probably saladin. Wazir is much better in offense but his defense isn't that good imo
That feeling when you push up on caliph, get closer and closer, you think you got all the fire units, it seems like you are clear of the pitch... then you hear it. WHOOOOOOOOOSH
I can't believe Lionheart is so low but your arguments - true.
About Emir... i can't get him №1. when he attacks fortified castle - his horse archers stayed out and attack when the walls are already destroyed, but unlike him, the wolf doesn't leave his crossbows without attack.
What I do to defeat wolf is that just killing his archers with my horse archers and with help of assassins I put my own archers on his towers (with braziers) and rest is just using some meele units to kill him
It's... acceptable
Even tho Emir's agreesion is high, you could add yet another thing: "Strenght of attacking army" or something like that.
All you need against Emir are crossbowmans.
If Wolf have unlimitted resources and enough space, then it's for sure number 1, but because he likes to build enormous castles, he can't finish them because of the map, he also won't be able to build his perfect economy, because he either decided to place walls over grasslands, stone or iron, rather than use them properly or the map doesn't have that much of it. He is sometimes even weaker than Richard.
I have seen them against each other. I tried to put them in groups of 4. Emir is by far the most dangerous especially when aided by Wazir and Caliph.
This comment indeed made me reconsider my thoughts that saladin>emir. So I made them fight as groups of 3. 3 emir vs 3 saladin. If you put 4v4 then it becomes a keep to keep battle. I should try that aswell. Anyway they fought 2 times with 2k starting gold on fair maps. Saladins won both of them.
For me, the far i love to make my ally is Saladin and Lionheart. They rarely refuse to help me if i need guard (send bunch of troops) and attack when i need to...
The worst ally for me is Caliph . He just sucks and egoistic lord . Someday i need help and he got bunch troops , but he doesn't want to... He's a lord who aren't listening to order. Even sultan who's poor lord would help to if urgent...
lol
True. Emir is one that HARD to defense against when his waves like never end.
Sorry, but he's only difficult to defeat if you only use melee soldiers 😅
@@ramos4461 for me, i always send him archer-horse. As much as i can have. Hahahaha
@@efendiyang7030 shame on you, you are evil! Horse archers are evil! They are exploit and imbalance incarnate!!
Hahahaha. Thank you by the way Ramos. Have nice day there.
@@efendiyang7030 you too 😂
Thank you for keeping this game alive
I would rank Frederick higher and still would put Wolf in first, even tho it’s a fair point that Frederick is not as good against humans coz he is so slow. Still Arabian swordsmen fall so easily , especially against crossbowmen, that’s why I would rank the sultan below Philip and emir behind Wolf and Saladin.
I’ve actually did a head to head match spectating the wolf and Frederick on canola stronghold crusader Frederick beats the wolf almost every time!
@@The_Dodge_Meister I did the same thing, but had a completely different outcome...
What kind of castle did the wolf build?
@@ramos4461 he built his huge castle Frederick beat wolf because of his knights he destroyed all his stone production and outside economy and wolf went broke and then slowly Frederick finally destroyed him
@@ramos4461 the knights are the big game changer imo wolf used horse archers Frederick uses knights
@@The_Dodge_Meister If you put it like that, it sounds doable, but in my experience Frederick takes forever to finally be able to use knights and they die quickly due to crossbowfire from above.
I dunno man, maybe you just got real lucky with Frederick's performance 😅
As a Stronghold Crusader fan, I loved your video!
Personally, I think ya'll are sleeping on the Pig. I've also never had any problems with the Nizar, 30-50 arabic swords knocking down his EXPOSED gates kills him every time for me. But that's just my opinion
1. Saladdin
2. Wolf
3. Caliph
4. Emir
5. Wazir
6. Nizar
7. Lionheart
8. Pig
9. Frederick
10. Sheriff
11. Abbot
12. Marshal
13. Phillip
14. Sultan
15. Snake
16. Rat
The Rat and the Snake are the most annoying Lords for me because of their hypocrite nature. They would just spam you with their bratty speeches and then when you make a slight move they suddenly start worshipping you. 😤
Saladin and Emir are my go-to allies because of their soft nature and great war tactics.👑
The Caliph is annoying but easily manageable. All you need is some mangonels to break through his lookouts and he's as good as done. 🤗
The Wolf and Emperor Fredrick have the coolest character. "We move from strength to strength." - I love that delivery. 😅❤
The Virgin Vanilla Marshal:
-Slow grampa
-Doesn't even buy weapons
-Big snore fest
-Cool knights, are they gonna attack or just sit there?
The Chad UCP Marshal:
-Woah there, slow down, gramps!
-Figured out how the marketplace works
-Actually aggro
-Why are there 12 knights heading my way!? We just started!
I'd like to see a enemy lord playoff bracket on a custom map tuned for it. Start off with matches like #1 emir vs. #16 rat and #2 wolf vs. #15 phillip
"Here comes the fire lord" I cracked up
I've done that on my custom map named spectators. I usually pit similar strength lords against each other like Sultan vs Rat and Lionheart vs Saladin.
Most cool thing about the snake that he is some times makes his castle like s word
Sultan's biggest weakness is digging moat.... He has no unit to fill the moat...
also his buildings outside of castle, so easy to burn him with few slaves.
The Snake should have an aggression of 5/5 because he is ALWAYS on the offensive.
Original Crusader:
1) Saladin - Very strong early, mid and late game. Powerful economy, great at recovery. Strong diversity in units, between mobility & expensive troops. Great with few resources. Great defense. Usually Saladin wins most match ups due to him quickly expanding in reliable resources, having enough troops to defend early to avoid being crippled. Only falls to players with more resources or have been less attacked or a Wolf that's late game with a strong economy, however location usually determines the outcome.
2) Wolf - Not #1 Because his base takes forever to complete & inconveniences him. Saladin & Caliph have a waaaay better early game that's usually enough to cripple him. Slow recovery once injured. Expensive large armies. If he has a strong foothold his base is extremely strong and armies large.
3) Caliph - Well balanced aggressive player. Loves to make people suffer. Majority of army is rush in and burn. Against great defense player like Saladin most of his troops is lost by archers. Economy holds him back late game. (Usually Ranks below Saladin, only beats Wolf early, outclasses the rest).
4) Lionheart - Great economy. Strong expensive troops. Lack of troops defending base is his downfall. Does not have the aggressive nature of people above him. If crippled early, lack of troops and slow recovery is usually his downfall. If he has a strong foothold his army can contest a Wolf.
5) Pig - Slow start, Very powerful with loads of gold. Very expensive troops, lack of diversity and mobility when it comes to ranged units. Loses most of army due to archers and aggression, once macemen wait on crossbows to join fights. Pig can contest with Lionheart and an early Wolf, but archers from above usually cripples him.
6) Snake - Low defense, quality of troops. Aggressive with a burn strategy. (Overpowers Rat and Sultan with sheer quantity of troops).
7) Sultan - Passive, Economy Medium (Okay with few resources), Defense & troops bad.
8) Rat - Aggression Hard, Economy Bad, Quality of troops Poor, Defense Pathetic.
pretty good list
I agree but I would switch 3 and 4. Lionheart beats Caliph lord vs Lord anyway.
@@somber8233 I have ran several simulations of the players. Testing with little gold, many gold, few resources, many resources. Bases starting close to each other & far. Little troops, many troops at start.
In most cases, if they start next each other Caliph over powers with his amount of archers. If Lionheart immidiately rushed with his swordsmen he can win, but never really does.
On low resources Lionheart takes up to 15 min to get a solid economy... More than enough time for Caliph to cripple his resources and granary with fire
The only way Lionheart wins is if they're far away and starting on plenty gold OR if there are other opponents that takes Caliph's attention while Richard builds his economy.
Caliph has plenty of archers surrounding his base (much more than Lionheart) and over powers in medium range. Rarely plenty of archers are sent in long distances, only slaves... Which allows Richard to stand up against him.
As the game progresses and drags out both players with send more and more troops with each invasion. Its only then that the amount of Richard's swordsman will overpower Caliph and can sometimes take up to 6 hours of gameplay.
Caliph wins 7/10 of their match ups.
@@eksteinmalan3517 Interesting. My tests were a long time ago and I might be biased towards Lionheart But I do remember Lionhearts siege being mostly unchecked because the Caliph only uses lookout towers and so Lionheart would just pound on his towers and walls unchecked with his large amounts of catapults and trebs.
I'll test again in more scenarios.
@@somber8233 Yes, that's the scenario how Richard wins at far distance with a stable economy. His offence is great overtime but unfortunately he severely lacks in defence (amount of archers on towers).
Once he's up and running Caliph send too few archers to take down his defence. And yes he just bombards with catapults.
Let me know how the simulations go and what version of Stronghold Crusader you use? I'm curious if they buffed him.
"I am sorry But freddy sucks " this thing got me 😂
Dude, please review it again with bots, but with the improvement of the unofficial patch. It's just that the abbot, marshal and frederick have such military passivity due to the lack of buying weapons. The emir does not buy bows either, but this does not bother him in any way.
I think it would just move Richard and Frederick a bit higher on the list, rest should be the same
@@Jefflenious I remember skipping school in 2009 playing Warchest. I really did not like that half of the new bots did not buy weapons: because of this, Frederick and Marshal attacked for a long time and saved money, and if they were in mortal danger, they would not have been. You always need to quickly buy weapons for money (+5 like bots are bought) and fight back, you know what I mean?
Economy: 5/1
Aggresion: 5/1
Defense: 5/0
my gob, this is even worse than month-day-year time format
The best solution for emir's swordsman spam is some fire throwers on a low wall maze
Or produce crossbowmen. Larger range and more accurate. Plus lower cost.
Richard the Lionheart was the greatest hero of the Crusades
Saladin is the Western name of Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, the Muslim sultan of Egypt and Syria who famously defeated a massive army of Crusaders in the Battle of Hattin and captured the city of Jerusalem in 1187. At the height of his power, he ruled a unified Muslim region stretching from Egypt to Arabia.
but in the game wolf is number 1
Me : Wolf why you still not attack?
Wolf : My castle is not fancy enough to build an army.
Me : Omg you the worst AI companion.
True story when you play with the Wolf, he will ask you for everything.
Glad to see this game still alive... I still remember my dead uncle was played that game.
Rest in peace
I always thought about doing a video like this but never did. Have a lot of disagreements though. Don't think Frederick sucks as much as you claim and AI battles prove this where he'll always beat Lionheart who you claim is a better version. Emir for me is nowhere close to number 1. He attacks frequently yes but his attacks don't hit as hard as some others and his defenses are kind of mediocre. I don't really have to step back and think before attacking him like one of Wolfs big castles. Abbot is also quite underrated and has a stronger economy than you think. For me through study of attack, defense, economy and AI battles, my top 16 are:
16: Rat
15: Sultan
14: Phillip
13: Snake
12: Marshall
11: Pig
10: Sheriff
9: Abbot
8: Caliph
7: Nizar
6: Lionheart
5: Emir
4: Frederick
3: Wazir
2: Saladin
1: Wolf
I answered you another comment, this isn't about which AI can beat the other AIs, It's about which AI is harder to play against. (Because I believe that's a different list)
That's true if it was about that Emir would be so much lower and sure Frederick can probably beat Lionheart in a 1v1 match.
Problem is Frederick is too slow at playing the game, just load up the game give him 40K gold and watch him play. It takes him ages to get going and that's what makes him drop in the list for me. Eventually he might become even better than Lionheart but honestly it's not difficult to play against him at all.
Emir's defenses are not special right, but I'm not sure about him not hitting as hard as the others. Out of all the Arabian Lords he and Wazir hit the hardest in my opinion (And if we count European Lords Wolf and Richard could be somewhere up there as well), But ofc Wolf and Richard are both not as aggressive as Wazir and Emir, and the main difference between Wazir and Emir is that Wazir runs out of gold due to his poor economy while Emir never stops attacking the player
Also you mentioned Abbot, His economy and defenses are good and he attacks very frequently due to the low gold cost of monks. But his attacks are only monks, If he had better units he would be so much higher on the list but I don't think he's better than Pig or Sheriff (Maybe better than Marshal though)
@@Jefflenious Monks are actually quite underrated. They're better to use against crossbowmen than arab swordmen due to taking the same number of bolts but being slightly faster and can take down walls much faster too. Abbot amasses a pretty big army of Monks too to compensate. As for Frederick, the problem is he doesn't buy swords and shields (Marshall has the same problem). If you put him in a map with plenty of iron in close proximity, he produces troops much faster due to quicker weapon production. The unofficial patch even fixes the weapon buying problem and easily puts him in top 3, although I suppose that technically wouldn't count as its "unofficial" for a reason.
I never seen some of this lords before. My first game i had at my first PC(long ago), was a CD with this game. But looks different.
Btw, love your content, bring a lot of memories of me and my uncle playing it.
- i like having the abbot as an enemy because his castle design allows me to spam siege towers, and then rush archers up his castle on his own towers.
- Emir i find is the also the most responsive lord in terms of defending you when order, and despite me being irritated at being sandwiched with him in "We're Surrounded!" his aid was invaluable in that mission and earned my eternal respect, as did his frickin character. His taunts and responses are frickin hilarious. "My date farms wilt, my camels grow barren and you.... Well! I can at least do something about you!"
- However, I must profess that between the Wolf and the Emir, while i find their aggression nearly equal to deal with, its their castles which make the Wolf leagues ahead of the Emir, solely because Emir can't build tower ballistae which makes sieging him a bit less stressful. Trebs outrange mangonels and if properly setup his mangonel towers will be down in no time. Other than that you can just spam pults and/or set the inside base on fire once you lure the swordsmen off his keep. After that its a matter of ensuring keep troops are dealt with especially the oil pot engineers.
- Trying catapult spam against the Wolf on the other hand still leaves all the nasty crossbowmen, oil pots and armored units atop the keep, and i've had many sieges fail just because of them alone as without hefty arrow spam they tend to murder any invading force and any amount of pults by their lonesome.
- Plus between the two of them the Wolf just has the best failed siege taunt. "You ah weak, and not fit ta cammand an army!" just bites you to the bone after said keep troops decimate your masses of crossbowmen, pikemen and swordsmen. Although credit has to be given, "Hot rain, what a fight!" is just as awesome to hear.
- Any opponent which uses positive fear factor scares me for some reason. I think its because of Misty River.
- any lord that uses oil pot engineers or fire throwers atop their keep earns my eternal irritation.
I'm not exactly sure I'd call Wolf's castles leagues ahead of anyone.
Many of them are poorly defended and weak against a tower + macemen combo. Wolf is also notoriously slow. I remember playing a game against him. He had 40 grand, I had 3 grand. After a while I had 26 grand, he had 46 grand and I was attacking.
And in anything other than deathmatch he's literally useless, because he cannot build his castle fast enough due to the sheer cost of it.
Good to see I'm not just the only stronghold addict 😆❣️❣️❣️
I agree with your ranking but i will swap emir and saladins place
The Sheriff is NOT on the level of the Pig. Neither is he better in defense than Richard. He positions his crossbows to shoot his own people, rather than enemy's. Most of his AI Castles have just 1 Gate, securing the outer ring of his economy.
His own castle makes him worse than the rat. No joke. Sure you can't attack him from the back, but he puts all his weakest Parts on the Front, and due to the paths he creates for his workers to walk, that if his front closes he is done in seconds. A lot of enemy's glitch out at his Front Wall, since its so huge that the preparation to attack him literally means every one waits to attack him directly at his wall, the gate closes, he has no income and so much to lose since he is never on good popularity, sells taxes and has his people frightened. So if you just close his Gate, because even one archer standing in the shadows at his gate, just kills em. Noone of his crossbows reaches, his time to recover from a gate closed is almost always as long as it takes for anyone to attack him again and he is literally a sitting duck that MAY send out some small amounts of units to harass, but the rat killed him so far every time.
I have experienced a lot with the KI, and I don't like any meta. I love the weak units to see if they try. But by God is the sheriff bad. I love em, but you can't tell me he is top 10 anywhere. The only time I'd say he is under the top 10, is for the art of his Castles. It looks super cool, but I must say there is no weaker force than this guy
He mainly got there because he's annoying to siege, compared to the previous lords
Since none of the previous lords hit that hard he got there
Also he's not better than Richard, his defenses are gimmicky he burns his own buildings to stop attacks while Richard's defenses are actually reliable
7:56 Do a video on that too
Hey dude, just discovering you channel and I am really enjoying the content so far. Stronghold is such a fun game!
One note I’d like to add though is I am not a fan of the text to voice chat. You should really try to record with your voice and everyone will naturally get to know your personality better!
Can you PLEASE explain why lords lose if you woodcutter's hut at their gates?
By the way, this video explains the things as they are, no wrong stuff :D
Not the most in-depth explanation but basically their pathfinding and stuff doesn't work anymore so they think they can't access the outside world and they're trapped in their castle forever
And I'm pretty sure you can't attack that woodcutter's hut even if you're a human lord (Units get stuck inside the gate) but well even if you can, surely the AIs can't figure it out lol
@@Jefflenious XD, thanks for the exaplanation
I remember when i was younger i played this game and i wasnt best (XD) my favourite lord was Lionheart because he always gave me resources, and ofc wolf because he is master in everything.
Hey I've seen some people particularly in the German community make custom AI and I think some of them were just them in their play style... That would make a interesting video for sure if you found them... By that I mean translate their websites lol😁
Das stimmt, unsere KIs sind bester Qualität und bereit, den Osten zu erobern...🙊
I missed this game!!!😢😢😢 I wish we had this.....only now that I grown that I realized how wonderful, interesting and good this game was and is.
I think Abbot has one of the strongest defense in the game
A very thick walls, good for him.. his monk army are a joke tho, they're just huge in number, slightly better than spearman
Frederick is indeed a sleepy lord but when he attacks I once counted 120 units at my castle and this is slowly expanding. He can make the biggest wave anyone has ever seen.
Saladin should benno1 or 2 and wolf also emir should be no3 its so easy to defeat emir
Emir's not good at defense but he's the best at attacking, but the other two are better at defense
Might do one ranking for each castle design. Expect Wolf to dominate that list lol
An interesting note about the Snake: One of his castle designs has him accidentally blocking off his entrances so his workers and units can’t even get around.
16. The Rat
15. Phillip
14. Marshal
13. Sultan
12. The Snake
11. Abbot
10. The Pig
9. Nizar
8. Caliph
7. Sheriff
6. Lionheart
5. Wazir
4. Emir
3. Frederick
2. Saladin
1. The Wolf
man you inspire me to replay the again in 2023 this game is a masterpace
couldn't agree more great video to watch
I love how you put Saladin with his title
When I was a kid I loved Sultan and shit my pants playing against Sheriff, but the lord I liked the most was definitely Marshal, due to cool-looking castle design and usage of mounted knights.
thumbs up for unpopular opinion ☺
Would you make a video about ranking AI lords about which one of good for being your ally? Like if they would give you supply if you need them, or help you out if things went badly
I can confidently say that caliph or wolf is in rock bottom
Ok,
So I have never realized anything special about the emir up until this discussion. An attack is not just about spamming some useless slow units and sending them my way.
While there are two types of attacks, (attrition and strong attacks) emir performs poorly on both. Caliph, and Saladin perform the best attrition attacks and wolf and lionheart then saladin and Nazir perform the best strong attacks.
Early on (the really crucial part of the game), either type of attacks can break you. Lionheart sometimes sends you a single catapult that can make your life hell. Neither wazir nor emir ever made my life hell in early or mid game.
In terms of defense my ranking is wolf then caliph then saladin then wazir and nazir.
No one else survives my boring standard attack of 100-120 macemen (+ 8-24 knights if my economy allows it).
Emir could be taken by even fewer macemen if I remember correctly.
Wolf’s only weakness is lack of adaptability or versatility as many have pointed out. That could be fixed if someone can patch it up to favor his smallest castle in some situations. However it is much easier to penetrate.
Overall, for me
1) Wolf
2) Saladin
3) Caliph
4) Nazir/Lionheart ( lionheart requires another AI closer to shield him)
5) Wazir/emir
Then everyone else
I loved this game about 15-20 years ago. It consumed my life back then 🤣