This is the article about the 15th mission in Settlers 6. If you were looking for the first mission, go to Mission 1: Vestholm.
Vestholm is the fifthteenth mission in Settlers 6. In this mission, the traitor knight revealed in the cutscene of Sahir takes over the Royal City of Vestholm with help from the Red Prince and imprisons every other knight excluding the one you are controlling. You are not allowed to destroy the city or more than two buildings.
Strategy
Note that you cannot destroy more than one building belonging to the Royal City of Vestholm because the settlers still believe in you and attacking your former castle will cause them to lose trust in you. You can capture/destroy one Outpost and the player's knight will warn you against it. However, the player can freely kill the enemy soldiers.
Destroying the enemy Castle, Cathedral, or Storehouse will immediately fail the mission, regardless if buildings were destroyed beforehand. Walls, gates, pastures, fences, beehives, tents, and grain farms count towards this rule. The Village of Eastholm can be destroyed without repercussions.
Escape the city
To escape the city, right click on the gate with one of your swordman battalions and bring the knight and other battalion out through the city gates. If your knight dies before he/she reaches your castle, you fail the mission. The other battalion can escape through the northeastern gates by using the walls, but the battalions that survive will cost gold because of their pay.
Start developing a settlement once you have successfully escaped. Be sure to reach the castle first so the game acknowledges that you escaped and allows your knight to retreat the next time he/she is defeating in battle. Build a stone wall when you have the materials since the traitor will sent siege engines eventually to destroy your settlement.
Send a thief to the enemy castle
Upon reaching Baron the quest to send a thief to the enemy castle is given. Position a battalion of soliders near the harbor or on the path from the Village of Eastholm to the Harbor. Be aware that both the bandits and the Red Prince's forces will attack your thief if he is seen.
Rescue the other knights
After your thief brings back the documents from the castle, a timed quest, as well as other non timed quests about your captured knight, will appear. One of the knights is in a cart that leaves the Village of Eastholm and travels to the Harbor. If it reaches the Harbor and is not captured by then, you will fail the mission. Note that the failure screen will trigger before the cart reaches the Harbor building itself.
The Bandits have a knight with them and will only give him/her if 2000 gold is sent. While it is easier to just destroy the bandits, note that iron (and therefore soldiers without Hakim) is limited on the map and no other faction will trade with the player. No bandits (not including the Village of Eastholm's mercenaries) will attack the player if they are given gold.
The island only has two defending battalions: one swordsman and one bowman. Be careful not to attack their outpost since that will waste the ability to attack one building with only a warning instead of a mission failure.
The prison in the northeast of the royal city takes a while to interact with, and enemy soldiers will likely attack the player's knights. Bringing an army to defend the knights is advised.
The other knights can retreat to the castle and will respawn without consequence after they are freed. They can use their active ability but cannot claim territories or use their passive ability.
Capture the traitor
After freeing all the knights, the traitor will have spawned and is likely moving outside his/her city. The traitor will most likely leave to attack your city at one point. Upon defeating him/he in battle, you will win.
The siege tower allows the player to peacefully invade a city without having to destroy a wall, despite an sword being shown if you select it and mouse over a stone wall. You can use it freely as it does not destroy anything.
Trivia
- The Bandits are shown to have Wood and Stone for sale in the diplomacy menu if gold is delivered to them. However, because the player can be undecided with them at best, it is impossible to trade with them.
- The Village of Eastholm is now your enemy and is different from the Village of Eastholm in the first mission.
- The Harbor task only provides dialogue from one of the allies made in the previous mission, but no soldiers are seen despite the ally stating otherwise.
- The Royal City of Vestholm has gained multiple new territories and village buildings (not including the storehouse) and tents from different climates in the southeast and southwest of the city.
- The starting area in the first mission is gone with ruins and burnt traces of buildings remaining.
- There are multiple Prison Cages that can be interacted with that sent 50 wood from your storehouse. They do not appear to have any purpose.
- The traitor will rarely fight. Most of the time they will continuously run back and forth in the city.
- The prison cart containing a knight can be clicked on right before it despawns. It is called a gold cart in the menu that shows up upon clicking it.
- This is the only mission in both Rise of an Empire and Eastern Realm that allows the player to control more than one knight, not counting allied knights that are not under the player's control.
- This is the only mission where it is necessary to open an enemy gate from the inside.
- This is the second mission where the player is not allowed to attack enemy buildings, the first being in Seydir.
- The Royal City of Vestholm's cathedral is bigger than the regular one and is called "Big Cathedral" in the menu.