Stronghold Crusader A Date With History
Endike Baur
Stronghold: Crusader is the successor to Firefly Studios's 2001 real-time strategy video game Stronghold.[4] Crusader has much in common with the original Stronghold, but differs from its predecessor in the fact that the game is no longer set in England, instead being set in the Middle East during the Crusades.[5] Another prominent addition not found in its predecessor is a skirmish mode in single-player, allowing customized battles with AI opponents instead of the linear campaign. The game was also released as Stronghold Warchest. This version was a compendium of Stronghold and an enhanced version of Stronghold: Crusader, containing additional characters and an additional Crusader Trail.
Stronghold Warchest was only released in a limited number of countries (e.g. USA or Poland), meaning players in the rest of the world have never encountered the second Crusader Trail, or second set of characters. This changed when an updated version of Stronghold Crusader, Stronghold: Crusader Extreme was released in early 2008.
Stronghold Crusader features several real-time strategy campaign strings. These document the First and Third Crusade, as well as conflicts within the individual Crusader states. Each campaign comprises several battles, such as Nicaea, Heraclea, the siege of Antioch, Krak des Chevaliers, and the Siege of Jerusalem.
The gameplay is similar to the original Stronghold, the major difference being that the game is set in the Middle East. As a consequence, farms can only be built on oasis grass, which leads to rivalry among players for limited farmland and resources. The game adds new AI opponents (the number depending on the version of the game) and several new Arabian units purchasable from a mercenary post. The colour of the player's units have also been changed from blue to red in order to match the colours of the Knights Templar. Other than farms there are other resources such as iron ore, quarry (for stone), and marshes (for oil). These resources are deposited on the stockpile and the player can choose to either sell or use them for defence purposes. There are two ways to build an army; either make the weapons and then spend a little gold to turn peasants into soldiers, or turn them directly into soldiers using more gold via the mercenary post.
There are historical chapters (mostly fictionalized) which are to be completed using the resources given to the player at the start of the missions. Along with that there are 50 levels designed with increasing difficulty. In each level, the player must defend the kingdom and defeat one or more Kings. There is an option of three chickens at the start of the game which the player can use to skip a particular level.
There are 30 additional levels added by the developers in the form of an additional Crusade Trail. The design of these mirrors the original 50 levels with the difficulty rising as the player progresses through the levels.
The game contains several different characters that all appear as AI-controlled lords in the Skirmish mode, available to be selected as allies or enemies. One unique aspect of the game is that the characters have individual binks (small short videos) by which they communicate with the player, asking for goods or help if allied with them or, if they are the players' enemy, taunting them when attacking or expressing worry when under siege. These videos were absent for Stronghold 2 but returned in a new form for Stronghold Crusader II.
In the base game, eight AI lords are available, including the opponents from the original game (The Rat, The Snake, The Pig, and The Wolf), as well as new Arabian, Kurdish and Crusader lords (Saladin, Richard the Lionheart, The Caliph, and The Sultan). With the Warchest edition, eight additional lords were added. Three of these (Emperor Frederick, King Philip, and The Sheriff) were made available by Firefly as a free download, but the five others - Nizar (based on the real-life Hassan-i Sabbah), The Emir, The Wazir, The Marshal (a repurposed Sir Longarm from the original Stronghold), and The Abbot - had to be obtained via buying the Warchest package. These additional lords were, however, properly included within the game's later release on Steam at no extra charge.
As Stronghold was a commercial success in the German market, local commentators suggested before Crusader's release that it would become a hit as well.[16] The game opened as September's fifth-best-selling full-price computer game, according to Media Control.[17][18] It maintained an unbroken streak in Media Control's top 30 for full-price games through June 2003, placing 20th that month.[19] In August, it debuted in first place on the chart for budget-price games;[20] by August 2004, it had spent 10 total months in the budget top 20.[21] Crusader ultimately received a "Gold" certification from the Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (VUD),[22] indicating sales of at least 100,000 units across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.[23]
On January 28, 2008, Firefly Studios announced an expanded version of the game: Stronghold: Crusader Extreme. It boasts "new AI opponents and maps", a "new crusader extreme trail", "battles featuring over 10,000 units" and Windows Vista compatibility.[25] It was released in June 2008.
It also contains an updated version of the original Stronghold: Crusader, which includes everything except for outposts, the god powers and the Extreme Crusader Trail. However, if the official HD patch is installed, outposts can be built on maps on the original Stronghold Crusader part of Stronghold Crusader Extreme.[26]
The Extreme version received "generally unfavorable reviews" according to Metacritic.[27] It was criticized for its extreme difficulty, lack of new audio, and not having graphical quality up to par for a game released in 2008.[citation needed]
On August 30, 2012, Firefly Studios announced Stronghold Crusader II, a sequel to the original Crusader game. The company said that the game would be self-published, with additional funding to be sourced via crowd-funding site Gambitious.[33][34][35] The game was released on September 23, 2014.
Stronghold is a series of real-time strategy video games developed by Firefly Studios known for its detailed graphics and its deep and complex gameplay. Set in medieval times, players take on the role of a lord or lady who must build and defend their castle, as well as conquer their enemies.
The series consists of three main titles built on the Vision Engine, each with their own unique and drastically different game engine, as well as a number of expansions or spin-offs built on the same game engine.
Stronghold, was released in 2001. The game is set in medieval England and follows the story of a young lord who must unite the country after the death of the king. The player must gather resources, construct fortifications, and train an army to defeat their enemies. The game features a single-player campaign, a multiplayer mode, and a variety of skirmish maps.
The second installment, Stronghold: Crusader, was released in September 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 East during the Middle Ages. 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, takes place during the Third Crusade.
Unlike the original Stronghold, however, there are four separate, linear campaigns. The game does take history into effect: Saladin and Richard I of England are present as the game's AI characters for the player to side with or against. In addition, the player is allowed to play either as an Arabic lord or as a European king with little difference between the two options except which units the player begins with.
The direct sequel to the first game and the third overall game in the series, Stronghold 2, was released in April 2005. The game engine was enhanced to provide fully 3D graphics. Other changes include new military and peace campaigns and the addition of crime and punishment. It also included many new characters and changed the types of walls and towers that can be added to a castle. However, the series' 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 buggy nature. Firefly Studios paid much attention to the gaming community's complaints, and promised fixes in later patches. The majority of complaints stopped with patch 1.2. Patch 1.3.1, released on October 28, 2005, brought a "Conquest Trail" to the game, similar to that of Stronghold: Crusader. Stronghold 2 Deluxe was later released, containing all of the patches and new content.
Critically, Stronghold 2 received generally mixed reviews, with criticism directed at the bugs present in the initial release and the gameplay. To promote Stronghold 2, a ten-level Flash game was created, called Castle Attack 2. The aim of the game was to balance building a castle and defending it.
Stronghold Legends is a Stronghold 2 spin-off contains 24 missions spanning three different campaigns: King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, Count Vlad Dracul, and Siegfried of Germany. This sequel contains a new feature that allows the player to control human and mythical armies. Creatures like dragons and witches can be created in Stronghold Legends.[1]
Stronghold 3 is a 2011 real-time strategy game, featuring more realistic shadows, landscapes, units, buildings, day/night cycle, and weather, based on a new 3D game engine, allowing the player to construct walls and buildings at non-parallel angles. It is a direct sequel to Stronghold and Stronghold 2. Unlike previous games in the series, which were published by Take-Two Interactive, the game was published by SouthPeak Games, the new parent company of Gamecock Media Group, publisher of Stronghold Crusader Extreme.
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