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[Xvareon]

Who here remembers the original vintage title, Stronghold, by Stormfront Studios? If you don't, you're probably not alone. Not only has the name been used heavily by the (admittedly pretty good) Stronghold series of Medieval-era castle builder games, but the original Stronghold I'm talking about was released way back in 1993. It is a strategy game based heavily on AD&D 2nd edition mechanics that, for its time, manages to pack an extremely impressive amount of content into its framework. How many old games can you name that actually have a random world generator that uses triangular polygons to represent hills and mountains? 

Feeling nostalgic, I thought I'd try and make a little Let's Play of sorts here while I play through the game, so you guys can watch and enjoy.

I load the game in DOSBox, and am greeted with quite a lineup of impressive sights. The game has a full-fledged beginning trailer, something very rare in an older title. It would take too long to post all of it here, though, and none of it is stuff that I can't do in the game already, so I skip past it in favor of starting a new game. The first step is to select a world to start in, which will be where we build our new Stronghold and recruit AD&D characters for our army.

Spoiler: Start game options (click to show/hide)

There are a handful of pre-generated worlds that can be selected here, but I opt to go for making a custom new one. The game prompts me for a difficulty setting, and again I choose Custom; about the only thing different that I can see is the number of "intelligent enemies" you face, which I assume either means their level of aggressiveness, or their level of difficulty.

I'm feeling masochistic today. I set the enemy numbers to the absolute maximum; 30 enemy leaders in the first wave, split 10/10/10 between low/medium/high "intelligence", and 30 more in the second wave, which will arrive after I finish off the first. Let's see how long I can last here, eh?

Spoiler: World map (click to show/hide)

Annnd we're off! The world map beckons! And gee, look at that beauty. The devs actually managed to include a top-down view and a street-level view in the upper right-hand corner. You really have to pause and just take a second to appreciate how much work went into this game. And I haven't even gotten into the really impressive stuff yet.

But anyway, duty calls. My first order of business is to create my first leader. In Stronghold, you may create up to 5 "party members", which function as leaders of your community. Each leader is created individually, and must be placed manually on any patch of suitable land within reach. The first leader I create will have the honor of residing in my Main Castle, which can eventually be upgraded to a Stronghold. This will be the primary seat of power for my burgeoning kingdom. If I lose it, I effectively lose the game.

Creating a "party member" is pretty simple. I click the little button in the lower left, taking me to a character creation screen where all I have to do is roll stats and pick a class. In this game, however, "class" also applies to race; Elves are all multiclass Fighter/Magic-Users, for instance, and fight with bows and spells. The classes available run the gamut from Fighter to Cleric to Thief to Mage, and a little more for good measure.

Spoiler: Character creation screen 1 (click to show/hide)

To start with, let's go with the gold standard, the frontliner and pillar of every party:  the Fighter. Fighters are pretty versatile in Stronghold, since you get both melee weapon and bow users as generated units. They can grow to be pretty formidable in combat, and can provide lots of good cover for other troops.

I choose the name "Aribeth" for a female fighter because I was a big fan of Neverwinter Nights way back in the day, and Lady Aribeth de Tylmarande, Half-Elven Paladin of Tyr, was a favorite character of mine.

Spoiler: Character creation screen 2 (click to show/hide)

I know I probably could have rolled for a higher Dexterity score here, but honestly, I don't think stats really matter that much for party members in this game. Reason being that the party members themselves don't actually show up as units; you command auto-generated units that ostensibly come from your growing population instead.

I'm also given the choice between 3 alignments:  Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic. What these do is set the victory condition for your game. If you're Lawful, you win by attaining the rank of Emperor through shrewd city-building and all-around good play. If Chaotic, you win by annihilating all enemies on the map. If Neutral, you have to do both.

Let's go with Neutral. 

Spoiler: Location, location, location (click to show/hide)

With my first character finished and now ready to be placed, it's now time to select a good position. Ideally, you want somewhere that has both abundant clear land to build structures upon, and defensible access points to deter enemy invasions. I choose a region in the northwest corner of the map that I can see fulfills both of my wishes. Not only is there plenty of good plains to build on, but there's some easy water access as well, which can boost the production rate of farmland if you plant crops near it. That tan splotch of ground on the map signifies rocky and hilly terrain, which isn't much good for farming; however, the high elevations make it ideal to build Towers, structures with long sight range that can spot enemies (and their base camps) long before they see you. Also, hills and mountains often boast abundant mineral resources, which make for an excellent source of GP (gold pieces) to build vital new structures with in the early game.

Spoiler: Main Castle construction begins! (click to show/hide)

After finding an ideal spot of land near a cluster of potentially mineral-bearing rocks, I place down my Main Castle, and the game officially begins! Canopied scaffolding appears like magic, and my first 4 units are generated. Four fighters, two with spears, two with short bows. A good start! I'll be sending most of those out to build things for me and claim surrounding territory ASAP, but I'll leave one behind to build the castle (because no building work gets done if no units are in the square to do it).

Now is a good time to explain some of the stuff you see on these screens.
1) The hourglass. What this is is a representation of how much time remains in the current season until the next begins. The game proceeds through Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, with each season primarily affecting how much food you are able to harvest. If you don't have the granary stocks to survive winter by the time it hits, expect to have a lot of people (and characters) die off. You won't lose your leaders this way, but you'll lose a lot of Popularity (population happiness) and have to work hard to get it back.
2) The golden cross-like object above the word "Movement" is simply one way to maneuver around the map. I could just click on the minimap at the top right of the screen to move around, but I can also click this compass to move, or press the directional arrow keys in any direction.
3) That little pyramid in varying shades of orange and red... well, I'll get to that in a bit. Suffice to say that it represents the contribution of each party member's characters to what goes on in a given square, from building structures to recruiting new units and training existing ones.

Spoiler: Character view (click to show/hide)

Here we have an overview of my primary party member's status in the kingdom. Things like population, food production level, income, storage for food and gold, etc. are all here. Below all that you'll see my progress to achieving victory conditions, as well as what I need to get Baroness Aribeth to the next rank. Higher rank will unlock the construction of new and very useful buildings. For instance, going all the way to Marquis lets me build an Outpost, which can populate a remote area all the way across the map in case I happen to need to recruit troops far, far away from my main base.

I don't like to use the "Auto-Build" feature much from this screen, because I prefer to micromanage the construction of each individual structure, but since your units can and will move out to claim territory on their own anyway, this could let them settle those squares for you. "Census" and "Property" let me see all of my units and holdings respectively, sorted by character level in the case of the former, which is very useful for finding my higher level characters late in the game when there's so much stuff going on that it gets confusing and hard to find anything.

Turn 1 end

Welp, that's it for now! I'll be back soon to let you guys know how Aribeth and her merry band of fighters is doing. Oh, and one more thing I wanted to mention:  I still have up to 4 party members I can create to help me defend the Stronghold. I was wondering... would anyone like to select a character and their name for this romp? ^^

I don't want another Fighter, 'cause I have one already. A Mage or Cleric would be a very welcome addition thanks to their spells, though, not to mention all the very very useful buildings they can make (Rings of Protection ftw!!!) Just to reiterate, the available classes now are:  Mage, Cleric, Dwarf, Halfling, Elf, and Thief.

[Iituem]

Ooh, a Sorcerer named Simon or an Enchanter named Tim please!  Era appropriate references seem desirable.

[Xvareon]

Sorcerers and Enchanters sadly aren't available here. Just Mages. I can dub you in as one if you like! Oh, you should probably select Lawful, Neutral or Chaotic alignment, too.

Turn 2 start

Earlier, we left off just as my main castle was beginning construction and my first units spawned, ready for orders. Now it's time to get them out there building my glorious kingdom!

Spoiler: Unit movement (click to show/hide)

Moving units around the map is a little different than you might think. Rather than directly clicking on a character's model and clicking a point on the map, you go to the desired square first, then click on the slider bar seen in the above picture to choose how many units to 'attract' to that square. Units must be in "Ready" or "Unassigned" state before they can be attracted; "Home" state is what you use when you want a unit to stay on a city block and keep the buildings working and in good repair. With no one around, everything grinds to a halt.

In this case, I am attracting one of my four available fighters (two are currently Homed on my castle, but I'll fix that in a second) to the cluster of rocks directly above my position. Rocks can be excavated to look for minerals, such as iron, gold, and gemstones (in ascending order of rarity, of course). If you find anything under a rock, a mine automatically begins construction on that spot for free, and as long as you stick around to build it, sweet, sweet money will begin flowing in.

Here we go. Fingers crossed...

Spoiler: Iron mines (click to show/hide)

Yes! Two iron mines! Iron is only worth 50 GP per income cycle, but still, that's way more than I could make right now with only farming and chopping down trees. I leave the Fighter assigned to that square, and set my units' priorities there to 100% Build. This is a good time to explain the little pyramid I mentioned before. What this is is a way to regulate where and how your characters spend their efforts in each map square. If the Build part of the pyramid is set to 100%, for instance, characters will give everything towards erecting structures in the square, while making no efforts to Recruit new units or Train existing ones (which grants bonus XP over time; great for safe level-ups). It's important to remember what your pyramids are set to, because no structures will be built at all in a square with nothing dedicated to Building.

Spoiler: A little place by the lake (click to show/hide)

With my mines now being set up, I send another Fighter over to that small lake a few squares to the east. Remember how I mentioned earlier that farmland is much more productive when placed near water? I'll probably show you how much more sometime, but for now, it's time to get some plots settled and crops in the ground.

Spoiler: The appeal of good farming (click to show/hide)

Yep, I agree. A healthy, growing populace needs their potatoes and cabbages, after all!

Spoiler: Sowing seeds (click to show/hide)

While I do that, I set one of the two Fighters still hanging around my castle to Ready mode, and move them one square down and one right to check out another rock, and take advantage of some of the open space there to build some houses and other useful early game things. And guess what I found?

Spoiler: Gold mines! (click to show/hide)

$$$$$

Golllld gold gold gold Glorrrious gold! Gold mines are worth over 2x as much as iron, so with two iron mines and one gold mine, that's 100 + 125 = 225 early game income once I get them all up and running. That could equal a lot of houses and farms since they're only 10 GP apiece, but I elect to spend most of my free building space on Marketplaces. The reason being that mines can and will peter out and disappear when the minerals underground are exhausted, and I need a steady source of income to keep me going in their absence. Mines last longer if you can find minerals on hills and mountains; and coincidentally, minerals are also easier to find in these regions, so I'll be sending another Fighter to the hills to prospect for ore soon.

For now, though, Marketplaces are very important. They come at 100 GP a pop, and produce 5 GP per income cycle. They also have a neat side effect, in that they allow access to something called the Common Fund. You may have seen a reference to that in earlier images I posted. The Fund is essentially a percentage of GP that can be shared across your different leaders. As each leader owns their own castle and can basically build their own self-sufficient town, rather than you being able to split resources perfectly equal, new leaders may have a rocky start, especially if they aren't able to find any good mines to give their early game economy a shot in the arm. Each Marketplace a leader builds allows 10% access to the common fund, up to the cap of 100% access for 10 Marketplaces. Money is made available in the fund automatically over time as other leaders gain income. Getting a head start on pumping money into the fund now will let my Fighters contribute greatly to the growth of any new leaders I bring into the game.

Turn 2 end
Well, looks like our early game is off to a flying start! As more income pours in and I keep available housing and farm production up to par, my population will continue to grow, which in turn will lead to more characters coming to join my Stronghold. Every new Fighter I get now will allow me to colonize one more map square to build more structures. My next priority is to send someone to the hills south of my Stronghold to look for new mines for income, and build a Tower on the highest point to scout out enemies that may be lurking nearby. Things won't stay quiet forever, after all. Can Aribeth and her loyal Fighters continue to thrive once the battle lines are drawn? Stay tuned!

[Iituem]

Sorcerers and Enchanters sadly aren't available here. Just Mages. I can dub you in as one if you like! Oh, you should probably select Lawful, Neutral or Chaotic alignment, too.

I was using them as synonyms for mage in order to make the references. :B  Let's say a Chaotic Mage named Tim.

[Mephansteras]

Ah, old school D&D where races were a class.

Speaking of which, I think we have to have a Dwarf named Urist as a party member.

[Xvareon]

Ah, old school D&D where races were a class.

Speaking of which, I think we have to have a Dwarf named Urist as a party member.

Yep, first edition D&D. This is back when Clerics didn't get any of their spells until level 2. This rule is in place in Stronghold, as well, so it's recommended to only include Clerics with an army after they level up at least once.

P.S: Chaotic Mage Tim it is.

Turn 3 start

All ye, yell hail for Tim the Enchanter, Magelord of...

(It was at this moment that I forgot to give my Stronghold a name.)

...Dahngrest! Yes, I like that. (I'm a Tales of Vesperia fanboy anyway. ^^)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

When you plop down a new Stronghold or Castle for a leader, it automatically removes any obstructions that happen to be sitting in the way. This is useful for, say, instantly destroying obstructive swamp features without needing to spend time having units fill them in before you can build stuff there. It's just a nice bonus to have, but since there are two swamps handy near my main castle that is also in a good spot for Tim, I figure this is the perfect location. Let's have it done!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I place down my new party member's seat of power, and he is now officially in the game! Lesser castles such as this are smaller and can contain less people and store less food, and party members do start with 2 less units than my main Stronghold leader, but functionally they are all the same and can grow to have as much power as you want them to.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It doesn't show the Mages' spell list here, but a 1st-level Mage can cast Magic Missile, Sleep, and Charm Person. This applies to Elves as well because they can also cast spells, though they cannot get the max-level stuff that Mages do. A high-level Mage has goodies like Web and Fireball, but also Power Word: Kill, Disintegrate, and Flesh to Stone. Tim's Mages are going to be able to break battles wide open once they get some experience. And even at 1st level, they've got plenty of ways to screw up weak monsters.

Speaking of monsters...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

A Fighter I sent to the brown hills to my south to build a Tower finished his job, and the Tower quickly spotted a handful of monster camps dangerously close to my Stronghold. All of them seem to be Hobgoblins, so far.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Hobgoblins are a little tougher than Kobolds and Goblins, but won't pose a problem for a decent-sized force of Level 2 and up characters. You will notice, however, that these little scamps were lucky enough to find some decent iron mines near their base. Monsters build houses, farms, and claim rocks to look for ore same as players do, and I think the size and strength of each camp has at least some to do with how much GP they have access to. There are a couple much weaker camps I can nom on while leading up to this one, though, so I can safely leave this particular Hobgoblin base alone for now. Making war is a lesser priority for me at this point than building up my powerbase.

On that note, here's a look at what Aribeth and her Fighters have been up to.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In order:  The top shows the Tower I mentioned before that spotted the Hobgoblins, complete with another iron mine I happened to find on that spot.

Below that is another mine, a Marketplace, and a Vault -- a very important building, that. See, this game gives you a hard cap on how much GP you can have at one time. It starts at 2000, and any income you make over that limit is wasted. What do they do with that, anyway, I wonder? Gamble it off when they run out of stone blocks and rat skulls? Anyway, Vaults are a necessity because they raise the gold cap, allowing you to have more money on hand at one time. Some buildings require way more GP than you can store without a Vault, so you literally can't build some high-tier structures without one.

Next is the granaries under construction, and a humble house. Granaries are what store food gathered from your farms and claimed trees. They also automatically distribute some food to other leaders who are lagging behind in food production. Very handy for winter season, when farms only produce 25% of their normal yield. Houses do just what they sound like -- hold all the nice friendly people with sharp pointy metal that fight and toil for your glory. They also store a small amount of food on top of that.

A far more efficient and profitable way of housing people, though, are Inns. You can see one in the fourth picture of that spoiler, on the right-hand side of the frame. Inns are expensive as hell -- that one cost 2000 GP to build at tier 1 -- but they can hold large numbers of people, and they also produce GP. Lots and lots of GP. Way more than Marketplaces or farms. When maxed out, they'll be making me 75 GP per income cycle per Inn. Right now, this one is pushing out 15. Not bad!

Also visible in that last picture is a Gem Mine -- 250 GP!!! -- and a Leatherworks. This is a first-tier armor production facility, which makes armor for other leaders who don't have it (but not Mages, who can only wear Rings of Protection they make themselves). As both my melee and ranged Fighters wear at least leather already, this building is functionally useless to them, but when upgraded it starts making really good armor and shields. All of that means a better armor class rating, which means less attacks hit my troops. Later I'll be making a Weaponsmith to create magic weapons for my Fighters as well, which can go all the way up to a +3 enhancement bonus. Weapon and armor production works automatically, creating one respective item per turn per building you have and giving it to an applicable unit loyal to the owning leader.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

To end this turn on a good note, looks like our main castle is finally done! And... ... Agh. The terrain is in the way of most of it. Darn it, I hate when this happens. Still, now that it's finished, I have a good source of housing for people and virtually a second, smaller Granary. I think upgrading it will also increase my GP cap, but we'll just have to see. More housing and more food means more Fighters flocking to Aribeth's banner! It won't be long before Magelord Tim goes the same way. I've sent his spare Mage unit over to claim the Gold Mine I found earlier, transferring ownership over to the new leader. That'll give him a good influx of cash to speed up his growth. I should be able to do this with future leaders as well. Dahngrest is certainly taking shape fast!

Turn 3 end

P.P.S: Don't worry about that Mage's character description apparently calling Tim a girl. He was referring to Aribeth, since she's the reigning monarch of the joint.

[Mephansteras]

This looks like a really fun game. I'm sad I missed out on this back when it came out!

[Akura]

This game. Oh hell yes, I love this game. Evidence below:

I didn't know Granaries could give food to other leaders who were low. Bazaars can buy/sell food as needed, though. I also disagree that Inns house more people efficiently. Profitably, yes, but not efficiently. Houses take up 1 block, Inns take up 2. I don't have the exact stats(and I think house housing is different between each class), but a maxed out house certainly holds more than half of what a maxed out Inns houses. Also don't neglect the food storage of houses(which Inns lack), especially since Granaries cost precious income - you've got a ton right now, but as your people will say(when income is only slightly higher than expense), "what if the mines peter out?", which they will at the worst time.

[Xvareon]

Mmm, well, you're not wrong. However, in the long run, I feel that inns are a more efficient use of space not because they can house more than houses, but because they make it so that you don't need to spend as much valuable space elsewhere on other income-making buildings. In a game where so many high-tier structures require lots and lots of upkeep, having as much sustainable income as possible is very important. And the less you have to spread out to build Marketplaces and Farms to try to make up the difference, the better.

[somemildmanneredidiot]

Ptw and +1 Urist the Dwarf

[Xvareon]

Turn 4 start
Eh... we have a bit of a problem.

Spoiler: Temple of Evil (click to show/hide)

See that? Those are Evil Clerics, with Skeleton warriors naturally following right behind them. That's right; in this game, you can expect to run into evil versions of some characters, like Fighters, Thieves, and Clerics who all serve the forces of darkness. This particular keep is a thick one, well-guarded, and it still just recently popped on my world map. It's more than far enough away to not have to worry about now, but as I expand, monsters will be attracted by the wealth and prestige of my growing Stronghold and dare to attack it. This sort of enemy is one I'd hope to be able to destroy sooner rather than later, because Evil Clerics can cast the same spells that friendly Clerics can; and though 1st edition D&D Clerics don't get any spells at 1st level, once they hit Level 4 they'll be able to throw the very dangerous 2nd level spell, Hold Person. At Level 10, they'll start throwing Finger of Death.

Even without their spells, though, that's a pretty impressive Strength rating for Clerics, even if their CON sucks in comparison. Those Skeletons are part of the Keep because apparently Evil Clerics can control undead, but I'm not sure if that means the Evil Clerics' stats transfer onto the Skeletons. Still, they'll hit pretty hard in melee, so it'll help to be able to combat them with ranged firepower, or my own spells.

This would probably be a good time to explain a bit about magic-users in this game. I use "Magic-User" to describe Mages, Clerics and Elves, the types of units that can cast spells in Stronghold. Obviously, since this follows D&D rules, most casters will gain access to new spells every two levels; Mages gain 1st-level spells at Level 1, 2nd-level at Level 3, and so on. Elves gain spells from the Mage list, but they gain them at a much slower rate, and I believe they're also more limited in which ones they have access to. Having a higher level, as well as INT (Intelligence) or WIS (Wisdom) score makes spells more powerful, and I believe also allows them to be cast more often. The WIS score for any character also affects their resistance to magic, so it's kind of an important thing at any stage.

Spoiler: Mine.exe has encountered a critical error (click to show/hide)

The bad news keeps coming, unfortunately. One of my mines just petered out. Unfortunately, this was the Gold mine that I recently transferred to Mage Tim to help him get his start. It did produce quite a bit of good GP for him regardless, though, so it's not a total loss. I can expect to be seeing messages like this a lot more because I'm mining on green plains rather than hills or mountain peaks.

Ah. Speaking of mining, why don't we get some stout fellows who can handle that business for us, and far better than the humans currently digging up iron and gems? The rich mineral wealth of this region seems to have attracted some welcome attention!

Spoiler: Urist the Dwarf (click to show/hide)

WOW! Look at that ability score! 18 STR and CON is pretty generous even for a Dwarf, but 16 DEX on top of that gives a respectable AC bonus that's gonna put these guys head and shoulders above our Fighters... not literally, mind you, but don't tell them I said that. 11 CHA is a little better than Tim's very lackluster score, too... Ah. I forgot to mention, CHA (Charisma) does actually do something in this game, surprisingly! What it does is affect the rate at which new units are generated at your Stronghold, or at a lesser lord's Keep. Personally, I think of it as more of a nice thing to have rather than an absolute necessity, because actually having several trained, powerful units tends to be more important than having a lot of low-level ones later on.

Um... well, one thing I seem to have forgotten is that INT doesn't just affect spells... it also affects the rate at which units gain experience points. I'm not sure if that's just with training, or as a multiplier on EXP gained for slaying monsters and destroying their buildings. So I'm kinda hamstringing myself a bit by leaving my main melee warriors' INT so low. But I'll make up for it with time. Plus, there's still two more party members I can create! But that can wait for now.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

You took the words right out of my mouth, female dwarf Dragonborn! Here goes, fingers crossed...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

YYYEEESSSSS!!!

That isn't even the end of the good news/bad news reel this update, either. Remember that Leatherworks I had Aribeth's Fighters set up a while back? It's already churned out a few sets of good new armor for her soldiers. Apparently, I was wrong; 1st-tier armor production facilities do, in fact, make new armor to increase the AC of units, rather than simply making armor for those who don't have it. I went ahead and upgraded the Leatherworks to a Shieldsmith anyway, which, despite its name, does not make Shields, but instead makes up to Plate Mail for our burgeoning army. Some of our Archers have already gone from Leather to Scale, and a couple of those from Scale to Chain. This puts their AC ratings (which are kinda poor thanks to Aribeth's low DEX rating) in a much safer place than before.

Spoiler: New armor (click to show/hide)

Combat is likely to occur sooner rather than later, it seems. I'm seeing quite a few more monster lairs than I thought popping up next door, and there's even one I can see but yet not pick out on the World Map just yet that's sitting northeast of me. There are also more enemy types than just Hobgoblins and those Clerics and Skeletons, too, though nothing truly out of my league just yet.

Spoiler: Goblins and Bats, oh my! (click to show/hide)

Turn 4 end

[Xvareon]

Turn 5 start
I decided to skip time ahead a bit so I don't just cover things you've already seen before. As it turns out, Aribeth just earned a promotion for building up the Stronghold to such a respectable size (50 "city blocks"). This is going to allow me to build a Builder's Hall, which will automatically repair structures that get damaged in combat or that deteriorate from being abandoned. I don't expressly need it, but it could be a nice thing to have once stuff starts getting hard to keep track of later on.



Fall season is here, bringing with it the welcome bonus of vastly improved Farm and claimed Tree outputs of both food and income. Considering that Winter comes right after that, and food production is slashed to a quarter of the norm during it, this extra production is wonderful for squirreling away extra resources before the long, hard cold sets in.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

+1 weapons are now making their way out alongside Platemail, looking nice and shiny on our now kitted-out Fighters!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Oh, one thing I need to explain... you see that "Unit of 6" line near the top of that text? What that means is basically how many characters make up that particular unit. For Fighters, this caps out at around 6 max population members, though it can be raised if I have a Cleric who can build a certain class-specific structure. When a unit takes enough damage in battle to reduce its Hit Points to 0, it doesn't always result in that unit's destruction; rather, it typically kills off at least one of the characters in that unit, reducing the "Unit of #" count appropriately. Excess damage spills over to the next character, too, so a unit with 7/14 HP and "Unit of 2" that takes 10 damage will now be at 11/14 HP and "Unit of 1." A unit is destroyed when the number of characters that make it up reduces to 0. This number will replenish over time as population grows back, restoring the unit to full fighting strength.

Oh, and one more thing; when a unit attacks, only one of the characters that make it up attacks, not the whole unit. So this Fighter here is only throwing... let's see, Short Sword +1 is 1d6+1 damage, 18 strength would be a +3 damage bonus (On an AD&D warrior-type, not counting the likely percentile bonus; otherwise it's +2 for all other classes), so 1d6+4? Not bad. Not bad at all. But yeah, we can and should expect this guy to hit pretty good regardless of whether or not he can throw 6 of those attacks at once.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Which is good, because... mmm. Remember those Hobgoblins that were really close to my Stronghold that I was worried about before? Well, they seem to be starting to send out raiding parties for my outlying holdings. Laughably weak ones, though, since this Hobgoblin unit has a unit size of only 1, an HP of 6, and an AC of 6. Next to platemailed Fighters with magic weapons, he has little chance.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Indeed, my border guards dispatch the intruder without much trouble. I'm already seeing more small raiding parties making their way towards my lands, but seeing how easily this one was fended off, I'm not too worried at all. There is a marked difference between live combat and automated combat, however; when you're watching a battle in the same square as it's happening, things like time until projectiles hit targets, spells targeting units, and attack animations play an important role. A low-strength monster can still get lucky and stunlock a Fighter in battle with repeated hits long enough to kill the whole unit without that Fighter being able to retaliate. That's almost what happened here, actually, but once I moved my view away from the battle for a sec, I got a report of "Hobgoblin unit destroyed" soon after.

Automated combat simply rolls the relative strengths of the units involved and tries to account for factors like spells and healing as best it can, without such things having an effect on the battle. This can be helpful at times, but also a hindrance at others. For example, if you're fighting a battle at a Wall that you built, enemy melee warriors cannot cross that wall to attack you, and your own melee troops can't cross your side of the wall to get at them. Ranged attacks, however, can pass right over. The wall is not taken into account at all during automated combat, however (citation needed).

A good indicator of who's going to win an automated battle is the "combat thermometer" -- the red-and-white bar visible just to the right of the intelligence report in that last picture. White represents the relative strength of your units in that battle, red is the same for the enemy's side. It's virtually guaranteed that I'll win even though the white isn't all the way up to one side, though, because my Fighter in this case far outclasses the Hobgoblin unit in terms of stats, equipment, and unit members.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In response to my hostile expanding neighbor, I begin assembling an army. Right now I have 8 free Fighters: 5 archers and 3 melee; and 1 Mage. A couple of the Fighters are 3rd-level, some are 2nd, the rest 1st. Not all are full-strength, but that'll change with time. The Mage is size 4, which I believe is the max for Mages without the aforementioned Cleric building. Okay, not a bad start. Let's take a look at our opposition.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The enemy army at their Keep has 15 Hobgoblin units, about half of them size 1 and the rest size 2. Monsters can't gain levels, so these guys will never gain advanced equipment or extra hit points beyond what they already have. I could probably beat this army in a pitched battle with what I have now, but just to be safe, I'm going to wait until I can get a couple more spellcasters into the mix, and some more Fighters wouldn't hurt as well.

I'm leaving Urist's Dwarves to continue building up their powerbase for now, and have already thrown up a Leatherworks for them to upgrade their AC from 3 to 2. I'm also starting to build Guard Houses for them and the Fighters, as well as a Mage School for Tim's spellcasters. Training structures like this are absolutely vital for what they do; they literally provide free training in the form of "lump sums" of EXP for units belonging to the owner for as long as they exist, starting from the first unit that arrived at the Stronghold and cycling through the others in order of appearance (which is also how armor & weapon manufacturing buildings determine who gets what, and when). They only train units up to a certain level, but they can be upgraded to increase the max level allowed via these buildings. Guard Houses and Mage Schools will give a major jolt to my army by rapidly training up high-level characters, once I have enough of them. Every other race/class has an identical counterpart, too, so there's no excuse not to get them once you have the income to pay the upkeep fees.

Turn 5 end

[Akura]

There is a marked difference between live combat and automated combat, however; when you're watching a battle in the same square as it's happening, things like time until projectiles hit targets, spells targeting units, and attack animations play an important role.

Spoiler: There's a little exploit here, if you want to hear it. (click to show/hide)

If you go to a different location, then come back to the battle, all units' positions are reset. This is good if you have ranged units/spellcasters going against enemy melee(the vast majority of enemies are melee), or clerics vs undead for that matter. Wait for the projectiles hit, move the camera away, then immediately move back. Very little happens in the automated combat during that time, so all your shooters can shoot again essentially for free, and undead won't be able to close with the clerics before they're all turned.

about the only thing different that I can see is the number of "intelligent enemies" you face, which I assume either means their level of aggressiveness, or their level of difficulty.

Actually, this is the actual Intelligence scores of the enemies you face. Low intelligence enemies are things like giant centipedes and wood golems, medium might be things like harpies and orcs, high intelligence are evil classes and dragons(iirc). The idea is probably that more intelligent enemies are more likely to attack, being smart enough to actually organize such an attack. Low-Int enemies probably only attack if attacked first.

Spoiler: Possibly spoilerish but (click to show/hide)

It also affects promotions. Destroying a low-intelligence enemy's stronghold might give you up to the second or third rank, and so on. I don't know the exact INT/rank correlation though. These promotions apply regardless of the city block/happiness requirement.

By the way, while I'm certainly experienced in this game, I'm poorly familiar with 1st Edition rules, so what level do Clerics gain the ability to Turn Undead? Do they have it at start? Clerics will devastate those skeletons, though the Evil Clerics will still pose a threat.

[Xvareon]

Spoiler: Possibly spoilerish but (click to show/hide)

It also affects promotions. Destroying a low-intelligence enemy's stronghold might give you up to the second or third rank, and so on. I don't know the exact INT/rank correlation though. These promotions apply regardless of the city block/happiness requirement.

Actually, destroying your first enemy Stronghold in general always gives your main leader a promotion, at least to my knowledge. You likely have to destroy more enemy bases before you can advance to the next rank via force of arms, though.

By the way, while I'm certainly experienced in this game, I'm poorly familiar with 1st Edition rules, so what level do Clerics gain the ability to Turn Undead? Do they have it at start? Clerics will devastate those skeletons, though the Evil Clerics will still pose a threat.

Clerics in 1st edition AD&D follow this table for Turn Undead. First, if more than one undead is present, the GM rolls 2d6 to determine how many of them are affected. Then, look for the Cleric's level (aligned below moving right from the top-left of the table) and compare that to the results below.

An integer result of 7, 9, or 11 is the target number the Cleric needs to roll equal to or higher than with 2d6 to succeed. A 'Turn' is an automatic turn. A 'Dispel' dispels/disrupts/destroys the undead creature and it "disappears and is gone forever." A 'None' result means the undead type is too powerful for the cleric to turn.

[Xvareon]

Turn 6 start

Boy, I really skipped time ahead quite a bit, huh? Winter season is here already. Would you look at those gorgeous graphics, though? Those cloudy, snow-covered mountains in the distance look absolutely stunning.

One thing I should mention here is that Halflings are uniquely suited to surviving winter seasons, because they get a special building called a Bakery which is both an income- and food-generating structure. It outputs 125% more during Winter, 100% in Fall, 50% in Summer and 25% in Spring. I, personally, haven't used it, since farms are usually much more productive and I like to rely on large storages of food rather than farming through the cold. Besides, Halflings get such a huge bonus to farming anyway, just like Dwarves get longer-lasting Mines and better chances of finding them in rocks, and Elves who claim trees can turn them into truly impressive structures that house people on top of making and storing food, AND they make a respectable amount of GP income on top of all that. Racial bonuses truly are awesome! Even Fighters get those, in the form of having some of the best and cheapest houses, and sharing with Dwarves for having the cheapest training center structures (next to Thieves; the Thieves' Guild costs only 350 to the Fighters' 500).

Spoiler: Countess Aribeth (click to show/hide)

In the midst of all the expansion I've been glossing over, Aribeth also earned a second promotion, this time to Countess. I raise my eyebrow, wondering when I had over 100 city blocks in my total Stronghold size. Oh, well! All hail Countess Aribeth!

After taking another look at the army I had amassed on the hills, I decided that yes, I did have plenty of troops to wipe out that Hobgoblin stronghold. It'll certainly put a stop to their annoying raids, as well. Thinking back on it, I'm lucky to be able to have all my troops in one place; sometimes I've needed to scrounge up troops in a hurry to stop an enemy incursion, and going from block to block, clicking every unit to change their status just so you can order them to one place gets to be a bit clunky. Thankfully, the makers of Stronghold realized this, and created a simple bandbox system on the world map so you can drag a selection box around units you want to change the status of, and simply set their work priorities (Build/Recruit/Train) and status (Ready/Home/Unassigned) from there. You're likely to have to deal with building deterioration if you leave parts of your city unattended, of course. 

Anyhoo, time to get marching!

Spoiler: March to the Keep (click to show/hide)

What you don't see in these pictures is me Claiming a couple of the farms and plantations that these Hobgoblins built; their production can be turned to my purposes quite easily. It's a shame I don't get to capture any enemy Mines, but I still get to burn down their ratty old shacks! Onward into the breach, my warriors! Oh, and just to thank the few of you who've come in here and expressed such interest in the game, I made a quick little YouTube video to share on this post. Now that I've figured out how to capture videos using DOSBox's own commands, I'm able to show you just how the combat system works, and a little bit of the game music and sound, too. To watch it, just click below!

To battle, Fighters! To glory, Mages! Claim this land in the name of Countess Aribeth, collector of tribute!

Turn 6 end