| “ | I saw you with my own eyes, dabbling in the black arts! I will have you burnt at the stake for the heretic you are! | ” |
| — Edwin Blackfly |
Sir Edwin Blackfly is a character appearing in Stronghold 2. He is also featured as an AI character in Kingmaker mode.
Biography
Edwin is an influential lord, running several estates in the country. He rules his land with iron hand and keeps his folk in extortion, forming armies from the lowest ranks. His lust for gold sees him forge alliances with other lords and leaders, providing military support and overseeing other estates. He is a subordinate of Lord Barclay, who pays him for his services.
Path of Peace
Sir Edwin is one of three Lords dispatched by The King to rebuild and run the estates in a remote region of his empire. He quickly turns out to show no mercy and institutes an oppressive regime, which cannot be challenged by the other lords. Edwin takes heavy taxes from his peasants and he punishes them if they fail to comply, such as burning books and entire settlements. At one time, Matthew Steele emerges from the shadows, gaining control over more and more lands. The King announces a contract race to supply the Royal Guard with swords. Edwin and Steele starts a competition and although he buys in a steady supply of swords to gain an advantage, Steele produces the quota earlier than him, winning the race.
To make use of his supply of weapons, Edwin marches against Sir Grey in order to conquer his lands. Grey is desperate to ask help from Steele, who immediately rushes to his aid. Edwin's is beaten back under Grey's walls, and he is taken into custody by the returning Sir William.
Edwin is later humiliated by the King, as he applies him as a jester from the royal feast on.
Path of War
Edwin is the owner of a few estates that Lord Barclay has given him for overseeing. At some time, he gets imprisoned by Lady Seren in one of her castles. He is hopelessly guarded, however he takes word that [[Sir William and Matthew Steele come to rescue him. He promises land and units for their cause in return, and he is freed by them. Edwin tries to frame his captor a witch for her deeds. Having regained his freedom, Edwin starts plotting against the two in order to gain money from his partners. Edwin grants a castle and a small army for the company at the Borderlands, where Sir Grey and the Bull fights tireless battles. The Bull is helped out by Pascal Deveraux, who prepares a siege against Grey's lightly fortified castle. Steele defeats the attacking army and the provoked attacks of the Bull and Olaf Grimtooth. As Steele is busy stabilizing the neighborhood, Edwin lures William to a wasteland, where he hands him over to Olaf. Edwin gets money from the Viking warlord, however he hires him to deal with Steele too. Then, Edwin mysteriously vanishes.
Steele manages to kick Olaf out of his war camp near Friar Jacob's monastery, where he makes a foothold. Edwin personally comes to remove Steele, however his ineptness leads to failure. Before he returns to his homelands, Edwin calls out Steele on his Royal Champion rank of jealousy. Edwin is challenged immediately after his defeat. Not only Olaf gets stranded on his coasts, Steele and his company comes after him to deal with his treachery. He tries to defend his property, however his villages become under Steele's influence and he is soon defeated in his own castle. He is threatened with execution, but he is spared when he informs Steele of the Hammer's plot in dethroning the King. He is put in the stocks and is kept in custody until later.
The Blue Path
Edwin is tried along with Lord Barclay after his defeat. He is publicly humiliated along the folk and the King, as both are thrown vegetables at.
Appearance and personality
Edwin is a young warrior, who has short hair, shaved at the back and sides. He wears a suit of armor with a yellow cape, which matches his flag. His choice of weapon is a sword.
Edwin has a very short temper. He is also very vindictive. Greedy in particular, Edwin likes to extort money from the peasantry and do mercenary jobs for superiors, doing plotting and weaving plans to take down his enemies. He is however rather very hesitant, when his plans fail and is prone to make mistakes one after another.
Castles and strategies
Edwin is a lord who puts emphasis on the early game, with the intent of overwhelming his enemies with large armies of cheap units. His inability to defend and siege at the same time makes him an inferior character to most other opponents.
Castle
Edwin creates a medium-sized castle with a simple stone wall enclosure. He has one gatehouse with little garrison on the walls and no towers. Simple as his castle gets, Edwin uses no traps or wall-mounted defenses whatsoever. He mostly relies on stationing his harassment force around the barracks until deployment.
Economy
Edwin's economy is focused on raw production. He mines both stone and iron and supplies his peasants with apples, meat and bread. He absolutely does not make use of tax and popularity. He periodically sells wheat, bows and armor to raise gold and buys in spears in great quantities.
Unit compositions
Edwin uses the cheapest and fastest units in hope of overwhelming his adversaries. His strength relies in numbers and a situational advantage rather than all-out combat.
- Defense: archer (guarding walls), spearmen (personal defense, guarding spots)
- Harassment/estate force: spearman, catapult
- Offense: archer, armed peasant, swordsman, catapult
How to deal with
Defense
To defend against Edwin, it is vital that you quickly set up some walls to stop him pillaging your buildings from the start. He sends attack forces rather quickly but these are mostly for harassment. As stone comes in, build square towers with mangonels and/or ballistae and start amassing archers and/or crossbowmen in them. You should also station some troops near the wall in case he does break through, but against a well-built defense he shouldn't be able to.
By the time his full wrath comes, you should have an ample defense (Note: if you build mangonels, don't forget you have to set them firing manually). Just watch as you archers and defense engines shatter Edwin's attacks like they are made of glass. Optionally, you could have a small troop of hobilars behind a sally port that can charge out and take down siege equipment. If you do this, be sure to eliminate all of his archers first!
Offense
Edwin can be beaten with a relatively small army. You should take around 30 horse archers, 2-4 knights (mounted), 20-30 spearmen and a few macemen or pikemen to siege Edwin.
Take your horse archers and let them eliminate the waves of armed peasants and spearmen that Edwin will throw at them. Use your spearmen to defend the horse archers. When that is done, build a siege camp and build some catapults and knock down his walls. Charge in and kill any remaining defenders, dismount your knights and send them to finish of Edwin for you.
Quotes
For the Kingmaker quotes of Edwin Blackfly, see: Edwin Blackfly/Quotes
Gallery
| Kingmaker | Sir William • Sir Grey • The King • Lady Seren • Edwin • The Hawk • The Bull • Olaf • The Hammer The Queen • The Bishop |
| Campaign-only | Matthew Steele • Friar Jacob • Constable Briggs |