The former era RTS or memories of Stronghold: Crusader

In the yard, the end of the 90s-the beginning of the 00s, the time that is customary in the gaming industry to be called the Golden End of Games in the Genre Strategy in Real Time Strategy). Behind the shoulders of this genre, not a single game, which at that time was considered cult: the legendary series Command & Conquer (1995), which includes branches in the form Generals (2003) and Red Alert (1996), Starcraft (1998) with his Zerig-Rash (read-tactics of bringing the opponent to permanent hysteria) and, of course, everyone’s beloved Warcraft (1994) a.K.a. “You need to build a zikgurat!“. But there is one game, with the sound of the name of which you dressed in mental armor imagine how you go to free Jerusalem at the hands of Turkish invaders. The game, thanks to which my acquaintance with the genre of strategy in real time has occurred – Stronghold: Crusader.

“Welcome, sir. The desert is waiting for you!“

What is Stronghold: Crusader? Stronghold: Crusader or just crusaders-it is an independent addition to the Stronghold strategy, developed by Firefly Studios and jointly published by Take-Two Interactive and God Games in 2002. This „Simulator Stroy-Sweeter-Bayvay“ introduces us to the era of the Crusades in the Middle East. In this game you have to visit the skin of a medieval lord, who has in subordination from several tens to several hundred souls in subordination. And at first glance, everything looks primitive and just ate, but it was not there. It is worth mentioning that Stronghold is still a military-economic urban planning simulator, and therefore gather an army from a couple of hundreds of armed computer boobs in five minutes and go to the left and right of the enemy’s citadel will not work. In addition to mass and epic battles, the game is almost the most important component in the game. This is where the first difficulties begin for a beginner, or even for an experienced virtual lord.

“People love you, my lord!“ royal-fortune.uk/

The game contains an extensive amount of resources from construction, ending with primitive “you need more gold”. But perhaps the most important resource of every feudal ruler in Stronghold is the human resource or simply – peasants. How to dispose of the peasants who came to the castle is the main question Stronghold, and your answer to it is your strategy and tactics, your economy and politics. The most important castle in the Political Political Policy is an indicator of the popularity of the population for its gracious ruler (or a malicious usurper is to decide), it is thanks to this indicator that new people come to you or the old people leave you. But each of your bosoters (at the place of general fee at the main hearth) needs a separate ration, another religious preaching in the temple and a pair of El mugs overturned in the local tavern. And now, when part or all the “Wishlist” of local inhabitants are satisfied, they begin to work and mining resources. Resource extraction also does not click on the fingers: first, the employee impressively passes to the place of work, will look around and only after all this will begin work, harvesting the necessary resource and taking it to the warehouse. The whole cycle will take you more than one minute of real time and, although it can be accelerated by intimidating your hard workers with dozens of gallows and pads, watching it is no less interesting than managing the army.

“My lord, they attack us!“

And now, when one and a half hundred workers‘ goals rush along your monitor, simultaneously collecting resources, it is time to think about the defense of your settlement. To approach this issue is no less responsible than to the distribution of manpower, because it will be unpleasant if your village, whose economy works as a Swiss watch, will burn several facultic slaves in a matter of seconds, is it not so? So, to protect your vassal leader and his subjects in the game, there is a lot of defensive structures for every taste and color: here you have high stone walls with protective towers of different heights and thicknesses, and traps of stakes and psarens, and the beloved oil ditch playing by many “perverts”, which is able to turn the enemy’s army and its fifth point, and its fifth point. And much, much more. Well, the castle is built, the walls are strong and impregnable, the locals work for the good of your highness … What is missing? Well, of course, it’s time to prepare the army!

“Kill everyone! The Lord recognizes His „

Hands already itch from the desire to attack the infantry of the enemy Lord that annoying you with small bundles? Do not rush, lord, as you could already guess, here, too, not everything is so simple. Military units do not appear in the barracks just like that, but require special uniforms that gunsmiths and bronnons must prepare in their workshops from resources that your hard workers from the forests and deposits of iron, which nature-mother gave us (or flexible editor of game cards). Each type of warrior has its own characteristics: some – spearmen, fast and cheap, others are swordsmen, slow, but protected from enemy archers, while others use cavalry. And even at this stage not all, since in addition to the aforementioned European representatives of faith in the cross, the game presents Arab mercenaries, which do not require weapons for training, but are two, or even three times more expensive than the former. And if there are walls and barbacans, then you need to somehow storm them. And here, engineers and sappers from special guilds come to our aid, who are able to make many siege guns: catapults, ballists, ramers, siege towers, in short, all that great medieval-inventor engineers could think of.

From the game modes for the player, a small plot campaign in the form of historical battles with a clear purpose is presented: to seize the enemy’s castle, protect his own for a certain time, collect the required amount of resources, and so on; The construction of the castle is an ordinary sandbox that does not imply battles with computer opponents; The path of the crusader is a campaign of 50 cards with a simple task – to defeat all enemies; And, the so -called “Skirmish” – a free fight mode characteristic of many games of the RTS genre, in which you can clash with computer opponents or try to defeat your friends in a multiplayer game mode. Well, individual laurels deserve the games of the game, insignificant at first glance, but creating a very strong atmosphere of immersion in the gameplay: music, animation of characters and voice acting. There will be not enough words here, you need to hear and see it yourself.

To summarize this undevelopment, no, rather, a certain view of the author through the prism of time at more than 15 years on this product of the gaming industry, I want to say that Stronghold has not become some kind of breakthrough game, it was not a Mastodont RTS genre as the same Warcraft and others. She became a kind of pleasant childhood memory, the memory of how you launched it even in the flagship in those distant times Pentium 4, how, during the loading of the game, you had goosebumps from that music and atmospheric art with legendary lion’s heart, about how at night you built these locks and chopped into cabbage of computer opponents. And sometimes it becomes sad for me that the genre so great in the gaming industry has sunk into oblivion, leaving only memories of dozens of hours spent by him. I would not want to complete this thoughtpost on a sad note, and therefore I will say that despite the fact that in the yard is already 2019, the game does not look bad for its 17 years, but to return to it and play evening or two with friends or with the same computer characters and to this day to this day. And you are sitting with that childish rapture and burning eyes and rejoice at this game.