Stronghold: Crusader

Stronghold: Crusader is a real-time strategy video game developed by Firefly Studios and published by Take 2 Interactive and Gathering of Developers. Stronghold Crusader’s gameplay system focuses on battles between Lords, on smaller or larger maps which can host up to 8 participants. The game is real-time where the player must develop their buildings and unit at the same time as the enemy. When opposing castles are built closer to each other, this usually leads to great battles between the two sides.

Differences between the original Stronghold and Stronghold Crusader

Stronghold Crusader is an expansion to the original Stronghold game. Some have argued that it cannot not be described as an expansion, in the sense that it is absolutely not necessary to have Stronghold to play it (it is technically a stand-alone expansion). Nevertheless, Stronghold Crusader has huge similarities with Stronghold; the buildings are all identical, even though their design has been improved in Stronghold Crusader; the game system is identical. Stronghold Crusader is in some ways more difficult than Stronghold, and in other ways easier. Stronghol Crusader is a lot more directed towards war and battles. Whereas the original Stronghold had castles which required to be managed, Stronghold Crusader allows you to build castles much easier, thus putting a greater emphasis on military aspects. Stronghold was located in the medieval plains of old Europe, which were of sublime beauty. Conversely, Stronghold Crusader is located in the hot desert of Arabia, thus radically changing the game’s scenery. This is seen clearly in the buildings, whcich are different the the square and cold buildings of the original Stronghold. Water is a key resource in the game – there are maps with many oases, others without oases, and still others where it will be necessary to fight to acquire the available oases.

Management is much simpler

In Stronghold Crusader, Stronghold’s management problems were heavily decreased, especially with regards to buildings. Most infastructure require less resources, for example:

• The armory now requires only 5 planks of wood to build.
• The market, which cost 15 units of wood in Stronghold, now only needs 5 units.
• There is no longer a wooden barracks or wooden wall. These are replaced by low walls, much cheaper stones than conventional walls of normal size.
• A new tower is available: the watchtower. It is a very large tower, of Arab style, which can only support five troops. It is very weak, but seriously improves the range of fire.