Stronghold 3

[Sir Edward]

Anyone here ever played the Stronghold series of castle-building strategy games?

Stronghold 3
http://www.stronghold3.com/

Stronghold 3 comes out next month, and is already available for pre-order on Steam.

I've played pretty much all of the series with its spin-offs, except I think I only played about 2/3 of the way through Stronghold 1, and I never played Crusader:

http://www.fireflyworlds.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=128&Itemid=320

[Sir William]

PC games?  I don't have the processing power for most of the new ones, working with aging hardware like I am.  Still, keep us posted...it sounds interesting enough.

[Sir Edward]

So far I don't think the Stronghold series has ever really needed a high power system.

The cool thing is that the entire pack of the previous games in the series (Stronghold 1, Crusader, Stronghold 2, and Legends) is only like $20 now. They're all between 5 and 10 years old now and will run on pretty ancient hardware.

Lots of cool castle-building fun and sieges.

[Sir William]

Really?  Think I'll look for them on eBay...like I need more reasons to game.  LOL

I spend so much time on my X360 I know my wife thinks it might be semi-permanently attached to my brainpan!

[Sir Edward]

I think I even saw the multi-pack at Best Buy not too long ago. It's one of those games that hasn't really had a direct competitor, so it keeps selling.

On Amazon for $25 apparently:
http://amzn.com/B002SKDIKE

The download version is $20.

[Sir William]

Nice...found it on eBay for about the same price.  Is this anything like Age of Empires?  I played the first two games and loved them, but by then, the consoles took off and after that, I only played Counterstrike online at a friend's house (we'd do it up in a lan party, hilarious to think back on now) and the odd Starcraft mission. 

[Sir Edward]

I haven't played Age of Empires, so I don't know.

[Sir William]

Well then, let me give you the quick and dirty on it:

The AoE games are RTS games, set amidst actual historical events.  Probably the biggest competitor of Sid Meier's Civilization series.

Your job is to start up civilization and lead it through the major advancements, specifically from the Dark Age through the Imperial Age (think Renaissance)- a thousand year timeframe give or take.  Later games added more civilizations and other perks to the existing gameset.  The civilization you choose to start (will determine what special technologies you get to unlock as you advance through the ages...the epitome of which is the Wonder.  It takes a lot of resources (both human and arable, not to mention wood, stone and gold) to build and can be easily destroyed before it reaches completion.  Once it does so, however, it is quite difficult to bring down, and each civilization has their own unique wonder that can only be built of certain parameters are met (generally speaking, you will have to have leveled your civilization to its zenith before you can begin).

I literally spent hundreds of hours planning and building my towns, building walls to protect said towns, planning out farming regions, housing and consumables...not to mention the number of warrior units you could train, but only if you've upgraded your barracks and equestrian (and later siege shops) centers to accomodate the newer tactics.  All in all, a great franchise...and excellent background music as well.

[Sir Edward]

Cool, maybe I'll look at those too.

I took a stab at Medieval II (or was it III?) a while back, which is also RTS, with large-scale battles in the field. I liked the strategic combat, but for some reason I never really got grabbed by the campaign.

The Stronghold games are also RTS, in which you have to build up food production, harvesting of wood and stone, to build your castle structures and defenses, recruit troops, etc. But it's not civilization-scale. It has a series of missions with various goals, which involve building up a defensive position and defending it against attack, or going on the offensive against another castle. The environments change, as do the goals, with a storyline.

[Sir William]

That sounds pretty cool...I see it as a localization of the same concept of AoE (or Medieval, or Civ) which definitely strikes me as worthwhile to pursue.  I think with AoE II: Age of Kings (set during the Middle Ages), I got caught up in the historical parts of the campaign, for instance, one of the campaign missions (depending on which campaign you chose, there are 5 I believe, ranging from Joan of Arc to Genghis Khan) dealt with escorting Frederick Barbarossa's remains to the Holy Land, complete with a horse-drawn cart, pine barrel in the back, old Fred's remains slowly decomposing.  You have to negotiate Berber horseman, raiding Touregs, etc etc to infiltrate to the Sepulchre where you can lay Fred's bones to rest.  Another campaign you get deals with Saladin's defence of the Holy Land.  Pretty cool stuff!

[SirNathanQ]

I also liked Age of Empires. I played all three.
Although I would recommend the Total War series much more over any of the medieval strategy games I've played.
IMO, nothing can beat actually watching thousands of soldiers (all of which you can zoom in on and watch fight) march at each other, and fight in actual formations. Troops will also rout, not mindlessly fight on to the death. Cavalry charges actually work (although not ridiculously well as in Battle for Middle Earth)
And troops are for the most-part, quite period. In gear, composition, and formations!
It also places you within historical scenarios, similar to Age of Empires.
And terrain actually is a major factor in battles.
It's detailed to the point where archers firing from a soldiers right will have a better chance of a kill because the shield is held in the left hand! (Moot on soldiers with 2handed weapons)

[Sir Edward]

I may take the time to play through Stronghold Crusader (spin-off from Stronghold 1). It's old, but it's the one I haven't played at all, and it re-enacts a variety of crusades events and battles. Some you can play from Saladin's side.

The main releases (Stronghold 1 & 2) are medieval fiction. No real fantasy elements, just fictional. Stronghold Legends (a spin-off from Stronghold 2) is Arthurian fantasy, and was pretty fun.

[Sir William]

Total War is better than all the rest, Nathan?  Might have to give it a go then...my gaming's primarily tied to the X360 and PS3 but I do love a good RTS and you can only get the good ones for the PC.

[Sir Wolf]

how can you never have played the AOE games?

i think i have crusader somewhere but i cant find the disk

[Sir William]

If he never played them it is because you failed to mention them to him.  lol