Stronghold Reviews

SerapisIV · October 22, 2001, 18:42

Anyone out there have the release version of Stronghold yet? I'm very interested in actual player reviews

General Ludd · October 22, 2001, 19:08

I should have it sometime this week, I'll let you know.

General Ludd · October 23, 2001, 10:34

Well, I've just gotten it... I've only played it for about an hour now, but my first impression is that it's a great game.

I was going to write a long thing about it... but I started to just ramble on and on... to put it simply, If you are interested in the time period, or if you like siege warfair, deffinately give it a try. If you don't, it's still worth a try.

I'll just say One thing about it. It has many different methods of play, so if you want to just play "sim castle" and make a nice castle and village with out worrying about combat, you can. Or if you want to play a game where you jump straight to a huge siege with large armies, you can. And if you want, you can play a game where you build your castle and village from scratch and defend it from attacks.

mactbone · October 23, 2001, 10:52

Can you set the pitch on fire? That's all I want to know. I have the demo and the pitch stays unlit... but if an archer stands near too long the pass out.

November Adam · October 23, 2001, 11:13

Maybe have you tried hitting it with the flaming arrows?

I havent played yet, took very long time to download the demo. But on the website they mentioned braziers that could be used to light arrows..

General Ludd · October 23, 2001, 12:40

yes, you have to have archers with flaming arrows.... I'm not completely sure as to how you go about doing that yet, but I have played siege battles with archers that can do that.

Oh, and the pitch is very fun.

tishco · October 23, 2001, 12:52

i think they have to be in the tower or wall with a flame

General Ludd · October 23, 2001, 14:00

Yeah, what you have to do is put a brazier in a tower, then any archer stationed at the tower will be able to light the pitch.

mactbone · October 23, 2001, 18:05

Yeah, I have archers stationed at the braziers (there really should be a different word for it, I keep thinking of bras) and they shoot fire arrows, then I tell them to attack the area with the pitch, and I see the arrow hit the pitch, but nothing happens.

How long does pitch stay on fire? Do the trenches go away? Have you made anyone pass out by being too close to the pitch? How do siege towers work? Is multiplayer fun? Do a lot of people play online?

Grrrr, too many games coming out that I want! Do I get Stronghold? Wait for Lords of the Realm 3? How much can I afford to spend? I'm committed to buying Civ 3 and almost there on getting MoO3. Then there's Warcraft 3, Empire Earth, etc. Finally some good games are going to come out, but there are TOO MANY OF THEM!

I guess that's a good problem though...

November Adam · October 23, 2001, 18:11

just don't get all at once... they would distract you from giving each game the attention it deserves.

General Ludd · October 23, 2001, 19:02

I haven't tried multiplayer, and I haven't even used siege towers yet (I assume they are like ladder men, but let more people climb up at a time, and can't be pushed down) The pitch stays lit for a reasonable amount of time, I don't know about people passing out by being too close to the pitch... and what trenches? do you mean the pitch? it's a one time use thing, but if you use multiple patches, it can last through out a siege.

I'm having a bit of trouble geting the braziers working, but I haven't had many opportunities to test them out yet. Does it target the pitch automaticly, or are you telling them to attack ground? if it's working it will be considered a target.

mactbone · October 23, 2001, 19:35

After checking out Firefly's website they say in not so many words that the pitch doesn't work in the demo. Yes, I was talking about the pitch, I consider it a trench with pitch in it, but you answered my question. About the pitch, make a pile of it and set some archers near it, if it's anything like the demo, the archers will start to look drunk, then fall over. Extremely amusing when you catch it for the first time.

General Ludd · October 23, 2001, 20:27

The only thing that seems to be missing is fan sites.

It has a really nice map editor with it, be a shame if there aren't any good websites for it.

SerapisIV · October 23, 2001, 21:02

Try these, I went searching for some in search of player feedback and came across these, no real feel for how good they are, though theres a few with forums too. The official forums don't appear too useful, but the Sword and Pistol Forum appears to have some developers posting regularly there.

Official Stronghold Site

Stronghold Central

Stronghold Maps

Sword and Pistol

SerapisIV · October 23, 2001, 21:07

Thanks for all the actual player feedback Osweld. I'll probably get it as a time killer in the Winter. Right now I'm too busy overworking myself so that I can slack off after my pre-ordered Civ3 arrives (finally convinced my girlfriend, that it really was the only thing I wanted for Xmas)

General Ludd · October 23, 2001, 22:55

Thanks for the links... not easy finding sites for the game, since it has such a common name.

One other small complaint I have is that there isn't a very great selection of stand alone missions that come along with the game. But the map editor is really easy to use, so that makes up for it.

Infact... I've almost finished my first map already, just need to add the triggers for enemy invasions.

November Adam · October 24, 2001, 10:37

nice map... should be fun to defend with the rivers there. How does the enemy cross rivers? Bridges only?

SerapisIV · October 27, 2001, 11:44

Well here' the first mag review I could find:

PC.IGN - Stronghold Review

Grumbold · November 1, 2001, 11:41

Duplicated from the Stronghold Demo thread:

I have played the full game and found it entertaining but not one to long hold my attention. I'm a fan of strategy and accuracy over real time arcade stuff. This is very much a castle-based RTS, not a real attempt at historical siege warfare. The enemy can be battering your western gates while you are instantly building castle towers and walls in the east outside the 'no build allowed near a fight' zone. Random events like fires are instant holocausts. One fire arrow can set a whole area alight like a napalm bomb, including several people who will run around igniting anything else they touch. Bucket brigades are far too slow to combat fire spread (and half the time the peasants get burned instead because they walk into fires rather than around them!

The AI is very stupid at times. Build a castle so that it has an open gap in one corner and they will march through hailstorms of arrows to get to it rather than scale the nearest wall to reach the archers on the battlements. The difficulty level comes from the limited building time you get between enemy waves, not their skill. After 12 episodes of the military campaign I can say each map is developed with one particular strategy in mind and there has as yet been no opportunity to use the more imaginative types of troops or castle parts. Just walls, towers, archers and pikes. Shoot the enemy until they run away then rebuild any farms they torched. Repeat. The economic campaign is largely the same except the enemy waves are smaller and the victory comes from producing goods, not surviving an end of level attack.

The PvP attacks may turn out to be fun for RTS fans. The napalm arrows killed that for me instantly since they are deadlier than siege machines and utterly ahistorical.