Firefly Studios has polished up its old game nicely and has sent it on a long road trip into the Crusades.
Last year's Stronghold was a slightly uneven combination of city
builder and real-time strategy game, with an emphasis on siege warfare.
It had the distinction of being the only castle simulation from a major
publisher since Interplay released Quicksilver's Castles II in 1992.
Aspiring warlords could forgive Stronghold's shortcomings, since the
original game gave them the opportunity to build and raze walls, pillage
countrysides, and launch cattle from catapults. Firefly Studios has now
polished up its old game nicely and has sent it on a long road trip
into the Crusades.
Stronghold: Crusader is the stand-alone successor to Stronghold, meaning
you don't need the original Stronghold to play it. It takes Stronghold
out of Europe and into the Holy Lands, giving it a tighter focus and a
more exotic flavor. The economic missions that had you racing against
the clock to fulfill contrived objectives have been removed from the
game. Instead, Stronghold: Crusader places more emphasis on the fine art
of defending or storming a castle. After all, isn't this what you want
when you pick up a box with a knight standing in front of a castle? When
players first looked at the box for the original Stronghold, they
probably wouldn't have guessed that they'd be spending their time
accumulating 500 units of cheese.
Indeed, the original Stronghold divided its single-player missions into two types: military and economic, though the latter, which generally involved raising crops and stockpiling resources, wasn't as popular as the military missions. It also had a single-player skirmish mode and head-to-head multiplayer. But Stronghold: Crusader presents you with many more options. For instance, you can play skirmish games against AI opponents on a number of different maps, even in multiplayer. Some are completely even playing fields, while some feature interesting balance dilemmas, giving advantages and disadvantages to each player. The skirmish maps can be played against your choice of AI opponents or in multiplayer games.
However, players who are new to Stronghold's economic model, which actually folds elegantly into its combat model without upstaging it, will likely want to start out by playing with the castle-builder option. This is a sandbox mode that, like in the original game, lets you learn the unique features of Crusader's new desert maps without having to worry about fielding an army to defend against attacks.
But the centerpiece of the single-player game is the "crusader trail," which presents a series of 50 battles, each more difficult than the last. As you play, your performance determines the ongoing date, which serves as your score. You can go backward to replay old missions, and if you do better, the date will roll back. Although this doesn't have much impact on the actual missions, it's an interesting alternative to tracking a score based on points.
Unlike the missions in Stronghold's military campaign, most of the
missions in the crusader trail let you build you own castle. This makes
it more like a series of skirmishes than the original game's linear
sequence of canned scenarios with prebuilt castles. The crusader trail
missions do a good job of incorporating specific units and strategies,
and you will gradually improve your skills as it ramps up the difficulty
level. In addition to a basic tutorial, there are four historical
campaigns, in which each chapter highlights specific game elements, such
as which units are best suited for which purposes, how to manage your
taxes, and the differences between various crops. Each mission in these
campaigns is like a puzzle with a historical context, which, once
solved, will teach you to play better. Stronghold: Crusader has numerous
options to introduce new players to the game as well as plenty of
challenges for veterans of the original Stronghold.
Stronghold: Crusader makes some important changes to the dynamics of the original game. Most significant is the addition of seven new Arabian mercenary units, some fairly redundant (Arabian bows are just weaker archers), some potentially overpowered (the horse archers are a potent combination of speed and ranged attack), and some adding unique game dynamics (assassins can secretly open gate towers to let your units into an enemy's castle). The new units are all hired from the mercenary camp, which can be built cheaply as soon as you start building your castle. To recruit them, you don't have to harvest resources, construct weapons, and accumulate an arsenal in your armory, like you have to with their European counterparts. Instead, just fork over some gold, and these new Arabian units will show up.
DOWNLOAD STRONGHOLD CRUSADER HERE
PART 1
PART 2
PART 3
Nb: Join with HJspilt
The new watchtower can fire farther.
Indeed, the original Stronghold divided its single-player missions into two types: military and economic, though the latter, which generally involved raising crops and stockpiling resources, wasn't as popular as the military missions. It also had a single-player skirmish mode and head-to-head multiplayer. But Stronghold: Crusader presents you with many more options. For instance, you can play skirmish games against AI opponents on a number of different maps, even in multiplayer. Some are completely even playing fields, while some feature interesting balance dilemmas, giving advantages and disadvantages to each player. The skirmish maps can be played against your choice of AI opponents or in multiplayer games.
However, players who are new to Stronghold's economic model, which actually folds elegantly into its combat model without upstaging it, will likely want to start out by playing with the castle-builder option. This is a sandbox mode that, like in the original game, lets you learn the unique features of Crusader's new desert maps without having to worry about fielding an army to defend against attacks.
But the centerpiece of the single-player game is the "crusader trail," which presents a series of 50 battles, each more difficult than the last. As you play, your performance determines the ongoing date, which serves as your score. You can go backward to replay old missions, and if you do better, the date will roll back. Although this doesn't have much impact on the actual missions, it's an interesting alternative to tracking a score based on points.
Farmland is hard to come by in the desert.
Stronghold: Crusader makes some important changes to the dynamics of the original game. Most significant is the addition of seven new Arabian mercenary units, some fairly redundant (Arabian bows are just weaker archers), some potentially overpowered (the horse archers are a potent combination of speed and ranged attack), and some adding unique game dynamics (assassins can secretly open gate towers to let your units into an enemy's castle). The new units are all hired from the mercenary camp, which can be built cheaply as soon as you start building your castle. To recruit them, you don't have to harvest resources, construct weapons, and accumulate an arsenal in your armory, like you have to with their European counterparts. Instead, just fork over some gold, and these new Arabian units will show up.
DOWNLOAD STRONGHOLD CRUSADER HERE
PART 1
PART 2
PART 3
Nb: Join with HJspilt
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