These are the main new innovation to the series’ long-running medieval warfare formula. Suddenly there’s acres of space for you to use, and it’s here that the Warlords can really shine. Switching to the skirmishes and multiplayer is a bit of a shock to the system. It does a decent job of teaching you new gameplay ideas and gradually introducing each concept, but brace yourself for some difficulty spikes – there’s at least several hints provided for each mission. On a handful of occasions, it was my defensive set up that was lacking, on others it was that I was running out of time to draw in a particular objective resource. The difficulty here is quite high, so unless you’re doing the right thing at roughly the right time, chances are you will fail and have to restart. You have a very specific scenario with a peculiar map layout, starting situation and some kind of restriction on what you can do. These are, essentially, puzzles in management strategy form. One mission might focus purely on infrastructure and resource management, another might give you a large army with which to assault a stronghold, or you have the series’ signature mission type that blends everything together, trying to build up a fortress, secure its supply chain and also fend off increasingly challenging waves of enemies. From Thuc Phan in what is modern-day Vietnam, through to the Jin dynasty’s construction of the Great Wall of China, and then the coming of Genghis Khan and the Mongols, it does a great job of mixing things up from mission to mission. Working through the campaign, the game tells the stories of various rulers and dynasties as they rise to power, battle against adversity, and ultimately succeed or fail. Having battled through the medieval era and gone crusading a few times over, Stronghold: Warlords turns its gaze to East Asia and the tumultuous wars and uprisings that defined its millennia of history. One of the more interesting modes is the co-op multiplayer that lets two players take control of the same civilization.Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2021, the Stronghold series has long been in need of reinvention. Apart from the campaigns, there's the usual custom skirmish and multiplayer modes, a user maps option, and a free-build mode that lets players hone their castle-building skills as long as they want. However, the early Stronghold games had a kind of tongue-in-cheek humor that made them charming, and that's completely absent in Warlords. The story of each campaign only provides the briefest of outlines, although the mission design is generally good, and provides some nice variation. The problem with the campaigns is that there's little personality instilled in them, and they just feel like static missions to complete. Related: How Age of Empires Changed the RTS Genre Forever Toyotomi is a particular highlight as his stealth-based ninjas and tank-like samurai are an absolute blast to use. Each campaign focuses on a different lord, like Genghis Khan or Hideyoshi Toyotomi, thereby providing a few unique units as well. There are five different campaigns to choose from, four being combat-focused and one being economic-focused. Stronghold Warlords has a few different game modes to choose from, with the main focus being the campaigns.
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