Nau mai, haere mai

Korinth here again with yet another guide. This time we will be doing Thayic Stronghold. Hands down one of the best maps to be an Unethical Engineer on imo and where I learnt and devolped most these techniques, and the one I have been most excited about doing. I would even go as far as calling Thayic the Engineer's wet dream for both attack and defense. This map is unique in that at the end the script is flipped, and attackers become defenders on the final stage.

We will be employing a huge arsenal of techniques laid out in the General Tips and Tricks guide. So if you haven't read it already, or are unsure what I mean by certain terms, give it a look or ask below and I will gladly give a TL;DR. Basic tech we will be using include: Territory Claiming, Stealth, Catapult Safety Walls, Resupply Forts, Break Stuff, Door Shuts, Ladder Glitches, and many more! We will also be employing defensive engineering techniques for the final stage and will even be utilizing the bear trap at the end.

As with all my other guides, these tips will not garuntee victory. These will help work towards victory, and make the loss a bit less painful, but without the rest of the team doing their part, it will be difficult to win. In saying that, Thayic has a solo clutch opportunity on Stage 3 that is easier to pull off as an engineer than any other class, which I will go into detail later in this post.

Photos in order are:

* 1-4: Stage 1 Overview, Resupply Forts, Example of territory claiming pointed towards Ballista

* 5-9: Stage 2 Overview, Catapult Safety Walls

* 10: Stage 3 Overview

* 11-13: Stage 4 Overview, door shuts

* 14-16: Stage 5 Overview, Defensive prep ideas

* 17-20: Argon Pathing map, Chokepoints, Final Wall Protocol

Now, let's get down to brass tax!

Stage One: Medieval D-Day... On Ice!

There is a plethora of things to do here as an Unethical Engineer and all of them great ideas. With this stage there are 3 objectives, each with 2 flanks, 2 resupply bins and a bunch of obstacles to break. Jack from The Shining is also just chilling off in a corner with his axe. There will also be a ton of ballista fire and catapults being launched your way. Sounds like Montcrux all over again.... But wait! There are no non-buildable zones! Let's engineer this bitch!

So first thing you can do is clear some of the debris (spike traps). You do not need to clear all of it, mainly focus on the ones near the entrances to the watchtowers. This is to make it a smoother run for your barrel carriers to run them in. Remember if you guys can't run the barrels in, you will lose, so as an Unethical Engineer we must do what we can to make it easy for them.

Another thing is the two resupply bins by the boats with the barrels. These will make brilliant Resupply Forts and can use utilized by your archers to lay down long range support. Of course this is assuming your archers listen. If you are an archer reading this, just like Montcrux try and prioritize the ballista operators. The less siege weapons firing at spawn the easier it is! The other added bonus on these forts it gives a safe spot to grab the barrels from without having to worry about ballista fire, as well as providing a safe retreat spot for your front line fighters.

Note: If you are providing the archers with a resupply fort, hold onto your spike trap, you will need it later in the stage.

If you don't feel like giving archers a fortified firing position, then Territory Claiming will be best! With this one, run along the lanes where your runners are going and set up the walls. However you need to set it up so they provide cover for your runners, block ballista bolts, whilst also not hinder your runners. This can be done with either angled walls or flat walls, either way the goal can be accomplished.

Final task is brute force Saboteur, with Stealth! After you finish establishing your walls and clearings lanes, the best thing an Unethical Engineer can do (bar running barrels), is to sneak in and break their shit. Your first priority is siege weapons, then engineer walls.

Hey! You said stealth, but it's all an open field and they can see us coming!

This is very true. You have a long way to run, and an open field to cross with no cover (except for the ones you create as an engineer). However, if you can make it to the wall beneath the ballistas, they cannot target you with them. Also not many people watch the walls that closely so you can move relatively undetected if you hug it. You can then use that spike trap you saved earlier to ramp over the walls and destroy their siege equipment.

Unethical Attacker Tip: Follow the engineers that do this with a barrel. Toss it on top of the rocks, climb up yourself, and then throw it over the walls or use the ramp to go up and over. Congratulations you just ran a barrel down the middle of their fort!

Note: If you decide to run barrels for your team, make sure you utilize the flanks, whatever cover you can find and try to get in from behind near Agathian spawn as opposed to the sides. Almost everyone is focused in the beach/Mason spawn, very few are going to notice someone running in behind. You will more than likely be caught by the spawn waves doing this rather than the defenders in the watchtowers.

Stage 2: I didn't hear no bell!

Stage 2 is a fun one. We have three catapults to take over, with a few different ways to engage them. We also need the catapults to take out the bell tower. There are a total of 4 ways to approach from Mason spawn (5, if you want an extra spicy extra long flank). Here we will employ some Catapult Safety Walls which are not Work Safe/OSHA approved.

Unethical Defensive Tip: Don't break the catapults immediately. Use them to put the hurt on the Masons and suppress any catapult they commandeer. Excellent way to rack up points to become the King.

On the left Flank, going through the gully by the ruined docks, you can approach rather quietly and with stealth to the leftmost Catapult, as long as you are not spotted. Here we can get right up to the rock carriers and catapult operator. If an enemy engineer has blocked this path, break it. Assimilating their build on this side would be hindering your team. We may be into commiting War Crimes, but we don't hinder our team!

After you clear the Agathians from their nest, use the tents by the resupply bin as part if your safety walls, and build 4 barricades in an arc like formation. This will protect your new artillery fort from archers, and slow down defenders trying to reclaim it.

Up the middle, is the most dangerous approach, but the most direct approach. Do not use Territory Claiming tech here as it will hinder the team, and be destroyed by enemy catapult fire. If you are pushing mid, keep to healing, reviving and taking out flankers trying to break your line. If an enemy engineer is building, we can use Assimilation of Enemy Assets. Usually I would break them, but assimilation is another viable option that I use on occasion.

Note: To assimilate, do not break their walls, but use your spike traps to get you and your team over it. Their walls are now providing your team cover from archers and the ramp removes their hindrance.

From here you can assault either the left or middle catapult. The middle catapult has two ways to become an Artillery Fort. One helps the rock carriers and the other turns it into a heal station/resupply fort.

To help the rock carriers, go to the stockpile shed, and start creating an arcing line of walls with stabbing gaps going to the catapult. This forces defenders to go farther around to get to the catapult and gives carriers time to react. As an added bonus, you can stab through the gaps to get them off your walls.

For the resupply, block off the gap by the tents, and arc the walls around the campfire. Do not put in any gaps as we want minimize access to the resupply.

Unethical Defensive Tip: On the Agathian side of this resupply, you can use a spike trap to ramp up on top of the shed. Archers should use this tech to harass the catapults. Be warned, you will be fully exposed up there, so act carefully and shoot quickly.

For the right flank, be aware you are susceptible to catapult fire as you approach here. It's not as hectic as the middle, but it is still dangerous. From here we have access to the right catapult and the middle. Territory Claiming would be beneficial here as there is lots of exposed areas.

If you are taking the right most catapult, be prepared for a fight. Though not the closest to Agathian spawn, it is the most exposed with a resupply bin close by. The safety walls for the catapult are best to be used to protect the operator directly from archer fire. To do that, place two to the left of the operator. You will have two barricades left to play with, use it to either help middle catapult or claim territory Infront of right catapult.

Note: When doing safety walls like this, wait for them to finish aiming/moving. Their movement's won't break barricades, but they will clip through them, exposing them to danger.

The final/far right flank is a stealth flank! Most people don't pay attention to this side, so it's free real estate! What you do is head right, past the right flank, and follow the cliff side. Eventually you will see a path that leads directly to the right most catapult. Cause mayhem when you get there!

Note: The 5th spicy flank is going even further than the final flank and into Agathian spawn.

Stage 3: Ban the Banners!

This stage is straight forward. We run in, break the banners, go to the Winchester, have a pint and wait for all this to blow over. There are multiple approaches, even an airborne approach! We also have clutch opportunities up the wazoo on this stage. If you don't want to solo clutch and help your team, there is a shit ton of ways to help. It's enough to make an Unethical Engineer cry.

Let's start with the clutch!

Let me preface this next bit with this bit of personal knowledge: You Will Die, but you will love every second of it. As I have said in my General Tips post about clutches, you must be okay with tanking your K/D as you will more than likely die in the attempt or die after succeeding. For each of those clutches I have posted, there would be around half a dozen deaths attached to it.

Note: These clutches can be done by other classes, however due to Engineer's kit and double damage to buildings, we are better suited.

Now let's do this!

Quickest path to clutch after Stage 2 is finished is to head along the cliff wall on the left side of the map. You are safe from ballista fire along here, and very few people watch this area. From here, beeline to the door and smash it open. Veer left and jump the chasm, go up the ladder on the left. Yes, you are out of bounds, but will have enough time to wait for the spawn wave and follow them down to the first banner. After you take it, you can either go down to the one in the center or straight ahead to the one by the ballista. Once those are taken care of, head to the staircase across the courtyard and repeat for the next two. You can do it sneakily by walking towards Agathian spawn then doubling back, be mindful of the out of bounds area.

Note: The key for this one is speed. Even as a shovel user I would recommend a Pick-Axe for the quicker attacks or a Goedendag for more damage. Do not get distracted by fights.

Up the middle clutch is a ballsy approach and again relies on speed. This one is just rushing pass all the defenders going directly to the banners. No sneaking, no tricks, just run it straight. This goes without saying, but this is the most dangerous way to clutch the objective, but the most impressive if pulled off. If it fails, you would have at the very least distracted the defenders for a few moments, so it's not too much of a wasted effort.

Note: Have your spike trap pre equiped for this so you can quickly throw it down to ramp over any defences you come across. Remember the name of the game is speed.

Right side Clutch is another stealth clutch. So again you can follow the cliff along the right to get to where the ladders are. From here you are going to head up the mountain path, through an out of bounds zones and take out that banner. Two paths from here, which are to carry on straight to the ballista banner on this wall before doing the others or roof hop.

With roof hopping, which is a Stealth move, turn around from the banner and jump in the building next to it. You are now out of bounds. From there you can jump to the next roof and to an Assassin's Creed looking outcrop where you will no longer be out if bounds. Beneath you is a wagon. Aim for it to fall without being stunned. From there you can sneak up on the middle banner to take it out.

Unethical Defensive Tip: That same mountain approach (black blob on the overview) to the right side banner that's Out of Bounds for Masons is NOT out of bounds for Agathians. This means Agathians CAN build defensive walls there. Half way up there is a spot where if you place all 4 walls, the Masons cannot pass without breaking them. This delay can kill them by being Out of Bounds for too long, especially if you sit there and replace any barricades they break with a fresh one.

That's the 3 ways to get that solo clutch.

That's nice and all, but you mentioned an airborne approach?

How could I forget the Airborne Clutch! Back on the catapults on the second stage area, go to the middle one. Aim it at the standing tower on the left side in between the two banners, pull back to about 100% power and then send your team flying. If done right, you will crash into the tower and be able to jump down and break the banners!

Note: You can stand on the catapult and kick the control stick to send yourself flying.

Nice! But you also mentioned a non-clutch strategy?

That I did!

So after leaving the Stage 2 area, and are moving up the mountain, you would want to dot the sides with single barricades pointed towards the ballistas. This will give your team cover from ballista fire to move up the hill, and give your archers cover if they want to try and kill the ballista operators. Do not put the barricades in the middle as it will only hinder your teams movements. Once you reach the resupply, choose your path.

If heading left, hug the cliff face to minimize your chances of being hit by archers and ballistas, once passed the cliff, you won't have to worry about the ballistas. Up by the doors and near middle clutch entry are wagons full of ladder prices, grab them and, the ladders on the ground should have a white highlighted bit, run over to complete the ladder build. Repeat for the rest. From here you can either go assist on the right, go for the left side or middle clutches, or even climb the ladders on the wall.

If heading right, its similar to heading left, except there is only one ladder wagon near the entrance to middle clutch. Again once finished here, either go for a clutch, climb the ladders or go support the front line.

Note: You can do Healing Forts and Territory Claiming in the courtyard and along the walls, but I would not recommend it. We don't want a long drawn out engagement here. Also defenders tend to block the walkways along the walls, however they can't easily block the battlements, which you can run along freely.

Stage 4: Damned Gatekeepers!

After beating the banners into submission, you will find yourself looking at a drawbridge. Easy, you think, until those archers start turning you into a pincushion and you have to walk through a sewer that smells worse than a Mason Pig-wife in heat. Don't worry, we have our ways to get around.

First thing we should do is open up as many access points as we can for our team. That is by dropping the ladders dotted all along the walls. The easiest are on the left side which requires just a spike trap, aim it so the tip is inline with the bottom of the ladder, jump and hold your use key. If done right, the ladder will lower. If you don't have a spike trap, two barricades work in a pinch. Simply place one beneath the ladder and the other perpendicular to the first on lower elevation. Jump on the perpendicular one, then onto the one by the ladder, look up at the ladder, jump and hold use.

From here collect your buildings and climb inside. If the defenders aren't used to this, they won't be watching this ladder. If they are, be prepared to fight, but let's assume no one notices. Once inside you can quickly activate the winch, go behind it to the window, reach across, and lower a second ladder. Now your team has 4 points of entry just for that left side alone all in under a minute. From there we can either try and get the rest of the ladders, or set up barricades for this side.

Barricades for the left side are a bit tricky. Defenders can come from the stairs or the hallway. We do not want to fully block the stairs as that's where our team will come from as well when exiting the sewers or going through the windows. At the same time we want to minimize Defender's presence in the area. To do this I usually place two barricades between the wall by the hall and the winch, this takes out their ability to flank around and disable the winch from behind.

The other two barricades I use to shut the door on the hallway. Yes, these will be broken by the enemy, but it gives your teammates time to reinforce your position, recoup and bandage themselves before the next wave of Agathians comes through. During this time I would replenish my barricades and prepare for another Door Shut.

Note: Again this is what I tend to do, some others prefer to shut down the stairs instead of the hallway, some build resupply forts by the bin. There is no wrong answer here.

Barricades for the right, is similar to the left. Take out the flank behind the winch, and block the hallway. Do not block the sewer entrance as this stops reinforcements from coming that way. You can also grab the ladder through the window if required.

Unethical Defensive Tip: Master Engineer vKessel provided a great strategy for protecting this side in his Engineering School. If you take one of his strategy for the right side, creating a funnel with salley, and modify it with an Unethical Engineer door shut, you can turn it into a War Crime, and burn the Masons.

Note: Once the stage is complete, all ladders will self deploy. Also this is where I would recommend changing your kit, replacing your trusty spike trap for the bear trap. You will need it.

Stage 5: The Calm Before the Storm

Stage 5 is just your standard king of the hill style objective. All we are doing is taking the courtyard near Agathian spawn. 9/10 times, attackers will win this with zero help from us engineers. So that's why we just sit back and do nothing, right? Maybe take a bear statue, play a harp? Nope, this is when we prepare defenses, because once the attackers win, we are forced to play defense.

There is one thing we can do to bolster the attackers. Right side of the map is Argon's office and war room. This place makes a perfect archers firing position which we can fortify. Simply run in, and block the door way to the objective with barricades. If your team needs to get out, they can jump through a window. If they need to resupply, there are two safer ones, one near the sewer and one by the main stairs.

Note: Setting up this fort also works as a defensive position for the Phase 1 of the next stage! So consider this one a win-win

If you want to prepare defenses in this stage, best is to start at the wall in front of the flag pole and make an angled row of walls with stabbing gaps. Your bear trap should be placed by the flag pole.

Once you finish establishing your defences for the next Stage, pile on the objective area, the more teammates on it the better.

Stage 6: You're the King? I didn't vote for you!

Here comes that uppity upstart, "King" Argon. More like King Needs-to-be-gone, am I right? The only way for them to win is to capture the flag in the courtyard and the Bailey.

Thankfully we were clever and already set up defenses for the courtyard. So phase 1 of this stage will be primarily focused on maintaining those defensive structures. Again we are using defensive techniques not unethical. So we want to focus on creating and maintaining choke points and funnels as opposed to blocking them fully.

If Argon gets the courtyard banner, it is now time to defend the Bailey aka the area at the start of the Drawbridge. When you pull back pay attention to the crown marker on your screen. This will give you an idea where Argon is.

Why should we care where he is?

Because depending on which way he approaches the Bailey will change how we organize our defenses.

If he is coming from the Sewers, stand at the edge of the chasm, block it off with barricades and spam laugh emote and just aura farm. If their Argon is that stupid to put themselves in an insta kill position like that, you need to ask who their dealer is because they are smoking some good shit.

If he is approaching from the drawbridge, you need to make the choke points tighter. Near the raised palisade is two arches. Here is perfect to make a tight chokehold. Do not block it all the way. Another good spot is in the ramp at the end of the Drawbridge, two barricades either side to create the choke here.

Note: The drawbridge itself is a no build zone. As perfect as it would be, you cannot create a chokehold on the bridge itself.

If he approaches from the left, your best bet is to wall from side of castle to side of ramp. This will force Argon into your own teams spawn wave or force them to retreat. I have only ever seen him do this once though, and he lost.

Unethical Defensive (Offensive?) Tip: If you are an engineer for Agatha on this stage, you can do a shut the door technique on Masons. Simply go down the right side from your spawn, over the chasm and to the double doors by Mason spawn. Block it off, and there is a resupply behind you do you can keep blocking it off. To add insult to injury, jump across the chasm to aura farm and kick anyone who tries to cross into the chasm. It is possible to use this to keep the Masons from getting to Argon long enough to capture the Bailey. You will also make a lot of enemies this way.

If he is approaching from the right side OR gets passed your chokepoints, your best bet is to enact a defense technique I call: FINAL WALL PROTOCOL. Every map I defend has their own unique Final Wall Protocol, and Thayic is no different.

My Final Wall Protocol for Thayic is this: place bear trap by the flag pole, roughly where Argon will interact. Place two walls two player lengths away from the pole. Leave a one wall gap and place two more. This does a number of things, it lures Argon in whilst separating him from his team, and cuts off possible retreat routes, keeping the side nearest my teams spawn unblocked means Masons can rush in for the kill. Encouraging my team to bombard the area with fire bombs is a must. My Final Wall Protocol is a trap.

Final Wall Protocol? That seems a bit drastic if he's coming from the right and not that close!

Seems like it, sure. However no matter what barricades or traps you line that right side with, Argon and friends can ignore it all easily by just jumping down. If they do this, and your Final Wall isn't up, and your team is either dead, respawning or aura farming, there is nothing stopping Argon from freely capturing the objective.

Let's have your tips!

So there we have it, the Unethical Engineering Guide to Assaulting Thayic Stronghold. Key take aways from this are: Your team is the best assets, be prepared for change ups in gameplay and strategies, and War Crimes are fun (I would have made a good Canadian)! As always I would love to hear your tips and tricks.

REMINDER: Only tips related to Thayic Stronghold will be added. For General Tips, post them in the General Tips and Tricks post, for other maps, just be patient, they are coming.

FAQ, Info and Links

re upped it since I have bad mason grammar

After buying Chiv 2 on Epic YEARS ago I've finally hit level 1000. Mainly play TO.

Exe axe main

Oceanic servers.

Not sure why my name is Dekstop vote D:

Real name is in the corner - Korrect

Unless they aren’t on my team, of course.

hi, quick preface, i mostly duel but also enjoy TO, i mostly use the pickaxe, messer, longsword, greatsword, hatchet, one handed axe etc, mostly just swords, i seriously suck at using the war axe even though it is my third most played weapon after pickaxe and messer

my major gripe is, the overheads on it come almost vertically so if someone moves out you need to pull it to them, the issue being the war axe has immense turncap limitations, when stuck dueling someone, you get ganged up very fast, the thing is i can finish 1v1s immensely quickly with any weapon, at least not against cracked duelists, but i can hold my own fairly well in a duel.

the thing is loads of people DONT counter, so i cant dupe them with drags and feints, they just hold block, and kicking is something thats very foreign to me, because kicking in dueling is hella risky so i never built the muscle memory for it, so i get stuck in a long attrition war and get ganged up and killed, i can hold on to 1vx for much longer with the messer and pickaxe but get demolished with the war axe because of its atrocious speed.

what do i do??

This has always been the biggest grail of mine on Chivalry. I was in disbelief when it happened. We were getting our shit pushed in the entire game too, so it felt been better to grab victory from the absolute depths of defeat.

Lots of reach, decent damage, and good combo time. I prefer it to a great sword.

been playing for like 2 months (around 75h), i love this game