Combat is an essential part of Stronghold Kingdoms™, and is the only way to defeat enemies and remove AI threats.
Attacking[]
Troops are required to attack an AI enemy or another player, and are created in the barracks screen of your village. Each troop usually requires gold, a weapon and a free peasant. In all cases, barring armed peasants, before new troop types may be created, research is required. See Units and the research, Command.
To attack a target:
1. On the world map, select one of your villages by clicking on the yellow shield above it.
2. Next, click on the target you wish to attack.
3. A dialogue box will appear to the right of the screen, offering several options - select attack.
4. Choose which troops to attack with from the right-hand panel, and place them anywhere outside the white line of the castle.
5. Hold the left mouse button and drag to select groups of troops which are already placed. Right clicking will place these troops in a new area. By selecting catapults which are placed, you can direct their fire at a specific target.
Alternatively, you can load a saved attack formations. In order to save an attack formation, select manage formations on the left hand side after placing your troops and then select save formation. In order to load a saved formation, select deploy formation.
6. Once you are happy with your layout, click launch attack.
Various attack options will now be presented to you, depending on your research and your rank:
Symbol | Description |
---|---|
Capture allows you to capture the village you are attacking. To succeed, you must reach the centre of the keep and have a captain which survives the battle. You must have a vacant village spot for the capture option to be available. Researching Leadership allows players to capture more villages. | |
Raze allows you to eliminate the village you are attacking. To succeed, you must reach the centre of the keep and have a captain which survives the battle, and be of Rank 16 (Knight) or higher (Legacy Mode) or Rank 19 (Earl) or higher (Era Mode). | |
Pillage allows you to steal a certain percentage of goods from the village you are attacking. You can select the type of goods you wish to steal, and which percentage. The higher the percentage, the longer your troops must spend inside the castle's white line in order to succeed. | |
Ransack allows you to destroy buildings in the village you are attacking. Researching Ransacking will allow you to attempt to destroy more buildings. The actual number of buildings destroyed in a ransack attack will be a random number between 1 and the number of buildings which you set out to destroy. (If you try to ransack five buildings, you may successfully ransack up to five, but you may also only ransack one, two, three or four buildings.) Troops must stay within the castle's white line for a set amount of time for the attack to be successful. The more buildings you attempt to ransack, the longer this time becomes. | |
Vandalise allows you to damage the castle you are attacking. During this attack, troops will simply continue attacking until they reach the keep. | |
Gold Raid can only be used if you are in charge of a capital and steals gold from other capitals. During this attack, troops will simply continue attacking until they reach the keep. |
All attacks against human players cost honour - the amount is dependent upon the other player's rank; the higher your rank and the lower the rank of the player you are attacking, the higher the honour cost to you. You may go into negative honour (lose more honour points than you actually have) after an attack; however, you will not be able to attack again until you're back into positive honour.
Attack Screen[]
Outgoing Attacks by clicking on the different columns in the top bar. These will allow you to sort the order in which the attacks are displayed by arrival time ,target village,source village and a specific type of unit.
You can also arrange incoming attacks by source village, target village and arrival time.
Attack Targets Window[]
The Attack Targets button on the World Map Screen,above the Map Filtering button, will open The Attack Targets Window.
The Attack Targets Window opens a screen which displays the 30 recent locations attacked on one side and the targets you have marked as favourite on the other. In order to mark a target as a favourite you will have to tick the star in the upper right corner before you send your attack. You can also mark places you have scouted as a favourite by ticking the star on the right side of the scouting screen.
Defence[]
Creating a well-defended castle is the key to Stronghold Kingdoms™. A weak castle may eventually be attacked, which could result in a lost village if the attack is a raze or capture. Successful AI attacks generally result in a loss of honour, plus goods and buildings if a pillage or ransack command is used.
Initially, upgrading the keep by researching Castellation will help to kill or weaken enemy units. Enemies need to reach the keep in order to raze the castle, therefore, defending the keep is absolutely vital. Researching Fortification allows access to wooden walls, stone walls and eventually, towers - all of which help to defend the castle. A well-constructed castle with stone walls and well-placed towers can withstand most attacks.
Researching Defences allows guard houses to be built in the castle, which in turn increase the castle's capacity for defensive troops. Researching Defences further will make guard houses more resistant to attacks.
TIP: Only human enemies can capture or raze a castle.
TIP: The castle cannot be completely enclosed without a gatehouse.
TIP: Do not underestimate the usage of pikemen in defending your castle. Putting them on aggressive outside the direct keep will increase your defences by a lot.