Altough clearly not at the same level than the original Crusader, I found the heavy criticism of Stronghold Crusader mostly unfair: it's a good game in the franchise, and it's surely better than Legends and maybe even Stronghold 2.

That's why I've decided to write this guide: to attract even more players that might be uncertain in picking up this game, like I was at first, and help them in completing it.

I must say that unlike Legends (of which I also wrote an achievement guide) and Stronghold 2, Crusader 2 has more interesting achievements (some of which are also very difficult) and not (or better, not only) the same ones such as "Stockpile X resources", "Clear every trail" or the dreaful "Play for ten days", so writing this guide was much more entertaining.

Without any more words, I'll leave you to the guide: good reading and good luck!

These achievements do not require any specific in-game tasks, but rather some... peculiar ones.

Welcome to the Family
Sign up to the mailing list


The first time you’ll play, you’ll be asked to insert your e-mail address; then, you’ll receive a mail from Firefly Studios, asking to confirm your account by clicking a link. Next time you’ll play, click on “Confirm my e-mail address” to get the achievement and ten promotional shields.

Atlas Subbed
Subscribe to a map using the Steam Workshop


Any map will do, just pick your favourite and you’ll get the achievement. You don’t need to be playing the game.
As a side note: this is probably one of the few, if not the only, achievements on Steam that can be unlocked outside the game.

Four Play
An achievement for owning all 4 Stronghold Crusader 2 DLC. Thank you from everyone at Firefly Studios.

Perhaps the only suggestion I can give about this one is to wait for a sale.
Note that the four DLC required are “The Princess and The Pig”, “The Emperor and The Hermit”, “The Templar and The Duke” and “The Jackal and The Khan”; the two mini campaigns are not required, but you’ll want to buy them anyway since they’ve got one achievement each.

Say My Name, Say My Name
Trigger a custom greeting


If you are not playing the English version of the game, you’ll need to change it trough the “Proprieties”> “Local Files” tab in the menu.
You’ll need to set your name (from the options in the main menu) to Lord Vader, and you’ll receive a very special greeting...
As a funny note, this achievement is a nod to Stronghold 2, where setting specific names for your lord would trigger special greetings (the ones found in Crusader 2 are ripped off from that game). Another special greeting is triggered when your Lord is named Flying Poo.

These achievements require to gather a certain amount of resources or to complete a certain task a required number of times; all of these achievements will come naturally by just playing the game, some quicker than others:

Industry Baron
Deliver 100,000 resources to the stockpile


Farmer King
Deliver 100,000 food to the granary


Forge Lord
Deliver 10,000 weapons to the armoury


These achievements are fairly easy to obtain and can be fastened by constructing the appropriate structures en masse.

Millionaire
Generate 1,000,000 gold

You can generate the required amount both trough trade and taxation, so a strong economy will help to hasten the process; you can also stockpile a huge amount of expensive goods (Iron weapons are the most expensive "craftable" goods, while pitch is the most expensive "immediate" good), save the game, sell them and repeat.

Arms Dealer
Send 500 weapons to allies


Since weapons are produced slowly, I suggest to stockpile a certain amount, save the game, sending all your weapons to your ally, reload and repeat; use bows as they are the easiest produced weapons.

Warrior 3rd Class
Kill 1,000 troops


Warrior 2nd Class
Kill 10,000 troops


Warrior 1st Class
Kill 50,000 troops


You should reach this massive amount before completing the base game trails; even if you don't, you're guaranteed to get it before completing the DLC trials (unless you're some sort of mad God who can instantly crush his oppenents).

Demolition Man
Destroy 1,000 buildings


You should get this achievement before the "Warrior 1st Class" one: it's rather simple, as the enemy likes to rebuild destroyed buildings on the exact same spot, even if it's being bombarded by artillery.

Let None Stand in my Way
Kill 50 enemy lords


You'll get this achievement sooner than you think; if you're having problems, save the game just before dealing the killing blow to the enemy lord and reload multiple times.

Those achievements are granted after the completion of the respective trail in the base game (no DLC required):

"Preparations" Campaign
Complete "Preparations" campaign


"Lionheart" Campaign
Complete "Lionheart" campaign


"Saladin" Campaign
Complete "Saladin" campaign


Skirmish Yeoman
Complete "Baptism" skirmish trail


Skirmish Knight
Complete "Breath of the Infidel" skirmish trail


Skirmish Baron
Complete "Desert Heat" skirmish trail


Skirmish Duke
Complete "Way of the Warrior" skirmish trail


Skirmish Prince
Complete "A Trail of Tears" skirmish trail


Skirmish King
Complete "Hell's Teeth" skirmish trail

Those achievements are granted after the completion of certain feats during specific trail missions in the base game (No DLC required):

Tactician
Complete "The Lion's Den" within the "Preparations" campaign on hard without training any units

This achievement is extremely easy: even on Hard, your Lord can singlehandedly destroy the lions’ dens and the Arab outpost.

Speedrun
Complete "Antioch" within the "Lionheart" campaign in less than 10 minutes


I've made a video to show the strategy I've used:

As shown in the video:
-Set difficulty to easy;
-Sell all your wood, stone, iron;
-Buy armours and pikes, then recruit at least 30 Pikemen;
-Use your archers and rangers to eliminate the enemy archers.;
-Recruit two or more catapults, bombard the tower and the adjacent walls;
-Send your Pikemen to the enemy keep.

Note that "10 minutes" is misleading: the achievement will be obtained only if you manage to kill the enemy lord before the end of the tenth day: so speeding up the game will influence the achievement.

Stealth is our Defense
Complete "Justice" within the "Saladin" campaign without losing any assassins (Difficulty: Hard)

I've made yet another video:

You can cleary see that I first send the archers and the mantlets to clear the walls, then send the assassins to conquer the gatehouses; I used this strategy for all the gatehouses except the last two, for which I opted to use the swordsmen to demolish the walls: this is because, as you can clearly see, the assassin sent to the penultimate gatehouse was spotted by the nearby slaves, and was damaged by the archers on the nearby towers (luckily I managed to retreat him before it was too late), and my own archers were decimated in the struggle, so I had to resort to the swordmen, who did the job pretty well.

Loyal Companion
Complete "Alliance" within the "Breath of the Infidel" skirmish trail without your ally dying


You don't need to do anything special: your ally is competent enough to survive on his own (it also helps that two of the three opponents will only target your castle) and, given enough time, can also beat the enemy Lords by herself.

Those achievements can be gained during any type of game mode; most of them are self-explanatory and require very little effort.

The Killing Joke
Kill a jester


You’ll probably obtain this achievement without even trying.
Jesters wander around the keep: unless you closely monitor their movements you’ll likely lose track of their movements: the best way to kill them even without knowing their location is to bring some archers into the area: they will attack every unit in sight.

Animal Antics
Fire one of each animal type from a trebuchet in a single game


I’m not completely sure, but I think you must do it with a single trebuchet: it’s very easy, just time consuming, since trebuchets fire very slowly.


Revelation 16:21
Have 10 trebuchets at your command

You’ll probably want to wait until you’ll get a very strong economy: trebuchets are very expensive and fairly fragile, and you’ll need to have ten of them simultaneously,

Animal Air Strike
Throw 100 animals


You don’t need to throw them in just one game, but if you are trying to get the “Fetchez la Vache!” achievement, you’ll probably fire more than the required amount.

Release the Hounds
Open 5 war dog cages in the space of 30 seconds


Just do as the description says: it’s very easy as dog cages are very economic.

All Knight Long
Have 100 mounted knights at your command


This is perhaps the most boring achievement in the game: not only you need to recruit one hundred Templar Knights (each one for two hundred gold, for a total of 20000 gold!), but also one hundred horses, or about thirty-four stables, each one for 400 gold and 10 wood (for a total of 13600 gold and 340 wood).
The “good” thing is that, after every horse in the stable has been mounted, you can dismantle the structure without losing the horses, so you can at least regain some of the resources used.

No Hanging Around
Kill an AI lord in a skirmish match before the end of day 5


This task is very easy, and you can accomplish it without even trying in the very first mission of the Lionheart campaign: use your man at arms to clear the walls of the enemy archers, then breach the walls with your catapults; finally, send all your swordsmen to the enemy keep to kill the lord.


Fetchez la Vache!
Kill a lord with a diseased cow

This achievement requires patience: you have to kill the enemy lord by hitting him with a cow, since lords are completely immune to diseases. I suggest doing this in the first mission of the Baptism trial: the enemy lord will build a small castle and only recruit Arab archers and swordsman; recruit crossbowmen and archers and place them on the hill north-west of the enemy keep, then build a siege camp and start amassing trebuchets: destroy the enemy mercenary post and use your ranged troops to keep the enemy at bay. From this point on, you can mass trebuchets in peace while bombarding the enemy lord with diseased cow (be sure to select the cows: camels’ heads, lions and donkeys will not work). You can also try to weaken the enemy lord with your troops before starting to bombard him.

Assassin's Deed
Kill the enemy lord with an assassin


Follow the same strategy for the “Fetchez la Vache!” achievement, but use an assassin instead of a trebuchet to deal the killing blow.

You Win or You Die
Kill an enemy lord with your lord


Follow the same strategy for the “Fetchez la Vache!” achievement, but use your Lord instead of a trebuchet to deal the killing blow.

Conqueror
5 multiplayer wins


You don’t have to play against other human players, victories against AI are fine, as long as they are started from the multiplayer section of the menu.


Iron Will
Win a skirmish trail mission only recruiting melee troops

You are only able to recruit troops that fight in melee, you cannot recruit any type of ranged unit or siege equipment (this includes the siege ram). In the first mission of the Baptism trail, you have enough gold to recruit about five swordsmen, thirty pikemen (by buying the appropriate weapon) and thirty Arab swordsmen: those troops are more than capable of breaching the enemy walls and killing the lord.


Site your granary, sire
Destroy a granary containing more than 500 food

The quickest and easiest way to gain this achievement is to start a custom skirmish and setting, in the advanced options panel, starting food and gold to very high, while starting troops to “none”. This way, your enemy will already spawn with a filled granary, and you haven’t to wait until he manages to fill it himself; then, set a siege camp just outside its territory, build a few catapults and destroy his granary: since he hasn’t any troops, he will not pose any resistance.


Lion Tamer
Kill 5 lions with a slave driver

This achievement seems a bit bugged, and should pop up before actually killing five lions.
The easiest method to get it, is to play a Sandbox mode, recruit a bunch of Arab archers and placing them on your keep. Then, recruit a slave driver and some healers and place them also on the keep; next, you must trigger a lion invasion: the felines will rush to your keep, but will be unable to actually access it, so they will be standing still while being picked off by your Archers; weaken them enough, leaving only one or two alive with minimum health, then

Architect
50 towers, 50 hovels


In Sandbox mode, you have pretty much unlimited resources, as you can indefinitely give yourself 500 pieces of gold: use this gold to buy the required stone and wood to build this huge amount of structures.
I wouldn’t suggest to try this achievement in skirmish mode because, while 50 towers, although expensive, are manageable, the population that 50 hovels can accommodate isn’t; especially if you have a weak economy.

Fortification Master
Defeat the "Lords of the Desert" invasion in a sandbox game (Difficulty: Hard)


Don’t underestimate the difficulty of this achievement! You are disposed to think that, since Sandbox is basically god-mode, you can easily defeat this invasion; however, the Lords are a nasty pack of very, very angry Arabians, with heavy armour and heavy damage output. The good thing is that, just like every unit, they can be easily tricked: if you recruit at least 200 horse archers, you can outspeed them while simultaneously damaging them (albeit for just a few hit points), basically forcing them to endlessly follow your archers.
Keep in mind, though, then even by using this tactic, some Lords may lose interest in the pursuit (if your archers become too far apart) and try to attack your keep: for this reason I strongly suggest to build at least one circle of walls around your keep, with at least four towers filled with crossbowmen.
Fire is another good way to slowly damage the enemy Lords since they move very slowly and in group. Be sure to Surrender in the menu once you defeat all the Lords.

Trebuchet vs Trebuchet
Destroy an enemy trebuchet using a trebuchet


I obtained this one in the fourth mission of the Desert Heat Trail, “The King looks down”: after defeating the Rat, Richard built a siege camp where the Rat’s castle was standing, and built a single trebuchet to attack my own castle from the hill; I already had four trebuchets running around my base, so I relocated them under the hill and destroyed Richard’s trebuchet.
If you don’t want to wait until this mission, you can try to play against high level AI like Richard or the Wolf and wait for them to siege you with trebuchet.
Note that you can’t obtain this achievement in sandbox mode.

Not So Magnificent Seven
Win a multiplayer against 7 other lords with no alliances


The description of this achievement is misleading: you don’t have to win against a coalition of seven lords, but in a free for all multiplayer skirmish against seven other lords; you can obtain this one against AI lords, as long as the skirmish is started from the multiplayer section of the main menu.
The best map to obtain this achievement is Insanity: the starting standard territory has everything you need, and is easily defensible; build up your army while the other lords are busy fighting themselves (the lords holding the central territories will probably die without your intervention) and destroy everyone who still stands.

Star of Wars
Win a 6 player free for all skirmish match on "The Star"


I suggest playing against some low level AI like the Shah, the Rat or the Slave King, as the AI tends to assault the human player regardless of score. Since the AI is quite fond of using early rushes to cripple your economy, set a peace time of half an hour in the advanced options, and, in the same panel, set starting resources and weapons to very high; this way, you’ll be plenty of time to completely entrench your territory with walls and towers and fill them with archers and crossbowmen.
The best thing about this strategy is that, by entrenching your territory completely, you can destroy the two nearest castles with trebuchets firing behind your own walls (you’ll still need to send troops to kill the enemy lord, though).

Embargo
Win a skirmish match without buying or selling any goods


This achievement can be easily done in any of the first skirmish missions, where the need for money isn’t strong enough to justify selling your goods, and you’ve already got all the natural resources you need.

Slam Dunk (Da Funk)
Win 5 skirmish matches in a row


You can quit a skirmish and the victory counter will not be interrupted: the only thing that will do so is actually losing a skirmish.
Normally, you should get this achievement during your second trail, “Breath of the Infidel”, but if you are really impatient, you can use the same strategy as “Let None Stand in my Way”.

Medic!
Heal your lord to half health from the brink of death


The Lord doesn’t heals himself, so you’ll need to use an Arabian Healer, recruited from the mercenary post.
You can do this achievement easily in the first mission of the Saladin campaign: use your Lord to kill all the enemy recruits lying out the castle walls, then let the archers on the wall target him until his health bar becomes red: retreat to your castle and let the Healer do his job.

These achievements can only be obtained by playing the two mini-campaigns "Delivering Justice" and "Freedom Fighters", both purchasable on Steam:

http://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/317590/Stronghold_Crusader_2_Delivering_Justice_minicampaign/

http://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/317591/Stronghold_Crusader_2_Freedom_Fighters_minicampaign/

Clear Passage
All trade caravans survive in "Robber Baron" within the "Delivering Justice" campaign


I strongly suggest to play this mission on Easy difficulty: while the objective itself it’s not much difficult, it will surely take more than one reloading, so I also suggest to save frequently and on different spots.
Your objective is to safely escort a certain number of caravans from the cross to the west side of the map to the cross on the east side (Shown below).
The caravans will be frequently attacked by troops coming from the following gorges:
Keep an eye on this one in particular, the game sometimes forgets to alert you of the enemy attacks coming from there (mostly composed of archers) who will then target the caravans at the ford here:

If left unchecked, they will manage to severely damage and perhaps even destroy a caravan, so keep your eyes open.
To start your mission, build two more stone caves, as you’ll need to build three grand towers: one will replace the watchtower already built in the mission, another one near the ford mentioned before and the last one to the right of your keep (as shown here).
Fill these towers with archers and crossbowmen (twenty archers and five crossbowmen each should suffice), then send every other ranged unit on the western shore of the river.
Regarding the castle layout, apart for the three towers mentioned earlier, I suggest building a strong economy with at least five wheat farms and breweries to gain the beer bonus and raise taxes, five wheat farms, a mill or two and six bakeries to set double food rations and increase taxes even higher; by building all of this, you shouldn’t encounter any problems regarding your finances.
Once you have enough gold, build five fletcher’s workshops, two artillator's workshops, three Armourer's Workshops and five or more blacksmith's workshops.
You’ll want to have two groups of at least twenty-five macemen on each side of the river, supported by as many ranged units you can deploy; you’ll want to constantly recruit these three troops (archers, crossbowmen and macemen) throughout the mission.
Macemen alone will constitute the bulk of your defences: they are pretty cheap but also very effective, and their special ability is devastating; be sure to activate it right when you are approaching the enemy troops to destroy them without any damage to your macemen.
Meanwhile, archers and crossbowmen will provide ranged support if any loner troop should wander away from the fray, or against any armoured troop (this becomes especially the case in the last ten minutes of the mission, where heavy troops will be numerous).
Regarding the enemy’s attacks, they will usually assault from one gorge at time, except in the last three minutes of the mission where two groups armed with catapults will spawn from the easternmost gorges. Use the time between these attacks to recruit even more troops and eventually save the game, in order to be able to reload if anything goes wrong.
The first attacks will be easy to repel: they will be composed by archers and man-at-arms, so your macemen can easily overcome them. Over time, however, man-at-arms will be substituted by maceman and pikemen, who could pose a threat to small parties of maceman. Similarly, the archers will be substituted by crossbowmen: these, however, being much slower than the archers, should pose no threat, and can be easily overwhelmed by small parties of macemen since they tend to fall back of the main raiding parties.
The last wave, at about three minutes from the end of the mission, will be composed by two medium sized parties of pikemen, crossbowmen and swordsmen: these will required so much effort to overcome, and will keep all your macemen busy; for this reason, kill all pikemen and crossbowmen before engaging them, otherwise they will reach your caravans.
If you follow these instruction and remember to save often, you should have no problem in getting the achievement.

Take the Bull by the Horns
Complete "The Horns of Hattin" within the "Freedom Fighters" campaign in less than 10 minutes

I won’t lie: I’ve tried many times with a more “sophisticated” approach for this one (building hussite wagons, waiting for reinforcements) and failed always by two or three minutes, then I tried with a rush tactic and it worked on the first time!
Here is the video on how I did it:


You can clearly see that were some uncertainties and errors, as this clearly was my very first attempt with this tactic.

Again, "10 minutes" is misleading: the achievement will be obtained only if you manage to kill the enemy lord before the end of the tenth day: so speeding up the game will influence the achievement.

These achievements can only be obtained after purchasing "The Princess and The Pig" DLC:

http://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/348990/Stronghold_Crusader_2_The_Princess_and_The_Pig/

Skirmish Hero
Complete "The Princess & The Pig" skirmish trail


Depending on your ability, you will obtain this achievement simultaneously with the next one.

Protector of the Innocent
Complete "Surrounded" within "The Princess & The Pig" skirmish trail without losing any hovels

I strongly suggest playing this mission on easy difficulty: even then, you’ll most probably get an headache.
After the five minutes of truce, that are more of a mock than an utility, I was under constant attack by that ugly CGI harlot and that fat, rotten swine, who always managed to reach my keep and destroy my hovels more than once; for this reason, my first suggestion is to save often and on different spots.
Regarding the mission, you start with very limited resources, and the area surrounding your keep has very limited iron and stone resources (one cave each), but a very large oasis, so a strong food and ale production is recommended; unlike other missions, you should build your hovels far from the keep (the spot on the south east, near the oasis is perfect), since the enemy will go for it most of the time, destroying everything near it in the process (particularly in this mission, the AI seems obsessed by your hovels, so keep a curtain wall near them).
Go for ale production as soon as possible in order to raise taxes and for the production of archers and macemen as soon as you have the resources; since stone is very limited, you’ll want to build curtain walls around your keep (be sure to include the iron mine, or else the enemy will target it immediately); you can use the walls to exploit the AI: the enemy troops will always try to reach the keep and will always take the way that isn’t closed by walls, even if it is the longest; so if you can manage to build a labyrinth around your keep, without closing the access way to it, the AI will take that way instead of destroying the fragile curtain walls, giving you ample time to bombard them with your archers (who should be stationed on the keep or towers).
Start by building small towers and curtain walls and then slowly improve them once you have enough stone: meanwhile, keep recruiting archers, who must be stationed on the keep and towers, and macemen, who should act as a last line of defence if the enemy comes trough; they should also eliminate any catapult your archers can’t reach. Once you’ve finally managed to reach the point where the enemy’s attacks are easily repelled, you can relax: the most difficult part of the mission is over.
Adopt whichever strategy you prefer to kill the enemy Lords (I suggest taking the Pigs out first, since they crossbowmen can hit pretty hard) and complete the mission; just remember to save often!

I'll Huff and I'll Puff
Defeat The Pig 1 vs 1 without destroying any of his walls in a skirmish match


There are two ways you can obtain this achievement: the proper way and the cheap way.
The proper way is the longest and most difficult one, but also the most satisfying: you’ll want to play normally, build a proper economy and recruiting mostly crossbowmen, pikemen, and assassins; once you have a sizeable force, you’ll want to build a considerable amount of mantlets or hussite war wagons to protect your crossbowmen and slaughter all the Pig’s troops on the walls, so that your assassins could reach the main gate and open the way for your Pikemen, who will deal the killing blow to the Pig.
The cheap way is much more quick and easy, but some may find it unsatisfying: set the starting gold to very high, and choose a map where the Lords spawn very closely (most of the eight players map should do); build a mercenary post and start recruiting troops to send to the Pig’s castle: he will be unable to build walls due to their presence and should fall quickly if you cover your archers with mantlets to destroy his starting crossbowmen; once they fall, it’s very easy to kill the Pig himself.
Select the strategy you prefer and grab your achievement!

Space Invader
Capture all the village estates in the "Conquerors" mission before any players are defeated


This achievement is very easy to obtain: place a mercenary camp immediately, then start recruiting groups of slaves, sending each group to each estate; you’ll obtain the achievement in no time and without breaking a sweat.

Usurper
Defeat The Princess and Richard in a single skirmish match


You’ll obtain this achievement by completing the second mission in the Princess and the Pig trail.
If you don’t want to wait for that moment, you can try it in a custom skirmish: the Princess and Richard don’t need to be in the same team, so you can defeat them in a free for all or with some allies.

Army of One
Kill 100 of The Princess' troops with your lord in a single skirmish game


This achievement can become extremely frustrating, as the Princess tends to amass Man-at-Arms in so great numbers they could potentially kill your Lord.
I suggest playing on the map “Barren Wastes” against a Single Princess, tend sending your Lord with at least forty archers and five healers to the estate near the Princess’ castle (you’ll want to place her in one of the corners of the map): place the archers on the nearby keep and the Lord near the opening of the gorge, while the healers will wait way back (else they will be mauled); once a brigade of Man-at-Arms approaches, use your Lord supported by the archers to kill them, then retreat him to heal.
The Lord should engage the enemy only when he has at least a yellow-greenish health bar, otherwise you risk of losing it; remember to save frequently, should things go awry, and be patient: one hundred troops aren’t that much.

The Boy
Defeat a team of The Pig, The Rat and The Wolf in a skirmish match


The task may seem insurmountable, since both the Pig and the Wolf are very thought opponents: however, you are given ample liberty in the way of defeating them. If you are having problems defeating them in a normal game, you can give yourself plenty of resources to overcome the opposition, or even start a 5 vs 3 skirmish with a pack of allied Wolves!

As a side note, this achievement is a reference to the original Stronghold, whose protagonist, simply called “the boy” was tasked with liberating England (in the localized versions the setting was the country in which language the game was localized) by the grasp of four tyrants: the Rat, the Snake (who has not come back, it seems), the Pig and the Wolf, who also killed the boy’s father prior to the starting of the story.
From the comments of the aforementioned Lords, it seems that the Crusader 2 Lord is the same boy from the original Stronghold, along with the Wolf who has survived and came back for revenge. Meanwhile, the Pig and the Rat are the sons of the now deceased original Pig and Rat.

These achievements can only be obtained after purchasing "The Emperor and The Hermit" DLC:

http://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/349000/Stronghold_Crusader_2_The_Emperor_and_The_Hermit/

Divine Retribution
Complete the "The Emperor & The Hermit" skirmish trail


Listed Buildings
Defeat The Emperor on "Uprising" in "The Emperor & The Hermit" skirmish trail without destroying any of his towers

Start the mission with buying huge amounts of wood and stone: you’ll want to set up a strong bread production as soon as possible (apples, meat and cheese are not convenient: the oasis in too much far from your keep and too much exposed to enemy attacks), then build two or three grand towers to the east of your keep, just at the edge of your territory, and you should be able to repel without much hassle any attack (build a ballista tower as soon as possible to destroy the Emperor’s Trebuchets), then set up your economy as you like; you have a lot of Iron so medium/heavy troops are recommended.
As soon as you are able, start defeating the Rats: I suggest taking out the two on your South first, since they are the most troublesome (they attack from south and most of the time manage to destroy one or two wheat farms before your archers can pick them off); about forty archers covered by mantlets should free the walls and open the way for your infantry to kill the Lords.
Once all the Rats have been defeated, it’s time to get to the Emperor: recruit at least one hundred archers and forty swordsmen, then place a siege camp right outside his territory; build a single siege ram and at least twenty mantlet, then start building them regularly to replace those that are destroyed.
Place your troops (covered by the mantlets) just outside his castle and let the archers clear any tower they can reach, then clear all the other towers by encircling the castle using the same strategy; once the walls are free, breach the gate using the ram and send your swordsmen in, covered by your archers, to obtain a swift victory.
Pay attention to your troops! If they stand to long near a tower, they will try to break it down, don’t let that happen!

Sacrosanct
Defeat The Hermit without destroying any of his Mosques


This achievement is very similar to “I’ll Huff and I’ll Puff” from “The Princess and the Pig” DLC, but it’s much less limiting: the Hermit builds only a single Mosque during the match; however, he tends to place it in the middle of his castle, so I suggest avoiding the use of Trebuchets, since they are imprecise and might accidentally destroy the Mosque while firing against the towers (the Hermit likes to build a ton of them): instead, you can opt for hussite war wagons filled with archers to clear the walls and rams to destroy the gates, or you can simply smash the walls with catapults and send into his keep as many pikemen or swordsmen as you can (apart from the assassins, the Hermit only recruits slaves and Arabian archers, who are completely ineffective against heavily armoured units).
Naturally, since this achievement is similar to “I’ll Huff and I’ll Puff”, you can also use the cheap way described before if you don’t want to play a proper skirmish.

Cannon Fodder
Kill 500 Conscripts in a skirmish match against The Emperor


You’ll probably obtain this one without even noticing during the skirmish trail, especially if you take a long time to build your castle and attack the enemies: the Emperor likes to disturb your economy by frequently sending large waves of conscripts against your walls; they pose no threat and should be killed easily by about forty archers placed on towers.

Master of Darkness
Defeat the Hermit in a skirmish match by only training assassins


The only way to obtain this achievement is the cheap one: assassins are too weak and expensive to hold your own keep, let alone conquering a well developed one, so start right next to the Hermit, and assault him with assassins as soon as the game starts.

Concordat
Team up with The Emperor and defeat a team of two Hermits in a skirmish match


There are no particular recommendations for this one: your ally is competent enough to survive on his own, but do not expect him to help you in taking down your enemy. Be careful of the enemy assassins who can sneak up onto your walls if there are no troops nearby.

Fruit and Nut
Defeat a team of the Sultana and the Hermit in a skirmish match by yourself


Both your adversaries are not so tough and will be an annoyance more than a threat: their assassins (both the Sultana and the Hermit are particularly fond of them) are very irritating and become visible only when they are near your troops, so they tend to reach the archers on the towers before being annihilated by them; I suggest keeping some melee troops on the walls of your castle just in case.
You’ll want to recruit archers and Pikemen/Swordmen: archers are excellent for defending your walls since they fire faster and farther than the crossbowmen, particularly useful since your enemies will use swarms of light troops to attack you, while your heavy infantry should resist the swarms of archers who populate the enemy towers.
Be mindful, though, that both Lords keep a dozen of assassins hidden in their keep, protecting them: when attacking, you should consider that the Lords are not completely defenceless even if you can’t see any troop on the keep.

That's no Moon
Defeat the Emperor in a skirmish match in which he builds his largest castle


This picture taken from the Stronghold Crusader 2 wiki shows the layout of the Emperor’s biggest castle:

This castle has a faulty weakness: you can clearly see that the keep is only guarded by a long corridor behind a gate; if the gate falls, the entire castle is doomed.
You can exploit this weakness by using the following strategy: select a map with huge territories, like “The Forest”, set a peace time of thirty minutes and all starting resources to high (these steps ensure that the Emperor will build his largest castle): once the game starts, you have enough resources to recruit twenty Templar Knights; do it, then set up a bow production and your preferred economy. Recruit at least one hundred archers and twenty-five mantlets, plus a siege ram and if you want, some trebuchets (if the Emperors builds mangonels near the gate, trebuchets are mandatory to destroy them from afar; otherwise, they will destroy your army).
As soon as the truce expires, move your army, covered by the mantlets, just outside your castle, to repel the first (and last) enemy raid: the Emperor will attack with recruits, pikemen and crossbowmen; watch out for them in particular since they can take out mantlets very quickly.
Once the assault is over, move your troops just outside the enemy castle and let your archers clear the walls, then breach the gate with your ram. Once the gate has fallen, your melee troops should have no problems in reaching the keep and killing the Emperor.

Rings of Death
Start in the centre estate and defeat 6 Emperors on "The Last Stand" in Custom Skirmish


Don’t feel too overwhelmed, the Emperors don’t need to be on the same team and their attacks are easily repelled,since you hold the high ground during the mission.; you have very limited space to build your keep, so you’ll have to limit your buildings: I went for an ale and bread production, along with armours and swords (and obviously iron and stone); you’ll want to build four grand towers at the corners of your territory and fill each of them with twenty-five archers: this should be enough to repel every attack.
Your elevated position also gives a huge advantage when besieging enemy castles: your trebuchets can fire against most of the enemy keeps from just outside your walls, paving the way for your infantry to finish the job.

Royal Bonus
Win a skirmish match against a team of The Emperor, The Princess, King Richard & The Slave King

You'll also need "The Princess and the Pig" DLC for this achievement.
Just like “The Boy” this achievement may seem impossible at first, but you are given complete freedom in defeating your enemies: three allied Wolves should be more than capable of annihilating the opposition by themselves.

These achievements can only be obtained after purchasing "The Templar and The Duke" DLC:

http://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/349230/Stronghold_Crusader_2_The_Templar_and_The_Duke/

Skirmish Enforcer
Complete "The Templar & The Duke" skirmish trail


Depending on your strategy, you should get this achievement along with the next one.

Surmountable
Complete "Insurmountable" within "The Templar & The Duke" skirmish trail before the end of day 60

Follow the video:
Now, when I saved the game, that’s the turning point of the mission: you can easily defeat the Duke, Saladin and Richard, but the Templar is a very though opponent; I’ve restarted more than five times because, no matter which strategy I adopted, his crossbowmen always managed to destroy my troops. That happened because the Templar’s keep is higher than the others, so my archers had difficult time in attacking it. How to resolve this problem? By simply sending all of my troops,archers included, onto the keep: once again, just like in “Taking the Bull by the Horns” a brutal approach is rewarded.
If your assault on the Templar fails, reload the game from that point and try to recruit more troops, or, since you have only one opponent left, you can try to play the game normally and finish before the sixtieth day.
A final reminder: eliminate the Duke first, otherwise, he’ll send a swarm of recruits to your castle, destroying your economy.

Men Only
Complete "Factions of War" within "The Templar & The Duke" skirmish trail without building any siege equipment

For this mission, you are against a team composed by the Caliph, the Slave King and the Templar, while you are allied with The Rat, the Shah and the Duke; a pretty balanced match.
Try to keep the Duke alive (but he should be able to care after himself) as he’s the only of your allies who can set up a decent siege, and try to keep the Rat alive until you take out the Slave King and the Caliph, so that his castle will shield yours from the Templar.
Set up a very strong economy by building as many stone caves as you can (at least six) and a strong ale and candle production: you’ll want as many gold as you can earn.
Since you have limited Iron (you can only place two mines since the other half of the deposit is on the Rat’s territory) you’ll want to rely mostly on Arabian swordsmen: nevertheless, build some armour forges and crossbow shops since you’ll want to use crossbowmen for the final part of the mission.
As soon as you have enough gold, recruit twenty Arabian swordsmen and one hundred horse archers: your first target is the Slave King. Use the horse archers to encircle the enemy‘s castle (almost all of them will die, but it’s a sacrifice that must be made) while your swordsmen destroy his mercenary outpost and open a breach in the walls and kill the lord.
Use the same strategy to defeat the Caliph, destroying his hay bale launchers with your mounted archers before sending the swordsmen in.
Finally, to defeat the Templar you’ll want to ditch your horse archers in favour of at least fifty crossbowmen, plus at least forty Arabian swordsmen; try to attack alongside the Duke so that your troops have support from his catapults and rangers, and attack from the South: use the crossbowmen to clear this side of the wall from the enemy’s crossbowmen and use the swordsmen to break down the stone towers and open a breach in the wall; from this breach, order your crossbowmen to bombard the keep and send the swordsmen right after: you should defeat the Templar easily.

Duke it Out
Win a skirmish match against 3 Dukes (not in a team)


The map “Clover Leaf” it’s ideal to attempt this achievement: you have a large and easily defensible territory, and all the Lords start near to each other; moreover, most of the enemies parties will fight each other before reaching your castle and some may even divert their raid to another castle.
That said, the Duke attacks primarily with rangers and swordsmen, sometimes supported by large platoons of recruits, and will try to break your defenses with towers or war wagons if the match lasts for some time, so you’ll want to use archers and, to a lesser extent, crossbowmen on your walls and towers; his castle is not particularly difficult to attack as he likes to use mangonels and rangers as a primary defense, so trebuchets and even catapults are particularly effective against him. However, keep note that his castle is usually defended by platoons of swordsmen, so you’ll want to use swordsmen of your own to attack his keep.

Holy Trinity
Win a skirmish match against a team of The Templar, The Emperor and The Hermit


This achievement requires ownership of “The Emperor and the Hermit” DLC.
Unlike similar achievements, you have to defeat your opponents by yourself: for this reason, I suggest choosing “Clover leaf” again; build three grand towers to the limits of your territory, fill them with archers and crossbowmen (twenty archers and ten crossbowmen will suffice), build some ballista towers and start building your economy. Since you have limited amount of troops (250 until you manage to defeat one of the lords) you’ll want to train elite troops to attack your enemies: go for pikemen or swordsmen, or, if you have the money, templar knights; even ten of them can make a huge difference in battle.
As usual, my strategy is to use trebuchets and mantlets to destroy the castle from afar, then bring the archers to kill any survivor, paving the way for the infantry to clear the keep.
You’ll want to take out the Hermit first since he’s the weakest, so that you’ll have more troops to deal with the Emperor and the Templar; the latter can be quite dangerous since he only recruits crossbowmen and swordsmen in huge numbers, even more than the Wolf (hence the suggestion to use crossbowmen of your own in defending your castle): but neglects his castle as he places few crossbowmen on the walls.
I suggest taking them out using trebuchets out of their range since they are deadly against mantlets, then send your heavy infantry to deal with any remaining swordsmen and the Templar himself.
A last recommendation is to place the Emperor on the territory just in front of yours: if you place him near your castle, he’ll build his trebuchets just behind the mountains that divide the estates, where they can’t be reached by your archers and ballistas.

These achievements can only be obtained after purchasing "The Jackal and The Khan" DLC:

http://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/349231/Stronghold_Crusader_2_The_Jackal_and_The_Khan/

Skirmish Legend
Complete the "The Jackal & The Khan" skirmish trail


To obtain the achievement you need to finish the trial’s ninth mission, “Journey’s End”, the tenth mission, “You are a star” in not required.

Content Complete
Complete all 4 DLC skirmish trails


If you have played the DLCs in order, you’ll obtain this achievement simultaneously with the previous one; otherwise, you’ll obtain after finishing your last trial.

Highly Offensive
Complete "Comradeship" within "The Jackal & The Khan" skirmish trail without building any walls, towers or gates

If you want to obtain this achievement in the quickest and easiest way possible, just set a mercenary tent and a siege camp, sell all of your goods, build about five mantlets, recruit a healer and as many archers as you can afford, then send all of your troops, including the Lord, to the Jackal’s keep: use the archers covered by mantlets to clear the keep, weaken the Jackal just a bit and send your Lord to kill him; get him healed while your archers repeat the same procedure against the Khan’s castle, and as soon as your Lord is at full health, kill the Khan; your man-at-arms can provide limited ranged support and can breach gates if needed.
If you want to obtain the achievement by playing the mission normally, I suggest starting a bread and ale production as soon as possible (you have very limited grasslands and stone and iron are far from the keep), then start producing archers and protecting them with mantlets; you’ll want to place them on the openings of your valley, to fight the enemy on the same ground level. Since you don’t have walls, the enemy will try to reach your keep destroying every building in the way, so you can eventually use them to build your archers some time; you’ll also want to dislocate some troops to protect your iron and stone caves (although you can’t build walls, you can sell all of your stone to recruit mercenaries).
Regarding which Lord to take out first, it’s your personal choice: the Khan is weaker than the Jackal and his castle is not protected by mangonels or ballistae, so you can take it out pretty easily even later in the game; if you give him too much time, though, he will build a gargantuan castle and will send huge raiding parties of horse archers to disrupt your economy; similarly, the Jackal takes much time to build his castle and his starting garrison is pathetic, so he’ll not bother you for some time, but just like the Khan, he will eventually send larger and larger battalions of heavy troops that can pack quite a punch, and will build mangonels on his walls, so that you’ll have to resort to heavy siege weapons to breach the castle
I personally went to eliminate the Jackal first, around day twenty, with a force of about forty archers and fifteen Arabian swordsman, covered by mantlets; then used the same force to lay an initial siege on the Khan, building enough time for reinforcements to arrive and conquer the castle.

Your Own Worst Enemy
Win a free for all skirmish match against 7 other DLC AI lords.


It seems that to obtain this achievement you have to play against different AI, so you’ll need all the DLC to accomplish this feat.
The task itself it’s not much difficult: just follow the strategy for “Not So Magnificent Seven”, by placing the hardest lords (Duke, Templar, Emperor…) in the central estates, so that the other lords will target them first; as usual, you can start with all the resources and troops you want and, if you manage to become the greatest lord quick enough, you’ll not be bothered from enemy assaults for a long time.

Bad Dogs
Defeat a team of The Wolf and The Jackal in a skirmish match by yourself


A good map to try this achievement is “Ascension”: by starting on the highest territory and placing your enemies directly on your south and west, you can control their movements with archers placed on towers erected on the southern and western cliffs, and, with much patience, you can even kill the two Lords without even leaving your territory.

Inside Job
Kill The Khan using a Horse Archer


This achievement isn’t difficult as it sounds: the Khan likes to build very huge castles, but those are very easily conquered, since are usually guarded by Arabian archers and mounted archers, who fall relatively quick against archers shielded by mantlets, which also negate every form of ranged damage.
However, you’ll also want to bring most of the castle down, to have ample space to maneuver your troops, so bring catapults and trebuchets (catapults are more useful since they are quicker and more precise than trebuchets, but fire at shorter range: however, since the Khan doesn’t build mangonels or ballistae this weakness can be easily ignored provided you have mantlets to cover your catapults); trebuchets can also be useful to fire diseased animals against the keep, weakening the garrison (but not so much the Khan).
Once you have conquered the castle and cleared the keep from enemies, you can start targeting the Khan with your horse archers; you’ll want to weaken him first, or it will take a huge amount of time to bring him down, with some light or medium infantry, like small battalions of macemen or pikemen.

Khan you do the Khan Khan?
Win a skirmish match against a team of 3 or more Khans


You’ll obtain this achievement automatically after finishing the sixth mission of the DLC trail, “Thunderous Hooves”.
Alternatively, you can try to obtain the achievement in a custom skirmish; as usual, I suggest using the map “Clover Leaf” with high starting resources to erect your walls as soon as possible: three Khans are absolutely devastating in the early game since you usually lack walls to repel the annoying horse archers raids, but become weaker and weaker as the game progresses.
Once you have your walls and towers up and filled with archers, you should have no problem in defeating your enemies, following the strategy for “Inside Job”.

Ghost Riders
Kill 100 Horse Archers in a skirmish match against The Khan


You’ll probably obtain this achievement without even noticing, especially if you are playing against multiple Khans.
During a normal skirmish, you’ll be assaulted by groups of about twenty mounted archers, who will become larger and larger as the game progresses; those parties will often wander around the map, trying to kill loner lumberjacks or soldiers, before assaulting your keep: if you have erected your walls and towers, they pose absolutely no treat, and are only a nuisance; your archers will make short work of them, so you can just play defensively until you obtain the achievement.
The Khan also keeps some mounted archers as garrison in his keep, but those alone likely won’t be enough to get the achievement.

13/10/17: Guide published.
17/10/17: Minor corrections.
21/10/17: Completed "The Princess and the Pig" section.
28/10/17: Completed "The Emperor and the Hermit" section.
02/11/17: Completed "The Templar and the Duke" section.
05/11/17: Completed "The Jackal and the Khan" section; guide completed.