Stronghold: Warlords

I will leave the cat here, So that everybody who passes by can pet it and give it a thumbs up and awards. 　　　 　　／＞　　フ 　　　 　　| 　_　 _ l 　 　　 　／` ミ＿xノ 　　 　 /　　　 　 | 　　　 /　 ヽ　　 ﾉ 　 　 │　　|　|　| 　／￣|　　 |　|　| 　| (￣ヽ＿_ヽ_)__) 　＼二つ

«Как сделать максимально опасного воина, который ниxyя не умеет? Берём простого крестьянина, который вообще ничё не умеет, и мы его обучаем работать с копьём. Там, две недели.. Всё, отправляем на войну! Крестьянин с копьём затыкает кого угодно бл*ть, любого элитного бойца, рыцаря, который там 10–15 лет тренировался. Просто крестьянин с копьём — длинное копьё: На на На на на — попал в глаз, пока, всё. Ты можешь всю жизнь тренироваться, крестьянин с копьём тебя просто наxyй затыкает».

[h2] Одной партии в эту игру хватит на всю жизнь.. [/h2] Я отлично помню ту самую партию в июне этого года, возможно, это самый поломанный Stronghold из серии, ибо он буквально состоит из поломанных механик, которые никак не вписываются в адекватную стратегию, и которые просто-напросто неоправданно затягивают игровой процесс без какого-либо смысла. Даже самая ключевая в этой части механика - с захватом самих варлордов выполнена крайне двойственно, игроки торгуются с ними за то чтобы их контролировать - и единственный способ потерять контроль (кроме прямого захвата) - пропустить и не перебить случайно чужую ставку на них, что очень глупо выглядит в концепции игры. Всякая живность, тигры бывало руинили игру тому кто их ставил когда они нападали на дружественных юнитов игрока.. В общем много есть за что ругать эту часть, игра буквально на одну партию, которая затянется на часа три, и после которой вам не захочется запускать её вновь, по крайней мере в мультиплеере, да и кампанию я тоже скипнул когда дошло до торговли за варлодов, то, что успел пройти - напорядок хуже того же второго Stronghold'a. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3502896368

For any Stronghold fan that isn’t sure if he wants to buy the game or not, since all the bad reviews of some people. First of all I played every Stronghold since Stronghold 1 to Crusader 2 and now SH: Warlords, so I guess what I’m talking about. The game is not bad as some people say, they played it for what 30 minutes to max 1.9h (so they can refund) and didn’t give the game a real try and just said its not Crusader or SH2 so their opinion that the game is “bad”, “terrible” can’t be counted, if you look up reviews of people that have played more than 10-50 hours the reviews are positive, so don’t let the negative reviews count, they aren’t honest. Now to the game, in my opinion the game is finally something that most of the Stronghold fanbase wanted and it still added something new to the game (Warlords), they returned back to the old basics of Crusader 1 and Stronghold 2 and added some things from Crusader 2 combined everything and some new things and did an execellent work on the game. Finally you don’t have some buildings that are most needed in the game (Mill) for 200 wood, things are well priced for resources making a good castle is cheaper than in Crusader 2 biggest tower costs 50 stone SC2 180-220 stone, wood finally isn’t a problem anymore keeping track of the economy is easier aswell, building is the chance of building roads is amazing aswell. When it comes to sieging and defending mechanics nothing much changed the only thing that changed is the balancing in Crusader 2 you make 40 War Wolfs and 20 Mantlets, put some pikeman and sassanid knights to defend them and you breach the castle (doesn’t matter double wall health and strong walls), here the strong walls and double wall health is really effective. There is a variety of units that you can use and that give you combinations (dmg buff, def buff). For multiplayer sometimes it freezes and crashes but so does Crusader 2, Stronghold 2, Crusader 1 all of them crash happens it sucks but thats how it is. For people crying maps are boring and small and all of that well you got map editor like in SC2 and steamworkshop if you can’t find a map for yourself then do it yourself and dont complain. So overall I would say the game is pretty good. Would I pay 40€ for it? No because I wouldn’t pay for any game more than 20€, but when its on sale you can get base edition for 7€ and with all DLC (with all the DLCs has the game about 60-80h gameplay) for around 15-20€ so its worth it. The game is pretty good some things would need some changes but I would rate it a solid 8/10. Doesn’t matter if you play campaing or multiplayer you will enjoy the game and have a lot of fun with friends. This is a real honest review happy to answer any questions in commentary.

Despite everyone else's backlash. I do like the game, i like the changes, i like the tug of war for the warlords that slows down the otherwise fast paced gameplay, I like the diverse roster of units, especially gunpowder units, the sound design is nice. There are lots of campaigns to sink your teeth into and the AI poses an actual challange especially if they start with a headstart. WHAT I CANNOT FORGIVE HOWEVER, IS THE GAME CRASHING EVERY SINGLE ♥♥♥♥♥♥ TIME I'M ABOUT TO WIN, FORCING ME TO REDO HOUR LONG MISSIONS BECAUSE THE GAME ALSO REFUSES TO PROPERLY SAVE HALF THE TIME!!!! FIX YOUR ♥♥♥♥♥♥ BUGGY UNPLAYABLE MESS FIREFLY!

[h1]You know what killed the Stronghold game? Optimization.[/h1][hr][/hr] 　After Stronghold 2 and then 3, we meet Stronghold: Crusader 2. That's where the fall of Firefly Studio began. Year after year, we met Warlords. The end of an era where Stronghold fans started crumbling like Command & Conquer fans. Buggy, lazy lord animation, clunky, jaggy, and ofc unoptimized. [H3]Summary Review:[/h3] [table] [tr] [th]　　About[/th] [th]　　Description[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Gᴀᴍᴇᴘʟᴀʏ[/td] [td]　 　Well it feels the same as SHC2. The difference is the entire map is now farmable, just like SH1 but with an extra step. Also, the first time this game was announced, what I saw is not a 'game that would change the future of Stronghold, perhaps that's what Firefly Studio thought', but what I see is, 'Hey, you know what? Many devs go to the China market because it was booming in the year where we planned to make Warlords.' There goes Chinese, Asian, Vietnamese, whatever Asian people they put here... hey, I'm Asian myself but a Southeast one, still we'd still eat rice... 　Anyway, it's the basic Stronghold you would expect. I played this game since beta. When the beta launched, I didn't expect much yet perhaps would give it a go... because again, just like our main problem, the game is so badly optimized, bad performance, bad pathfinding, just like SHC2 does. I wouldn't say it was bad, it's just the hardware issue that prevents me from enjoying this game. The units are fine. I don't mind different Japanese or Chinese voice in this game, just like classic SHC Arabic and English doesn't bother me. Ofc fire, Chinese firework, suicide bomb thingy it's cheap af... I love how the wall mechanic works. Tower? Well, same as SHC2. If you don't mind cooking your CPU in this economy, give it a go... because it's a unique game tbh. 　[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Gʀᴀᴘʜɪᴄ[/td] [td]　 　Actually I can't say if it was an upgrade or just Empire Earth like vibes on it. It's so dark bro, like showing how Asian civilization got humiliated and oppressed by their own government. They should add civilization where the civilian got attacked by the military with corrosive acid. Oh wait, yea this game is accurate. I think it's since the SH3, SHC2, Warlords they had in house engine or something which had its own unique look. I love the lighting, the bloom, the torch. It was readable well and it's definitely fine. But SHC2 and this game had the worst performance in Stronghold history. SH3 had more fog but better performance. This game has less fog and even worse performance. So what the hell did this game achieve? If you bought this game and launch it, you immediately realize one thing. Started a game, going inside a map with barely any unit, just one castle, one king, your peasant spawning, and you know what? Boom. Game uses one and two single thread, 100% pushes your CPU to 90C degree. I play many games. I'm not one of those idiots who play many AAA games with RTX whatever PC, laptop, or Linux, whoever that weirdo uses Linux. This game uses ridiculous PC resource out of nowhere. I don't know if it was texture or it just keeps rendering all object in the highest polygon like Final Fantasy Online drama that every dev should see. That were the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dev move I've ever seen in game optimization. This game however looks nothing better than many modern games that use less resource, run 60 fps, no fps drop, no bug. That's all. 　[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Mᴜʟᴛɪᴘʟᴀʏᴇʀ[/td] [td]　 　I remember playing SHC2 multiplayer, ran well until you reach a certain amount of units on the map, and the classic bug of the unit walking back and forth happened since SH3. Also it's P2P games so... yeah not many games can run well with P2P connection. Even SHC DE multiplayer is ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up (coming soon in-depth review). This is the reason why most Stronghold fans play single player, skirmish, free build, community made maps. And I love a game with that kind of feature. Never play online in Stronghold unless you are in one office, same room, one LAN, same network. 　[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Cᴏɴᴛʀᴏʟ[/td] [td]　 　No problem with mouse and keyboard. 　[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Pʟᴀʏᴛɪᴍᴇ[/td] [td]　 　You could finish the main story in 18h, completion up to 57h or more. For me? Nah, won't cook my CPU even for an hour. 　[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Sᴛᴏʀʏ[/td] [td]　 　Well... set across East Asia where you play as historical leaders like Mongol, Chinese, or Japanese rulers, building castles, & managing resources. The 'Warlords' system where you capture and control AI lords to gain resources, troops, or special abilities, it did carry over a mechanic from SH2 but more. Aaand everyone agrees... Stronghold is a straight game. No economy victory, no branches winning condition. Same as always, kill the inbred human who thinks he's above the law and human, aka king or any leader. Even you can meet one in your work office right now. 　[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]PC ᴘᴏʀᴛ[/td] [td]　 [b]Performance Test[/b] (For this review) 　•　60 FPS. (unstable) 　•　Run on NVME. 　•　HD resolution. 　•　CPU | High Usage (too intensive, Holycow!) 　•　GPU | Medium Usage [b]Game Optimization[/b] 　You see thumbs down. 　[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Aᴄᴄᴇssɪʙɪʟɪᴛʏ[/td] [td]　 [b]Audiotory[/b] 　✓　Playable with disability _ Speaker config 　•　N/A Sound Setting 　•　N/A [b]Visual[/b] Colorblind 　N/A　Deuteranopia 　N/A　Protanopia 　N/A　Tritanopia 　N/A　Custom UI 　✓　Dark 　✓　Scale 　N/A　S. Preset Subtitle 　N/A　on/off 　N/A　Scale Display 　✓　Fullscreen 　✓　Windowed 　✗　Borderless FPS 　N/A　30 　N/A　60 　N/A　Unlimited / Any Misc 　N/A　Vsync 　N/A　Gamma 　N/A　Contras 　N/A　Brightness 　N/A　Resolution Scale 　N/A　Customize config file 　N/A　Advanced graphic setting [b]Motor/Body disability[/b] Control type 　✓　Simple 　½　Complex 　✗　Slow reaction 　N/A　Binding custom control [b]Verdict[/b] 　This is the first time i use (N/A) which means i didn't even try opening the option to see what this game offers. 　[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Bᴜɢ / 𝙲𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚒𝚗[/td] [td]　 　•　Optimisation sucks. 　ⓘ　Build ID 17043871 　[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]DLC[/td] [td]　 　The only dlc i bought was from crusader series, worth it. people complaining how ♥♥♥♥ the animation this game does. 　[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Exᴛʀᴀ[/td] [td]　 [b][VALVᴱ] Suggested Region Price[/b] Correct　　:　22 Cheaper　 :　3 Overprice　:　16 [b]Overal score : 4/10[/b] 　Buy it on sale. [b]Community Health[/b] 　✗　Toxic 　✗　Moderator/Developer Problem [b]Note :[/b] 　Unoptimise. 　[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Oᴘᴘɪɴɪᴏɴ[/td] [td]　 　You know most Stronghold fans are poor af. When i see how SHC2 lifespan many people complaining same stuff bug and how unoptimized game are. I play SH since 2007. All my friend who play SH doesnt really into game like many others people. When i ask em to play, oh no. Their pc cant run it. I know well Stronghold fans. Even on SHC DE someone still asked if their low spec pc can run it. 　[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Rᴇᴄᴏᴍᴍᴇɴᴅᴇᴅ?[/td] [td]　 　Yes! If you are ignorant rich, wanted to cook a ramen cup noodle on your cpu. 　[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Oᴛʜᴇʀ[/td] [td]　 [i]Previous reviews have been posted　:[/i] 　•　[url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/RensAgatha/recommended/1105510/]Yakuza 5 Remastered[/url] 　•　[url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/RensAgatha/recommended/2581950/]Tiny Aquarium[/url] [i]Playtime source　:[/i] [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/HowLongToBeat]HLTB[/url] 　[/td] [/tr] [/table] [H3]Extended Review:[/h3] [table] [tr] [th]　-　[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Due to lack of motivation after looking at how this game uses CPU so badly, I wasn't interested in going in-depth for this review.[/td] [/tr] [/table] [quote][h2]If You'd Like To See More, Consider Following [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35820949-My-Stupid-Review]My Curator Page[/url].[/h2][/quote] © 2026 MSR by Rens Agatha 　ᴵ ʷᵃˢ ⁿᵒᵗ ᶜᵒᵐᵖᵉⁿˢᵃᵗᵉᵈ ᶦⁿ ᵃⁿʸ ʷᵃʸ. ᴾˡᵉᵃˢᵉ ᵛᵒᵗᵉ ᶦᵗ ᵘᵖ ᵒʳ ᵍᶦᵛᵉ ᵃⁿ ᵃʷᵃʳᵈ ᶦᶠ ʸᵒᵘ ˡᶦᵏᵉ ᶦᵗ. ᴵᶠ ⁿᵒᵗ, ᶠᵉᵉˡ ᶠʳᵉᵉ ᵗᵒ ᵛᵒᵗᵉ ᶦᵗ ᵈᵒʷⁿ ᵃⁿᵈ ᶜᵒᵐᵐᵉⁿᵗ ᵒⁿ ʷʰᶦᶜʰ ᵖᵃʳᵗˢ ʸᵒᵘ ᵈᶦᵈⁿ'ᵗ ˡᶦᵏᵉ.

[h2] Outdated and Outclassed[/h2] [b] Stronghold: Warlords[/b] is a disappointing miss and a step backwards for the series. How can a game released in 2021 look and play worse than Stronghold 2 from 2005? While the East Asian setting has a lot of potential, the dated graphics and clumsy gameplay ruin too much of the experience.

[i][b]В целом не так уж и плохо, но первая и вторая Stronghold"ы мне понравились больше.[/b][/i]