You step into an England where the king has been betrayed by his lords in Stronghold: Definitive Edition, a remake of the 2001 medieval castle-building game. You rally scattered forces to unite the country against four villains: the Rat, the Pig, the Snake and the Wolf. It blends city building with strategy, and time keeps moving while you work, so you have to run your town and fight battles at the same time.
You start with a small settlement and grow it into a fortress. You gather materials to build castles, and you keep your people fed, since happier, well-fed people are what let the town grow. Taxes bring in the gold that keeps everything else running, and soldiers are drafted from those same people, so a bigger town can field a bigger army. Once things are steady, you use walls and towers to hold off the enemy armies that come to attack.
What you work toward is winning missions. The original military and economic campaigns set goals such as breaking sieges, capturing enemy castles and hitting economic targets. The new campaign has 14 missions, and the Castle Trail adds 10 siege scenarios set at famous historical fortresses. You can also play with up to eight people on Steam or build and share your own maps through the Steam Workshop.
- Developer
- Firefly Studios
- Publisher
- Firefly Studios
- Release
- Worldwide: 2023-11-07
- Platforms
- Windows PC
Game data
Units
Units are the soldiers and specialists you raise to defend your castle and attack rivals in Stronghold: Definitive Edition. Most foot soldiers come from the barracks, which needs gold, spare peasants, and weapons and armor from the armory. Engineers and laddermen come from the Engineer's Guild, and Black Monks show up now and again at the Cathedral.
Castle Buildings
Castle buildings are the gatehouses, keeps, turrets, towers and traps you use to defend your settlement in Stronghold: Definitive Edition. Gatehouses let your workers pass through walls, while Square and Round Turrets can mount a ballista or mangonel and are immune to tunneling. Stone holds up better than wood but needs a quarry, and killing pits and pitch ditches add traps where attackers come in.
Stronghold DE Controls
| Action | Desktop |
|---|---|
| Scroll the map | W, A, S, D or arrow keys |
| Select units | Left click, or drag a box |
| Move and attack | Right click (Modern), left click (Classic) |
| Rotate the view | Q and E (Modern), X and C (Classic) |
| Zoom in and out | X and Z |
| Pause | P |
| Change game speed | Numpad + and - |
| Group troops | Ctrl + 0 to 9 |
| Set a camera bookmark | Ctrl + Alt + 0 to 9 |
| Jump to a bookmark | Alt + 0 to 9 |
| Center on the Keep | H |
| Open objectives | J |
| Open the goods summary | K |
| Flatten the landscape | Spacebar |
| Show or hide the interface | Alt + Z |
Stronghold DE gameplay tips
- Keep popularity at 50 or higher. Below 50, people leave, and at 50 or above your population can grow. Food and tax are the two main levers, so get food steady before you push the tax rate up. Religion, events and Fear Factor also count.
- Build a working Inn and keep it stocked with ale. Each working Inn with ale in stock adds 1 popularity. A few Inns can be the small push that gets you past 50.
- Create jobs before more people arrive. The campfire only holds a limited number of people, so new jobs need to be ready before the next arrivals come in.
- Budget gold for your army. Troops are paid in gold that buys their food, so they take no rations from the granary. Your stored food stays with your people, so keep enough tax income coming in to cover the army.
- Build walls and towers before the first raids. Walls block enemies from pushing through, and extra bows let your soldiers hit back.
- Try Free Build before a campaign. Free Build lets you set starting goods and invasions, plus up to 60 minutes of peace time. That gives you room to see how your town responds before the pressure of a mission kicks in.