Has anyone played Stronghold Crusader?

[Grandpa Troll]

I have it and was wondering if anyone else has played much?

I been enjoying the Castle Sim and was looking and seemed to have found some downloadable maps/scenarios on the net.

Just curious who may have played it.

Gramps

[DrSpike]

Never really played the SP, but wasn't impressed by what I saw. It's a solid MP game, and still has a decent following.

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by DrSpike
Never really played the SP, but wasn't impressed by what I saw. It's a solid MP game, and still has a decent following.

I d/l a few scenarios and had been trying them out but alas it seems ok then you get over the initial intrigue of building a small Kingdom

[Kataphraktoi]

The first game, stronghold, is much better for castle building. the second game fixed a number of 'bugs' that allowed you to make much better castles.

[General Ludd]

THe crusader expansion pack was not an improvement in my opinion, but the original was an excellent game.

[Kataphraktoi]

Originally posted by Kataphraktoi
The first game, stronghold, is much better for castle building. the second game fixed a number of 'bugs' that allowed you to make much better castles.

I mean the xpack by fixing those bugs, decreased castle options. Specificly using elevations for castle layers etc

[Jon Miller]

I like the old game of Castle

JM

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
I like the old game of Castle

JM

What was that like Mr.Miller?

[Jon Miller]

Castles 2:

http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/castles-ii-siege-conquest

Castles 1 Exp:

http://www.mobygames.com/game/castles-the-northern-campaign

Castles 1:

http://www.mobygames.com/game/castles

I liked the Castle building in Castles better, I think.

JM

[Grandpa Troll]

Thanks

reminded me of old school CIV Graphics

[Standup]

I just downloaded a demo of Stronghold Legends which I assume is the newest version? The emphasis seems to be on RTS type combat in the demo scenarios at least which isn't my kind of thing. You have to fight over a stone circle and summon dragons and so forth while churning out troops. Is the whole game like this?

Which is the best game for the settlers/castle building experience ?

[Proteus_MST]

Yes, the Stronghold-Series is definitely RTS.

You can "harvest" things like wood, rocks, food and other things
and use it to build your castle walls, Towers and the like and/or the necessary buildings to forge weapons and armor which are necessary to recruit your troops.

The only difference was Stronghold 1, which had a Siege me! mode which gave you a certain amiunt of gold stone and wood with which you could build a castle that you could give to other players so that they could try to capture it (with the computer taking control of the castle defenders and the player only having a limited amount of gold to buy his forces).

But, at least with the map and the amount given in the Siege Me mode you were never able to build an invincible castle.
If I remember correctly, there was even a counterstrategy to building towers as near to the place where the invading army would appear as possible (which meant that the invading army was in range of your towers from the beginning on) as masses of archers had no poroblems in geting rid of the catapults and troops located on top of towers and walls (and as normal troops were able to destroy walls and other structures, limiting your need for real siege equipment )

But the good thing about Stronghold Crusader is IMHO that it has some nice balanced maps where you have time to spread and build your defences before the computer tries to attack you.

As for Castles:
Yep, I had the first part of the game for my Amiga. It was really great

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Standup

Which is the best game for the settlers/castle building experience ?

Well there is a new Settlers game, though IIRC it was only really advertised in Germany and wasn't available in all other languages.

[vovan]

Originally posted by DrSpike
Well there is a new Settlers game, though IIRC it was only really advertised in Germany and wasn't available in all other languages.

Incidentally, a few months ago, I got the demo of Settlers Anniversary Edition, or some such -- it was basically Settlers... II I think? with a new graphics engine. It was pretty awesome. I liked it far more than the demo for the new new settlers game, with the "improved" gameplay and such.

EDIT: Yep, here it is:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/thesettlers2_10thanniv/index.html

I might actually buy that.

[pg]

Stronghold Crusader is pretty good, but I think it suffers mainly from repetitious gameplay. Each start you usually do the same stuff over and over. Single player is fun, but so challenging that after a while it becomes more of a puzzle or trial and error game. It might be quite good in multiplayer but I doubt it has any community of players.