Stronghold: Warlords News

Castle building RTS game Stronghold: Warlords has been delayed until March

The start of the year is always a bit of a dry period, but the ongoing global health crises seems to be exacerbating the issue when it comes to new game releases. In strategy-land alone, we're not really expecting anything profound to release until Humankind in April. One thing we were looking forward to at the end of January was the release of Stronghold: Warlords.

We say 'were', as it's now been delayed by six weeks until early March. It's a good thing we haven't just written up a guide to all the cool games coming out this mo- oh no.

The delay is due to some issues that the team at developer FireFly found with multiplayer in a recent stint of beta testing. There's not enough time to resolve the problems with the time they have, hence the delay. They can't exactly postpone the multiplayer mode either, as they've been promising it would be included at launch for a while now. It's a shame, but probably for the best in the long run.

Read the rest of the story...

Stronghold: Warlords takes the RTS series to Asia, and it's out next year

Jan 11, 2021 Stronghold: Warlords has been delayed until March 9, 2021.

Stronghold: Warlords is the next game in the defense-focused real-time strategy series, and it ditches the traditional European setting for Asia with Japanese and Chinese warlords to command. The game will launch some time in 2020 from Firefly Studios, and you can get a taste of the gameplay from a lengthy new reveal trailer.

The big addition is the titular warlord feature. AI lords can be recruited and upgraded to bring unique perks and abilities for you - whether in battle or as part of your castle economy. Warlods will spice things up throughout campaign, skirmish, and multiplayer modes.

A new historical setting means new unites, including samurai, Mongolian bowmen, imperial fire lancers, and auxiliary laddermen, and you'll get to play around with post-gunpowder equipment, siege towers, and flaming oxes. The game heads to both China and Japan, and the historical campaigns will take on everything from ancient China to Shogunate Japan and the Mongol Empire.

Read the rest of the story...

Trebuchets, Mortars & Ballista!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEmuZGaWZX0
As you know Stronghold: Warlords will be the first game in our 'castle sim' strategy series to introduce gunpowder siege weapons. Coming in the form of thunder crash bombs, the fearsome mortar, hwacha fire arrow cart and more, each can be used in different ways to cripple and eventually conquer rival players. Spread fire across enemy farmlands by catapulting bombs over their walls, blow apart defences with massive cannonballs or breach their castle walls with ancient rocket launchers. Castle defences even benefit from the addition of gunpowder, with mounted hwacha able to mow down lightly armoured enemy infantry before they can approach your walls.

What you probably aren't aware of is that rocks and Chinese thunder crash bombs won't be the only thing you're launching over 300 meters come January 26th... That's right, diseased animal ammunition is returning to the series in Stronghold: Warlords! While the humble Pig featured early in our design documents as an intended option in siege warfare we weren't always sure about what other animals would be lucky enough to make the cut. Enter the Stronghold Discord community, who voted overwhelmingly for Water Buffalo over hot contenders like the 'Large Bactrian Camel' and 'A Horse With a Sore Throat'.

Whatever you decide to launch over the walls of your enemies next year Stronghold: Warlords should have your covered with 10 siege weapons, 16 units and a plethora of siege defences for those turtle players out there. These will all be playable at launch in multiplayer, free build, skirmish and also unlocked over the course of the game's 30 mission single player campaign. We can't wait for players to get their hands on Warlords as we approach launch on January 26th, 2021.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/907650/Stronghold_Warlords/

Warlords Deep Dive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsS5tinXmQM
Join us for a full rundown of Stronghold: Warlords' titular warlords system, straight from the mind of Stronghold series Lead Designer and Co-Founder Simon Bradbury. Once again taking the video hot seat, Simon walks us through the finer details of Warlords' new grand strategy gameplay elements. Accompanied by all new multiplayer footage, as well as a first look at the latest version of the warlords system itself, Simon goes in depth for the first time about what this new addition means for our 'castle sim' series.

Discussing the history of Stronghold's estates and their evolution into the current warlords system, today we're revealing new gameplay showing how this feature will work in multiplayer, the later stages of our campaign, skirmish and free build. In the final game players and computer opponents will battle it out military or politically, gaining 'influence' over warlords across the map by any means necessary. With the ability to force a warlord to bend the knee by military might or use diplomacy points to gain favour with them over other players, it is up to the player to decide how and when to conquer each warlord.

There's a lot to go over, so stick with us to find out more about the game's passive warlord perks, edicts which can be used to issue commands, upgrades to edicts and castles, different warlord archetypes and more! If you like the look of the new and improved warlords system please do wishlist Stronghold: Warlords on Steam to be notified of the game's release on January 26th 2021.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/907650/Stronghold_Warlords

Soundtrack Preview #1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY7wW_Hv1wo
Earlier this year we announced that series stalwart Robert L. Euvino will be returning once more to compose an all new soundtrack for Stronghold: Warlords. Based on influences from Japanese, Chinese, Cambodian, Mongolian and Vietnamese culture, the music of Warlords is a unique hybrid of different styles. Today we're releasing another early look at the music in the form of a soundtrack preview! Please enjoy the track as we prepare to launch on January 26th.

“Creating high octane siege music was an interesting challenge,” said Robert Euvino, Composer and Sound Designer on the Stronghold series. “Many far eastern instruments have a truly distinctive flavour and are never tuned to minor scales and harmonic minors, the scales that create darkers sounds associated with war. In many cases film and game music tend to abandon the instrumentation in favour of more traditional contemporary orchestral ‘war’ music. What we end up with is an interesting hybrid which should hopefully satisfy both longtime fans and purists!”

Stronghold: Warlords will feature a full orchestral soundtrack available both in-game and standalone at launch as part of the game's Special Edition. Taking influence from musicians like Yo-Yo Ma and master Shakuhachi players, Warlords’ soundtrack will cover a wide geographical area and hundreds of years of history.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/907650/Stronghold_Warlords/