The Backhander SHC
The Guide from mission Backhander.[]
For this mission, you are teaming with the Sheriff and going against the on paper formidable team of the Wazir, the Emir the Marshal and... also the Abbot is thrown there to inconvenience you a bit. Covering you is the sheriff. Probably one of the best characters personality wise in the game when you factor out about 80% of the rest of the cast.
For this mission, the Abbot will be mostly a non factor as an enemy. This is not saying to ignore him per se but the Sheriff will play with the Abbot as if the Abbot was a mouse, and keep the Abbot pinned down. Really focus on taking on the other three.
The video above shows how I personally did this mission, you are close enough to our Arabian friends Wazir and Emir to fight them keep to keep. Due to his negative fear factor, the Wazir was rather easy to keep pinned down. I simply sent 15 Crossbowmen and 1 shield to protect them. and they did a good job keeping the Wazir at bay. The Emir was a little harder. He uses Mangonels that soldiers do not seem to enjoy being hit by. He also sent Arabian Swordsmen to manhandle the crossbowmen I had manhandling his keep. I simply had enough saved to buy more, take care of the swordsmen and then replenish the tower of crossbowmen to keep the Emir at bay. He was harder than the Wazir but still manageable.
The Marshal was a bit further away. I simply put a tower as close as I could with Crossbowmen. they did reach some stuff but not everything. His knights are annoying, he sent me a msg like he destroyed something of mine but I didn't know what it was.
Before I continue I do want to explain something. I used a glitch for my bread production, simply pausing while having a business menu (wheat farm in this case) retiring the place while paused and then putting it back to work while paused will cause another worker to work in the same place. You can increase production massively with this. I did this to be nice to our friend the "cruelest lord in the land" Sheriff and making the Abbot squeak (he says that not me). and give him as much farm space as possible.
Either way despite the Marshall making the Abbot squeak the Abbot decided to attack me and somehow got past the Marshal's castle. I simply used some gold I made from selling bread for some horse archers. I guess you could send your lord to hang out in the Sheriff's castle and not worry about it at all. It wasn't a big deal either way.
I tried to kill the Marshal first but it didn't go well, so I recommend going after Pack A Punch Caliph... I mean Wazir or Emir after they are weakened first. I use Pikemen because they synergize very well with Horse Archers and Crossbowmen. For the Abbott I simply put a Siege tower in his castle to allow our cruel friend to make him squeak more. Sheriff killed Abbott while I was getting ready to finish Caliph MK 2.