Stronghold: Warlords PC

Stronghold: Warlords is another part of the popular real-time strategy series Stronghold. The game was developed by FireFly Studios, the team taking care of the series.

Plot

Stronghold: Warlords takes us to the Far East. The action of this game starts in the 3rd century B.C. and ends several centuries later, in the 16th century A.D. In the game appear such nations as imperial China, Japan ruled by shoguns, Mongolian nomads and tribes inhabiting the area of present-day Vietnam.

Gameplay

While playing Stronghold: Warlords we observe the action from a top-down view, but we can control the camera to a large extent. During the game we construct new buildings, work on developing technology, recruit units in order to lead them to fight against the enemy forces. In some missions we also gradually expand our fortress. Our army includes not only infantry soldiers (such as Mongolian archers or disciplined samurai) and horsemen, but also a variety of siege machines, useful mainly during the conquest of enemy strongholds; these include the fire lance, siege towers and flaming oxen.

And don't forget to meet the needs of the inhabitants - if we want farmers, woodcutters, miners and craftsmen to do their jobs properly (and pay their taxes), we need to provide them with a bit of entertainment... or scare them off. Of course, you also have to pay constant attention to the abundance of our treasury, so as not to be left without funds at the worst moment.

The biggest novelty are the title warlords, who control individual regions. After defeating and subjugating them, they provide us with various bonuses (such as the ability to produce unique goods), can support in battle or provide additional troops. We manage the rulers by issuing edicts, but we need special points generated over time (the rate of collecting them is influenced by the buildings of diplomatic character). Leaders can also be improved using the same resource.

Stronghold: Warlords features 3D graphics maintained in a colourful, somewhat cartoonish style.

Multiplayer

The core of the game Stronghold: Warlords are story campaigns. Besides, single battles and multiplayer mode are waiting for testing. Game offers also short tutorial.

Game score 6.65 / 10 calculated out of 149 players' votes.  
Expectations before the premiere: 7.7 / 10 calculated out of 370 players' votes.