Seeing these defenses take down incoming hordes of units is never a dull moment, reminding me of a scene from Lord of the Rings (but with humans instead of Orcs).īut before any enemy can be taken on, peasants must be appeased as they are the backbone of your war machine. At first it starts as merely constructing some walls, but before you know it, you are placing towers, where your archers will have an even larger range of fire to rain hell upon any foolish armies that approach your fort, to ballista towers, mangonel platforms, and even a caged tiger to unleash upon the unfortunate men that have chosen your castle to raid.

The castle is the most fun aspect of the Stronghold games and defending it is a thrill. I really enjoyed this aspect of the game as unlike most RTS games, where the whole world is your building landscape, stronghold wants you to be more organized and less sloppy with city layout. Since Stronghold uses a logistics system where workers need to transport the resources to these buildings so they can be used, coupled with the limited building space you have available, it is of utmost importance to thoughtfully plan your city layout to ensure maximum efficiency. You start with your storage house and granary, as these buildings hold all the resources gathered by your workers will be stored for construction projects.

You construct economic buildings, wall them in, then build your army for defensive and offensive purposes. The Stronghold games are relatively simple to grasp.

During a tumultuous period in Asian history, you will be fighting grand armies, toppling giant man-made fortresses guarded to the teeth, and managing peasants, who are a very finicky bunch. Stronghold: Warlords is the next entry of Firefly Studios’ long running castle-building RTS franchise, and the first one to leave the desert lands of the Middle East and enter the jungles of Southeast Asia. But boy, can taking down castles be a hell of a time.

Stronghold warlords graphics