Arthur/Counters (SHL)

===Defense===
Contrary to other lords, Arthur spends a lot of time establishing his economy and even when he is at his fullest, he builds up his army rather slowly. Arthur therefore does not pose much of a threat early on, relegating harassment mostly to a few archers and pikemen that is very easily dealt with.
Eventually, Arthur will have enough funds to send expensive raider units, most notably Merlin and a green dragon. Merlin usually walks up to your castle and starts harassing any unit in his sights, with his ability ready by the time he reaches you (unless Arthur is very close). A neat trick to use against Merlin is to send a melee unit or two to overpower him, as Merlin himself is very weak in melee combat. The dragon can be dealt with by adding dragon harpoons in the path of its flight along with a group of ranged units. Make sure to move out its fire once it connects with your troops.
When Arthur sends his army against you, he tends to be rather menacing. Not only he fields lots of pikemen and swordsmen along with archers, he also brings a lot of Knights of the Round Table and he is quite adept at using them. Arthur does not hesitate to fire off Sir Percival's area blast at the slightest provocation, and he also likes to heal injured troops with Sir Galahad. In general, Arthur usually sets up his siege camp quite close to your fortification, so have plenty of ranged units ready, particularly crossbowmen, who can easily dispose of the knights' mounts, which Arthur does not replace.
Facing the full might of Arthur's siege army, be sure that you spread your troops among multiple groups, minding Percival's area blast. Archers and the massed armor can easily be dealt with by lots of crossbowmen, however the siege engines Arthur brings could be rather numerous, so you may want to prioritize them. Catapults come up to six at a time and they tend to rush forward, usually without their supporting cats. A ram and a siege tower, as well as up to a dozen laddermen will rush up to your walls, so have sporadic troops and maybe close range wall defenses ready to deflect ladders. Sir Bedivere will also arrive to bring down a chunk of your encirclement, easing getting into your castle. Guard this hole with some sturdy units (melee fantasy units or macemen will do) and hold up the intruders long enough for your crossbows to do their work.
===Offense===
Arthur's castle may be one of the costliest to create and no wonder it also takes some time to siege. He has a well-rounded defense area commanded by two mangonels and some missile troops from the four engine towers on the corners. He however lacks the range to deal with ranged artillery, so bring up some snipers to take out the troops on the top of the towers.
Start bringing in fire ballistae, trebuchets or stake hurlers and fire away at a chosen tower (preferably one with a mangonel on top). Usually there will not be many archers to respond, so you will end up picking them off earlier than you. Patrols will come fast to respond to your actions, so move in with the army, while still trying to stay outside the range of the other mangonel. When playing Ice, using 20+ frost giants and polar bears can trivialize the siege by bashing the gates and the towers, while your ranged infantry moves in to provide covering fire. Demolishing the barracks and the armoury can prevent Arthur from reinforcing his defenses. In the end, move in for the kill with some sturdy units.