For example, when feeding your people, do you opt for apple orchards which are quick and cheap but inefficient, or do you go for bread which requires wheat farms, mills, and bakeries, and which takes longer to set up? There are also nearly 30 types of military units you can use, from archers to knights to the new “wolf” ballista. In Stronghold Crusader 2, there are over 30 types of buildings, from fletchers to dairy farms to churches, and they give you numerous options for how to build your castle.

The economic models for the Stronghold games are more complex than you usually see in an RTS, and they involve lots of buildings and moving parts. You also have to quarry stone for castles, wood for buildings, and iron for weapons. Taxes are your main source for gold, which you need for recruiting soldiers to join your army. You have to keep them happy by providing them with housing, food, ale, and / or religious services, and the happier you make them, the more you can tax them. You lord over peasants who perform the necessary jobs, but they’re not just mindless drones.

In Stronghold Crusader 2 like in the other Stronghold games, you have to run a castle. Most of the game mechanics remain the same, but many options have been removed to make the game sleeker and easier to play, which not coincidentally coincides with Firefly’s desire for the game to be more about quick multiplayer skirmishes than long castle defenses. I haven’t played all of the Stronghold games - in fact, I don’t think I’ve played one since 2005’s Stronghold 2 - but from what I can tell, not much has changed. Stronghold Crusader 2 is the latest entry in Firefly Studios’ castle-building RTS franchise, which began way back in 2001 with the original Stronghold.

Playing stronghold crusader online