| “ | So now you are begging me for help... *spits* don't waste your breath. | ” |
| — The Wazir, unwilling to send help |
The Wazir is a skirmish and campaign enemy in Stronghold Crusader.
Appearance and Character
Little is known about the Wazir. However he appears to be a lord who is somewhat similar in character to the Caliph; a cruel ruler, who emphasises effectiveness and does not tolerate mistakes. He does not get angey as often as the caliph does, and if perhaps not quite as arrogant as he is towards his allies. However the Wazir is cruel to his own people, working them to the limit of human ability, allowing him to generate more goods, which he sells for gold to fund his armies.
The Wazir always wields his trademark pair of scimitars, which he lifts and swipes if he is angry for a moment. He particualarly likes to vent his frustration during his noght-time walks in the desert just outside his castle, the Wazir not being a lazy lord.
Castle and strategies
The Wazir is an extremely cruel ruler. He can be somewhat weak starting out, especially if lacking in starting gold, but progressively becomes a dangerous force.
Economy
The Wazir runs a simple, yet effective economy. He builds plenty of stone quarries and wheat farms, only to supply his empire of bakeries and mills, which constantly produce bread. To bump production, negative Fear Factor is used to a degree. Wood and iron is also gathered in smaller numbers. The Wazir also taxes heavily and unlike the Caliph, he does not produce ale but gives double rations to counter unpopularity.
Offense
The Wazir is fond of using horse archers and will not hesitate to use them in numbers. After he has built up an initial defense, he almost always focuses on building up horse raids and send them one by one. When not low on gold, the Wazir constructs numerous fire ballistae and rolls them slowly to burn buildings to ashes.
However, the true strength seems to lay in the siege attacks. The Wazir brings many Arab swordsmen and horse archers, backed up with a small squad of fire throwers. Slaves are also brought if an enemy moat is present. Engineers will construct fire ballistae, but also, uniquely for an Arabian lord, trebuchets which will pound any buildings to destruction. Swordsmen and horse archers like to break in, while the fire throwers burn any buildings they can reach.
Defense
Star-shaped and big-sized, yet well-defended castles are the Wazir's trademarks. Each castle has a varying number of points, where two lookout towers and a round tower is present with Arab bowmen and fire throwers. The interior is filled with the most important buildings, sometimes a huge number of hovels and bakeries are placed outside, which are protected by large pools of pitch. Fire ballistae are deployed in various spots due to the lack of defensive engines. Sometimes moat is also dug in small batches.
The Wazir holds a small squad of horse archers and a large number of Arab swordsmen to contain enemy harassments.
His horse archers also patrol buildings until he decides to send after the enemy. When his castle is under siege, the Wazir likes to send these horse archers, along with sometimes those inside his castle, out in big numbers, and these constantly move about in a few groups, inflicting damage on besieging forces. He can do this because he usually has multiple gates and so not all are closed.
How to deal with
Defense
The Wazir's armies may look threatening, but they are defenseless against crossbow bolts. So, a large number of crossbowmen (backed up with archers) will pretty hold back anything, even fire ballistae, but trebuchets may be a problem. For these, make sure you have a few square/round towers with ballistae on top and manually aim them at the trebuchets. Have some hardier troops in case the Wazir finds a hole in your defenses.
If the Wazir is doing particuarlly well, he may send a large enough number of horse archers in his attack that may pose a threat to even crossbowmen. For this make sure you have some macemen that can move out from your gates to catch them and kill them hand to hand. The horse archers should not move about enough to make it hard for macemen to catch them.
Offense
Crippling the Wazir's economy is hard, but to get to his castle is even harder. Not only he has patrolling horse archer groups, but he surrounds his castle with pitch, making it impossible (or at least without casualties) to get near. You have no choice but to tear down his castle from a distance.
Gather horse archers, numerous fire ballistae, catapults and melee troops. Work your way through his wheat farms and territory until you get to the castle. Try to wipe out any overseeing fire ballistae with your catapults, hopefully demolishing some buildings in the process. Then target round towers and deflect the small waves of horse archers and swordsmen that may come to your catapults. You may also roll your fire ballistae in to pick off bowmen and fire throwers. When you can close his gatehouse, target units on the keep with your horse archers and fire ballistae. Finally, create a breach and move in for the kill.
Quotes
For the Wazir's quotes see: Quotes:The Wazir
Trivia
- Wazir in Arabic (وزير) means "Vizier", high-ranking political advisors.
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