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Stronghold
Developer	Firefly Studios
Publisher	Take 2 Interactive and God Games
Released	2001
Genre	Real-time strategy
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer (IPX, TCP/IP or Modem)
Ratings	ELSPA: 11+ ESRB: T
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows / Mac OS X
Media	CD (1)
System requirements	Pentium II 300 MHz / PowerPC G3/350 or faster CPU, 64MB RAM (128MB for Mac version), 750 MB HD, 4 MB Video memory
Input methods	Keyboard, mouse

Stronghold is a game by Firefly Studios from 2001, which combines real-time strategy elements with a medieval castle simulation. The game has a sizable community following and is well known for its addictive gameplay. It also has many fierce enemies against whom the player may fight. Stronghold combines elements of RTS games and building games like Sim City. This game (and to a lesser extent, the next game in the series Stronghold: Crusader) received generally favorable reviews.

The game was followed by three sequels: Stronghold: Crusader, Stronghold 2 and Stronghold Legends.

Contents 1 Story 1.1 Characters 2 Gameplay 2.1 Features 2.2 Combat 2.2.1 Fire 2.2.2 Walls 2.3 Map Editor 3 Crusader 3.1 First Combination Release - Stronghold Warchest 4 Third Game 4.1 Stronghold 2 Mini-game 4.2 Standalone Expansion Pack - Stronghold 2 Deluxe 4.3 Fourth Game 5 External links

Stronghold takes place in a medieval kingdom. The exact time and place are not stated, but a map showing the progression of the story is obviously that of England and Wales, and the time based on the map editor is January 1066. The story of the campaign begins when the King attempts to invade a barbarian enemy. The invasion fails and the King is captured and held for ransom. Almost immediately, four powerful lords begin to cut the kingdom into their own personal territories. The player is represented as a young, inexperienced commander, whose father is killed in an ambush by the Snake en route to propose peace with the enemy. Only two lords remain loyal to the King, and the player is in their service. The game's main campaign requires the player to eventually kill all of the four rival lords.

• The Lord: The lord of the player's castle, and also the most important character. If the Lord is to fall in battle, then the game is over.
  • Lord Woolsack: The main advisor for the player, and suggests the player employ a more conservative battle strategy.
  • Sir Longarm: A soldier who also serves as an advisor for the player, and suggests the player employ a more aggressive battle strategy.
  • The King: The King is seen only once, near the end of the campaign.
• Duc de Puce "The Rat": The Rat is an apparently illegitimate son of a noble, who assumed his Dukeship upon his entire family's death. Admittedly the most incompetent enemy in the game. The Rat's troops wear orange.
• Duc Beauregard "The Snake": The Snake is said to be the man responsible for the death of the player's father (to whom he lost an eye), and he holds a strong grudge against the Lord and his family. The Snake seems confident, but acts like a child when he loses. The Snake's troops wear yellow.
• Duc Truffe "The Pig": An obese bandit king, who was supposedly so ugly that his parents abandoned him. He always gets the best share of food when raiding a village. The Pig's troops wear red.
• Duc Volpe "The Wolf": The Wolf is a mysterious enemy, and is the most dangerous of the game's AI enemies. It is revealed near the end of the campaign that he is truly responsible for the player's father's death. The campaign ends when the player takes his castle and slays him, avenging the death of the player's father. The Wolf's troops wear black.

In Stronghold, the player takes the role of a lord in a kingdom. The goal is to create a stable economy and a strong military to defend against invaders and destroy enemy castles.

In order to survive, the player is required to construct a castle, building the individual buildings and the castle walls and towers. The player is also left to determine which buildings are vital and which can be left outside the castle to be destroyed in the event of an attack. There are also options to create soldiers to defend the castle, and to eventually attack and defeat an enemy.

In order to create a stable economy, as well as gathering resources, the player is required to maintain a positive popularity level with their peasants; failure to do so will result in peasants leaving the castle and, subsequently, economic collapse. Popularity can be maintained by keeping adequate housing, low taxes, high food rations, keeping a supply of ale, and religion. Popularity can also be affected by the creation of structures to inspire fear or love: facilities of torture and execution which will increase worker efficiency but reduce popularity and military effectiveness, presumably due to bad morale, while parks, statues and shrines will have the opposite effects.

The game differs from many other similar games as the player is required to process resources through a number of facilities before they can be used for a certain purpose. To create an army, a player must not only have free peasants, but must process the resources required for their weapons through appropriate workshops, rather than simply spend the resources required at a barracks. For example, some resources, like wood, require only a peasant to chop down a tree and turn the logs into lumber. Others, such as bread, require the harvesting of wheat, the production of flour, the production of bread, and then consumption. Some of these, however, can be bypassed with enough gold with a market, and the Crusader version of the game allowed players to hire mercenaries for more gold rather than create soldiers themselves.

Combat in Stronghold is based purely on a strength and hit point system. There are no counters for units, allowing hordes of spearmen, the cheapest infantry, to swarm a group of swordsmen, the best infantry. Also, late games often have players swarming each others' castles with hordes of crossbowmen, who can easily eliminate squadrons of swordsmen. Non-combat characters, such as peasants, are killed by one shot from any ranged unit, and are very easily killed by melee units. However, certain peasant units (such as woodcutters, blacksmiths, dogs, and hunters) can retaliate: woodcutters and blacksmiths can kill archers, and hunters can take down spearmen. Conquest is essentially a race to create the most units, although building "Good" structures can allow morale to play a part. Injured soldiers remain injured for the rest of the game, there is no healing system.

Fire plays a main role in the Stronghold storyline, as in certain missions, igniting pitch is almost necessary for survival. Also, there are certain trigger events that start fires. Fires spread very quickly, and a flaming building can ignite infantry or other buildings. Fires will only go out if all sources of fuel are consumed, or if the fire itself is extinguished by fire watches. Fires can spread over small boundaries of water.

In most RTS games, fire appears on buildings as an indicator of damage; for example, if a building is damaged enough it would catch fire, but sustain no damage from that fire. In Stronghold, buildings that are damaged by siege weapons or are torn down would not catch fire; instead, they lose hit points until the buildings collapse.

Walls in Stronghold are unique from most other RTS games that include walls, because towers and walls by themselves do nothing other than stop enemy troops and peasants. Troops may be placed on top of towers and walls, and will proceed to fire with a height advantage. Walls are not bound by set hitpoints; if a rock hits a wall in one section at a certain location, then the wall assumes a "damaged" state; the wall is lowered. Once the wall is low enough, troops (and projectiles) can move over walls. Towers have set hit points, meaning that once a certain degree of damage is achieved, the tower will collapse. Towers in Stronghold have a visual indicator of damage in the forms of impact holes and craters in the walls.

The map editor in Stronghold is also unique compared to other map editors. In the editor, time passes as if the game were being played; trees grow, deer move, wolves attack, etc. Also, the editor is quite simple, though beautiful maps can be created. Soldiers placed within the map can be ordered to move about as if the game were being played. Soldiers can also attack, which can be a nuisance at times when a map maker attempts to put units close to one another. Scripted events and others are included within a special menu; every function is explained.

Main article: Stronghold: Crusader

The second installment, Stronghold: Crusader, was released in September of 2002. The gameplay is similar to the first game, but with enhanced RTS elements and with all maps and missions set entirely in the Middle Ages in the Middle East. The focus was radically influenced by fortification and siege technologies developed during the Crusades. The entire campaign, as well as the 'Conquest Trail' game-mode, both take place during the Third Crusade.

Unlike the original Stronghold, however, there are four separate, linear campaigns. The game does take history into effect: Saladin, Richard I of England are present as the game's AI characters for the player to side with or against. There are numerous other AI personalities, however. In addition, unlike the original game, the player is allowed to play either as an Arabic Lord or as a European King. This does not affect which units the player is allowed to train, but it does affect which units the player begins with.

This was a combination pack of Stronghold and Stronghold:Crusader with all patches applied, a new campaign trail and AI characters in Crusader, and new maps.

The sequel, Stronghold 2 was released in April 2005. This was much more than an expansion pack. The game engine was enhanced to provide full 3-dimensional graphics. Other changes include new military and peace campaigns, and the addition of crime and punishment. This was the first complete overhaul of the franchise since the first Stronghold appeared on shelves in 2001. It also included many new characters and somewhat changed the walls and towers that can be added to a castle. However, the series's unique real-time map editor was replaced with a still-life one.

Upon its release, many players were outraged by the game's frequent crashes, lag (even while playing offline on a computer with exceptional hardware), and overall buggyness. Firefly Studios paid much attention to the gaming community's complaints, and promised fixes in later patches. Soon after, patch 1.1 was released which fixed some issues. However, it was not until patch 1.2 was released that the majority of complaints stopped.

On 28th of October, 2005, a third patch (1.3.1) was released, further fixing bugs and adding similar components to that of Stronghold and Stronghold: Crusader, one of which is the memorable "Conquest Trail".

Critically, the game has received generally negative reviews, whether from the bugs present in the initial release or the gameplay.

To promote Stronghold 2 a Flash game was created, called Castle Attack 2. The aim of the game was to balance building a castle and defending it. The game has 10 levels and the difficulty increases on each level.

This is a new release of Stronghold 2. It contains the original Stronghold 2, as well all the patches, the minigames, and some new maps.

The game Stronghold Legends contains twenty-four missions, spanning three different campaigns: King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, Count Vlad Dracul, and the Siegfried of Germany are each be playable.

• Gamershell Legends Screenshots
• Firefly Studios Legends Release Page

• Firefly Studios
• Stronghold Knights Community
• Stronghold at GameFAQs
• Stronghold: HeavenGamesOne of the largest active fansites
• Stronghold wiki Stronghold Wiki (NEW)
• Stronghold Videos Stronghold Videos (NEW)