Stronghold Maps SGG 02 Pyramidish
SGG 02 Pyramidish
Being the Second Chapter in the Saga of Guy of Guisbourne.
download SGG 02 Pyramidish from Stronghold Heaven
STORY
“After reclaiming your birthright as King of Guisbourne, and rebuilding your Kingdom, you are called to duty by the Emporer, who has noticed your talents as a leader of men and master of armed strategy. He has a mission for a worthy man such as yourself and will reward you handsomely if you succeed.”
DESCRIPTION
You are assigned to take command of a most important redoubt on the Sea Coast. A ring of Gates and Towers surround your Stronghold, perched on a lonely stretch of sandbar on the seashore. Attackers come from all directions, and although you have a nearly unlimited supply of Gold, Food and Recruits, you have a small and limited Armoury. You can only draft a few Crossbowmen, and are thereafter only Archers and Macemen to battle Armoured Swordsmen and Pikemen who swarm your Castle. Squads of Catapults hurl destruction and hordes of Invaders attack in wave after wave, trying to overrun and destroy you and your defenders.
It is imperative you defend even the Towers and Gates, because after the Invasions are repulsed you must disassemble the Castle and deliver 1200 Stone to the King for the construction of a new Castle. The loss of even one Gatehouse or Tower will bring you up short on your contract. Use your Ballistae and the few Crossbowmen you have been alloted to destroy the Siege engines quickly to avoid this loss.
NOTES:
In order that the Stone requirement be possible in Very Hard (or it would be impossible to win at that setting), I had to set it on 600 for Normal, but the total Stone on the Map is 1214, so on Very Hard the requirement is 1200, meaning you cannot lose more than one Tower or Gatehouse or its not possible to fulfill the quota at the end, although you can lose all of the short walls surrounding the corner Towers and still have enough. Of course this makes the Normal setting very easy to attain, so this map is meant to be played on Very Hard for a decent challenge.
I didn’t want to calibrate it to Normal, then make it impossible to win on other settings. Due to the large number of Catapults and the terrain some might get stuck, so you have Knights to ride out on “clean-up duty” after the Invasions have ceased.
The design idea has intrigued me for a while and I kept trying different paramutations and combinations to find a structure that was defensible but still possible to overrun. I did quite a bit of design calibration to get the total amount of stone to add up to just over 1200.
This mission has no real economic goals, its purely a defensive and strategic game as to where to move your men to best defend the gatehouses and towers.
ALSO:
Interesting note: While designing this Map, I originally had many Trebuchets in the Invasions, but they kept appearing at the Signs far from the Castle so I removed them. However, while playtesting, I observed a really funny bug- one of the Trebuchets became mobile and was trucking along with a squad of Macemen at Maceman-quick pace, all the way up to the walls. I was interested in seeing if it would attack on the move, but unfortunately it was destroyed. I wish I had had the presence of mind to hit “Save” and preserve it, it was pretty cool looking. Anyone else witnessed this phenomenon?
I’m using some poetic license here using “Ballistae” as the plural of “Ballista”. Linguistically that’s probably bogus.
REVIEW
This is one of the most interestng maps to be submiitted for a while. It seems to of come up with somewhat of a new concept: Stronghold, Arcade Style.
Playability-5
This map basically contains a fully defended castle, which gets attacked by waves of attackers. While this dosen’t sound exceptional, it is the way it is pulled of that is good. Its like space invaders with swords and a castle. the enemy attacks come fast and furious, and you have to slay them quickly, or risk losing the objective. Since you must gather the stone at the end of the map, it can become more of a question of getting as many “points” or stone at the end of the map, rather than surviving.
Balance-4
This was a little hard to rate, as the map isn’t standardised. Since I found I wasn’t playing to win, just to survive as long as I could, with as much stone as possible at the end. This is perfect balance for an arcade game (it will take many tries on very hard) if you just want to improve on past preformances. However, if you want to “finish” the level, it’s alittle hard.
Creativity-5
I’ve covered above the originality of this map. It’s not a Stronghold Invasion, it’s a fast paced arcae battle.
Map Design-4
Not much to say here. The map looks more than acceptable, but not truly excellent.
Story-4
Good, well written story of a nice length. Explains whatyour oing, and why in good clarity.
As you may of seen by the length of each section, the maps stregnth lies in its fast paced action gameplay. Download this for something a bit different, but If your looking for something more “epic,” stay away.
Rating 4.4
Breakdown
Playability 5.0
Balance 4.0
Creativity 5.0
Map Design 4.0
Story/Instructions 4.0