The Sidelines is a blog series with chilling off-wiki posts, far away from the heat of battle. This post is a continuation of: Entry #1 - AI characters of Stronghold Crusader 2
Ranking of DLC characters[]
Last time, the performance ranks have been determined for Crusader 2 characters, who come with the base game. This time, we will rank the various DLC characters. They bring a good variety of unit sets and strategies into the desert, and they are much stronger than the base game's counterparts. There are no rusher-only characters in this set, which ensures that the DLC's bring a refreshing experience to skirmish plays.
Let us recount the ranking sheet from the previous post, then delve into the frey!
| Rank | Description |
|---|---|
| A - Duke | A self-sufficient character. Strong in harass, offense and defense. Needs versatile counters. |
| B - Baron | Good all-rounder. A strong opponent overall, but has critical weaknesses in some stages of the game. |
| C - Knight | Good opponent. Can destroy weaker enemies. Has either good defense or offense, but not both. |
| D - Serf | Weaker enemy. Overly dependent on buildings or industry. Can be decimated with ease. |
| F - Jester | Pathetic character. Uses weak troops, weak industry, low numbers. No power besides harassment. |
- The Princess: Knight
- A little unusual lady, who seems to rather have status than military skills.
- Uses cheap units to overwhelm enemy economies and sometimes swordsmen to back them up. Very high focus on men-at-arms against early rushes, uses large numbers of siege engines.
- Takes some time to develop, but can rush from the beginning. She has an abundance of buildings and towers, which are necessary for her power spike to come.
- Industry includes no ale or candle production, which means that without mines or farms, the Princess has virtually no way to come back.
- The Princess's castle is vast, but lacks the firepower against a proper army. She has lots of troops however to back up her defenders.
- The Pig: Knight
- The son of Duc Truffe returns, who is entrusted with carrying the banner of destruction, greed and lust for food. Changes little since Crusader.
- Uses the old repertoire, macemen and crossbowmen. Maceman are rather potent in this game, but the Pig creates a much higher number of crossbows, even using them for raids.
- Develops very slowly. The Pig often attacks early, even with an unenclosed castle, leaving little gold for his industry to kick in.
- The Pig has a decent industry in the form of mines, dairy farms and ale. He has a good all-round economy with sufficient weapons production.
- The Pig's castles are large and badly defended. Catapults can easily knock chew through the small outer wall segment, as well as crossbowmen often lack range and vision over outranging units.
- The Templar: Duke
- A formidable but conservative leader, the Templar displays prowess through sheer power and numbers.
- The Templar uses mainly swordsmen and crossbowmen: a deadly combination of armour and firepower. He attempts to steamroll with durable units, as well as burst damage. He uses knight in low numbers as well.
- Builds up very slowly. He relies on buying in weapons for the first phase of the game, until he can site his buildings. His keep is not easy to conquer due to starting armoured units.
- The Templar has a well-developed industry. Uses the church and produces bread, being very efficient with his manpower.
- Only castles are a burden for the Templar. He builds vast wall sections with not enough defenders on the walls, making it impossible to cover the surrounding area with sufficient firepower.
- The Duke: Duke
- A relentless snob of France, the Duke is poised to strike down his enemies with a variety of tactics. He is not easy to crack.
- His units are limited but efficient. Rangers and swordsmen are the backbone with durability and long-range capabilities, while conscripts wreak havoc on industries.
- Does very well throughout the game. He is defenseless until he can afford enough rangers, but he compensates with a never-ending swarm of raiders.
- The Duke has a nice industry with ale and varied food production. His processing buildings are also well-protected, meaning that he rarely suffers an industrial disadvantage.
- Perhaps the best design for a castle is nominated for the Duke. The castle is only traversable through a net of walls and stairwells, as well as walls surround vital areas. A little worker movement is sacrificed for better defense.
- The Emperor: Baron
- A corrupt German leader, the Emperor relies on his economy. He prefers quantity over quality in skirmishes.
- The Emperor uses a good variety of European units. He loves conscript harass with durable armoured units for sieges. Pikemen and crossbowmen are his specialty.
- Builds very fast. Has lots of buildings, multiple options for taxation means he is never out of money, never out of troops, never out of attacks.
- Industry covers mass popularity options. Very extensive building and numerous candle/ale producers ensure gold reserves for the Emperor.
- The Emperor constructs his castle very fast, since he uses cheap towers and little wall for his surroundings. He also constructs numerous traps in random locations, making it a pain to siege in lieu of siege equipment.
- The Hermit: Knight
- The Hermit runs his own crusade against the oppressors. He seems to be menacing, but his bark is almost always worse than his bite.
- Uses the same unit selection as most medium-difficulty Arabian lords. He is a relentless harasser with assassins and groups of slaves, however he attacks with fairly mild groups.
- Develops rather quickly. His industry is not that demanding, nor is his castle. He can attack very fast, just like the Rat.
- The Hermit's industry has extensive food production and candles production. He relies on rations and the mosque to generate income with little vulnerability.
- Like his armies, the castles of the Hermit are modest and large. They feature numerous lookout towers with Arab bowmen for defense, making it best for defense against small attacks.
- The Jackal: Baron
- Advocate and apprentice of the Wolf, the Jackal fine tunes the Wolf's strategy to a devious and aggressive one.
- The Jackal uses a very big variety of mercenaries and Crusaders. He prefers fast raids combined with long-range bombardment and stealth. This means that his units are not the most durable out there.
- The Jackal sends harassment very early on and his industry develops fast. His raids take time to grow into full power though.
- Industry covers religion and lots of farms. The Jackal does not have much income from raw materials, but he thankfully needs little due to cheap troops.
- Makes thin-walled castles with lots of lookout towers and large towers in the inside, with some sporadic tower defenses. Easy to siege due to the frail towers and lack of traps.
- The Khan: Serf
- A relentless attacker who puts his eggs into one basket: harassment. The Khan prefers horse archers over many things, including economy and defenses.
- The Khan uses a set of mercenaries, but he is highly focused on horse archers. His siege attacks are rather unremarkable and his horse archers tend to swarm the battlefield. Slaves also make an occurrance.
- Fast to build up, sends harassment very early on. Mostly cheap units also result in faster development.
- The Khan only produces food and stone, meaning he has not an outstanding income, but some taxes can come from food variety and rations.
- The Khan's castles are rather comprised of rings, which feature lookout towers with Arabian bowmen and oil pot throwers. He surrounds his settlement with pitch, but suppressing firepower can leave the pitch unignited.
It is visible that no Jester rank has been handed out, even then, only one AI character got the rank of Serf. The Khan himself is however very potent and not easy to beat, but the lack of siege or defense abilities make him the weakest of all DLC characters. Hope you liked the rankings!