Genre: Real Time Strategy (RTS), Simulator, Strategy
Stronghold: Warlords
Fu Hao Update - Now Live!
We have just released a new content update which adds an extra AI opponent (Fu Hao), a new 20 mission Skirmish Trail, 3 new maps to battle across in skirmish mode and multiplayer, the new Lion Warlord and achievements. This free update has been released alongside the launch of our Warrior Queen Campaign DLC, now available on Steam!
Stronghold: Warlords v1.10 Fu Hao Hotfix - 02 February 2022 Build Number: 1.10.23933 Update Size: 4.1 MB
General Fixes
Fixed an issue where dead AI would still send Overlord messages in Skirmish games
Added handling for Canadian Multilingual Standard Keyboard
Stronghold: Warlords v1.10 Fu Hao Hotfix - 27 January 2022 Build Number: 1.10.23909 Update Size: 11.0 MB
General Fixes
Fixed an issue where Mission 3 instead of Mission 1 was unlocked at the start of Trail of the Tyrant. - Please note: Handling has been added to avoid players losing progress if they already played or completed missions in Trail of the Tyrant, which should mean all missions are now playable without losing progress.
Fixed an issue where AI controller was still active on a player estate in Windy Plains
Fixed an issue where the AI could ‘commit suicide’ by placing a tower on top of themself - We are 99% sure this is fixed but if anyone sees this again please let us know!
Edited Muddy Route to allow more pathable area around player estate, which previously lead to the AI often disbanding siege equipment
Fixed missing difficulty warning from the Fu Hao campaign
Fixed incorrect balance labels on skirmish maps
Stronghold: Warlords v1.10 Fu Hao Update - 25 January 2022 Build Number: 1.10.23892 Update Size: 326.4 MB
Updates
Added Fu Hao AI Lord
Added 3 new Skirmish maps - Windy Plains - Ideal for allied Lords to face off against another team, this tightly fit battleground atop the steppe will prove challenging for some players more than others. - Muddy Route - 4 players will find themselves stuck fast in the deep muds, with little space to build their economy but plenty of open ground for fighting. - Island Tensions - There's no respite from warmongering neighbours in this highly unequal island. Grab a warlord if you can and be prepared to defend them.
Added New Skirmish Trail ‘The Trail of the Tyrant’
Added The Lion Warlord - The Lion Warlord exudes strength and leadership. Harnessing the power of the Lion will bolster your sieges, sending shivers down the spine of your enemies.
Balance Changes
Re-balanced all Warlord Shipment edicts for consistency
Re-balance all Warlord attack and relief force edicts for consistency
General Fixes
Fix for Campaigns screen showing Difficulty screen and placeholder UI text if the last campaign played is no longer available
Fixed floating walls that could result when loading a save game made during AI/Warlord wall build
Fixed the scribe sending “A message from” before all campaign overlord messages
Fixed an issue where dead players are selectable in the diplomacy map
Fixed crash when exiting the score screen after multiplayer games
Fixed warlord workers getting stuck when spawning from a wooden warlord keep
Siege towers as well as ladders now teleport troops to safe positions after docking
Fix for ranged units sometimes losing their attack targets if they didn't have LOS once having moved into range.
AI Changes
AI clans will now always move to targets within short distances, even if the target requires a roundabout route which is longer than that normally allowed.
Skirmish AI no longer build woodcamps next to workshops, to avoid blocking off worker access to the workshops
Fixed some cases where AI buildings could block off worker access: - Weapons workshops no longer place to the right of the military academy - Gunpowder workshops no longer place in front of walls - Woodcamps no longer place in front of walls - Woodcamps no longer place next to workshops
Fix for AI siege weapons sometimes getting stuck when the rest of the invasion they're in has been killed.
Improved AI for moving over walls
The AI now checks an extra tile north (and on each outer access tile) when designing gates in its castles, to fix cases where the AI thought it could place a vertical gate whose outer access tiles were actually blocked off.
Fix for AI rocket launcher clusters getting stuck if they don't have a free space to move away from the rest of the clan to
Map Editor
‘Suppress Scribe’ now works to stop the Scribe saying “A message from” before campaign overlord messages
Added a new scenario event trigger, which detects whether a building exists at a given marker position
Final Update Releasing Jan 25th
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Update: While our big v1.10 update and Warrior Queen Campaign DLC will launch as planned on January 25th, the release of Stronghold: Warlords' Ultimate Edition has now been delayed to February 14th. We apologise for this delay but hope you enjoy the free content and DLC campaign, both still releasing next week!
On Tuesday January 25th 2022 we'll be releasing our final set of Stronghold: Warlords content - A massive v1.10 update and the Fu Hao Campaign DLC, followed by a new bundle in the form of Warlords' Ultimate Edition!
Available next week v1.10 will be a free update for all owners of the game, while the Fu Hao Campaign DLC will be available to purchase alongside the upcoming Ultimate Edition, the best option for players who don't yet own Warlords and want all the DLC.
Fu Hao AI Opponent (v1.10)
High priestess and military general Fu Hao is our final addition to the roster of AI opponents available in Stronghold: Warlords. Mixing auxiliary class troops such as Archers and Axemen, with the heavier likes of Imperial Cavalry, Crossbowmen and Guardsmen, Fu Hao comes out swinging with a strong well-rounded army that is effective in both the early and late game.
For this legendary strategist a castle siege is about bringing siege engines with high power and rate of fire to the front line, protecting them for just long enough to punch a hole in your defences and pour her armies through before you know what happened! In order to siege Fu Hao you will need to get past eight medium towers filled with troops, along with powerful Ballistae and Mangonel platforms.
Trail of the Tyrant (v1.10)
Skirmish Trails have been a popular post-launch feature for Warlords, where many spend their time outside the main campaign and custom skirmish, so it simply wouldn’t be a final update without the addition of our longest skirmish trail yet! To that end we're adding an epic 20 mission odyssey across 12 maps, including all 8 AI lords and each of the 12 warlords available in our upcoming version 1.10.
The ‘Trail of the Tyrant’ is designed to employ every addition made to Stronghold: Warlords since launch, from new units and warlords to AI opponents and more. Some of the most beloved games in the Stronghold series are remembered for their epic-length mission trails and with the addition of Warlords’ ‘Tyrant Trail’ the game now features 45 skirmish trail missions in total.
New Map Pack & Warlord (v1.10)
It wouldn’t be a content update without an all-new map pack and v1.10 is no different, with three unique maps bringing the total number of skirmish battleground to a whopping 28. That's in addition to 4 Free Build and 500 community maps available via Steam Workshop.
First up there’s Muddy Route - A medium sized four player map in which players will find themselves stuck fast in the deep mudflats. With little space to build your economy but plenty of open ground for fighting, this map should provide players with a challenging, but rewarding route to multiplayer victory.
Next is Windy Plains - A five player, medium sized map ideal for allied lords to face off against a rival team. This tightly-fit battleground atop the magnificent steppe, will prove challenging skirmishes for some players more than others with starting positions and resource locations acting as a handicap of sorts.
Finally we have Island Tensions - This six player map accommodates five warlords and, as the name suggests, plenty of tense combat across its land.
Version 1.10 will also add a new free warlord in the form of the Lion Warlord, in addition to the release of two paid warlords (Eagle and Dog) made available as part of the Warrior Queen Campaign DLC.
A known rival to the Wolf Warlord, the Lion Warlord stands for justice above all else. Marching out to besiege his enemies with great power at his disposal, the Lion is relentless. True to his name, the Lion takes care of his pride with a perk that provides a damage boost to all infantry serving a warlord under the control of a player. As for his infantry and your choice of edicts, The Lion Warlord can provide swords, samurai and siege weapons.
The Warrior Queen Campaign (DLC)
Chronicling 15 years of ancient Chinese history, The Warrior Queen Campaign brings to life a legendary commander and pivotal force in history. From counter attacks and all out assaults against the invading Tu-Fang tribe, to the Qiang Fang presence in the north and countless other adversaries, this new campaign attempts to capture the full breadth and grandeur of Fu Hao’s achievements on the battlefield.
Expect six challenging missions putting everything you’ve learnt so far to the test, including new gameplay twists such as the addition of the powerful Eagle and Dog Warlords. Step into the role of one of the most powerful and impactful military leaders history has to offer.
What's Next?
With the January 25th release of Fu Hao, our final map pack, Lion Warlord, third skirmish trail and final DLC, followed by the Ultimate Edition on February 13th, Stronghold: Warlords will soon be content complete. We hope you’ve enjoyed playing our monthly post-release updates, get a blast out of v1.10 and look forward to the future of the Stronghold series!
The feedback we’ve received, through comments on Steam and our recent Stronghold player survey, has been invaluable in setting a course for the future of Stronghold and something we’re constantly mindful of. We’re planning to be even more open with the development of Stronghold games going forward and will be planning plenty of teaser videos and dev diaries before anything is formally revealed.
This will kick off with next month’s ‘Firefly Studios in 2022’ feature, the first of many behind the scenes videos where we confirm new and exciting information about future projects as it happens. If that sounds interesting and you'd like to learn more join us on Discord and YouTube for the latest Stronghold news.
Fixed a multiplayer desync that could occur when Ninjas are initialized
Fixed an issue where walls would sometimes be floating after loading a save game made during AI/Warlord wall build. (Note: applies only to new saves)
Yoritomo AI Update - Now Live!
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We have just released our new v1.9 update for Stronghold: Warlords, which includes the Minamoto no Yoritomo AI opponent, extra achievements, new maps and an increased total troop limit in offline skirmish mode of up to 1,000 units!
Added 3 new Skirmish maps - Forest Clearing - Rival lords peer through the thick trees to see the clearing in front of them, only to discover the dangers they must prepare for. - Winding Path - Three lords battle to hold strategic positions. Who will make the right calls at the right times and emerge victorious? - Open Borders - Each Lord will need to build their castle well, as the lack of hard borders will require a fully fortified defense. Two Lords sit above the other four, but fate will decide if this is an advantage or not.
Added option to Have ‘No Warlord’ in Skirmish/Multiplayer games - Click on a Warlord on the minimap and select the ‘No Warlord’ option to not spawn a Warlord in that estate
Added Custom Troop limit in Skirmish lobby - In Advanced Options, users can now select a total troop limit of 500, 600, 800 or 1000.
General Fixes
Fixed an issue where a Warlord relief force could cause a crash in specific circumstances
Fixed Spirit tooltips to report information in a more understandable manner
Prevented Ninjas displacing each other when climbing up or down walls
Improved Laddermen groups' wall edge selection and distribution when docking. They can now be commanded to dock along walls even if individual segments of wall are broken.
Fixed a crash relating to tunnel components tracked by paths
Changed lantern particles to be more lightweight/performant
AI Changes
Fixed a bug with AI clans which could cause them to move very far around obstacles to reach a target
Reduced the distance AI clans are willing to walk around obstacles to reach a target, so they are less prone to winding through maze-like castles
AI melee troops are now much harder to distract when attacking walls
AI melee troops are less susceptible to being drawn a long way off their intended target by kiting enemy troops
Skirmish AI will now sell surplus gunpowder and build more gunpowder workshops
Stopped AI ninjas from attacking walls
Stopped AI laddermen from attempting to dock at walls which already have a ladder on them.
Fixed an issue where AI would delete all wood camps once a single woodcutter could not find a tree to cut down, even if there were other trees still available
Fixed a bug where ninja invasions could get stuck near their formup target
Fixed a bug that could prevent AI Gatehouses being placed if they were right on the edge of the estate
Fixed an issue where AI would not place new mines/quarries/ox tethers when they ran out of space for other buildings
Improved the pathing of AI armies travelling long distances, making siege weapons in particular less susceptible to falling behind the rest of the army.
Map Editor
Warlords can now be set to level 6 in the map editor
Today's update has been released alongside the launch of our Rise of the Shogun Campaign DLC, which adds six missions and two warlords to the Stronghold: Warlords base game. Both the update and DLC are now available with a 10% launch week DLC discount.
It's finally here! Our Autumn and Winter content roadmap for Stronghold: Warlords has been revealed and with it new AI lords, maps, fixes, optimisations, skirmish trail missions and warlords. As with our previous two content roadmaps, today's reveal shows the updates you can look forward to in the coming months and the general order in which you can expect them. That is of course with the news that we'll be turning our eye to the future of Stronghold, after our final Warlords update has been released.
During development and in the year post-release we've made a number of improvements and adjustments to Warlords, working with the community to launch and iterate on our latest castle sim. While we have many exciting ideas and ambitions for the future of the series - more on that as it happens - we still have plenty of dry gunpowder when it comes to new Warlords updates. So for our final roadmap we're doubling down on our most popular post-release content. This includes new AI opponents, further increasing our map count and more single player content in the form of our longest Skirmish Trail yet!
There are a few other community-requested features on the horizon (not outlined below), however we'll keep those as a surprise...
We hope you've enjoyed our eight updates so far and look forward to our remaining plans for Stronghold: Warlords development in the Autumn and Winter period. There is an exciting future ahead for Stronghold and we can't wait to share our plans, for now however please enjoy these new updates!
Complete a new time-limited Halloween survival mission! Available until November 2nd 2021, players must defend their castle from increasingly difficult waves of mythical AI invasion. After this date the mission will disappear... However both the Jiangshi and Terracotta Warriors will remain available as selectable AI Invasions in Free Build mode, making them permanent additions to the base game.
Added new Halloween mission ‘The Dark Mist’ - Halloween mission is playable from 26 October through 2 November
Added 2 new Freebuild invasions - ‘Terracotta Army’ - Made up of new special unit (Terracotta Warriors) - ‘Ghosts’ - Made up of new special unit (Jiangshi)
General Fixes
Optimised stalls created by path distances being calculated through long maze like structures
Optimised AI troop tile-based pathfinding from main thread to pathfinding thread
Fixed AI clan attacks becoming interrupted when encountering barricades
Fixed a bug where players could receive infinite food if food is delivered via stashes or events with no granary placed
Fixed an issue with the way buildings would stamp their height layers when on raised terrain.
Fixed a crash that could sometimes occur when farms are destroyed
Inspired by tales from the crypt, Chinese folklore and history, our new Halloween update is now live! Erect your defences and prepare for a supernatural slaughter, as you brave our terrifying new mission and fresh enemy units in the form of the Jiangshi and Terracotta Warrior. Customise your castle and ready your army for magic and malice unseen since the days of Stronghold Legends! Warlords now features a time limited challenge in the form of our new survival mission featuring new enemy units, with these horrors permanently added to the game's Free Build mode as spooky AI invasions.
The name of the game in our new mission is survival, as you're pitted against a relentless onslaught of castle invasions and new foes that are almost certainly not of this world. Use Peace Time wisely as you outfit your defences for the days to come... With the knowledge that each foe is an opposite side of the same supernatural coin. A weakness to one could be a strength to the other. So experiment with fire, fury, steel and diseased animal carcasses as you pinpoint their vulnerabilities to hold back the hordes of undead!
Whatever you do, never underestimate a single Jiangshi. For although they may be isolated from the pack, they are ever as deadly...
We hope you enjoy today's update and are as excited as we are about this otherworldly content addition! The team thoroughly enjoyed researching and designing these spooky spectres, bringing them to life in Stronghold: Warlords in our biggest Halloween update yet. Please enjoy and look forward to more Warlords updates in the Autumn and Winter months, with a full content roadmap reveal coming in November.
To celebrate the release of Stronghold: Warlords' second Skirmish Trail Update (v1.7) we've knocked a whopping 50% off the latest entry in our historical castle sim series! Today's Daily Deal update will run until 5pm GMT on Tuesday October 26th 2021.
Featuring post-launch opponents Sun Tzu and Kublai Khan, new warlords, maps and units like the Samurai Lancer and recent Thunderbomb Thrower, our 15 mission 'Trail of the Tactician' further boosts the game's total number of skirmish scenarios to 25. Already completed the Trail of the Warrior? Then try your hand at the Tactician, while we work on new single and multiplayer content to be revealed for the autumn and winter period.
Also included in version 1.7 are three multiplayer map remakes from the original Stronghold: Crusader, selected by the Stronghold community and created by the team here at Firefly! Thanks to Cheesecake Productions, Chimbambu and HommeDesBois we were inspired to remake Tyre, The River and Border Patrol within our East Asian castle builder. Try them out for yourselves and let us know how these classic maps play with the new units, siege weapons, warlords and AI opponents introduced in Stronghold: Warlords.
We hope you enjoy our latest update and discount, while we work on new content for the game in 2021. Our team has one final mystery update for the Summer/Autumn period which will soon be shown... After which you can expect new content updates to be revealed next month! If you've enjoyed our skirmish additions, maps, warlords and AI characters there's plenty to look forward to, as we continue to update Stronghold: Warlords with player requested features, tweaks and improvements.
New Skirmish Trail Update - Now Live!
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Today's new Skirmish Trail Update adds a 15 mission trail for players to conquer, with each mission offering unique opponents, warlords and tactical scenarios to overcome. Also included in today's update are three new multiplayer maps remade from Stronghold: Crusader, a new Thunderbomb Thrower unit capable of ranged incendiary attacks and the addition of the Wolf Warlord to conquer and command.
Added new Skirmish Trail, ‘The Trail of the Tactician’
Added 3 Classic Skirmish maps, recreated from Stronghold Crusader - The River - A mighty river courses through the desert on The River, attracting many who would wish to control its bounty. - Tyre - Venture too far south on this map and you may get your fingers burnt! - Border Patrol - This is a four-player map with a large border stopping each player moving troops over to the other side. The access point is through the center of this border and if a player manages to patrol the center they will be able to control the game.
Added new unit, the Thunderbomb Thrower - A lightly armoured unit that throws explosive bombs, setting fire to troops, land and buildings caught in its blast radius.
Added new Warlord, the Wolf Warlord - The Wolf specialises in heavy weaponry, providing cheap siege equipment to his allies. He attacks with ferocity, using strong armies to overwhelm his enemies and builds a heavily fortified castle to form a well defended lair on the battlefield.
Balance Changes - All Game Modes
Gunpowder workshop worker dropoff: 1 > 4
Gunpowder buy/sell: 40/80 for 5 > 30/60 for 5
Saltpetre buy/sell: 20/40 for 10 > 30/120 for 10
Reduced the speed of crossbowmen bolts from 85 to 80
Fire lancers that are standing on keep stairs can no longer fire at enemies standing on the keep roof
Actors which are knocked straight down (e.g. by a monk attack or samurai charge) now stay on the ground for just 0.8 seconds, down from 2 seconds
Balance Changes - Skirmish/Multiplayer Only
Increased fire armour from 2.0 to 0.5x for imperial guardsmen, imp warrior, imp cavalry, imp bannerman, general, samurai
Increased gunpowder cost for fire oxen from 1 to 2
Increased warrior monk cost from 30 to 40 gold
Increased hoarding health by 50%
Increased rice given for starting food settings: - Very Low: 50 -> 75 - Low: 50 -> 100 - Medium: 100 -> 150
Multithreaded Optimisations
Moved the bulk of troop pathfinding and formation movement calculations from the main thread to a secondary pathfinding thread. This permits these calculations to be done during the rendering phase, smoothing out a major source of stalled frames in large games, and generally improving frame rates.
Moved troop displacement and pushing logic to the pathfinding thread, speeding up all game logic frames, especially with many active troops.
General Fixes
Fixes for desyncs that could happen during saving in Multiplayer games
Fixed AI castle building getting stuck when trying to place turrets
Fixed bug where the cursor suggested arrow carts could attack buildings
Stopped players from being able to type in the name of the Skirmish Trail
Fixes for selecting engine towers
Walls built on unpathable tiles now show a barricade on top of the wall
Ninjas now decloak when in range of enemy tigers
Fix for some range units being able to continue to firing at targets that had left their effective range
Siege weapons can no longer spawn from the siege camp on tiles with walls on them
Melee troops can no longer be ordered to attack arrow turrets
Fire lancers now stop attacking when their target goes out of range, instead of attacking but doing no damage
Fixed siege weapons and ranged units not attacking turrets when ordered to attack them from out of range
Healthbars now appear over hoardings and turrets when they are damaged
Map Editor
Re-added the ‘Purge Entities at Origin’ command to the Map Editor
Field Hospitals can now be placed in the Map Editor
Kublai Khan Update - Now Live!
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We have just released a new content update which adds an extra AI opponent (Kublai Khan), three new maps to battle across in skirmish mode and multiplayer, new Mongolian voice lines and achievements. This free update has been released alongside the launch of our Mongol Empire Campaign DLC, now available on Steam!
Added 3 new Skirmish maps: - Kings and Mountains - Any king may rule from the safety of their throne. Will you be bold enough to venture forth and hold dominion over your enemies? - Distributary - Open grounds are separated by three river crossings. Each player will need to manage large sections of walls to defend their space, while being wary of attacks from two fronts. - Entrenched - Land and resources are plentiful for each player, but the map position can be key. Battle from the high ground on two fronts or stay grounded and defend one side. The choice is yours.
Horse Archers now speak Mongolian. - Note: This only happens with the game set to English. All other languages use localised voicelines.
General Fixes
Fixed a crash that could occur when updating pathing for tunnels that no longer exist
Fix for Clothes as Starting Goods being set incorrectly in custom maps
Stopped Custom Missions having different starting goods based on previously selected difficulty in campaign missions
Stopped Traps and Castle defences from being placeable on tiles with walls
Fixed Tigers that would displace outside of cages when placed adjacent to other tiger cages
Fix for pathability of walkable but damaged walls frequently becoming unwalkable after saving and reloading the map
Fixed Edict tooltip formatting to be more readable
Optimisations to how grass and fire particles are handled
Optimisations for pathfinding through tunnels
Optimisation for town builds/path regeneration
Fixed emigrating peasants sometimes lingering indefinitely after their owning player died and the keep was destroyed
Fixes for certain scenarios where the AI could block their work buildings with too many silk workshops
