#STRONGHOLD WARLORDS VIETNAM SERIES#

Warlords are dotted around the map, filling in some of the blank space between the rival players and AI, and lying in wait with a small standing army to defend them.Ĭapturing them extends your sphere of influence a little and gives you a chance to spend diplomacy points to demand a tithe. These are the main new innovation to the series’ long-running medieval warfare formula. Suddenly there’s acres of space for you to use, and it’s here that the Warlords can really shine. Switching to the skirmishes and multiplayer is a bit of a shock to the system. It does a decent job of teaching you new gameplay ideas and gradually introducing each concept, but brace yourself for some difficulty spikes – there’s at least several hints provided for each mission. On a handful of occasions, it was my defensive set up that was lacking, on others it was that I was running out of time to draw in a particular objective resource. The difficulty here is quite high, so unless you’re doing the right thing at roughly the right time, chances are you will fail and have to restart. You have a very specific scenario with a peculiar map layout, starting situation and some kind of restriction on what you can do.

These are, essentially, puzzles in management strategy form. One mission might focus purely on infrastructure and resource management, another might give you a large army with which to assault a stronghold, or you have the series’ signature mission type that blends everything together, trying to build up a fortress, secure its supply chain and also fend off increasingly challenging waves of enemies.

From Thuc Phan in what is modern-day Vietnam, through to the Jin dynasty’s construction of the Great Wall of China, and then the coming of Genghis Khan and the Mongols, it does a great job of mixing things up from mission to mission. Working through the campaign, the game tells the stories of various rulers and dynasties as they rise to power, battle against adversity, and ultimately succeed or fail. Having battled through the medieval era and gone crusading a few times over, Stronghold: Warlords turns its gaze to East Asia and the tumultuous wars and uprisings that defined its millennia of history.

#STRONGHOLD WARLORDS VIETNAM SERIES#

Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2021, the Stronghold series has long been in need of reinvention.

Stronghold warlords vietnam