Stronghold Warlords

Stronghold Warlords (SHW) is the latest installment of the Stronghold main series, released on March 9, 2021. It is the fourth member of the mainline Stronghold Series.
==Setting and gameplay==
Stronghold Warlords is set to play in the vast territories of Eastern Asia, featuring four nations from across history: the Chinese, the Japanese, the Mongols and the Vietnamese.
Emphasis continues to be on the sim aspect of Stronghold, managing castles and building armies, while keeping an eye on the economy and the everyday lives of the townsfolk. Players can build various fortifications to protect themselves, as well as industrial buildings to build up supplies and cater to civilian and recruitment needs. Units can be recruited from the barracks or the military academy, with the former requiring equipment for each unit. 
Players can also engage into a new aspect of battle: diplomacy, which boils down to controlling newfound non-player characters, warlords.
The game comes with updated visuals and a redesigned user interface. Resources and the popularity panel are now permanently shown, and selected units get a dedicated screen showing attack and defense values.
==Features==
===The Warlords system===
Warlords are the successors of the estate system from previous games.
Warlord estates are scattered throughout the world map, who can be taken over through militaristic or diplomatic means. Those under control provide benefits, enabling passive perks and one-time edicts by spending Diplomacy points: trickling small amounts of resources, sending reinforcements, upgrading their castles, or sending out attack groups. Warlords can also be upgraded to unlock further edicts and strengthen the potency of available ones. Diplomacy points slowly build up over time, but they can also be earned through government buildings, like embassies.
===Popularity and food system redesign===
The popularity system continues the same tradition that Stronghold 3 laid out, with a few tweaks:
* Peasant migration is influenced by the sign of the popularity balance, with an immediate effect.
* Peasants only require rice for food consumption. Other food types (meat and vegetables) contribute to bonus popularity only, as luxury goods. The successor of ale: tea, got integrated to the food system, as a fourth type of food. As a result, all food production buildings have no terrain requirements.
* Clothes are an additional source of consumed product that feature a complex production chain, but boast the largest base popularity rate.
* Fear factor sources of popularity return, such as Fear Factor, which provide a flat bonus based on population and building coverage.
=== Redesigned AI ===
The AI in Stronghold Warlords got an overhaul in terms of decision making and management. While previous incarnations required strict rules in terms of building army groups and build order, now the AI prioritizes construction according to its needs. Each AI is given a rough castle template, inside which buildings are placed in separate quadrants based on their type: weapon production, food production, civilian buildings and other production. 
The AI also recruits troops based on their unit preference, depending on their troop pool and what the situation requires. The AI also manages its troops depending on stance. Normally, the AI keeps its units at home, with ranged defenders mounting the walls and melee units located at the keep, only to send them out later for raids against warlords and player targets. When pressured, the AI will prioritize recruiting troops and withdraw all of them to its castle.
The AI can also make use of warlords. They tend to have a very high preference on capturing any they can lay their hands on, however they use their edicts very conservatively, relegating them mostly to their shipment options and upgrading their defense. When the AI has a very developed castle, he tends to funnel diplomacy more into rank upgrades, however barely using them for attacks.
===Returning features===
*The Scribe returns to give remarks once again about events and happenings.
*Strong walls: a multiplayer option, which makes walls impervious to infantry attacks
*Estates (separate from Warlords' estates)
*Fear Factor
*Classic siege units and unit archetypes
*Single-player campaigns and multiplayer skirmish
===New features===
*Gunpowder-type tower engines, units and traps
*New raw materials: saltpeter, gunpowder, silk, tea leaves
*New food types: tea, rice, vegetables, meat
*New weapons: axe, lance, heavy mace
*Housing quality (affects popularity)
*Engine platforms that can be attached on walls
*Units from various Asian cultures: Vietnam, Mongolia, China, Japan
==History==
==== Initial rumors ====
* Stronghold Warlords has been worked on since 2015, after the release of Stronghold Crusader 2. Initially, Firefly Studios had been hinting that a new Stronghold game was in development, however did not proceed on revealing information until much later.
* In 2018, Firefly revealed that this particular game had still been being worked on, under the code-name 'Stronghold Next', which spawned a series of insider and Q&A videos on YouTube, granting insights into the development process and the studio. Most importantly, these media also sparked a connection with the fans. Since then, the studio had been uploading videos addressing nostalgic moments, featuring community maps/mods and interviews with various staff members.
==== Pre-alpha & Alpha phases ====
* In June 2019, the next game has been revealed as 'Stronghold Warlords', which was shown a first footage from pre-alpha stage and an official intro as well, to the audience of E3 2019. Both videos highlighted the new addendum, the Warlords system that defines this particular sequel, along with the new Eastern Asian setting.
* By September 2019, Stronghold Warlords entered alpha stage. Graphics have improved, while gameplay has smoothed. Various gameplay aspects were shown in great detail on the demo map.
* At PAX East 2019, Firefly set up gaming booths with an alpha demo of Stronghold Warlords, where participants could play a 15 minutes long survival mode-style mission. 
* The game was featured at the next PAX in Spring 2020, presenting a siege scenario involving more negotiation options with warlords and showcasing more troops. This version has been shared with the community, enabling access to the game for a limited time.
* Stronghold Warlords was featured at IGN Summer on June 11th, 2020. This event saw the announcement of the game's release date as September 29th, 2020, as well as a montage from the game's buildings and battle scenes.
==== Delays in release ====
* Due to ongoing regulations related to COVID-19 and consequentially slower development process, Firefly Studios had to postpone the release date to January 26th, 2021, in Fall 2020.
* On January 11th 2021, the game's release got delayed an additional time to March 9th, 2021, as some critical errors arose during the development of Multiplayer mode.
==== Planned content ====
Firefly Studios envisaged a one-year-long roadmap to provide the game additional content. Like Stronghold Crusader 2, Stronghold Warlords saw 4 DLCs that feature exclusive campaigns, skirmish AI characters, and more:
* The Art of War (released on May 18th, 2021)
* The Mongol Empire (released on September 1st, 2021)
* Rise of the Shogun (released on November 24th, 2021)
* The Warrior Queen (released on January 25th, 2022)
Stronghold Warlords received an Ultimate Edition on February 14th, 2022, concluding planned releases for the game.
==Community build-up==
Firefly Studios utilized their Discord server extensively to build up anticipation and form a community for the game, with the possibility to discuss various topics related to Warlords and other Stronghold games. The team was collecting feedback, while also drip-feeding information about Warlords once in a while. Every server member had to choose to join one of three empires in order to access the chat channels: The Mongolian Horde, The Japanese Shogun or the Chinese Dynasty.
A series of community challenges called "MetaGame" was introduced on the server. Each group was pitted against one another in a lightweight competition, facing a situation that must be resolved collectively by voting on a favorable decision out of a few, similar to a role-playing game. These activities would affect both the status quo and the faction itself, granting them progression, or denying them from advantageous opportunities. 
Coin, a type of resource could be earned on both an individual and group level, which was essential to buy some services, nonetheless participants could also spend them in Firefly Studios's dedicated shop. Individual members could earn money from working, or gamble some for committing crime or robbing other users. Each option could only be done every 11 hours. The votes met deadline usually after a few days. 
==== First round ====
The first round of Metagame concluded in the end of March 2020 with the victory of the Horde. After the Horde was gifted the New PAX East 2020 version, they decided to have the runners-up handed the same version as well, instead of the Fall 2019 survival scenario version.
==== Second round ====
The second round of Metagame introduced guilds, which produced goods and paid their members daily. Goods could be sold by guilds on the market for the faction leaders, which could be used to gain the upper hand in the faction's quests. As an added burden, factions had to face daily taxes. The round concluded without a contest, with the release of Warlords on March 9th. 
== Topics ==
=== 1. Units ===
Stronghold Warlords Units	Stronghold Warlords Units
Barracks 	Spear tribesman • Blowpipe tribesman • Auxiliary axeman • Auxiliary archer • Auxiliary cavalry
Imperial warrior • Imperial bannerman • Imperial crossbowman • Imperial guardsman • Imperial cavalry
Military academy 	Warrior monk • Horse archer • Ninja • Fire lancer
Samurai • General • Samurai lancer • Thunderbomb thrower
Siege camp 	Ladderman • Siege tower • Mantlet • Fire arrow cart • Ballista
Fire ox • Catapult • Mortar • Rocket launcher • Trebuchet
=== 2. Warlords Mechanics ===
Mechanics Page
Main Game Warlords	Main Game Warlords
Name 	Description
The Mouse 	Adept at basic industries. Easy to siege, offers various basic resource shipments.
The Pig 	Adept at food production. Easy to siege, offers various food shipments.
The Crane 	Adept at estate management. Easy to siege, offers various benefits related to gold and diplomacy.
The Tiger 	Adept at siege warfare. Allows the construction of a siege camp and various army options.
The Ox 	Adept at industries. Easy to siege, offers various raw material shipments.
The Turtle 	Adept at constructing fortifications. Hard to siege, offers various upgrades to his castle.
The Horse 	Adept at mounted combat. Easy to siege, offers various mounted army options.
The Dragon 	Adept at gunpowder and siege. Hard to siege, offers various army options.
The Bear 	Adept at military support. Hard to siege but easy to capture through diplomacy, increases the buff radius of Imperial Bannerman.
The Beetle 	Adept at defence. Quite hard to siege but quite easy to capture through diplomacy, offers the construction of Field Hospital for troops healing.
The Wolf 	Adept at military support. Hard to siege, increases the damage of allied infantry units.
The Lion 	Adept at military support. Hard to siege, decreases the cost of allied siege units.
==Gallery==
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==Teaser==
thumb|center|500 px|Stronghold Warlords teaser trailer
== Campaign Walkthroughs ==
Stronghold Warlords Military Walkthroughs
Stronghold Warlords Economic Campaign Walkthroughs (Video Playthrough)
==External links==
*Steam
ru:Stronghold: Warlords
Category:Games