Stronghold 2

Talking about playing in RTS is a thankless job. Well, really, you can find something new there? Units are colored differently or sheep excrement serves as a universal currency instead of gold. So are these differences?? Stronghold 2 can be attributed to the subtype of RTS that seems to be called "ruler simulator". That is, of course, it is necessary to fight there, but economic life, like that of all normal people, is still primary. However, the developers gave up and divided the game into two campaigns. The economic campaign is shamefully short (only 5 missions), completely incoherent, and bears all the traces of premature birth. Since no feudal lord of the 13th century could afford such a luxury as creative work, local skirmishes (raids of robbers or neighbors greedy for other people's goods) are also present there, but they are few. The military campaign is several times longer than usual, perfectly written, equipped with a winding plot and charismatic characters. The plot of the militaristic version revolves around an offended high-born underage who wants to return his father's inheritance. In both cases, you can play both in campaign mode and in individual missions.

To win in Stronghold 2 (it doesn't matter if it's military or economic), you need resources. There are only five resources in the fortress - wood, gold, stone, iron and food. There is no need to describe resources. We will only say that gold is needed mainly by the army (including the construction of weapons workshops), and food can be of several types and is obtained, respectively, from different sources. The more varied your subjects eat, the less they want to sharpen their skis far away.
The peculiarity of warfare in this particular case is that the main combat unit is not an infantryman, not an archer, not a horseman, and not even a siege engine. And not even all of them, taken together. The basic unit is, in fact, stronghold - that is, a fortress. Taking advantage of the terrain, correctly planning the walls, successfully positioning towers, placing cauldrons with tar, wolf pits and other surprises - this is already more than half of the success. A wisely built fortress can be defended by very small forces - archers and a couple of ballistae. On large maps, you can add several outposts located at key points. True, a dilemma arises - either, as in the Middle Ages, to take out all the outbuildings (peasant houses, farms, etc.) outside the walls, or to try to leave them inside. In the first case, due to the small perimeter, you can create an almost impregnable citadel, but here you will have to constantly restore the population and burned buildings. In the second case, the population is more or less protected, however, due to the great length of the walls, the danger that the enemy will break through (or dig up) somewhere increases dramatically.
The Stronghold 2 toy undoubtedly has the right to exist. The disadvantages are "more than compensated" by the advantages; One of them, extremely important, cannot be overlooked. These are the details. It will be very pleasant to observe those small details of life, which make up the lion's share of the charm of this kind of toys. In Stronghold 2, this is all right. A newborn calf stands on trembling legs, archers rest, a dog scratches, a mother cradles a child (3D everywhere, unlike the original, where there were sprites)... The fact that the Middle Ages turned out to be fake again is not a problem. The main thing is not to stop trying to find success.
🛠️ Installation instructions:
1. Mounting the image in DAEMON Tools
2. Set
3. Install stronghold2_v1_4_update
4. Copy Stronghold2.exe with replacing the file with the directory with the installed game.
5.Play
⚙️ System Requirements:
- Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP;
- DirectX 9.0c;
- 1.4 GHz processor;
- 256 MB RAM;
- GeForce2 MX graphics card with 32 MB of RAM;
- 2 GB of free hard drive space.