===============================
------[ Stronghold FAQ]--------
===============================
+-+ Version 0.1

+-+ Written by Skroll (burnthepriest@home.com)
    http://www.disemboweled.net

===========================
----[ News & Updates ]-----
===========================

v0.1 - FAQ freshly started, castle building started,
along with some pitch information.

=========================
-------[ Sites ]---------
=========================
+-+ Firefly Studios (http://www.fireflystudios.com)
    Developers of Stronghold.

+-+ Gathering of Developers (http://www.godgames.com)
    Publisher of Stronghold

===================================
-------[Table of Contents]---------
===================================
+-+ Walkthrough

+-+ Castle Building

+--- Initial Planning

+-+ Strategies

+--- Pitch Traps


===========================
------[Walkthrough]--------
===========================
  This part will come soon, I'm almost done with the military
campaign, but I need to finish it first.

===============================
------[Castle Building]--------
===============================
  Castle building often depends on your mission.  If you're not to
the part of the game that requires stone to build, don't worry about
it then.  You won't need it.  Same with iron.  I'm going to assume
that you have available, every single building and unit available in
the game.  You can substitute stone for wood, and so forth, but
it's not until you have the different units that the game becomes
really interesting.

+-+ Initital Layout

  Before laying out a castle, you have to take a few things into
consideration.  First off, your location.  You wan't the most
resources available nearby.  You probably don't want trees too close,
because you cant build walls through them, which gives the enemies
easy access inside your castle, and soon enough, macemen are charging
through the walls, slaughering yor archers and crossbow men.  This,
of course is not good.  So, keep your castle close to tress, but with
enough space to place infrastructure.

  Next up, is the stone and iron.  Quarrys and mines cost way too much 
to get destroyed and make you build them over again.  It is best to 
have them at the rear of the castle, if possible, and defended with archers.  
So, make sure your castle starts nearby the stone.  Plan to have your 
farming on the outside of your castle, especially if you're on high ground
(you can't have farms on dirt).  But keep any production buildings inside
the walls.

  Last, in combat, elevation is god.  Archers on a tower are great, but
archers on a tower on a plateu rains wooden (and often fiery) death onto 
any oncoming attack.  Consider this in your planning.

+-+ Starting the Castle

  First, place your keep where you want it.  Next, site your granary,
as the guy with the repetitive and irritating voice tells you to.  What
he doesn't tell you though, is that the granary will be there for a while,
and you can only build more granaries attached to the original, creating
one big granary.  Therefore, leave room for a few more granaries, so you
can stockpile food later.  This also leads to the stockpile, right away,
build a few more connecting to the original one.  (they're free, anyways)

  Next, wood choppers should get cranking, about three to start.  Also,
an extra hut wont hurt, as long as your quick on cranking out food.  Start
with hunters, they are a nice starter food, especially with a low population
level.  Once food starts coming in, build dairy farms, because they take
a bit to start going, but produce a new food source, and multiple types of
food increase your popularity.

  Afterwards, either go for barracks, and crank out some archers, or if
there's no immediate threat, get the rest of your infrastructure going.
Set up the walls any way you want, however, crenulate them as soon as you
can.  Gates are a must, and should be heavily guarded (they are weak, and
if destroyed, you have a HUGE gap in your walls).  Multiple food types 
should come first, and then you can raise taxes a bit. Religion should 
always come last.

==========================
------[Strategies]--------
==========================
+-+ Pitch Traps

  Pitch traps are a very powerful, one time defense.  Probably the first
thought that comes to mind, is that you should just lay down a huge pit
filled with pitch.  This is a very LARGE waste of pitch, and here I'll
explain why.

  The fire from a pitch ditch spreads quickly.  Well, actually, the initial
blast is the most fiery, causing a great deal of spread, and a very intense
flame.

A little experimentation revealed some helpful information.  I decided to
place a single spot of pitch down, and fire an arrow at it.  The results
are interesting.  Below, is the pitch map I made, rotated 45 degrees, so
it is no longer isometric.  On each map, I aimed for the center, and hit
it.

.....x..
.x....x.
xxxx&xxx
.xxxxxxx
..x.xx..
xxx...x.

The (&) is the initial piece of pitch I laid down.  Remember, it is only
one square.  The (.) were spots that weren't burnt, and the (x) is where
the fire spread.  This is a random occurance, Sometimes the fire spreads
more, sometimes less.  Either way, its a very large spread for such a small
piece.  Here's another map.

.................
.......xx........
....xxxxxxxx.....
..xxx&&&&&&x.....
...xx&&&&&&xx....
....x&&&&&&xx....
...xx&&&&&&x.....
....x&&&&&&x.....
....xxxxxxxxx....
.......xx........

Same key.  Lets do some math now.

On the first map, I laid down one square, and got 25 burnt squares.
Excellent.  On the second, I laid down 30 squares, and got 67 burnt
squares.  So, one square produced 24 burnt squares, and 30 squares produced
37 burnt squares.  Thats only 13 more squares, with 30 times more pitch used.
Not cost efficient.

Next example.

.................
.......xx........
....xxxxxxxx.....
....x&x&x&xx.....
...xxx&.&.&xx....
....x&xoxoxxx....
....xx&.&x&x.....
....x&x&x&xx.....
....x.xxxx.xx....
.......x.........

It's hard to read, I know, but its for the sake of warfare. :)  And we
introduce a new symbol.  (o) is a square that had pitch laid down, but
wasn't burnt.

15 squares produced 28 burnt squares, and left 2 unused.  I used half
as much pitch as last time, (15 less squares), and only produced 9 less
burnt squares, but wasted 2.  Still, it's more economical, and saves
precious pitch.  Saving 15 pitch may not seem like alot, but imaging it
on larger scales.  On a patch 4 times larger, you'd save 60 squares.
However, you leave spots that aren't getting burnt, and is a waste unless
you fire a second shot quickly.  Either way, it's a save.

What does this boil down to?  Well, this helps you think up some
strategies in building these things.  Heres one of the best set
ups I've come up with.

xx.x.xx.
.x.xx.x.
xx.x.xx.
.x.xx.x.
xx.x.xx.
.x.xx.x.
xx.x.xx.

Just keep repeating that pattern.  It uses less pitch, and causes
a total coverage (most of the time) of the whole area.


