

Surround your principal structures with walls – like the granary, the stronghold and the market – and put one large gatehouse. In order to build this last type of wall, you need to get a solid wall first, and you should build high walls and use the lower ones for other purposes. You have three types of walls to build: the low walls, the high walls and the walls with battlements. Build a market too, in case you need to buy something. Go to places where you found trees and put some woodcutters there. Make sure you are well defended early in the start of the game, because more aggressive players will send assassins to kill your lord when you are still very weak and without a true army. Expand your stockpile and build quarries and iron mines, and houses too because you will need villagers to work. Build a granary and a mercenary post and recruit some assassins or swordsmen to protect your lord. The oasis are an important part of Stronghold: Crusader, because they are the only farmable terrain in the game. You start with a couple of archers and spearmen, so you should put then up in the stronghold to defend your lord, and start searching for oasis and minerals. So the priority is securing your lord the fastest possible. This lord is the central figure of the game, and if he dies, you lose the game. You start the game with a basic stronghold, some villagers and your lord.
