Top 7 Hardest Missions in Stronghold Crusader

[@Jefflenious]

0:02 HAHA WHAT A LOSER ONLY 762 SUBS

[@manishapatil7012]

907 subscribers

[@mrdogar3326]

1k my lord

[@obelivius4570]

1.16k my leash

[@martchom864]

Dude roast themselves

[@servantofsusa]

Can u tell me ehy u have extra lords and extra missions?

[@Adamantine117]

I love how you’ve gained 11,000 subscribers in only 8 months. It’s like everyone all had the idea to play this game again within the last year

[@simonreferovic2638]

I don't know but mission 50 is absolutely easy for me because of strategic position which is most important. Hard mission for me was nightmare because of the position

[@dhavalpatil1515]

Misty river is the mission that stopped me from playing stronghold crusader for a month

[@Jefflenious]

Me too, it was a huge difficulty spike

[@Brashix]

i actually quit stronghold for a month beacuse of mission 41. Thunder Hill. That one is the hardest for me and i am never doing it again!

[@mohammadrezayoosfzade5594]

Its tooo easy how u cant win this

[@Handconnonierr]

was quite easy for me (played game 2 times till ~70mission). Just put 1-2 towers towards bottom richard /and these towers will help deal fast with him, as protect you from upper one. + I think i put rock wall where was river crossing. for me was one was really hard where you was on bottom of the map and close river on your left side. i dont remember which one but it was hardest and its not in the list. there was stone in the middle, but im not sure

[@dhavalpatil1515]

Yeah this mission is not that hard but this was during when i was a child

[@VPLewr]

Just finished Hades on the 1st try and had a lot of fun. Built a wall of towers with mangonels around my castle and spammed them at anyone attacking me and also used them to attack The Pig and Lionheart's castle. Added arabian archers and assassins for support to my defense and eventually attacks got rare enough for me to focus a bit on economy while the Pig and the northern Lionheart's castle worn down. I seriously enjoyed it quite a lot!

[@proximityclockworkx1572]

The Forgotten and Plains of Atum are hard too. Especially forgotten. You get bullied a lot if you don't make 2 overcrowded towers near Pig and Rat. Plains of Atum is just slow. Doable but you have to do some trickery with moats to slow down unit, then after a while you can do what you need to do. And yeah. Misty River is still chickened on my map xd I agree with the list, even though I haven't finished the warchest trail yet.

[@hunorferencbalint4483]

Back in the day I beaten that mission by having a large square tower with a Ballista, and 500 Archers 😅😅 It was a seven hour run, because after defeating the other 3, wolf was sitting on 600 units 😅

[@sirabdullah3366]

I destroy the forgotten

[@sirabdullah3366]

I destroy the forgotten

[@kestoification]

There's a community mod called "Vanilla Retraced", where there are few textures changed, but one of the major changes are maps changed in the crusader trail. The changes are mostly in terms of production - less farmland, stone, iron ore and so on. Makes the game way more challenging, but also more time consuming, because you have to spend quite a bit of time to build atleast a sustainable economy to keep your castle afloat, not to mention buying up units for attacking

[@dagan8536]

Honorable mention: mission 25 The Forgotten. It's the first real hard mission in the trial and can take players by surprise. Misty river and thunder hill are by far the hardest. I also think mission 49 is harder than 48 and 50 despite having allies. Mission 80 is the hardest in the second trail, too me 12 hours to beat it first time.

[@morthiumcz1204]

thunder hill imo isn t actually as hard as misty river, there u can just get some archers on the mountain behind the quarries and protect them rather nicely (allso partially counter richards catapults), that beaing said it took me couple of resets to survive first 2/3 atacks, but after that quiete easy. tho im obsesed with "good" defence (which in my case can get to half comand of crosbows), also balista spam helps against pretty much everything (20 on towers and 10-30 on the ground )

[@rayong5662]

I was just watching your AI lords tier list and I was just about to ask you to rank the hardest mission.

[@Jefflenious]

Haha nice

[@rayong5662]

My personal top 7 hardest missions 1)The Big One 2) Thunder Hill 3) Misty River 4) Mission 79 Whirling Death 5)Saladin Alone 6) Hades 7) Mission 25 The forgotten

[@Jefflenious]

Oh yeah 79 was hard but not unfair I kinda forgot about it 25 isn't hard though

[@rayong5662]

79 is crazy because all 5 attacking both of you at the same time. Frederick is pretty much dead in the first 15 minutes lol As for 25, i had a hard time dealing with Snake’s fire and pig and wolf’s catapult. I cant seem to build a quarry since the wolf uses Trebuchet.

[@mixtab4277]

I am 25 mission i am trying to beat

[@henrry889]

@@mixtab4277 ok i was wrong my first comment so i deleted it. In mission 25. If you are having trouble. Rush the rat as fast as you can with like 18 assassins or more. Dig a moat to the left where the two river crossings are so the pig and wolf are forced to run around and through the hill in the middle. After killing the rat you will have enough gold to make at least 3 fire balistas and 10 european archers with some portable shields. Use as many apple farms as possible while protecting them so you can sell apples to get you started. When you have enough gold, get on the hill in the middle to collect stone and iron and harass the wolf with archers on that hill so he can't use trebuchets to destroy your quarries and iron deposits. This strategy makes this mission actually easy.

[@amazakiaula2019]

@@henrry889 Good strategy. I didnt use that one though. So I let Rat & Snake burn & distroy my farm on the north, also Wolf & Pig cross the river on the left, force me to defend from both side with unstable farm, limited wood, & lack of resources. In the begining, i make castle with 1 tower on the north to cover Rat & Snake's attack but my farms still can be destroyed ofc. No problem i have ale & workshop bussiness which cover foodless in that situation. After a few times, another tower on the left comes. Both of tower contain portable shield, xbows, firebows, & tower balista. I put some religion building after that. Catapults coming from the left are crazy but i can haddle that. I defend successfully, then slowly kill rat first, snake, pig, and finally wolf. But, yeah, it is satisfying when let them attack with their optimal performance but still we can haddle it. Pretty fun right xd.

[@TypowyKubini]

I actually had pretty good time with Thunder Hills and Nobles vs Scoundrels. I'd put the forgotten and mission with 3 wolves that surround you. The forgotten might not be as frustrating, but resources are only available after defeating rat, snake and also after securing middle of the map. With the rest, I agree. Edit: typo

[@Jefflenious]

Warning Drums (3 Wolves) Should've been in the list for sure I actually forgot about the mission The Forgotten though so many people suggested it, personally I didn't find it difficult but apparently so many people did so yeah

[@TypowyKubini]

@@Jefflenious the forgotten is the first mission I had serious troubles with, cuz slave spam was really annoying. Also starting position is very bad. Those are the reasons, I'd put it over Thunder Hills. Caliph is easy to cheese early and Richie is gonna be stopped by 2 balistas, especially during walking through water, where troops are slowed.

[@Kolt461]

For thunder hill the best strategy that I've done is slow the game down and rush the Caliph directly beneath me. It took a lot of resets but its actually possible. When the Caliph dies, you get a lot more breathing space.

[@diegoandresmunozcayul7165]

This mission its so hard to me,but my strategy is atack to Richard of Lionheart and so take breathing space

[@just_dimi3]

​@@diegoandresmunozcayul7165I attack both,first with catapults after with fire balistas

[@slubberdegullion2747]

I recently played through the campaign with a restriction that I couldn't build a market or mercenary post. 41 was actually really easy, you just have to set up at the foot of the mountain and hide your king up top then enclose all your buildings back there and even delete your stockpile at the start and remake it near the stone. Whenever they attack, they just leave all their units at the attack setup location because they see your keep isn't enclosed and try to attack your king, but since your king is enclosed in a different spot, they'll never actually move in. I didn't try many strategies with 48 and just considered it impossible to beat though, same with 80.

[@BrandonPrentice]

I actually thought Thunder Hill was do-able. I did the classic "spend what lil gold i had on macemen" then rushed the closer Caliph. Once I had that buttload of gold Caliph had, I spent it all on a macemen rush to Lionheart. The mission ended up being a simple 1v1 for me

[@adityasidhiqpratama2283]

But how.. i tried this trick, but he keep making swtordsman

[@sakazukiakainu1323]

You are not supposed to rush , first build your defenses and economy then attack , if you rush then everything is easy

[@BrandonPrentice]

@@sakazukiakainu1323 Sometimes rushes are impossible though so they aint all ez

[@sakazukiakainu1323]

@@BrandonPrentice after you rush you'll get 7k gold and he can't defend himself so it's not fair , when I don't like it to take too long in mission 80 I rush wolf and then build Tower and crossbowmen

[@BrandonPrentice]

@@sakazukiakainu1323 Ok?

[@theraginggamer095]

Not sure how Mission 33 was meant to be completed but I did the glitch where I sent everyone including the lord into a square tower near the yellow Richard then overfilled it as much as possible then destroyed the stairs to confuse the orange one, and eventually built my base over the yellow Richard's ruins, keeping +5 fear factor the whole time to boost my units health

[@Jefflenious]

Now that's creative :D And also that's what it takes to beat some of these missions

[@barone9653]

@TheRagingGamer095 you can't boost units health with positive fear factor, only damage you can boost

[@Ugh718]

​@@barone9653 Actually u can.Haven't u ever noticed the green circles on top of ur soldiers when u had a positive fear factor?They're added health lol.When u have a negative fear factor the circles turn red.This also appears on top of enemy soldiers heads,so they're not an exception.Have u ever even played the game before lol?

[@barone9653]

@@Ugh718 no green dots and red dots are just only for show you how many positive or negative fear factor one of your soldier has. You can try it for yourself just put one swordman with - 5 and see how many crossbow ( with no fear factor) bolts take until he dies and then try it again with a swordman + 5, he's gonna die always with 12 bolts. Yes I've been playing for almost 11 years now, I know enough of the game ty, but you as I can see ,for now you need to learn how works fear factor, so plz rewatch the video again.. slowly maybe this time if is too tough for you to understand 😄

[@sharonhehe4407]

@@Ugh718 Actually no, fear factor doesn't affect health point, just damage.. your troop still take same damage whether they has -5 or +5.. the youtube already proved it

[@greatveemon2]

I just moved my production and the Lord in Misty River and Thunder Hill mission, and it became easier after that. Just need to barricade the keep and add some archers to prevent the peasants from getting killed. The castle is easier to defend if it's proper position and compact even it is lack of resources.

[@Jefflenious]

I used a weird strategy to beat it too (It's probably on my channel) playing normal is really hard on this map

[@Smainchoker]

I just hate Hades. Hate the building restriction and hate the small space. The only mission that I think is unfun. The others are hard, but atleast fun to play

[@NemooSK]

What restrictions are there?

[@getnerfedon7136]

@@NemooSK iirc you can only byild square towers, only buy Mangonels on towers, engineers can only build catapults, no good things and bad things, you can only build the armorer and blacksmith for weapons, no cathedral. Thats what i know off the top of my head.

[@X_mezo_X]

@@NemooSK As far as I can remember: In towers you can only build the square tower and lookout tower, and only mangonels are there as well as catapults for engineers, also no tunneler's guild. You can only build small gatehouses and only pitch pit traps, you can't dig moats either, and small walls are not available. Workshops for bows and leather armor cannot be built. Fear factor buildings , the cathedral and the apothecary cannot be built. No pitch rigs (the map has no oil anyway), and no ale production buildings.

[@4nthr4x]

I've just finished the entire 50 mission trail again for the n-th time, now with the UCP patch, only with standard fixes and improved AI attacks and castles. No exploits, I only set game speed low to 30 for starting. I completed every mission on first try (I think but only one), and only skipped 2 because I know these are only insufferably frustrating. So these are my pick for hardest missions: 33. Misty River 25. The Forgotten Followed by these 3, where grabbing stone/iron immediatly for income is key, and defending with good positioning of your towers to snipe siege equipment 48. Hades. Towers with safe distance as not to get automatic fire from enemy catapult towers. 41. Thunder Hill. 46. Nightmare. Surprised to see purple Sultan coming at me with his lord in starting minutes and even killed my lord the first try. Saladin very passive, only attacks from Pig and Richard for a long time. There are a few others, but less tricky than these 3, mostly due to weaker enemies. For Warchest Trail, I did finish again, before the above playthrough, I'd say: 79. Whirling Death. To hold the stone on the left, as you can't build walls around it, I resorted to a 'minor' exploit, of building a wall of woodcutter huts, to make enemies go around. 80. The Big One!

[@igorstepien5579]

I subscribed right after seeing first video from your channel that got recommended on yt's main page, You are my discovery of the decade :OOOOO I love Stronghold Crusader, i have played SC since childhood, playing this game is like riding a bike for me, i will never forget how to play it. And you still find funny and interesting ways to prestent that game. AMAZING! :))))))) ☠️☠️

[@Jefflenious]

It's an honor to be your discovery of the decade lmao! Thanks for your support, glad you're enjoying the videos

[@lakecityransom]

3:00 small correction here, you only have magonels and catapults on this mission. No tower, mobile ballista or trebs! That is what makes it such a PITA. Your only recourse is to fight fire with fire. That is: Make a bunch of catapults and manually be looking to counter-fire enemy catapults before they destroy your buildings. Huge PITA. I deffo recommend cheese farms on this level just to get cow firing ability in catapults to kill armies easier. I spent the last week grinding thru these 2 trails for I think the 3rd time. I have to say I completely agree with your list. Trail 2 I think has quite a few badly designed missions just based on annoying clusterphobia keeping you at bay. Emir is a huge castle spamming MOFO. Nizar can be so dangerous with his ninja spam omg it is ridiculous. I've nearly died to ninja spam numerous times. Sometimes you move an attack army of ballista/catapults/shields/horse archers out your base and accidentally run into his ninja spam and lose everything. It is funny how Thunder HIll is so much harder than it would seem. There are a few missions where fire damage is INCREDIBLY dangerous due to spam and the amount of time it takes to build up an archer defense. Once you are on fire on these missions it is either a serious delay or game over and you want to punch a wall. It is hard to remember to have plenty of water pots placed and manned beforehand, as they will likely NOT succeed if you do it after the fact. They tend to go unmanned when the inferno has been burning. I think not letting yourself adjust game speed to slow is the worst torture you can do to yourself on hard missions like this. It is pretty awesome and unexpected for someone to deep dive into the Stronghold games in 2021 on YT to bring the fans together. The amount of video views already is a testament to how great this gem of a game is.

[@apolloolympian4669]

Nicely said. But I can't understand the necessity of wells in any mission. I've completed both trails several times and I havent used a single well. Waste of gold and peasants. Your archers in your base and 5-10 horse archers on patrol mode defending your eco buildings are enough to deal with slaves and fire ballistas, until you build your walls..

[@foxboi6309]

I remember using a strategy similar to Jeff in Thunder Hill, but with a different approach, since the keep is basically indestructible, I used that as the primary shield for two square towers behind them, in front where the peasants are, I kept recruiting slaves until I managed to get a full moat around them. With that settled, and having two square towers connected to the keep, I moved all my units and the lord to the two towers, while keeping the quarries protected with some crossbowmen on a tower near that quarry, I got buildings destroyed constantly, but once I got enough towers to render richard's catapults useless, then I was able to spam my own catapults towards the first caliph, from there onwards it was trying to resist as much as possible while recruiting troops.

[@juriszigurs]

Saladin alone totally stopped me a few times, to try and complete all missions without those chickens.

[@mortar5282]

In the misty river i've instantly deleted my stockpile and rebuilded it very far away in noth-east section of the map near farmlands. They were still hitting my starting location instead of my juicy eco. I just had my starting location all in towers and balistas.

[@milanpospisil8024]

Yes, deleting and rebuilding stockpile is my favourite strategy. You can separate your economy from your keep. And if you provide free acess to the keep and wall out your economy, with luck, they will even left your economy untouched.

[@Charlie5L]

I don't honestly remember what I did to win Misty River. I know my main focus was on Lionheart in the Southeast with some sort of a diversion/desperate wall blocking any possible access from the river fords. But Mission 34 (The Coconut Grove) took me two years to complete. This was due to trying many different strategies and going on-and-off with the game during those two years. Upon finishing that mission I think 6 hours had passed, and we went from Year 1300 to Year 1600 or so. I will return in the future upon trying the missions you listed here to see how I feel about Coconut Grove in comparison.

[@al_semenov]

Mine top 5 hardest: #5 - 42. "Hope Valley" - The only time my economy and defences were based around pitch, out of all things. Did not even enclose my keep. Took 2 hours to beat, but was sure fun to burn down packs of Richard's heavy units. Somehow it was harder for me, than Thunder Hill. #4 - 25. "The Forgotten" - Starting position is extremly awkward, so you need to manage so many small things - rush down Rat, because he is too close to your castle, counter slave runs from Snake, counter early Pig's maceman attacks from other side of map, prepare your defences vs Wolf, and gain control over middle because otherwise your entire economy will be 2-3 farms and wood. Definetly a tricky mission, and long aswell, since Wolf is building one of his strongest castles. Oh, and you can't kill Pig without being shot from Wolf's castle aswell. #3 - 31. "Warning Drums" - This mission is only difficult because one reason - it requires good microcontrol. For each Wolf i placed a tower with mangonel and trebuchet behind it, and had like 9 control groups, each one with individual task, each one needs to be controlled manually. Management nightmare, even on 20 speed. At least you have enough gold to create reasonable defences. #2 - 36. "The Descent" - Ho boy, where do I even start. Your starting location has nothing, but some wood. You can not place any buildings on fertile land, simply because you have not enough gold to contest middle area vs 2 Richards, same goes for pitch rigs. The only way to get some gold - is to gain control over iron, which is contested by yellow Snake right from the start. So your first step - is to kill Snake in 2-3 minutes, otherwise it is a restart. But even when you get iron, this is only beggining of suffering. You have no stone, which means, you can not properly defend your iron mines, and good luck defending that vs Richard's heavy attacks, or Snake's slave runs. Your ally - Pig - is completly useless, he is a beating bag for purple Richard, but if he dies, you are going to die aswell, because theres no way you can defend vs slave runs and 2 Richards without proper economy, which you never get in this mission, so you have to help him somehow, while dealing with all of other crap mentioned above. Pure evil. #1 - 33. "Misty River" - Definetly the hardest mission to do without cheese by far. Every unit here matters, every building placement matters, every second matters. Theres almost no room for improvisaiton, you have to know whats going on, i can not imagine anyone beat it first attempt. Worst part about this mission are yellow catapults, which can shoot your starting position right from highground, so even ballistas would not be able to kill them half of times. The only "not cheesy" way that i found to complete this mission - is to place 1-2 assasins in agressive mode on top of both Richard's iron mines and some horse archers on top of their farms. For some reason, AI without iron literally stays AFK for the rest of mission, not sure if thats bug or intended. None of second trail missions made into this list, personally found them a lot easier than first trail missions.

[@R_5_D]

Just came across this video 2 years or so after you made it. Just take a moment to consider your request for 1k subs and look at where you are now with 20.7k at the time of writing this. I'd say that's pretty impressive. Nobody can expect a viral surge in subs for a channel focused 20 year old game so I'd say your rate of growth is phenomenal!

[@muhammadismail5111]

For me, 95% - The Big One 5% - all trails 1-79 missions All mission i play just one time except Saladin Alone and The Big One, but The Big One is hardest mission, i restart many times and have no idea how to manage the game.. but lastly, i got idea to block their barrack and outpost using my building, they can't buy troops, easy for me to attack them

[@RandomNorwegianGuy.]

Out of all the missions, mission 36 (the one were you are teamed up with 1 Pig vs 2 Snake and 2 lionheart, are the one that was thoughest for me. Mission 33 was/is also bloody hard. Back in time when I started to play Stronghold Crusader for the first time, mission 25 was the one that I skipped for the longest time, and it took me a long time before I managed to win it. At this point in time, I have 100% completed both skirmish trail at least 10 times. And now it is only mission 36 that can still give me a real challenge

[@rayong5662]

When I was a kid 33, 36, and 41 were the most difficult mission. Mission 36 sounds easy at first but you need rush Snake. After a few minutes, Richard wont stop attacking you so it is kind of annoying. He always catapults all your farms. Meanwhile your ally pig will lose to the other Richard

[@gardayustisia4528]

Really ? I think mission 36 is piece of cake. Just recruit alot of crossbowman at the start and you're good to go. For me mission 48 was pain in the ass, u cant build shield and they just spam infinite archer and catapult.

[@amazakiaula2019]

Mission 36 is another hardest one, those catapults and huge armies coming from the left & buttom of the map costantly spaming at me, make me feel like in the resourceless land (little trees in corner will be used up to). Yeah, very painful mission.

[@gardayustisia4528]

@@amazakiaula2019 its easier compared to mission 25, 33, and 48.

[@amazakiaula2019]

@@gardayustisia4528 to M33, yes i agree, that mission is hell by itself, i must rape people with -24 tax & move stockpile to somewhere else for surviving, yeah, i dont know, i'm speechless. to M25, i think we have similarity here from both mission (being burned, catapulted, resourceless for moment, cornered). I think M25 is little easier to defend than M36, but suddenly i must deal with ton of wolf's armies sitting in his own which i dont know how cuz stone & iron still in wolf's teritory. M36 is little harder to defend in first time, but kill richard is easy, also with those massive irons close to our castle after left snake be killed. After all, i must say M25 is little harder than M36. M48 i didnt play yet, i'm shield & xbows player, if it is restricted, maybe i will strunggle too.

[@tahagi7006]

For mission 80 placing mangonel than balista suprisingly make mission easyer, place 1 to bombard wolf wall section it weaken his economy, other one to bombard wazir stockpile weakened him alot and change his attack direction for few cav archer from top right of your base and last one to bombard center near the stone mine because that place always crowded so its weakened attact to you tower

[@peerpetersen6161]

M33 is a mission that actually needs a bit of thinking 1. Dig a moat at the crossing to your left asap, so Richard the Orange will take the long way to your base, place 2-3 fire ballistas there so they can shoot at some archers and catapults that may annoy you from the other side Place some houses and some lumberjacks with your wood 2. Place a tower (square one) at the edge of Richard the Lemons plateau (enemy keep should be in range) put a mangonel on it 3. Recruit builders make like 10 shields and send them with your archers plus maybe 10 bought ones on the tower and mangonel the shit out of Richard the Lemon (Your archers should target fire any mangonel that he attempts to fill) While doing that use your 2 knights to further destabilize him, one can destroy all iron mines in the north, the other his stone supply in the southwest 4. Prepare for Richard the Oranges attack: buy leather armour and crossbows and recruit crossbowman with the rest of your gold and place them on your keep. Some of his forces might target your tower (as well as those pesky pikeman from the lemon) you can either delete parts of the stairs so they cant ascent or you place one or two of your starting swordsmen at the top and you should be fine Crossbowman plus your ballistas should be enough to fend the attack off, once that is done it becomes rather easy...just boom you should have quite a bit wood by now and safe stone and farmland in the south, use that and kill what is left of Richard the Lemon (as soon as he is broke and got no more units a few assassins should do the job) build a tower at the northern crossing (doesnt even matter which tower, small ones also do the job) and yeah... just finish the orange if you feel like it I did this mission in like 7 or 8 ingame years without any exploits or cheats

[@tezer2d]

I'm playing the second campaign first. Thank you for the overview of what's to come

[@gaborkrausz5402]

Nobles vs. Scoundrels was somewhat easy, but slow, I blocked off the left side with a moat early on, so they only attack from one side, placed down a square tower, also weakened the yellow nizar early on with some fire

[@acousticmeatus8141]

Lmao finished this level in first try

[@8000Andrey]

nice top 7. misty river and thunder hill were hardest missions for me. How about 32. Plains of Atum and 37. Inferno? I think, they are also difficult

[@Jefflenious]

Yeah they are, not as tough as the top 7 list though. The only mission that could potentially be there is 31. Warning Drums imo

[@gaborkrausz5402]

@@Jefflenious oh god no, the warning drums

[@whoawhoa4062]

41 is by far the hardest in my opinion. Most of these missions needed 2,3,4 even 5 attempts. Thunder hill took me at least 15 attempts and I really did try everything before giving in and essentially watching a guide. Only mission I couldn't truly beat despite having played this game for over 15 years.

[@Jefflenious]

Can confirm

[@mrrobaczek6745]

Just kill the blue kaliph with assasins asap and it will be easier

[@whoawhoa4062]

@@mrrobaczek6745 Not possible due to the lack of starting gold, the caliph can make a ton of extra units extremely quickly to help defend and even if you send the lord along to help out, it just won't be enough to kill him. I've tried, many times with different units, nothing worked.

[@mrrobaczek6745]

@@whoawhoa4062I remember that I did it with macemen, you can also sell the starting goods to have more gold for it

[@whoawhoa4062]

@@mrrobaczek6745 I didn't believe you but tried it anyways to be sure, and it actually worked. Well, when I'm wrong I'm wrong

[@absol505]

Did nobles vs scoundrels yesterday and digging moat to stop assassin's on the left side while putting two towers on the right river crossing to keep that opponent base locked. Trebuchet to pound all of it in the middle. Went quite well, but slow indeed.

[@nomanulhaqkhan8135]

For catapult users...just use that digging thingy and built tower behind them...they will try to destroy towers but I usually built 5 6 35 stone towers and put arrow thingy on top of them..,they can destroy from range those catapults and u can repair tower

[@Jefflenious]

I assume you mean ballistas, yeah against AIs ballistas are pretty good against catapults

[@michawolinski314]

I think I've outsmarted 71 by makeing moat at one side, gate at other, and instant catapult spam. Worked at 3rd try.

[@jonmann4980]

Well at least we know bro hit 1k subs

[@gumimegpoidk9501]

The forgotten was nightmare on UCP had to turn it off to finish the mission

[@parsajj767]

Bring me 20 crossbowman and shields to figh with 20 lord at the same time

[@omuleanu]

on 33 Misty River I used 5 catapults to destroy all the buildings of the one on the right (and keep destroying the market and hangar) when he rebuilds, this way you have easy access to mining stone, and farmland, and it gets easy after that. you can also use mangonels against the other one right from your base so he won't have towers and important buildings

[@Grogritark]

Misty River was a sod, glad it got a mention!

[@Cdiwins1]

Thunderhill taught me the virtue of putting shields on top of towers. I was able to turn the tide that way.

[@brunomesquita9023]

Tried thunder hill like 6 Times yesterday was able to hold them off at first but eventually lost I have to try again ! Its really a good challenge !

[@Jefflenious]

Good luck!

[@alexyoung7564]

I completed thunder hill the other today but it was so incredibly tedious. I put a tower on top of the hill next to my keep and built a town behind it. My only way of making money was cutting wood, turning it into crossbows and selling them. Also I had to create all the troops and workers I needed at the start and move them up to the hill. Also I had to move my lord to the top corner of the map. Took bloomin ages.

[@henrry889]

Just wanted to share my two videos in my channel thunder hill in 13 min and scoundrels in 7 min. : D

[@sleepyhorse9817]

Mother flunking thunder hill I use to go up the hill in that map and dig a big ass moat and the ai just stops attacking lmfao

[@brunomesquita9023]

Update passed the first 50 missions! Mission 50 final victory and 41 thunder hill were for me the hardest by far

[@teph1256]

Just did misty rivers, turns out it's pretty easy. Just put a big or medium tower the most top right you can with a gate, put your troops and future crossbow there. Don't forget your lord. Build your castle top right, near the grass, and get the iron on the right, build a few balistas to protect your iron and the tower should defend from the rest. You just need to build up slowly after that.

[@Emperor_Atlantis]

2:00 put a woodcutters hut in front of the gatehouses. The calphics usually dont attack it and they sell and rebuy their buildings outside the walls, making them broke in notime. It is a cheap AI exploit, but the mission is not hard at all when 1Lionheart is your enemy. Edit: explaination; the woodcutters building CAN be placed next to enemy's buildings unlike all other buildings. I think it is done to make woodcutting camps less annoying if all factions cut from the same woods, but its an real oversight in the coding

[@ageofstrange657]

Damn mandela effect. I could have sworn "Nobles VS Scoundrels" is the actually mission where you fight with Philip and Richard against Caliph, Sheriff, Wazir and Emir....

[@stereoflava2788]

I dont remember Thunder Hill being hard at all, but i remembered Misty River immediately, that one was close second to The Big One for me

[@mahardhikasetyawan2731]

I finished The Big One in 1 week.. 16 hours in stats, but actally spend more time because i always saving before attack, and load if failed 😁

[@kemokemo2186]

Keep up the good work man 👍❤

[@screwtho2635]

25 and misty river is easy doable with horsemen archers, puting it in patrol will do the trick. many missions can be done in such way

[@Cetus2222]

I completed a lot of mission with a glitch that you click on a building pause game double click on the zzz button a multiple workers will work on one building

[@mammoh]

Was it fun though?

[@Cetus2222]

@@mammoh yes

[@mohammadabbas4525]

I cant play without this glitch 😂😂

[@Cetus2222]

@@mohammadabbas4525 same

[@lordsnia2152]

@@mohammadabbas4525 hate to admit but yeah. it's a real challenge for me not to use it.

[@TheGrimravager]

for misty river, just avoid building any walls, relocate stockpile to the grassland to the northeast and load up your keep wtih xbowmen

[@lordsnia2152]

and here come my confession : even before i had to install new OS, i was awful at crusader trail. i think it rooted at the fact that my first attempt at number 1 when i was 9-10 went so horribly bad, i stopped playing the trail(i have no idea how i sucked so hard at that first mission thinking about it right now creeps me out😖🤬). later when i learnt about the update and 8 new lords, i gave the trail a second chance. and boy were they easy!? i still focused on campaigns, new maps and custom games vs. AI lords but my fear of them went away. and now with installing the game again and boosting the game and AI lords with UCP, im going after the trail. right now im at number 5. when i reach higher missions, I'll come back and write my own opinion. good video👍👌

[@Jefflenious]

Thanks! Don't worry about that man, first time I played Stronghold Crusader I also used cheats or glitches to beat the game and I had no idea how to play the game properly Same thing happened to me when I tried to play honest, I got stuck at mission 10 and it took me days to break through those levels lol. That's the thing with strategy games, they require practice and repetition to get better at

[@shaokahnw1ns246]

for the thunder hill, I remember destroying the storage area right away and placing it on a hill near the iron and stone, and moving my lord there as well. It would make it easier for my farmers and workers to get there without getting killed while I could defend area near the castle

[@Brashix]

mission 41. Thunder Hill is the hardest in my opinion. I remember quiting the game for a full month beacuse i just didin't want to deal with it mission 80. The Big One was really hard but eventually i got the hang of it mission 50. Final Victory was tricky and it took me a long time to beat it beacuse it is hard to balance out your economy mission 33. Misty River was really hard for me but it just took some practice. I remember writing on paper the plan for it. mission 48. Hades was actually pretty easy it just took some luck. The building restrictions caught me off guard. It was all about killing the Richard above me mission 78. Saladin Alone was not that hard. Saladin lasted long enough for me to get my economy up and running. Still had to be pretty quick. and finally the easiest mission for me from this list is mission 71. Nobles vs. Scoundrels. Really i did not have much issues except being quick. So yeah my list is: 1.- mission 41. 2. - mission 80. 3. - mission 50. 4. - mission 33. 5. - mission 48. 6. - mission 78. 7. - mission 71. i suffer with quick action missions and my list would be entirely different :)

[@jk9117]

Good List, even though I disagree with Hades, Final Victory and Saladin Alone. All of them give you a pretty good position that is easy to defend. In my opinion the hardest Mission from the first Trail is Thunder Hill and The Big One is the hardest one of the second Trail. So yeah rightfully both of those are in here

[@Jefflenious]

Are there any harder missions though? Hades and Final Victory might be easier than the others (Saladin Alone is significantly harder than the other two) but they're still top 7

[@gardayustisia4528]

Thunder hill is not that hard IMO. To make the mission easier u just need to rush 2 enemies right at start. Take their gold and do 1v1. So simple

[@amazakiaula2019]

​@@gardayustisia4528 even not rushing them at first then dealing with 3 enemies, still not that hard for me. Lets make make proper castle, claim that stone quarry + some farm in the corner + water pot protection. Even though richard constantly catapulting our castle, there are enough resources to cover that. If u can put 3 tower on the castle with ballista, u are fine.

[@sobatmedhok1306]

Final victory is actually easy thou if you slow the early game and prepare everything for defense. Block 2 side ways and only open your front way so you can defend from there. The tips is make at least 2 square tower close to pig's castle and a square tower for attacking wolf castle. Don't forget to use ballistas since lionheart will bombard you with catapult.... The big one is about economy.... The trick is make woods, convert to crossbows, and sell them for gold. Also don't close your castle otherwise the enemies would attack from side way which the only safe place with resources you could farm. Just make maze on defense spot and put the firethrower to help kill enemy troops quickly since most of them use heavy armor.... 3 mission you mention earlier is actually the hardest and will torture you a lot.....

[@99jean88]

Since I use an old version of SC, I haven't played the second trail. With that said, the official guide for beating these missions of the first trail: 1- Misty River- Replace the stockpile at the west side of the river. You will abandon your castle and place the lord in the tower near the stone. Speaking of stone, spam stone collecting building and build towers near the river to protect your food production. The biggest challenge is to protect your peasants since they spawn at the abandoned castle. The answer is: Build a giant and beatiful wall to le them move from the castle to the forward base. 2- Thunder hill- Same strategy, same problems. But this time you will spam horsearchers as well. 3- Hades. I can't remember how I beat it exactly. lol. But I remember you can rush with your lord to destroy Lionheart's military capability, then you can build up more easily to do the job. And spam catapults I think? 4- Final victory- Thanks man, your video on final mission helped a lot on this. There are three paths to the castle, moat the smaller two and focus on the defense of the bigger path with towers, it's important to have a variation of archers and crossbowman. Use trebuchets to cancel Wolf, and try to be powerfull enough to advance your defences for Iron. Also use fire ballista to keep Lionheart's attacks (the biggest threat) in check.

[@Jefflenious]

First time I beat Hades I had to rush Lionheart (I didn't rush a single mission that entire playthrough) but Hades was just unbeatable And yeah if you don't wanna rush you just camp in your keep and try to buy as many weapons as you can while using the quarries behind you to make money

[@Hartz93]

Honestly find all missions quite manageable. Towers with ballistas make quick process of the enemy siege units

[@thomassleziak1222]

Just buy a ton of stone and build 35 stone towers with ballistas on them and put few archers, crossbowmen and shields on top of them and you are ok. It is slower, when you only have 2 or 3 k money, but you will get there slowly and it will be ezpz. My tactics in like 90 % of harder missions.

[@alihusseintalib7538]

Okay man I'll subscribe no need to shame me about it

[@getnerfedon7136]

- The first truly difficult mission one encounters is usually Forgotten Ones, that on which pits you against all the original 4 ai lords. Decently bad starting area, The Rat and Snake dominate the farmlands, The Wolf's trebuchets target any attempt to farm stone and iron, and there's also less starting resources for you. Setting up a good economy fast and making defenses especially to ward off early Snake and Rat harass, Pig's catapults and the eventual Wolf armor swarms are a pain as a result - Two In A Bed can be difficult too if you don't know how to make the most of the very little space you share with the Emir. - Misty River I genuinely could not beat without consulting a guide. - Warning Drums is very irritating if you despise mangonels, which the three Wolves will relentlessly pelt you with along with swarms of pikemen. - In my opinion, Thunder Hill may not be the most challenging mission compared to say Final Victory and Big One, but it's one of the most frustrating missions due to how very quickly you are overwhelmed at the start. It's the siege engines which really tilt me - either the Lionheart's Catapults have wrecked my northern tower, or the Caliph's Ballistae have already made mincemeat of the crossbowmen in the south. However, this mission is most memorable for me because to beat it, it taught me two of the most valuable tech i use to this day to survive any difficult mission, 1.) pausing while buying things in the marketplace and 2.) destroying stockpile to move it closer to iron and stone. - Nobles Vs Scoundrels is also much more bearable if you use walls on the iron hill such that you can place a tower atop it. - Final Victory is much, much more bearable than The Big One because you can mangonel spam Saladin and the Wolf, and the latter's threat level decreases if you manage to take down his mangonel towers with trebs.

[@Jefflenious]

Agreed with everything you said, I also completely forgot Warning Drums exists! That mission is definitely harder than Nobles vs Scoundrels at least, not sure about the others Also btw, what's "Two in a Bed"? Which mission is it?

[@getnerfedon7136]

@@Jefflenious My mistake, I confused the name of the mission eitht the name of the map. The mission name is "We're Surrounded!" and its you and an Emir crammed atop a hill on the Two In A Bed map vs 2 Sheriffs, a Nizar and a Wazir. While the Sheriffs are easily neutered by either fire ballistae or mangonels, the wazir's swarms of trebs, swordsmen and horse archers can overwhelm the Emir, who cant build tower ballistae to save his life. The Nizar's assassins are also a big pain coupled with the fact that you cant build a moat on high ground. Then there is space. While you are on high ground you are forced to share it with an Emir who makes that massive circular castle of his and hogs the space to himself

[@bernard3303]

Hades is actually kinda easy, the number 1 mistake in that map which i believe is likely to kill a couple of people is making your castle too large. what you need to do is make a small defendable castle that is far from richard's base so he has to bring his catapults forward to attack your castle, then you march out with your horse archers and destroy it. for caliph and pig you place a tower at your side of the river,the positioning of this one is super important as the key to victory, and place a mangonel on top. you garrison this tower with crossbowmen and archers. what this tower does is harras pig's economy and shoot the enemy when they try to cross the river. and the mangonel can destroy some of the siege weapons they build. the hardest part of the mission is holding out until your economy is well established. you can use fear factor, ale and religion to help you as the farm area is unaccessible. once you get over the start and the ai lords spend their 10k starting gold you can expand your wall to near richard's castle and place a tower right there, and kill his garrison and kill him with assassins, and do the same with tower rushing the pig. after that its an easy 1v2 and isnt that big of a challenge

[@programos]

In some cases you can storm some of the AI right at the start of the game with macemans, killing the lord very early before they are able to build something. Once you kill atleast one, you have one less enemy and most of the time you will get their gold which they were not able to spend so fast.... so you have -1 enemy and more gold in 2nd minute of the game. Also, if rushing is not possible(you need to try few times which lord can be stormed), then you can sometimes build a tower very very close to enemy, building catapult there with a few archers. This makes the instant very early harras for other lord where the tower is build. Then they do not attack but trying to be repairing their castle, running out of money eventually without resistance. And the last great idea how to deal with some of those are defense for free.... making a ditch right at start with slaves, and do this ditch around your castle so enemy can come only from one direction.

[@kinggimli5481]

You are great, just found you channel , I love your videos. If I may two question: 1.Why you do not use your own voice? 2. Could you make a pattern which is the best for castle creation? I always have different ideas, is there any which would be always good. Also to add, I am also old guy and this is the only game which brings me back in childhood.

[@terrymarsalinas1882]

I am your 866th subscriber. Hahahah I learned about this game when I was a 1st year college. I was 15 at that time. I spent at least a 4th of my measly monthly allowance just to play this offline game.

[@Jefflenious]

It was worth it, right?

[@makhdoom65]

Damn those are cancerous mission. Very very well picked. I could add fee more but definitely these were the nightmares

[@eksvi]

Missions 38, 46 and 48 were the hardest for me. Didn't even played 2nd crusader trail much and only difficult mission from it I remember is a mission 80.

[@sandervoerhuis2613]

Started playing Again after my childhood just beat misty rivers was quite easy with good micro looking forward to the next hard missions

[@PersianGhost]

Congratulations on more subs!!!

[@kevintanaya8208]

Thunder Hill Tips: kill Lionheart first. Make 40 macemen and send them to destroy Lionheart's barrack, and then storm the stone keep altogether. You must maximize good things to boost these 40 macemen otherwise they won't be able to kill him.

[@Qtish]

If you cheat with speed 20 for first 5 minutes of the game, any opponent is beatable with any gold disadvantage. And if you rush and destroy his market and barracks, he cannot spend that gold and reinforce his defenses and you will gain more gold. 31: Misty river I bought 10 marksmen and then 10 macemen. I placed 2 lookouts towers uphill where I put my marksmen to clear any of right side Richards units. As soon as I got 20 recruits for my 10/10 army, I placed 2 quarrys and lumberjacks south, since I already apply pressure on left Richard and he cannot go for my buildings. Then with macemen I lured knights onto my marksmen. While marksmen are busy with killing swordsmen I used macemen to destroy his barracks and eventually Richard himself. You need to do this fast enough before another attacks you. Turning marksmen around onto your keep.

[@jonathanchan711]

Hi! I subbed a long while back dw :) Can you try playing Saladin alone, but killing everyone else first and leaving Saladin for last? Thanks

[@Jefflenious]

He dies very quickly lmao, worth trying though sounds like a cool challenge

[@Brashix]

@@Jefflenious actually for me he lasted a long time. by the time i got my economy and main army is when he was about to die

[@deathgun397]

Have subscribed my lord

[@Jefflenious]

Thank you! Welcome!

[@youssifahmed9478]

Keep it up man i love watching this great work :)

[@Qtish]

Most of these missions are doable with early macemen rush. Sendind 21 of them asap, destroying mercenary camp, not giving time for AI to surround themselves with walls, by sending few macemen really early, and later killing the lord, will grant more gold to further make more macemen and move to a next AI. Even on The Big One, you can macemen rush Wolf, makes it a lot easier.

[@donaldkeller6949]

I think the one with 7 rats is pretty hard. One Rat's army? Easy. But the Rat attacks very early, and when you have 7 large archer/spearman armies within the first 2 minutes of play, it's hard to survive that. But once you survive the first two attacks and have your archers and towers secured, it get super easy.

[@Ilham23Channel]

This mission makes me curious and not focused at work. Always wanted to leave work early to try again and again to win the war on this mission

[@jackog44]

Any thoughts on stronghold crusader extreme mission?

[@horrorhouse16]

mission thunderhill was the hardest for me. untill i found out you can rush the lionheart with assassins. after you rush him you receive like 10000 gold. after that, the mission becomes easy.

[@gamesking1238]

0:52 you can just play with 20 speed and they will build their castle slowly so you have time to grind resources

[@jemo4211]

1:21 Richard 1 : it's over Jefflenious i have the high ground

[@TheDenshProblem]

Stage 25: The Forgotten. You’re up against the original four in a terrible position flanked by two lords on either side of you and having no feasible access to any resources with a 2k to 4k gold disadvantage. Since it was utterly impossible to build any economy whatsoever due to constant harassments from Rat and Snake, failiure was always inevitable. I attempted rushing but you don’t have the money to kill one lord and defend against the other three afterwards. The only way I could win it was by making a bunker for myself and discovering the one way to build an economy from nothing. Crossbows. I invested in wood and turned them into crossbows. That was my whole economy. Crossbows share the spot for the most expensive weapon in the market but unlike iron for swords or maces, wood for crossbows are dirt cheap in comparison and have a massive profit margin. I had to spend ages just making crossbows and using the profit from that to fund literally *everything* else. From food production, troops, walls, defenses, to more wood just to keep the system rolling. All the while the four lords with a whole central island made of stone and iron to themselves relentlessly hammer you. It took forever, but it worked. Eventually getting enough units to take out the weaker lords and finally get some breathing space to take the other two.

[@karelspinka3031]

Honestly, I didn't find 41, 71 and 78 that difficult. Two round towers in the direction of most attacks, equipped with ballista, some crossbows and shields, solved most of my problems. I even managed to dig a moat. But yeah, 33 is a nightmare. I only won it thanks to the "woodcuter-in-front-of-the-gate" exploit. I haven't touched those three remaining missions.

[@Jefflenious]

I mean you can make them a lot easier by slowing down the game and carefully planning your defenses before the attacks come But I found these missions to be the hardest ones in the trail, also I was playing on max speed so that made it even harder (Especially 41)

[@d3nny_s3mpai]

Pre mňa tá misia so 7 Snake-mi (neviem meno) Veľmi frustrujúce sa brániť proti vlne otrokov a katapultov

[@SabillahRosyadAF]

Its all ez if you know the enemies weakness. Build tower to enemy as close as possible, dont build a gate and only build a wall or artificial river with one way so the enemies only took the possible path, put one or more soldiers in front of enemies gate so they forced to close the gate and cannot send any troops

[@yanpvnk]

agree with Thunder Hill, Hades, and Saladin Alone

[@dhavalpatil1515]

Mission 50 is actually easy

[@boskociric5836]

THE FORGOTTEN

[@CountlessPWNZ]

yoooo, i love these videos.

[@Jefflenious]

And I love you for watching the videos!

[@jayrromejay9490]

In every mission, i make sure to slow the game speed and whole my castle surrounded by dicth. To prevent enemy aggression

[@leokonrath379]

0:24 I pressed the chicken, and now there are 2 chickens. I'm not fearful. Is there anything that makes you go back? I want to remove the chicken next to the King

[@kurdline25]

I couldn’t beat Misty river mission until i moved my lord to the bottom left of the map and started my castle there

[@Takeda_1582]

You know,i think you would have gotten so many more subscribers if you had paid more attention to its sequels. Btw i love this voice.How do you make it?

[@caprinkosullivan3640]

Please try put the UCP multiplayer mod. They have a complete rebalance for the game. Would be cool to see your opinion on the different units ans building costs etc. Anyways, keep it up! Also do you play Multiplayer?

[@Jefflenious]

Will look into that at some point And no I don't play multiplayer anymore

[@Ubermicropwned]

Finished all besides the big one, that one was hell

[@M1kY28]

the big one is really hardest because i cant even do it with gold cheat.

[@Teglamen]

Thunderhill mission is easy: Rush Blitzkrieg, Kill Caliph to the right with assassins. Get the % of his gold. Now you're even

[@stefanantic8061]

Damnn i remember playing vs 2 Richards. I click play and they already sent full force on me.

[@Phill_mcCrackin]

even with loads of tricks and use of shields thunder hill is still super difficult without early game rushing

[@ahmadjavaid1911]

jeff mission warning drums is also very hard in which you are surrounded by 3 wolfs and they are bombardeing you with catapualts

[@Jefflenious]

Warning drums should've made it to the list you're right, I forgot about the mission

[@h4ruspex674]

it's actually not that hard.. just build your castle on left side of hill. Blue wolf is the weakest and he will fall quickly... Two others won't reach your important buildings with mangonels and u have a lot of free resources there.. Just don't fight all three at once :D

[@amazakiaula2019]

I think warning drums is hard but not as painful as in the mission 33 & 36. Cuz u can claim stone mile in the left side so repairing walls or towers isnt that hard if broken. Lets attack the wolf on the top first, u will fine.

[@kofola9145]

Misty rivers, for sure. Personalty, I had worse issues with 32. Plains of Atum and 46. Nightmare, Sultans attack from the start with Arabian Swordsman from one side and caliphs from the others. And 36 The Descent. That starting position is terrible, few trees and that is it. Thunder Hiill and Hades. 10 k gold is more then enough to build crossbows and you can build towers next to Richard + slaves to burn him down. The same with Thunder Hill. It is not hard to snipe Richards engineers and the rest is solved with crossbows. I would mention 31: Warning Drums, constant mangonel fire from three wolves is unnerving to say the least.