Asophix

Hi All! On the day of writing this post, I had a very intense match with @ Lord_Chris as Arthur against Ice. I also wrote a detailed article about a year ago to-date about how the Arthur faction is vastly the underdog compared to Ice and Evil, at least when it comes to utilising their faction-specific toolkit. This prompted me to revisit the idea and share my findings with you. Point 1 - Arthur is not a muscle faction Like in my previous post, I pointed out how Arthur's Knights of the Royal Table are geared towards controlling an area and exerting control there at an opportune moment. They are indeed excellent and there are definitely a few who you always want on the battlefield. This doesn't mean however that they are the workhorse of your military. Quite the contrary. Special units are very expensive and given how Legends feeds you only so much honor with a proper economy, you can't always rely on them, not to mention their gynormous ability cooldown time! Siege Tower concentrations with missile troops and casters are a common thing, which you can't immediately remove by your siege engines, or your Green Dragon. Even if you manage to take out a bunch of enemies, they will just print reinforcements. Moreover, the enemy caster often comes in under the forest of mantlets to safely erase your army. Not even hundreds of men-at-arms chew through that much wood. This is where a paradigm shift comes into play: you are supposed to play by trying to overwhelm your enemy with control. You are supposed to divert their attention. Let's just face the fact: Arthur's army's unit power is the WORST among all three factions at maximum size. Ice can always pump out Giants, Evil can always bring Werewolves, not to mention Bats and Stake Hurlers can just rain on your carefully constructed siege position at whim. Instead, if you create a second or even third army and try to create opportunistic attacks elsewhere, the enemy will suddenly be unable to solve all their problems right away. Getting around an entrenched position may mean running down enemy estates left vulnerable, flying in your Dragon or sending in Percival as a major threat, only to strike somewhere else by setting up a second siege camp and running down their defenseless flank. Point 2 - Men-at-arms should be your core unit Men-at-arms are cheap units that are easy to sleep on: their staying power is relatively low, they don't generally do much damage, and they are bad in sieges. What they excel at however, is mobility and skirmishing. Usually with Arthur you can't afford all those shiny troops right away, and even if you do, you will find how your other options all come with a drawback: Macemen are very expensive and they tend to get bogged down in melee once engaged. Even though they are a decent shock troop, they have problems taking over garrisoned village halls or wall defenses. Crossbowmen are very slow, even though they declare an area a pin-cushion in their immediate vicinity. They make a bad response troop, due to their abysmal movement speed. The same can be said for Pikemen and Swordsmen. Archers are another mainstay unit, however once the enemy starts fortifying its key positions, they barely put a dent into shields and crossbowmen. Moreover, their firepower is insufficient when the enemy approaches en masse. On the contrary, Men-at-arms are a great candidate as a core unit, because: They are cheap. Even if you don't build poleturners, their equipment is easy to come by on the market, consequently they are always available for recruitment. They are fast. As interceptors, Men-at-arms can traverse the battlefield quickly. It's not uncommon for an enemy to throw a bunch of troops against your outlying guards or flanking your position into your Siege Camp. These interceptions are what give you the option to intercept, or show up on another front to cause mayhem, where the enemy forgot to put sufficient troops. They throw javelins. Believe it or not, Men-at-arms' javelins actually cause respectable damage against light troops and siege engines, even Mantlets. If the enemy tries to wear you down by deploying Catapults, streams of White Wolves / Hellhounds, or other shooty things, Men-at-arms can run them down and pick them apart in a cost-efficient way. They can bait expensive stuff. Men-at-arms are such units that could be thrown into the mouth of the enemy army with impunity. An Ice Queen or Sorcerer is attacking them, or a caster is throwing an ability at them? Who cares! Replacing 30 weak units isn't as regrettable as replacing 50 Crossbowmen, or heavily armored units. Baiting out abilities and drawing firepower to an extent can make room for your own special units to attack or strike with your own ability. Surely, Men-at-arms are a one-timer, which loses efficacy as the game goes on, however their mobility and ability to counter certain ground units makes them a prime affordable troop. Their reinforcing and intercepting ability is second-to-none, and they may even stand their own ground if controlled correctly against smaller formations. Point 3 - Bedivere & Gawain can always find value In the previous post, I alluded to how Gawain has insane potential, but wrote off Bedivere. Turns out they both carry value throughout the game. Gawain is the core unit beside Merlin and Percival. His ability to conjure a shield that absorbs all types of projectile attacks can declare a zone safe for quite some time, giving your main army a good way to advance from a bogged down area. While a large army doesn't fit under it fully, this protection can make all the difference for attacking the enemy's impenetrable defenses, or allow your casters to fire off an ability or two. A lesser known fact is that Gawain's shield negates the projectile-based effects from the Ice Queen's and the Ice Dragon's freezing attack, divebombing Bats and even siege projectiles' knockback. Consequently, it can also be used to protect against these devastating abilities as a reactionary tool, if your army is caught bare out in the open, or in an entrenched position. Bedivere is kind of a one-trick-pony due to his very obvious niche ability. What however cannot be underestimated is his ability to circumvent an area and create an opening in the opposition's defenses, causing a quick ruckus. On larger maps where the enemy can be attacked from multiple positions, the Horn of Camelot assigned to an attacking infiltration group can cause the enemy to react haphazardly, or divert reinforcements from their main position to deal with the threat. Combined with Men-at-arms and Archers, a commando can cause noticeable damage or even conquer the Keep, if the enemy forgot to fortify it even slightly. Point 4 - Streamlined build order trumps economy This section is obviously geared towards games with peace time and/or with low starting tech. Probably moreso than the other factions, Arthur loves to enjoy a fast Rank 8 due to the unlocked units and Automarket. Getting to this point ASAP however comes at a cost of your ability to partake in the arms race that comes with the expiry of peace time. Here is a build order that served me well in various versions throughout the eco phase (assuming 10-15pt, rank 1): Immediately set taxes to -16, build the granary and give +8 rations. Buy 5 non-meat food if starting with no food. Build two or three chicken farms from your sold stone and starting gold. You may be able to squeeze in a dairy farm if you are extra greedy. Build a wood camp when you can't build anything else. Until you build your first hovel, you can freely sell food and buy wood for additional farms. We prefer buying wood over having it delivered from wood camps, because the workers are considerably slow and peasants come at a premium early on. Keep selling meat whenever above 5 units and try to get at least one unit of food of each type to leverage potentially +12 honor per month. Don't forget about popularity. If your rate approaches 55, dial back taxes to -8 to break even with your granary. After the first hovel we prioritise building farms, slowly shifting to cheese. Build chicken farms for 'firefighting' purposes, however dairy farms will eventually bring in cheese. Because of the increased granary consumption, we switch to a pantry without any production, set royal food consumption to double and buy royal food there. Keep selling cheese and meat whenever above a combined 10 food. Keep buying wood for your industry, building hovels whenever low on free peasants (constant influx is required due to reduced migration speed!). When your farms bring in a steady stream of food, you can eventually start adding iron mines. Add tethers only when the miners produce ingots, or ingots start piling up. Also build an eel pond fairly early to slowly ease the burden on your coffers. Always sell excess iron. Build stone quarries once you are nearing 5-6 minutes peace time left. About 3 or 4 quarries should do, constantly add tethers to prevent storage overflow. Once your stone quarries deliver, start investing into a Church and chandler's workshops. Keep a keen eye on your stocks and once your production is steady (about one chandler per hovel), then raise the mass to extravagant level to cash in on honor and raise your popularity back to 100. Once done, set taxes to -12. By this point, you should be nearing the end of peace time. Buy assorted weaponry (a little bit of everything) for your preferred troops, and be ready to face thine enemy! Closure Hope this tablet of text has entertained you and provided you valuable insights. Any time you would like to ask questions and leave comments, you can do it either here, or in a DM to happily discuss the matter further. See you on the battlefield!🙂

Hello All! Firefly Studios recently unveiled details about their next "Winter" update for Stronghold Crusader: DE, which is scheduled to release on February 3, 2026. Much like the Autumn Update, it will feature free additions to the base game, as well as a paid downloadable content called The Sergeant and the Lioness for 5 EUR / 5 USD / 4 GBP. Take a look at the contents below. Contents - Free Update 3 new maps A new cooperative trail Custom Trail Editor Create your own skirmish trail up to 50 custom skirmish missions, with a selection of opponents and maps tailored to your liking. Trails can be exported and shared with other players too! CPU Lord and Castle Editors Akin to our editors offered for SH2 and SHL (as well as the UCP!), Firefly will also grant us the ability to customise the preferences and castle layout templates built by any AI opponent. Both utilities seem to be standalone applications, with the Castle Editor visually greatly resembling its earlier counterpart for vanilla Crusader. Contents - DLC New Sands of Time Trail: Trail of the Cobra New AI opponent: The Sergeant Metal man! An aspiring veteran of a "dozen campaigns", who earned fame in his battles prefers his armored troops to chew through enemy defenses. Builds similarly to the Marshal, erecting large castles divided into multiple elongated quarters, and lots of towers on the sides. Seen using the sturdiest troops there are: Crossbowmen, Pikemen, Arabian Swordsmen, Demolishers. New AI opponent: The Lioness A bloodthirsty but playful dame? She is the proclaimed "Queen of the Sands", being an all-rounder overall. Her castles are much like an upgrade on the Kahinah, featuring an outer wall, moat and better productivity. Seen using a mix of Arabic and Bedouin troops: Arabian Swordsmen, Arabian Bowmen, Skirmishers, Heavy Camels.

Speedy recovery, Chris! 🙂 I read on a random Stronghold game store page that since January 2024, the client only supports Windows 10 and upwards. Due to security risks, it may be worth upgrading to Windows 10, or using Linux for a more seamless experience.

I found this mission challenging too due to the limited gold you get for your siege engines, forcing you to be creative and extra mindful of your resources. Salutations and good job on this nerve-wrecking endeavour!

Could actually un- and reinstalling Steam work? Or, try moving the installation directory by specifying it to a different location in the settings. I haven't encountered issues like this, however my Steam recording feature started misbehaving one day and it had some settings stuck, pointing to an older location. I remedied by moving the capture folder, so might be relatable.

Thanks for the acknowledgement, @ Sir Windows ! Hálás vagyok a magyar ellenfélért! Hunyadi feels kinda slow to build up, but he is fun to play with once he gets stabilised. It's hard to find a map where he plays on full swing. His consistent attack rate is something I like, kinda like Lancelot. He may be in need of more farms, as he tends to break even on consumption sometimes ~ selling food for gold could improve his standing. Holy Knights with the update is way more consistent, he actually attacks very fast now. His raids are also somewhat annoying, as you can never suspect him bringing out a mounted knight, or just a small band of archers. As a footnote: I noticed some minor graphics differences as well, even though I don't know how the animations work in either SH2 or SHL. In SH2 Steam Edition the swords texture is consistently missing from the armoury, but not in Legends. Simply replacing the one from SHL did not resolve the problem.

Hey, can we expect to see updates soon-ish to the existing or the newfound lords? 🙂 The lords each have been given a lot of custom content, so I take it is no small effort to get everything in place.

The version had to be re-uploaded again due to a last-minute fix for a text oversight. The latest submission at the time of writing should work normally.

A new version has been uploaded with slight tweaks and greatly expanding on raid group functionalities. Changelog: Raid groups functionality improved: Increased number of unit slots from 2 to 8. Increased catapult and fire ballista upper caps from 2 to 4. Fixed a bug where an unset unit slot preceding a set slot would result in the AI not forming raid groups. Base units and variance slots caps slightly tweaked. Population validation rule now takes an additional 2 people in the population used category to account for the treasurer and other AIC-relevant building workers.

Hello All! A new version (v1.4) has been released. This version addresses a bunch of design changes and improvements that has been previously implemented for the SH2 Lord Editor. Simply follow the download link in the main post to download! Changelist: Buildings are grouped into their respective categories (SH2 LE). Tooltips have been added to Lords and a few more screen elements (SH2 LE). A few more lines of descriptive summaries have been added to each category's content (SH2 LE). Added Pictish Boat Warrior, Outlaw and Light Cavalry to the unit rosters. These units bring much flavour to the gameplay and it can also open some creative avenues for custom lords. Unique units - Dragons and Magicians - can no longer be set as Siege Army group types. I felt that dragons and casters have no place in a proper siege army. It is possible that e.g. a Merlin accompanying a siege formation could fit well, so upon request I may re-add the casters to the sieges. Validation rules have been revised. Complete list: Weaponcrafter workshop productions must be selected at least one type of product. Army groups consisting a unique unit must be given a maximum count of 1. The Siege Army groups' total size must not be less than the Siege Army base size. An error is thrown if Hovels cannot support the required number for running the economy. An error is issued if a blacksmith or armourer has no iron mines to supply them (thanks @ Sir Windows !). A warning is issued if Fantasy Units have no Special Recruitment Building, or vice versa. A warning is issued if there is no Pantry for supplying Royal Food, or vice versa. Overall run-time memory footprint decreased via code refactor. Attempts to save fail silently while validation errors are present (SH2 LE). About Window opacity slightly decreased for a more pleasant experience (SH2 LE).

Some feedback regarding the V2 lords: Radu Just like his original incarnation, he is considerably steady at building up. So far he is the most consistent lord. He builds no breweries for the Inn. I barely saw any harassment groups from him, apart from a few pikemen and archers. I could like a few more macemen, or more of the archers. 🙂 Holy Knights The defensive positions are manned well, however he is still conflicted between raids and armies. He forms his siege army fairly late. I recommend toning down the steamroll group to streamline his raids. The granary could be leveraged more by adding a gate, or pre-placing it in the AIC. The armory could be turned outwards for smoother weapon influx. Transylvanian Lord He is much better now, but still takes quite some time to build. The siege force is quite formidable (more threatening than vanilla Arthur!). The castle layout seems to be suffering from the fact that the walls greatly prolong travel time for workers. This is barely mitigated by having access to a second gatehouse. His pace could be enhanced by adding a gatehouse to the rest of the cardinal directions each. Men-at-arms could be used more in the raid groups. Overall it's a great improvement and can't wait to see the rest of the upcoming lords in the roster. 😉

Come one, come all! We have arrived to another milestone, as a new game's tough shell has been cracked open: Stronghold 2 has given its own Lord Editor! This version of the Legends Lord Editor has been adapted to SH2 and redesigned in its outlook. Alter the lords at your own leisure, while enjoying the generally darker atmosphere of SH2 with burgundy buttons and embellished parchment panels. Newfound additions to the editor are improvements in the design, as well as a lot more descriptive text have been added to guide your hand more, should you feel lost in the forest of numbers and categories. You can now spawn Crime, Gong and Rats for the computer lords to bring them on an even playing field, as well as a lot of new buildings can be added to them. Perhaps will you be the first one to give the Bishop Warrior Monks? You can download the program here, where you will find additional information about how to use and what you can do with the utility. A fixed definition is also bundled in the release (gamerules_fixed.dat), which you can use to overwrite the faulty Firefly definition that hinders the King and the Hawk from launching proper sieges, as well as bars the Bull from recruiting guarding Spearmen. The Editor will be semi-regularly provided updates. Any feedback or feature request is welcome either in a DM or the SH2 Modders club! Also hereby I'd like to thank @ Sir Windows for the features and testing, as well as @ Lord_Chris for providing guidance during development! Happy editing and see you in the tavern! Asophix

CURRENT VERSION: v1.2 Added multiple language-localisation support, replacing about 95% of the program's built-in texts with dynamic ones. The program draws its sources from the i18n folder. If no valid files are found, the program will refuse to start. Language files are identified as .txt files, with exactly two letters in the name; no more, no less. Each language file must contain the exact number of rows and the exact identifiers. Empty lines or other gibberish ones are not permitted. The current language may be changed in the main menu, by selecting a desired language in a dedicated dropdown (found in the bottom-left corner). This version of the Lord Editor ships only with an English language file. Upon request, more can gladly be added to facilitate a future release. Greatly reworked and extended the handling of Editor settings in the background. The gamerules_location.txt file has been superseded by a config.json. Apart from the last opened Game Rules file, the following options are additionally "remembered": Application Language State of Autosave function v1.1: Raid groups functionality improved: Increased number of unit slots from 2 to 8. Increased catapult and fire ballista upper caps from 2 to 4. Fixed a bug where an unset unit slot preceding a set slot would result in the AI not forming raid groups. Base units and variance slots caps slightly tweaked. Population validation rule now takes an additional 2 people in the population used category to account for the treasurer and other AIC-relevant building workers. v1.0 - Initial Release: This list details differences to the SHL Lord Editor v1.3: Buildings are grouped into their respective categories. Tooltips have been added to Lords and a few more screen elements. The Legends Editor has always been a little obscure in terms of how it should be used. Moreover, a little flavour could also help give Lords a bit more character. A few more lines of descriptive summaries have been added to each category's content. Siege armies have their dedicated tab. This is done to ensure that tabs stay well within UI real estate. Validation rules have been revised: Barracks units are checked whether they can properly be supplied equipment (either via production, or trade from the Market). Weaponcrafter workshop productions must be selected at least one type of product. A warning is issued if a blacksmith or armourer has no iron mines to supply them (thanks @ Sir Windows !). Punishments requiring a torturer are checked for a Torturer's Guild being present. Fighting and Warrior Monks are checked for a Monastery building built. Unit types are accessible in a dropdown list instead of an autocomplete box. This is a compromise to ensure that wrong data can't be input that easily. Lords can buy up to 4 extra resources along with those they always attempt to buy. Buy limits are relative to the sell threshold based on the good. There is only one raid group instead of 8, which can be given multiple unit types and siege engines for inclusion.

Hello All! This moment arrived: after 20 years, the Stronghold 2 AI lords are also open to modifications and making your skirmish experience a little better! You can now download the program from the SHN Submissions, for which you can refer to the Download Link thread. The SH2 Lord Editor is a fork (rebuilt version) of the Legends Lord Editor we released in Q2 2025, with a few improvements and new features added on top. You can edit any of the eleven lords to your liking, tailoring their trade, recruitment and building preferences. Unlike in SHL, the SH2 lords rely on pre-placed buildings in their castle template much more, such as the Armoury or Barracks. Make sure you include these in the AIC definitions as well. Happy Editing, m'lord! 🙂

You can download this community utility on the following link: https://www.stronghold-nation.com/downloads/file/758-sh2-community-lord-editor/

Hi All! The SH2 Kingmaker AI all give us some good fun, however they leave a lot to be desired in terms of economy and unit choices, having been designed for small maps. Apart from the King and the Hawk not attacking properly, what would you change for a given character, or all of them, in order to make their experience better?

A new version (v1.3) has been released. Simply follow the download link in the main post to download! Changelist: New validation error rule: unit groups with a unique unit - e.g. Merlin - as type must have a quantity of 1. Replaced auto-complete boxes with combo boxes for unit types. This change is necessary to avoid inconsistencies in the background. Removed Ranged Pool unit type selector, as the Ranged Defense group dictates its type. Streamlined validation check logic.

Werewolves are really cheap - 50g, 5h? - for what they can do, with their immense movement speed and good melee damage. The werewolf launchers also create a "doom drop" opportunity by literally dropping them inside an enemy castle and let them run rampant. Neither other faction can have such a tactical move. Crossbowmen in a back line shred them though, as well as they can be knocked back by bolts or rocks. In any case, Saxon Warriors wish to do half as much as they can. Frost giants fall short to any durable melee unit IMO, again with crossbowmen behind. Pikemen, swordsmen and knights basically shrug off any damage, even the bash. 😄 Mass stake hurlers or even enchanted orbs can burst them down, provided the giants don't outrun their projectiles. White witches are in a good place right now. They are very fragile and costly to be mildly effective in numbers, as well as ground units get a hefty ranged bonus against them (at least in multiplayer). In most cases literally a few archers or preferably crossbowmen can repel them. I also find Trebuchets to be less of an oppressive tool: they are available at rank 10, they cost 500 gold apiece, and they fire insanely slowly. In multiplayer, you never float more than a few thousand gold per cycle, which kind of restricts their creation. They are only really useful as long-ranged artillery, which is fairly inconsequential against Bats, and more annoying against Ice + Arthur maybe, however letting Arthur dig in needs time. Ice and Evil has really nice long-range options with Fire Ballistae & Stake Hurlers with Bats, direct counters to siege tower troops and defenseless stray units, respectively. In terms of Dragons, Ice has the best in terms of utility via freeze, and the Green Dragon can potentially cause enough damage to keep an army constantly running - if you quickly reposition the Green Dragon after it starts breathing fire, you can restart the attack animation, stutter-stepping and annoying the hell out of the opponent. The Black Dragon's fire animation starts with a 2-3s delay however, which makes it fairly bad. This attack animation reset potentially makes all unique units and Stake Hurlers very troublesome. --- I mained Arthur in most multiplayer games, and I definitely think the faction's weakness lies in its hinging on Round Table knight abilities, since it neither has oppressive tools, nor the mobility of the other factions: Enchanted orbs potentially deal friendly fire, need good prediction for leading their orbs, and their contact damage against siege engines is negligible. Trebuchets I already addressed, in my opinion they are very expensive and require a compromise between unit recruitment and setting them up. Both Ice and Evil can field a myriad of AoE to dismantle any protection and destroy them. Percival has a bat ability on steroids, however you cast it every other year. His ability is comparable to the Sorcerer or the Ice Queen, as the ice storm's freezing component hits instantly, and the meteor storm starts dealing damage the moment you cast it. Merlin is the primary anti-siege tool, balanced out by his long attack animation and ability cast delay. Provided he's under constant mantlet protection, he can do a lot to stall out the enemy. The other knights are way too situational or defensive to use. Gawain's shield can be cast very rarely, Lancelot's buff doesn't do much if you must constantly reposition your army, and the others are for sieges solely. Basically you must play fair and square, the Green Dragon is your only way to meaningfully shake up the battlefield unless doing Merlin micro, and even then, your tactics can only come online once the enemy faces an honor or peasant shortage. @ Lord_Chris consistently could come back from containments building up by just tossing a few bats at the problem. Bats in particular outrun almost all projectiles and only die if they approach a formation from directly ahead, not on the sides, as well as they one-hit kill trebuchets, and two-hit shields. Doing a multi-pronged assault is also hard, when your armies don't have time to form up and in multiplayer, you must consistently spawn shields, units and particularly with Arthur, choose the correct unique units or else your next few minutes will be relegated to barracks troops only, who aren't given much perks. Against Ice, it feels like it's more of a traditional setup, since as Arthur you only really need to pay attention to the fire ballistae and the Ice Queen, with the occasional White Wolf run-bys. Frost Giants and other tanky units need numbers and/or support to attack directly head on. By experience, Ice and Arthur fights basically the same way, with one side getting the upper hand after casting an AoE clear ability, and the other following up with their own shortly after, as well as large stationary groups tend to form picking away at each other. White Witches generally are a one-time tactic that quickly gets blunted after the enemy leaves a few ranged units at home. Since Ice doesn't have many tools to dismantle an army formation other than ballistae, the dragon and the Ice Queen, this matchup feels generally more balanced and it actually gives Arthur a lot more room to maneuvre. I don't have much experience in mirror matchups, most Arthur players are generally a novice in terms of control and they're rare.

The Autumn Update (v2.0) is out and now you can access the announced contents alongside a bunch of bugfixes and improvements. Please make sure that you update to the latest version in order to access multiplayer via Steam (auto-updater). New Features Coat of Arms designer: available from the Settings, you can design your and display your own coat-of-arms in place of your Steam avatar. Random Lords can now be selected from the AI opponent selection menu, one-by-one. Randomised Skirmish Options: rolling random sets of AI, teams, maps, and so on. Co-op Multiplayer Room option, pitting players automatically versus all AI. Starting positions can be changed in Co-op missions. Additional Game Options can be individually toggled on and off for Skirmish matches, which are carry-overs from the UCP: Enhanced AI Sieges provide a new approach for the AI during sieges, mostly changing targeting enemy structures. AI opponents may start with their castles fully built in a match. Buffs for the Arabian Swordsmen, Laddermen & Spearmen, nerfs for Horse Archers. Increased free peasant cap (from 24 to max available at population cap), as well as faster peasant spawn. Fletchers skip returning to their workshops after dropping of their delivery. Healers may also heal friendly troops. Setting enemy unit hit points (2/3x, 1x, 1.5x, 2x). Additional Changes Emperor Frederick and the Marshal now buy weapons for their armies. The Healer may wander short or long ranges away from his position to seek out troops to heal, instead of being stationary, depending on its active stance. Moat can remove walkable vegetation when dug by troops (the plan can go under it). Shift-clicking a weapon type on a workshop panel will set all such workshops' production on the chosen weapon (existing feature).

An effort most welcome! 🙂 Well, there are quite a few points I can share, though I'm not experienced in all competitive match-ups. I won't go in exhaustive detail, rather I'll keep each point short. Before I start, I'd bring to attention that there are a few initiatives brewing. @ Lord_Chris in particular would like to see a random map generator and a faction redesign mod above all, with possibly others in the making. Some modder clubs were established to discuss and further these mods and their progress, so any ideas could go to their respective sections or you could join our collaborations, if you are interested! 😄 On to your points: The market - not the building, the interface - is way too strong. Since pop cap is easy to reach and is relatively constricting on big maps (about 120-128 on 4p maps), you want to squeeze efficiency out of every peasant you employ. This turns our attention to using our resources as efficiently as possible, and we'll find that weapon production is just weak. Products are so affordable and iron is so insanely valuable that you don't need weapon industries at all. I made an article about the math of trading weapons here. There is simply no incentive to build weapon crafters, when you can just make money off of a theoretically infinite number of farms and iron mines. Even without automarket, you can just rake in thousands of gold and spend it by a mere few clicks of a button. There is a flow of: recruitment - sell goods - buy equipment, and when you're done, you can just micro troops and while you wait for another round of peasants, you can play the game. It's actually viable to rush Rank 9 in a 10pt game just to get the automarket. I'd say that Skirmish maps aren't very AI friendly. Many stock Firefly maps are designed with humans in mind, and not the AI. Even with comparably small castle designs, the AI usually can't play the game properly due to buildings not fitting in. On top of that, there are a couple of weird AI quirks that just make no sense: The AI can't build ox tethers properly near iron mines, building either one, or none. The AI doesn't build attacking armies and omits some defenses in team multiplayer games. Only one type of tree will be considered by the AI for wood camp placement. The AI is horrible at controlling units, doing almost no micromanagement and rolling in siege engines well in range of defenders. One noteworthy weakness for Custom Maps is that the scenario editor is way too primitive. True that SH2's map editor is really detailed, but that gives rather high customisation possibilities to designs. I found that the SHL editor is way too inflexible, such as sending custom text messages is still infeasible (can be done, but it's very cumbersome). Also, just adding Beowulf and Alfred the Great to the skirmish roster would have given a miles more diverse experience. I also haven't seen Skirmish lords sending messages other than those existing for triggers. It is kind of obvious that singleplayer is played at a more relaxed pace, as well as custom scenarios allow for more creative missions that require problem-solving via disabled mechanics, random events and clever map design. While multiplayer is highly customisable too, eventually almost every game boils down to superior macro (economy) and micro (vigilant control of units). There are a lot of group-clearing / disabling abilities and attacks, which can quickly turn the tides, so it is way faster, action-demanding and requires good juggling between building, recruitment, trade and control. One aspect I could highlight is timing buying (royal food) so as to optimise honor generation for ranking up quickly. Perhaps a more multiplayer-specific note would be the lesser touched custom game modes. While not popular, CTF and KotH are a breath of fresh air that allow for some creative and clever games, where the emphasis is not necessarily on this juggling only. In both modes, you are driven to contest a large area that rewards a presence on the battlefield, as well as how cleverly you can reinforce your positions. Kind of relatable to the previous question: I'd re-balance the factions. While the asymmetry is great and fun, Arthur is way undertuned, and Evil is way too strong. Almost all of Arthur's toolkit bottles him in a defensive, numbers-based playstyle, hinging his success way too much on the Round Table knight abilities, while his only flying unit is the Green Dragon that gets an appearance rarely in a game. Ice and moreso Evil get to lay their hands on different countermeasures, which can simply circumvent Arthur's positions and dismantle them in different ways. I wrote an article about these imbalances, but we can state that the economic advantage for Arthur is negligible to the flexibility the other two factions get. Evil in particular has discounted units and very potent tools at the same time. The following four units are a staple and on their own game deciders: Stake Hurlers in numbers can blanket an area with a large barrage of spikes that can eventually one-hit kill sturdy stuff like Cats and Siege Towers. They also hit in a high arc, making them infinitely more useful compared to the Fire Ballista, which shoots a single-hit projectile, and cannot clear areas as well. The Stake Hurler also comes online fairly early in the ranks. Werewolves are very cheap brutes, whose only real weakness is crossbowmen. They are really affordable at 50 gold only, and they are fast, hit hard, and stand their own reasonably well in close combat. Not to mention, they are semi-amphibious by being catapulted via werewolf launchers, being able to drop in the enemy land and wreak havoc. Bad unit AI also works in their favor, constantly heading in front of their chasers by an inch. Demonic Bats are a one-hit demo squad that can instantly remove clumps of units, be them on a tower or out in the open. Knockback is devastatingly effective, since the enemy units don't fight during their knockout animation, and the impact with the unit displacement can instantly erase units falling in unpathable terrain. They also dismantle most siege engines in a few hits, making them one of the most cost-effective units in the game. The Sorcerer is a purely damage-oriented unique unit. While the Meteor Storm deals damage over time, there is simply no way of avoiding losing most of your army, since there is no Scatter command, and the ability hits right from the moment of casting. The Sorcerer can basically do Percival's job almost as well as him, for a fraction of the price. I'd see that Arthur got Pictish boat warriors and Hobilars back on the menu, two unused units that could fulfill their purposes well, giving Arthur a regular amphibious unit and a quick raider. White Wolves and Hellhounds outrun Macemen, as well as both factions have a flying unit, so these troops would be a semi-effective bandaid for the Good faction's shortcomings. I'd also nerf the Bat's divebomb effect, by the bat counting as a projectile during the dive. This would spare units covered by cats and mantlets, and it would be consistent with other displacement interactions in SHL, such as catapult rocks, hurler stakes and ballista bolts. --- This was kinda lengthy, but was worth the effort. 😄 Feel free to reflect on my remarks!

Hello, good Lords and Ladies! It's to my pleasure to bring light to a custom Legends mission pack: The Lost King campaign by @ IgnasheunKnight ! Originally introduced as the War Campaign in Stronghold 2, this re-imagination serves to re-tell a very similar experience with the cast of Stronghold Legends. Controlling Sir Bedivere, you must work your way through hostile Ice and Evil lands either to restore the rule of King Arthur, or to show your might as the ultimate ruler over Europe. This submission delivers all 12 missions from the original campaign, with a few missions being taken a different twist due to the Legends scenario limitations and unit rosters. Before each mission, you are given a text briefing detailing your story and even possibly hints about the missions! Expect a vastly different experience to the original war campaigns, with possibly higher difficulty, larger armies and even dragons chewing away at your fortifications! Feel free to sit back and allow @ IgnasheunKnight to entertain you over this rugged trail to the crown! Links to the download sections: Part I Part II Part III Part IV

Firefly Studios has made an announcement on Steam that the Definitive Edition is getting its planned Autumn Update on October 14, 2025 on Steam. The update will include free content, as well as an aptly named DLC available for purchase: The Canary and the Trader The price is not yet known for the downloadable content, however if you want a notification on the day of unlock, you can wishlist it on Steam. Content: Economic Trail of 5 missions (free) Trail of the Jackal - Sands of Time Trail of 9 missions (paid DLC) New AI Lord: The Crocodile Available for free in the new update An olden battle-scarred man riddled with green outfit and trophies, envying the wealth of his lords from the safety of his marshlands. Builds a settlement full of wetlands and barely any fortifications, resembling the lifestyle of his namesake. Seen wielding the cheapest units: Slingers, Slaves, Skirmishers, along with Ambushers. New AI Lord: The Trader Available in the paid DLC A cunning and greedy merchant, whose outfit reeks higher status. Builds sprawling and massive settlements, emphasising popularity and mass production chains. Hires a mixture of Arabian and Bedouin units: Arabian bowmen, Slingers, Eunuchs, Skirmishers New AI Lord: The Canary Available in the paid DLC Sibling of the Rat, she is disease-ridden, with a little more grasp to warfare but generally still displaying similar skills. Basically constructs slightly more fleshed out, basic castles inspired by the Rat's style: using thicker walls, moat, negative Fear Factor, breweries. Seen using Spearmen and Archers, may use Ambushers.

A collection of information, and discussion for the Legends (.slm) map formats. Useful reading: S2M format (Stronghold 2) - Fandom

Using reverse image search I found that many other sites link to the Arthur castle image. Above all, here is this one: about the announcement of Stronghold Legends following E3 2006. This news article is, so they are most likely from beta or press-release versions. Clicking on the gallery reveals even more images here. About the first two thirds of the screenshots seems to have different unit ability models and HUD. Notice how there are less buttons on the HUD (some without outline), and a placeholder unit avatar: shlepc022.webp On another image, the Ice Queen's ability indicator is different, as well as the lord ability bears an earlier version of the Arthur summon knights graphic, including a glitter on the ability button: shlepc016.webp This glitter was featured for Round Table unit abilities as well: shlepc026.webp I don't know where beta versions or 1.0 can be downloaded - I never had a Legends disc -, so whoever still has it comes with great chances at confirming the above. 😄

CURRENT VERSION: v1.4 Please upgrade the Lord Editor to this version. Opening Game Rules files with earlier versions may lead to unwanted behaviour. v1.4: Buildings are grouped into their respective categories (SH2 LE). Tooltips have been added to Lords and a few more screen elements (SH2 LE). A few more lines of descriptive summaries have been added to each category's content (SH2 LE). Added Pictish Boat Warrior, Outlaw and Light Cavalry to the unit rosters. These units bring much flavour to the gameplay and it can also open some creative avenues for custom lords. Unique units - Dragons and Magicians - can no longer be set as Siege Army group types. I felt that dragons and casters have no place in a proper siege army. It is possible that e.g. a Merlin accompanying a siege formation could fit well, so upon request I may re-add the casters to the sieges. Validation rules have been revised. Complete list: Weaponcrafter workshop productions must be selected at least one type of product. Army groups consisting a unique unit must be given a maximum count of 1. The Siege Army groups' total size must not be less than the Siege Army base size. An error is thrown if Hovels cannot support the required number for running the economy. An error is issued if a blacksmith or armourer has no iron mines to supply them (thanks @ Sir Windows !). A warning is issued if Fantasy Units have no Special Recruitment Building, or vice versa. A warning is issued if there is no Pantry for supplying Royal Food, or vice versa. Overall run-time memory footprint decreased via code refactor. Attempts to save fail silently while validation errors are present (SH2 LE). About Window opacity slightly decreased for a more pleasant experience (SH2 LE). v1.3: New validation error rule: unit groups with a unique unit - e.g. Merlin - as type must have a quantity of 1. Replaced auto-complete boxes with combo boxes for unit types. This change is necessary to avoid inconsistencies in the background. Removed Ranged Pool unit type selector, as the Ranged Defense group dictates its type. Streamlined validation check logic. v1.2: The Editor now checks for issues more consistently after a change. Existing rule checks have been fixed. A definition is no longer saved when there are errors in the profiles (indicated by red messages). Lord profiles are now unloaded upon returning to the Main Menu. The Royal Table knights are now addressed "Sir" everywhere, to properly address their high status. 🙂 Greatly reworded the manual to be more understandable. v1.1: Added the Enchanted Orb and the Fire Ballista to the unit roster. v1.0 - Initial Release: The Lord Editor can be used to view and edit Stronghold Legends lord definitions (named "gameRules.dat"). When a Lord's definition is loaded: Clicking a Lord's avatar will bring up his panel, where his various aspects can be sorted through and edited. This also changes the background based on the Lord's faction. Auto-Save: when toggled on, editing a lord's panel automatically saves the currently opened definition on the file system. To-Do List: inconsistencies and errors are marked in the bottom left corner. Warnings are minor errors that may cause inconsistency issues in certain cases. Errors are faults that may potentially break a lord during game, such as having way too many buildings for the population. Exiting the app / leaving the editor pane discards unsaved changes without warning.