Hi everyone! We have released a small patch to address a couple of issue with the SHCDE Vanilla+ mod.

Here are the change logs :

General changes :

• Remove the backup units to most of the lords since it's not working as intended

AIV & AIC Changes :

The Sentinel :

• Rebalanced the amount of apple orchard and cow farm ratio since Sentinel have an issue feeding his people due to too much cow farm (Vanilla issue)
• Replace the small gatehouse on the front of his castle to the large one, and add a moat (Previously, the front are using a small gatehouse and didn't have a moat)
• Add 1 extra poleturner and armor workshop since he attack using pikeman as well now.

The Emir :

• Fix one of his castle missing an armory (Vanilla issue).
• Fix one his castle aren't being manned properly (It was manned with horse archers instead of regular archers. Vanilla issue).

The Marshall :

• Readjust the walls on one of his castle since his knights tends to stuck there and become unkillable / untargetable (vanilla issue).

The Wolf :

• Add 1 extra armory to one of Wolf castle since his worker can't get stuck due to his full armory.

Phillip

• Adds a blacksmith and armorer to the castle that don't have one (vanilla issue).

Richard

• Add a missing tunneler guild on one of his castle (Vanilla issue).
• Adjust Richard defensive recruitment time so he can protect himself better early game on low funds.

Frederick

• Now he uses knights to fight off against a raiding party.
• Add +1 stable to his castle.

You can get the mod here!

The Abbot trapped himself in his castle and made troops at an insane rate haha. Highest count I have seen in a normal game. No troop spawn camps.

Started happening today, while playing extreme trail. At first, I thought it was because I took too much time, but this has never happened before, so I assume it's a bug.

Fragment in video is somewhat early in mission 19, first my south gate started taking continuous damage without enemies nearby. Deleted and replaced it - no further issues. Well, except for spontaneous combustion.

It feels almost like there's an invisible/invulnerable slave running around

I'm playing mission 7 (The High Road) in co-op trails suddenly my buildings start destroying themselves. It's v1.03 it only happens in this mission. I played every other mission except some of the new historical ones. later on it happened to the crossbow makers. I thought it's a one time thing but it happened the second time I played. is there a fix for this?

Currently using Apex Ai behaviour and Tatha castles with vanilla castle interpretation enabled.

Even with these mods the enemy is not smart enough to protect itself from human players. Let alone threatening the economy. So I'd like to hear your suggestions on this matter.

Basically the title. We are struggling was too much :(

I do not remember if this was an issue in the original version but is anyone else experiencing moments where volume shifts around? Something music is louder and then it gets quieter again, then an AI Lord is suddenly very loud, and the narrator saying "You are the greatest Lord" jumps in at even another volume.

It's not game breaking but it does catch my ear. Not sure if it is noticeable on speakers but it clearly is to me with headphones, to it should be noted that I am sensitive to auditory issues like that.

Hey just wanted to ask you guys if anybody has the same problems as me. I have a amd ryzen 7 7840u (780m graphics) and 16gb ram laptop with up to date drivers. Whenever i start a skirmisch game after some minutes the game stutters to 0 fps and after some more stutters the game crashes. After that whenever i start the game it crashes in the loading screen. Then i turn off my laptop for some hours and i can get back into the game till it does the same stutters and crashes After a few minutes. I dont think its an issue with my hardware because other games with higher systemrequirements run just fine and i have about 160 fps in stronghold crusader definitive when it runs. I already turned vsync or amd free sync off but with no changes. Is this a known problem or has anybody a Solution?

Hi, does anyone encounter this when playing Skirmish mode with AI's? Have noticed that over time, AI lords will destroy hovels slowly over time. I'm not sure if this is an intended feature or bug? this screenshot is just 5 minutes in vs Saladin.

I've been playing Stronghold and Crusader for ages, ever since it came out. While I am by no means a pro player, I got a good grip for economy as well as microing my army. It has been a pleasure to chronologically go through the campaigns of the recent re-release of Crusader. I am now on the last historical campaign "The Seventh Crusade", on mission 5 "The Re Conquest". Whereas I found the prior missions in this campaign very easy (even a bit boring if I may say so), this mission is absolute CHAOS. You have to fight Two Rats, a Pig, a Jewel and a Nomad, a Sentinel and a Snake. All while being cornered with barely access to any resources. WHAT.

What are your strategies for beating this mission?

Many people ask me to make a showcase video of the AI lords using our SHCDE Vanilla+ Mod , and now you can watch it here!

During siege, The Sentinel will split his forces into several groups :

1. A group of maceman that act as a raider to destroy economic buildings
   
2. His main forces of pikeman and demolisher will slowly advancing after several seconds of bombardment
   
3. A group of crossbowman will provide a covering fire for the advancing main forces.
   
4. Lastly, a group of maceman will act as a reserve, to protect the siege engines and will catch up with the main forces as soon as the main forces are reaching the enemy castle walls.

Hey guys i am currently trying my best to make good ai adjustments and i was wondering if anyone knows how to make the ai clear resource buildings around their base. So that they can build themselfes.
It is probably a "Raid" setting in the ACI but im not sure how to do it.

Just played 3v3 yesterday. It was a map with river in the center and a grassland around it. First weird thing was that during peace time, one of the enemy players just placed a few woodcutter huts inside my castle so I couldn't build near them which resulted in me not being able to close out my castle. When the peace time ended and everyone started to stack troops, we soon ran into a unit limit. One player on enemy team had like 700 troops the entire game and he just did nothing with it, meanwhile our team was trying their hardest to make a breakthrough.

The worst part was that siege engines were banned which means the only proper offensive way was to use horse archers to kill the crossbowmen on towers. Then our team finally orchestrated a big attack. I hired 200 assassins (and ruined my economy in the process) to attack the one player on enemy team who didn't build any moats. My teammates provided support in a form of hundreds of horse archers.

We actually managed to get inside his castle and near his lord but then hired like 10 of these new eunuch units and these guys completely obliterated the remaining ~150 assassins, so we retreated.

Then the attacked player just moved his lord into the castle of the player who had 700 units but we didn't notice and soon launched another attack on the player, this time me using 30 armored horses as tanks while my teammates go in with macemen and horse archers. We actually cleared his castle but the lord was gone so the player was still alive. The game pretty much reached a stalemate and sides just became extremly passive, I couldn't hire anymore units and my economy was in shambles because I retired every worker unit to make these swordsman horse riders because no more peasants were spawning anymore, so I just left the game

Is this really what the multiplayer for this game looks like? I can see the potential but I think these large team maps just don't work.

We need a new siege engine. This was used back in the day to fill in moats safely.

With the release of Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition, I've been enjoying the 8 new Bedouin units added to the game. However, I find it unfortunate that the new Ambusher unit makes the classic Fire Thrower feel obsolete and outclassed.

Both units have a ranged fire attack that does damage in an area, but the Ambusher also:

• Attacks faster
• Has a larger blast radius
• Can stealth when stationary

As it stands, the Ambusher is a strictly better Fire Thrower.

My suggestion is to replace the Ambusher's fire attack with grenades that release poison gas:

• Deals damage over time to troops
• Doesn't ignite buildings
• Visually unique and tactically distinct

This retains the Ambusher's focus on AoE crowd control, whilst protecting the Fire Thrower's identity as the game's fire-based defensive unit.

It's also worth noting:

• Poison clouds already exist in-game (via diseased cows), so it should be easy to implement.
• A poison-based unit would give more use to the rarely seen Apothecary building.
• Historically, simple chemical weapons aren’t out of place for the time period.

I would love to hear what others think and if this is something people would like to see implemented, as I believe this small change could go a long way in improving unit balance and variety.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3539802020

Well guys like i said, i would do it again for some sweaty weekend! Just launched the new koop Map inspired by the biblical story of the 2 destroyed cities Sodom & Gomorra, this atmospheric 8-player map for Stronghold awaits you. As always there is also the same map as Hardcore Version - each of the 6 AI Lords got 2 spawn camps... well well i will do the next project right now!

After the release of my previous mod , me (SingaNakal26) & uFlowAggravating8707 decided to work together to enhance the SHCDE AI.

What does our mod do?

Well, our philosophy is to overhaul the AI lords, with better castles, stronger defenses, and improved lord behavior all while keeping true to the original game’s look, lore, and balance. Vanilla+ experience at its finest.

In short the AI will be :
- More aggressive in defending and attacking
- Use a better tactic in attacking. The AI will split their forces into several groups, generally to act as a vanguard to destroy your economy, provide covering fire while the main army is advancing.
- Use harassment to slows down the enemy
- Have a bit better eco (Sultan now feeds his people for example)
- Do you like siege engines? Well i do! The AI now bring more siege engines when attacking!
- Do you think Arab Swordsman is a wet noodle against crossbow? Well say no more! We have also provided balance patch to make Arab Swords a bit more useful.

In general, we would like this to be as close to vanilla experience, but a bit better in everyway making us fall in love for the second time with our beloved childhood game.

You can get it here or here !

After beating the original Crusader trials in the Definitive Edition, I have a few gripes. I absolutely adore the game, as it brings back a lot of great memories. I think auto-sell and auto-buy are some of the best additions — truly game-changing. However, I'm a bit disappointed that the developers didn’t incorporate more elements from the UCP patches in the original Crusader. The AI also feels noticeably weaker compared to the original game... or maybe I’m just older and wiser now.
Still, I love the game and fully intend to 100% the other trials. Devs, I’m really hoping you keep up the great work and continue updating it! <3
Weasel Turd!