Stronghold (2001 game)
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| Stronghold | |
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| Developer(s) | Firefly Studios |
| Publisher(s) | Take 2 Interactive and God Games |
| Release date(s) | 2001 |
| Genre(s) | Real-time strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer (IPX, TCP/IP or Modem) |
| Rating(s) | ELSPA: 11+ ESRB: T |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Media | CD (1) |
| System requirements | Pentium II 300 MHz CPU, 64MB RAM, 750 MB HD, 4 MB Video Memory |
| Input | 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 that the player can fight against. 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.
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[edit] Story
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.
[edit] Characters
- The Lord: The lord of the player's castle, and also the most important. If the Lord is to fall in battle, then the game is over.
- Lord Woolsack: The main advisor for the player. Suggests the player employ a more conservative battle strategy. Killed by the Pig.
- Sir Longarm: A soldier who also serves as an advisor for the player. Suggests the player employ a more aggressive battle strategy.
- Duc de Puce "The Rat": An apparent illegitimate son of a noble, who assumed his Dukeship upon his entire family's death. Admittedly the most incompetent enemy in the game.
- Duc Beauregard "The Snake": The man responsible for the original Lord's death, and holds a strong grudge against the Lord and his family. Lost an eye to the player's unnamed father. Will seem confident, but acts like a child when he loses.
- Duc Truffe "The Pig": An obese bandit king, who was supposedly so ugly that his parents abandoned him. Always gets the best share of food when raiding a village.
- Duc Volpe "The Wolf": A mysterious enemy, and the most dangerous of the game's AI enemies.
[edit] Gameplay
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.
[edit] Features
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 some 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, only require 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.
[edit] Combat
Combat in Stronghold is based purely on a strength and hit point system. There are no counters for units, allowing mobs of spearmen, the cheapest infantry, to swarm a group of swordsmen, the best infantry. Also, late games often have players swarming each other's bases with mobs of crossbowmen, who can easily eliminate squadrons of swordsmen. Non-combat characters, such as peasants, get killed in one hit by any ranged unit, and are very easily killed by melee units. However, certain peasant units, such as lumberjacks, dogs, and hunters, can retaliate. Hunters are efficient archers and can shoot down spearmen. Lumberjacks can use their axes and kill off archers. Consequently, conquest essentially is 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, although siege engines can be abandoned, disbanded, and be constructed again.
[edit] Fire
Fire plays a main role in the Stronghold storyline, as on certain missions, igniting pitch is almost necessary for survival. Also, there are certain trigger events that start fires, and fires spread very quickly if lit on a building. This is because the game forces buildings to launch sparks into the air that would spread the fire and ignite infantry or buildings. Fires can only be put it if all sources of fuel are destroyed by the fire, or if the fire itself is extinguished by wellboys. Fires can spread over small boundaries of water.
In most RTS games, fires would appear 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 would just lose hit points until the buildings collapse.
[edit] Walls
Walls in Stronghold are unique from most other RTS games that include walls in that towers and walls by themselves do nothing other than stop enemy troops and peasants. In other RTS games, walls are only barriers, and towers automatically fire arrows at enemies. In stronghold, troops must be placed on top of towers and walls. The troops may then fire with a height advantage, though if they are killed, then the towers are useless again. 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, then troops (and projectiles) can move over walls. Towers have set hit points, meaning that once a certain degree of damage is achieved, the tower would collapse. Towers in Stronghold have a visual indicator of damage in the forms of impact holes and craters in the walls.
[edit] Map Editor
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 with much eyecandy can be created. Soldiers placed within the game 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. Some players use the map editor as the game; units are free (with the exclusion of "Siege That!" maps). Scripted events and others are included within a special menu; every function is explained.
[edit] 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, as 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, yet linear themselves, campaigns. The game does take history into effect: Saladin, Richard I of England, Philip II of France, Sheriff of Nottingham, and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor are present as the game's AI characters for the player to side with or go 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 the European King. This does not affect what units the player is allowed to train, but it does affect what units the player begins with.
[edit] First Combination Release - Stronghold Warchest
This was a combination pack of Stronghold and Stronghold:Crusader with all patches applied, a new trail and AI characters in Crusader, and new maps.
[edit] Third Game
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 which allows players to torture unruly peasants. 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 you can add to your castle.
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 playing 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 a majority of complaints have 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.
[edit] Stronghold 2 Mini-game
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 a difficulty increases on each level. The maximum amount of archers the player can have is three and the player can have six people in total.
[edit] Standalone Expansion Pack - Stronghold 2 Deluxe
This is a new release of Stronghold 2, the original Stronghold 2 plus all the patches, the minigames, and some new maps.
[edit] Fourth Game
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 mighty Siegfried of Germany will each be playable.
- Gamershell Legends Screenshots
- Firefly Studios Legends Release Page
[edit] External links
- Firefly Studios
- Stronghold Knights Community
- Stronghold at GameFAQs
- Stronghold: HeavenGamesOne of the largest active fansites
