Siege engines, ladders and infantry clash against towers walls, booby traps, and stalwart defenders as one side seeks to take the walls and undo the opposition’s economy, eventually storming the keep and killing the player’s leader. The grand finale of a good game of Stronghold is a full-blown assault. There is always a weak point that you should be probing for, so the constant arms race of building up a fortress can’t be the only thing on your mind. Since both players are warring over control of these warlords, Stronghold: Warlords manages to avoid any mid game slump. With a dedicated attack or diplomatic actions, players can capture a warlord and bring them over to their side where they can be mercilessly pressed for resources and bonuses. Warlords dot the map at regular intervals, breaking up ownership of the whole between their own holdings and both players.
“Those familiar with and looking for the same gameplay from earlier Stronghold titles may be put off by this emphasis on offense, but there is enough of the classic gameplay here, and new players more used to the likes of Starcraft might not be ready for the slow start.” Both sides need to build up a stable enough economy to afford small scale raids and enough military power to capture the new addition to the Stronghold formula: Warlords. There is a familiar rush to get early industry going and the proper build queues in place followed by feverishly panning the map to see where resources, the neutral warlords, and any natural choke points may be hiding. There is still a war to be won after all.
That isn’t to say that there is no traditional RTS gameplay to be had. It takes some getting used to but is plenty fun. Building up is therefore a balancing act between ensuring steady growth for coin and resource harvesting and military expenditure. Therefore, the kind of housing, materials, food rations, and the like that you offer will drive up population growth, while high taxes, poor housing, and poor food will lower it. Unlike Starcraft and Age of Empires, Stronghold employs a morale system to allocate population, rather than relying on building individual workers. Giant walls, tightly packed economic buildings, villagers complaining about life. The campaigns and multiplayer are the meat of the game, the first preparing you to tackle the true dangers of the second, but there is definitely enough content here to keep you interested if the core gameplay mechanics are to your liking.
#Stronghold warlords review free#
There are five major campaigns, one of which focuses on economic development over combat, skirmish modes, multiplayer, and a free building mode. Stronghold: Warlords is a real time strategy game that focuses on developing a castle and adjoining town to build up enough of an army to successfully lay siege to your enemy while defending yourself from the same. Can Stronghold Warlords hold out? The bugler races to the top of the tallest tower to blast out a triumphant “Sort of!” Finally, from all around new faces emerge, charging into the prepared defenses of a very different kind of strategy game. From the other, the old faithful, those who spent hours perfecting castle and town in Stronghold and Stronghold Crusader way back in the day. From one side come the hordes of RTS players, fresh from a good romp of Age of Empires II Definitive Edition and ready to try something new. Stronghold: Warlords is in a tricky place, kind of like a lone fortress besieged on all sides.