The original Stronghold holds a special place in my heart. You build a medieval barony, surround it with a labyrinth of impassable walls, and stave off waves of attackers while keeping the serfs living within happy, well-fed, and well-taxed. It had real character too, with a lovely soundtrack, snappy unit soundbites, and memorable villains.
Stronghold: Warlords feels a million miles away from that game. It’s the most sprawling entry series in the yet—largely abandoning the principle of building a feudal gauntlet for waves of enemies in favor of a more traditional RTS setup featuring larger maps and symmetrically placed enemy bases.
The warlords system is the twist here. Beyond your base and the enemy’s, there are several smaller estates on the map held by neutral warlords. Defeat these warlords and they’ll join your side, sending you resources on demand, offering mini-forts to shelter your troops, and even launching attacks on your enemies.
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Special Report- Stacked Deck - Monster Train, a deckbuilding roguelike that firmly entrenched itself as the crown prince to the kingly Slay the Spire back in 2020, was the kind of smash success you might call Champagne Big.
Monster Train, a deckbuilding roguelike that firmly entrenched itself as the crown prince to the kingly Slay the Spire back in 2020, was the kind of smash success you might call Champagne Big. Four years later, its successor Inkbound’s launch from Early Access was looking more like Sandwich Big.I’m not just saying that because of the mountain of lamb and eggplants I ate while meeting with developer Shiny Shoe over lunch, to feel out what the aftermath of releasing a game looks like in 2024. I mean, have I thought about that sandwich every day since? Yes. But also, the indie team talked frankly about the struggle of luring Monster Train’s audience on board for its next game.
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