Few years ago, I was in a bus and just randomly thought of Stronghold and said half loudly "wood needed" and the dude few seats from me said "stone needed". We looked at each other and I just added "M'lord?" to which he replied "Greetings, sire!" We laughed our asses off for quite few minutes while the rest of the passengers looked at us, visibly confused. We just went through all of the possible lines and had a lovely reminisce about one of the best games that men ever made, as you said, forever indented into our minds. May the wood be needed forever, m'lord.
This is so wonderfullly edited. Thank you. All the references, the coverage on the audio, lord personalities, and the perfect description of the art being cozy.
Stronghold Crusader itself is a bit weak unless you start with the original Stronghold 1. Because what it put down was a game with a campaign that felt like it had a good narrative and got you used to the gameplay while keeping you hooked with a fairly good story. That translates well to Sh: Crusader because you can get into the niche gameplay style more easily, since Crusader campaign was kind of bland and uninteresting. But yes, Crusader was much more polished and enjoyable to play in terms of just skirmishes.
Go play it, you'll lose a lot of hours in its charm. I recommend every mode, skirmish mode, open skirmishes, the campaign, the map editor and free building, all have something to offer.
A cozy video that really captures in words the feeling of the warmth of nostalgia. Great pacing & excellent visuals and vocals. You did good, nannerman.
10:32 Here's a tip how to beat Inferno very easily: when the game starts immediately buy leather armor and maces for about 20-30 macemen and rush the orange Caliph before he encloses his keep (I'm not sure how many macemen exactly are needed but you can experiment). If you struggle with that you can lower the game speed. Once you've sent them on their way, get about 20 engineers and buy a shitload of bows and crossbows/leather armor. Keep 6 engineers and get all the other ones to make shields. Place two square towers facing the yellow caliph - but place them close to his keep so that your archers can shoot basically everyone from your towers, and place one tower towards the blue caliph - again, place it as close to his keep as possible. Put a mangonel on each tower, and load them with archers, crossbowmen and shields (I put 4-5 shields on each tower). Shields on towers will make your archers far more durable, mangonels will keep wreaking havoc and due to the proximity of your towers to their keeps they will not be able to build economies but will just keep recruiting troops to replace dying ones until they go bankrupt. Don't bother building your economy, you will have enough starting food to last you throughout the entire mission and sell all non-essential starting resources (iron, pitch, ale, hops) so that you can keep pumping out more troops. Don't build a castle and walls around your keep, it's a waste of resources. Just place towers as close to the enemies (and as far from your keep) as possible and put a single wall block to each tower so that you can attach the stairs. Since it's a deathmatch you will have enough starting resources for 3 square towers. In early stage, if your tower is too close to the enemy and there's a possibility they will send heavy troops that cannot be neutralized fast enough onto your towers, once your archers and engineers have climbed the towers destroy the first step of the stairs so that enemy troops cannot climb up your towers.
@@Peppachini Let me know how it goes! One more thing: since the blue caliph is placed in the corner of the map, he will trap himself due to the layout of his castle! So you will only need to fend off early attacks, but once he has built his castle all of his peasants and troops will be unable to leave and you won't have to worry about him. Also, when doing an early game rush you can place a few gardens to get positive fear factor as it increases combat performance of your troops! If you don't build any hovels immediately you will need fewer gardens to get more fear factor bonus as your population will be small. I generally don't like building "nice things" as they reduce productivity, but sometimes when doing an early game rush I place a few gardens to get the combat bonus and once the rush is over I destroy them. Fear factor bonus can make a huge difference in such situations, there were a couple of cases where it was impossible to pull off a rush without a combat bonus from positive fear factor.
7.14 - Archer Accent is defo a North East accent 7.25 - Crossbow - South East This is excellent and has given me so much Nostalgia. Thank you for making it. I've missed launching endless cows via a Trebuchet (obviously the best medieval siege equipment) at my Brother on a LAN game
@@4nthr4xyeah it’s a mod. There are some great mods for Crusader. The unofficial Crusader patch should be the foundation for any player who plays the game. And then one can add mods on top.
Crusader and Anno 1602 was like 80% of my childhood Edit: Crusader has a story mode, so to speak, although it's more like a lengths tutorial, so it's not played often and doesn't have a compelling narrative (although I learned a disturbing amount about the Crusades as a kid in Elementary) Also based Udwin enjoyer
thats another thing that I loved about stronghold crusader and especially Age of Empires 2. damn did I excel at things in history lessons when I already played that damn history (and then bombed out hardcore whenever something else came up because I prefered gaming over learning history ;D) will never forget the surprised reaction of that teacher when I suddenly was a top 3 student for a year and total shit otherwise ;D
Me and my brother made our own designs for castles just as AI was doing. Everything had exact place. And we battle tested it in custom maps and against each other. Stronghold is also a great castle building simulator - I have spent full days in map editor trying to create the best looking castles I could imagine. This was in part also enabled by ability to rotate the view to 4 directions despite it being 2D. No more 3D-ness was ever needed. It is indeed timeless classic.
Stronghold Crusader is one of my most favourite and precious games of all time. I've been playing close to 20 years now, on and off, skirmish mode and intermittent periods of dedicated crushing the crusader trails. I've lost count of many times I've completed them. I must have played for thousands of hours . And after the Unofficial Crusader Patch, you can tweak so many things, you can last a thousand more. If they release a SC Remake, but stay true to the 2D look and feel of the original, brother that would be my 2nd coming of Christ. Great video!
Just got done watching the vid, Pepp. When you mentioned the graphics being "cozy" it reminded me of a video I saw on this similar topic (2D isometric perspective games) a short while ago. One of the reasons given was that the approach allowed the devs to put all manner of little details and greebles into the graphics which, if the game was in 3D, would cost significantly more processing power to run, because the details would have to render from every angle, whereas in the 2D it's just fixed. So for their time, games with this visual style could get away with very detailed game worlds without breaking the bank. Certainly for myself it's a big contributor to how pleasant games with this style from this era look, with all the little details and so much going on. Cozy is the right word for it.
That's why many games like this could compete for a long time when 3D-games were still new. (Rollercoaster Tycoon, Caesar 3, Sim City 4, Age of Empires 2, Anno 1602, ...)
Sprite-based/voxel-based graphics is just far too superior than low-poly 3D graphics of 2001-2005 back then. It also only required low specs PC. For example, C&C Red Alert/Yuri's Revenge (and Mental Omega) graphics is much more detailed than C&C Generals.
This is something i really really hope Firefly studios has come to realise as why the old games are so beloved and takes with them for their next installment. But if anyone should know about this though it really should be them
Astonishingly well put together video. Your love for the game seeps through every line and every editing decision. I haven't played any RTSs for a long time and probably never will, but damn, if I hadn't enjoyed your video!
I love stronghold crusader - was a childhood game and I am actually replaying it now and doing the 2 warchest campaigns. Even all these years later its nice graphics amd gameplay are very relaxing and fun.
Stronghold is a god of a game for the dialogue alone. I can remember so many of just the random things NPCs, units say. Here comes BESSIE! Ladders WEADY!! The armoury is full my lord! QUUUUUUUUUUUUUUICK...MARCH!
This is one of the best games of all time. Especially since its well over 2 decades old. Holds up really well. And can be replayed again and again for different ideas and ways to play.
This game is so memorable, I being a long time veteran of Stronghold games introduced my friend to it. He might have only played a couple games and might never again, but still references it all the time. Also it was so true about the disk being shared around, I can't even remember who actually bought the original copy for the copies me and some friends back then used 😂. This game and Medieval 2 Total War are my all time favorite games!
My dad loves the Stronghold series, one of the few videogames we share a great love for. I used to spend hours on the peace campaign in SH2, still go back to it every now and then. Absolute Classic, Great video!
I felt truly represented by this video. When I was 10, I spent countless hours playing this masterpiece. Still remember the excitement of coming home from school and turning on the computer to play this game. Recently, I started playing it again after introducing it to my friend, who has been playing some modern RTS game similar to this called "Diplomacy is Not an Option"
Great video man. I searched for a video like this the other day and now I had you on my starting page. Stronghold is underrated, I think I will always be playing this game. Especially the DE gives me so much more content through the steam workshop. Funny that you mentioned udwin i started playing again because of him😂
Mate, what a cracking video. Funny and a massive nostalgia hit. I played this as a teen and still go back to it every few years, guess what I'm doing this weekend?
The fact that when you placed some buildings next to walls changed their appearance to use the wall as a lean-to was one of the tiny details that made me love this game so much. A game that really lets you ask 'What if i do this?' and always seems to have an answer.
Nice video. Well done, touched my heart. I just recently returned to Stronghold after many years. Bought Stronghold definitive edition and tried Stronghold Crusader Extreme. +1 from me!
i only discovered this gem back in 2009 but i was instanatly addicted. it combined the usual city builder and economy with architecture and tower defense mechanics. its wasnt just about the choice and timing and order of placing your structures but alos their poistioning. it added a lot of tactical depth where you had to consider the enemies, the map and visulize how your castle will deal with threats. the architectural freedom of constructing your castle with the different tools allowed gave the player agency to express his creativity in infinite unique possibilities.this was multiplied with the different combinations of units. top t with great art direction and dynamic and memorable music.i agree the 2d was cozy and had more atmosphere than 3d later installments.
The original stronghold demo and stronghold crusader was such a core experience for my childhood. All those accents and voice lines will always stick with me. Recently I downloaded Crusader from Gog and have just been having a blast reliving my childhood.
I used to play the heck out of this game with my friends when I was like 9 all the way to 15. I've recently re-bought the game to play together with a friend from back then. This is just amazing.
AoE, Stronghold, and C&C (and to be fair Total War) defined my childhood like no other games. Always been more into RTS games than shooters to see some of these titles make a return right now is really nice. Personally I think Stronghold 2 was also really good (albeit the economic system being a bit more complex). But I hope they will make a Stronghold that - even with new graphics and whatnot - will inherit the spirit and core principles of the original games. Great video, 10/10.
This video was an absolute rush of nostalgia. I absolutely adored playing this one for countless hours, at a time when I was still just having fun learning game mechanics - like learning how pitch wasn't just there to make the ground black for fun, or watching what I thought was an impenetrable fortress get absolutely violated by The Wolf. Truly good times had!
I remember thinking back then, you were either into stronghold and age or command and starcraft and i was the latter. I caught up on age of empires over the years but this video showed well what im still missing out on and how nostalgic the whole genre feels now.
I hope you make a video for Stronghold 2 too. Such an underrated game, and really the best of all of them if you're only in it for castle management. The amount and quality of voice lines for the NPC's is absolutely amazing, and I was very sad to see most of them was cut from Stronghold 3, even though some of the buildings is also present there. The soundtrack is also a blast. All the oldie goldies are there with many more medieval bangers.
All these phrases from the game warm my heart. Stronghold Crusader was one of my first PC games and I still keep playing it having lots of fun. And a few days ago I discovered that balistas can burn buildings. Never used them before. Nice education tempo for 20+ years of playing the game I guess.
The amount of games i restarted trying to mimic the various lords castles must be signs of some sort of illness but I wouldn't have it any other way. Also I don't think i'll ever forget the voice lines, like some sort of sleeper agent activation word ready to release a torrent of UK accents asking for various materials and uttering threats. Also I learnt the word adjacent out of necessity because I didn't think to look it up. Thanks Firefly, I'm forever grateful
Love this game. Started playing Stronghold way back when I was also an early teen. More than 10 years later, still revisiting it from time to time. Wish there could be an update for mosques for the full Arab lord experience.
Great video, it is well produced! Better than many video essays by people with 100k+ subscribers. Voice lines from the game are maybe slightly too loud. Like your humor, enough to be engaging without feeling forced or overbearing. Thought the Monty Python reference was hilarious. Would love some more stronghold content from you. Subbed
My friend showed me Stronghold when I was in elementary school. I am 26 now and I still play it to this very day. I played every single stronghold game, yet Stronghold 1 and Crusader are still one of the best strategy games I have ever played.
Nice vid Bonani man, hoping we get some more nostalgia reviews but this one was very special to you I feel :) Also, Sandal Maker is the best Crusader music track, dont @ me
When Crusader was released i was about 4 years old i love the game ever since, first watching my dad then playing myself and i play it unregularly too this day. As you pointed out the enemy lords having their own personalities with enthusiastic VAs made the game so much more memorable for me too. Ive seen attempts of fleshing out factions in other strategy games, but no other has this loving attention to detail (not in how deep they are as characters but in a presentation sense). Whats also great is that the original 4 Lords served basically as difficulty settings on their own. I can still remember the feeling (not really the game) when i beat the Wolve for a first time. Amazing. aahhhh good stuff 13:38 except you are doom :D :D
This Video is awesome. I have been playing Stronghold Crusader since the Gold box with all the titles until Stronghold Legends and let me tell you: Crusader is the BEST GAME I HAVE EVER PLAYED IN ALL MY 7 years!
You made me want to buy the game to check it out...turns out I already own it! Since I was a kid, RTS has always been my absolute favorite genre. I have so many favorites from classics like AoE1&2, C&C RA2 and Generals, I miss the golden era of RTS. I'm super hyped for Broken Arrow as it gives me World in Conflict vibes. My current comfy RTS is Planetary Annihilation: Titans as the galactic conquest mode is top tier (think old Battlefront) and the ability to have a game span over multiple plants in a galaxy is HUGE (literally in size and gameplay). Super good video, Peppito! peppL
hi from iran! you don't believe me if i say this is a viral game back then and even now in my country for almost 20 Years. we even translate and doub the main version and it's nostalgia for every 2000 kid. face-red-heart-shape love the content man, keep it up! 🌞🦁
Great video about a gaming masterpiece. I’m 30 and have played this game for almost all of my life lol. I absolutely adore it. It’s a work of art, truly. The score and the clear amount of love and attention that went into it are almost unmatched. My only criticism with your video is the archers are not Welsh, they are from the north east of England, likely geordies. Besides that, a great video highlighting the best RTS of all time.
I didn't fully grasp just how much this game meant to me until your review at the end, it was a formative experience for a girl with not a lot going on for her to be sure.
I remember when I visited my Aunt back in 2003 and came to my cousin who played Stronghold Crusader and how it blew my mind when I saw a woodcuter taking some wood into stockpile where fletcher took it and made a bow which he put into armory. It was such a great time when I got my PC after a few years and was able to play it.
I had completely forgotten about Stronghold but spent many hours playing it with a mate when I used to take my PC over for the weekend. Obviously we had both played the shit out of AoE by that point, and this was refreshingly different, with slightly more thought needed for resources and production. Love the wall/tower system too. And as mentioned, the characters and voicelines really brought it to life. I remembered nearly all of the characters
Indeed it is. I remember as a kid played it a lot but never managed to finish the campaign. So a year ago just sit for a week and played it all my free time and finished it, it was great.
I like the fact that you place your brewaries against the wall in the first mission against the Sultan. That was my favourite aspect of the game, where the buildings are stacked more neatly
This video makes me feel all fuzzy remembering my childhood playing Stronghold legends on my family pc, not knowing at all what I was doing but having the best time killing dragons and pissing off Vlad and Siegfried. The memories!
Played this since before I can remember, just got my friends into it recently. What a fucking banger game. We already say to each other, “wood needed sire” and it’s on the thumbnail, nailed.
![[#2024MAMA] ROSÉ (로제), Bruno Mars - APT. | Mnet 241122 방송](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dgGqD28J6aQ/mqdefault.jpg)
100% describing all our dialogue as 'spicy chin wagging' going forward!
@@fireflyworlds I LOVE YOU.
(Also coop war trail ye? 👀)
Stronghold Crusader Remaster pretty please?
stronghold crusader definitive with like a billion missions please my lord
i dont care about missions. Make it good to play with friends!! Easy way to host multiplayer. Bigger maps better ai!!!
Add crusader to mobile
Stronghold's voicelines and soundtrack will forever live rent free in my head. This and Stronghold one are my childhood.
"you are weak an unfit to command an army" is the first thing my mind goes to lol
WOOOD NEEDED!!
@@matesdugima1166 Stone stocks are too low sire
those voices in spanish live indeed rent free in my head
We are the mace-men!
That Monty Python reference was absolutely genius.
I literally laughed out lold with that hahahaha
Few years ago, I was in a bus and just randomly thought of Stronghold and said half loudly "wood needed" and the dude few seats from me said "stone needed". We looked at each other and I just added "M'lord?" to which he replied "Greetings, sire!"
We laughed our asses off for quite few minutes while the rest of the passengers looked at us, visibly confused.
We just went through all of the possible lines and had a lovely reminisce about one of the best games that men ever made, as you said, forever indented into our minds.
May the wood be needed forever, m'lord.
Yeah, doubt.
@@BlackAge2kI’ll touch you lilngga
😂
Dude, I once said "wood needed' in the bus as well, and the lady next to me gave me a head!
things that didn’t happen
Lord Udwin mentioned, praise Udwin
Spellforce players unite!
The people WORSHIP you, Sire.
GREETINGS LORD SPIDERMAN
ye
cant forget LORD VADER !!!!
Bro, that's crazy. He be makin waves even outside of German Stronghold sphere?
That’s holy grail reference with the knights was a good joke. Perfect setup and execution.
Which one? There was several and all of them were great!
This is so wonderfullly edited. Thank you. All the references, the coverage on the audio, lord personalities, and the perfect description of the art being cozy.
The soundtrack and voice acting in Stronghold is phenomenal. Robert Euvino did a great job.
Yeah as soon as I heard the music playing it instantly brought me back. The music and voice acting was so well-done.
B U F F O O N !
K N A V E !
@@Peppachini W E A S E L T U R D !
V A R L E T !
P E A S A N T !
O A F !
Oh my god you didn't mention
Why didn’t he mention BAR ????
Star wars galactic battlegrounds:clone campaigns:expanding fronts
tf does “cult” classic even mean?
@@thecoolbyzantine24it has a good group of followers who played the game even though it wasn't really mainstream.
@@thecoolbyzantine24 Supreme Commander FAF
Made me feel nostalgia for a game I never played.. maybe I should try it!
Stronghold Crusader itself is a bit weak unless you start with the original Stronghold 1. Because what it put down was a game with a campaign that felt like it had a good narrative and got you used to the gameplay while keeping you hooked with a fairly good story.
That translates well to Sh: Crusader because you can get into the niche gameplay style more easily, since Crusader campaign was kind of bland and uninteresting.
But yes, Crusader was much more polished and enjoyable to play in terms of just skirmishes.
Go play it, you'll lose a lot of hours in its charm. I recommend every mode, skirmish mode, open skirmishes, the campaign, the map editor and free building, all have something to offer.
You can use the UCP (Unofficial Crusader Patch) with Stronghold Crusader to get enhanced AI and challenging (sometimes too much!) missions.
Yes! Be sure to do!
@@brambillafumagalli8122 yes, the WASD support and placing multiple siege weapons is sooo good
A cozy video that really captures in words the feeling of the warmth of nostalgia. Great pacing & excellent visuals and vocals. You did good, nannerman.
Cheers dude
10:32 Here's a tip how to beat Inferno very easily: when the game starts immediately buy leather armor and maces for about 20-30 macemen and rush the orange Caliph before he encloses his keep (I'm not sure how many macemen exactly are needed but you can experiment). If you struggle with that you can lower the game speed. Once you've sent them on their way, get about 20 engineers and buy a shitload of bows and crossbows/leather armor. Keep 6 engineers and get all the other ones to make shields. Place two square towers facing the yellow caliph - but place them close to his keep so that your archers can shoot basically everyone from your towers, and place one tower towards the blue caliph - again, place it as close to his keep as possible. Put a mangonel on each tower, and load them with archers, crossbowmen and shields (I put 4-5 shields on each tower). Shields on towers will make your archers far more durable, mangonels will keep wreaking havoc and due to the proximity of your towers to their keeps they will not be able to build economies but will just keep recruiting troops to replace dying ones until they go bankrupt. Don't bother building your economy, you will have enough starting food to last you throughout the entire mission and sell all non-essential starting resources (iron, pitch, ale, hops) so that you can keep pumping out more troops.
Don't build a castle and walls around your keep, it's a waste of resources. Just place towers as close to the enemies (and as far from your keep) as possible and put a single wall block to each tower so that you can attach the stairs. Since it's a deathmatch you will have enough starting resources for 3 square towers. In early stage, if your tower is too close to the enemy and there's a possibility they will send heavy troops that cannot be neutralized fast enough onto your towers, once your archers and engineers have climbed the towers destroy the first step of the stairs so that enemy troops cannot climb up your towers.
Well god damn… I’ll give it a try!
@@Peppachini Let me know how it goes!
One more thing: since the blue caliph is placed in the corner of the map, he will trap himself due to the layout of his castle! So you will only need to fend off early attacks, but once he has built his castle all of his peasants and troops will be unable to leave and you won't have to worry about him.
Also, when doing an early game rush you can place a few gardens to get positive fear factor as it increases combat performance of your troops! If you don't build any hovels immediately you will need fewer gardens to get more fear factor bonus as your population will be small. I generally don't like building "nice things" as they reduce productivity, but sometimes when doing an early game rush I place a few gardens to get the combat bonus and once the rush is over I destroy them. Fear factor bonus can make a huge difference in such situations, there were a couple of cases where it was impossible to pull off a rush without a combat bonus from positive fear factor.
@@Peppachini just wait till you get to stronghold crusader extremes hell trail! slave hordes!!
Posts / walktroughs like this are what made the gaming forums in the 2000s so amazing!
I'm not a huge fan of these tactics tbh, they cheapen the game and arguebly can make it too easy.
"Greetings Lord Spiderman" just made me laugh out loud in public.
7.14 - Archer Accent is defo a North East accent
7.25 - Crossbow - South East
This is excellent and has given me so much Nostalgia. Thank you for making it.
I've missed launching endless cows via a Trebuchet (obviously the best medieval siege equipment) at my Brother on a LAN game
launching cows was my peak war tactic
Please make more videos like this! Very well narrated and entertaining :)
OMFG, thanks for reenacting a monty python classic @8:20 ;D that was a good laugh when I finally got it.
I loved this moment so much. I had the biggest grin on my face imagining Lancelot charging across that field.
6:16 I have not once in my life seen a keep like that in Stronghold Crusader 👀 dope
my thoughts exactly! How? Modded?
Goddam, what mod pls. This is sick
@@4nthr4xyeah it’s a mod. There are some great mods for Crusader. The unofficial Crusader patch should be the foundation for any player who plays the game. And then one can add mods on top.
I did some digging and found the mod! It's called Vanilla-Retraced.
I will never forget this game and the experiences it gave me
Crusader and Anno 1602 was like 80% of my childhood
Edit: Crusader has a story mode, so to speak, although it's more like a lengths tutorial, so it's not played often and doesn't have a compelling narrative (although I learned a disturbing amount about the Crusades as a kid in Elementary)
Also based Udwin enjoyer
thats another thing that I loved about stronghold crusader and especially Age of Empires 2.
damn did I excel at things in history lessons when I already played that damn history (and then bombed out hardcore whenever something else came up because I prefered gaming over learning history ;D)
will never forget the surprised reaction of that teacher when I suddenly was a top 3 student for a year and total shit otherwise ;D
Udwin 💪
Me and my brother made our own designs for castles just as AI was doing. Everything had exact place. And we battle tested it in custom maps and against each other. Stronghold is also a great castle building simulator - I have spent full days in map editor trying to create the best looking castles I could imagine. This was in part also enabled by ability to rotate the view to 4 directions despite it being 2D. No more 3D-ness was ever needed. It is indeed timeless classic.
Stronghold Crusader is one of my most favourite and precious games of all time. I've been playing close to 20 years now, on and off, skirmish mode and intermittent periods of dedicated crushing the crusader trails. I've lost count of many times I've completed them. I must have played for thousands of hours . And after the Unofficial Crusader Patch, you can tweak so many things, you can last a thousand more.
If they release a SC Remake, but stay true to the 2D look and feel of the original, brother that would be my 2nd coming of Christ.
Great video!
Just got done watching the vid, Pepp. When you mentioned the graphics being "cozy" it reminded me of a video I saw on this similar topic (2D isometric perspective games) a short while ago. One of the reasons given was that the approach allowed the devs to put all manner of little details and greebles into the graphics which, if the game was in 3D, would cost significantly more processing power to run, because the details would have to render from every angle, whereas in the 2D it's just fixed. So for their time, games with this visual style could get away with very detailed game worlds without breaking the bank. Certainly for myself it's a big contributor to how pleasant games with this style from this era look, with all the little details and so much going on. Cozy is the right word for it.
That's why many games like this could compete for a long time when 3D-games were still new.
(Rollercoaster Tycoon, Caesar 3, Sim City 4, Age of Empires 2, Anno 1602, ...)
Sprite-based/voxel-based graphics is just far too superior than low-poly 3D graphics of 2001-2005 back then. It also only required low specs PC. For example, C&C Red Alert/Yuri's Revenge (and Mental Omega) graphics is much more detailed than C&C Generals.
This is something i really really hope Firefly studios has come to realise as why the old games are so beloved and takes with them for their next installment. But if anyone should know about this though it really should be them
Great video, Top notch narrating, wonderful editing, excellent humor. Please do more
Cheers M'lord
It's 2am I have work tomorrow and I am watching. A video in TH-cam about a game of my childhood which I already completed 30 times or more. Worthit!
Astonishingly well put together video. Your love for the game seeps through every line and every editing decision. I haven't played any RTSs for a long time and probably never will, but damn, if I hadn't enjoyed your video!
Appreciate you watching, and the kind words :)
I love stronghold crusader - was a childhood game and I am actually replaying it now and doing the 2 warchest campaigns. Even all these years later its nice graphics amd gameplay are very relaxing and fun.
Very good Video mate, brought me back to my childhood 20 years ago. Well done man keep it up!
What a video.
Such a great showcase of this amazing franchise.
Can't wait for more of your videos, please keep going!
Stronghold is a god of a game for the dialogue alone. I can remember so many of just the random things NPCs, units say.
Here comes BESSIE!
Ladders WEADY!!
The armoury is full my lord!
QUUUUUUUUUUUUUUICK...MARCH!
WE UH THE MACE MEN
@@berthold64 BASH EM LADS
Mangonel readeh sir
@@learninggodot Constructing SIIEGE equipment!
AL HEEESAAAANO SAREEEEEE (Arabian Horse unit)
AL SHAFARTO HADAAAAAH (Assasins)
MAWLAAAAAI (i cant remember their name)
Great vid Pepp. Castles was my first PC game so Stronghold Crusader blew my mind when it came out. We are on our wheeey!
This is one of the best games of all time. Especially since its well over 2 decades old. Holds up really well. And can be replayed again and again for different ideas and ways to play.
This game is so memorable, I being a long time veteran of Stronghold games introduced my friend to it. He might have only played a couple games and might never again, but still references it all the time. Also it was so true about the disk being shared around, I can't even remember who actually bought the original copy for the copies me and some friends back then used 😂. This game and Medieval 2 Total War are my all time favorite games!
Brought back so many memories playing this as a child with my dad for hours and days and months on end. Has such a special place in my heart.
This hits right in the childhood.
In Germany we don't say "wood needed". We say "wir benötigen MEHR Holz" and I think that's beautiful.
My dad loves the Stronghold series, one of the few videogames we share a great love for. I used to spend hours on the peace campaign in SH2, still go back to it every now and then. Absolute Classic, Great video!
I felt truly represented by this video. When I was 10, I spent countless hours playing this masterpiece. Still remember the excitement of coming home from school and turning on the computer to play this game.
Recently, I started playing it again after introducing it to my friend, who has been playing some modern RTS game similar to this called "Diplomacy is Not an Option"
and yes Stronghold Crusader Remastered/Definitive Edition pls🥺🥺
Great video man. I searched for a video like this the other day and now I had you on my starting page.
Stronghold is underrated, I think I will always be playing this game. Especially the DE gives me so much more content through the steam workshop.
Funny that you mentioned udwin i started playing again because of him😂
Wow you managed it, that I feel calm and peaceful watching a review on one of my favourite games. So cozy. Thanks :)
Mate, what a cracking video. Funny and a massive nostalgia hit. I played this as a teen and still go back to it every few years, guess what I'm doing this weekend?
The fact that when you placed some buildings next to walls changed their appearance to use the wall as a lean-to was one of the tiny details that made me love this game so much.
A game that really lets you ask 'What if i do this?' and always seems to have an answer.
Excellent work. Really appreciate the rundown. Was thinking of getting the game so this really helped.
I've never played this game before, but you've fully sold me. And really love your style too. Happily subscribed now 👌👌
Thank you very much :)
Thank you for a such lovely nostalgic video! You did a great job really.
Thank you :)
What a phenomenal game and what a phenomenal video. And you love to hear the accent come out :D
Nice video. Well done, touched my heart. I just recently returned to Stronghold after many years. Bought Stronghold definitive edition and tried Stronghold Crusader Extreme.
+1 from me!
Great video! I particularly enjoyed the editing.
i only discovered this gem back in 2009 but i was instanatly addicted. it combined the usual city builder and economy with architecture and tower defense mechanics. its wasnt just about the choice and timing and order of placing your structures but alos their poistioning. it added a lot of tactical depth where you had to consider the enemies, the map and visulize how your castle will deal with threats. the architectural freedom of constructing your castle with the different tools allowed gave the player agency to express his creativity in infinite unique possibilities.this was multiplied with the different combinations of units. top t with great art direction and dynamic and memorable music.i agree the 2d was cozy and had more atmosphere than 3d later installments.
Man, this was a beautifully made video. Loved it!
Glad you enjoyed, thanks for watching :)
The original stronghold demo and stronghold crusader was such a core experience for my childhood. All those accents and voice lines will always stick with me. Recently I downloaded Crusader from Gog and have just been having a blast reliving my childhood.
I don't know why YT decided to recommend Stronghold videos but I love it 10/10
I used to play the heck out of this game with my friends when I was like 9 all the way to 15. I've recently re-bought the game to play together with a friend from back then. This is just amazing.
AoE, Stronghold, and C&C (and to be fair Total War) defined my childhood like no other games. Always been more into RTS games than shooters to see some of these titles make a return right now is really nice. Personally I think Stronghold 2 was also really good (albeit the economic system being a bit more complex). But I hope they will make a Stronghold that - even with new graphics and whatnot - will inherit the spirit and core principles of the original games. Great video, 10/10.
one of my favorite games as a kid, thanks for the vid mate, so much nostalgia!
This video was an absolute rush of nostalgia. I absolutely adored playing this one for countless hours, at a time when I was still just having fun learning game mechanics - like learning how pitch wasn't just there to make the ground black for fun, or watching what I thought was an impenetrable fortress get absolutely violated by The Wolf. Truly good times had!
Fun fact, fire was added to the first stronghold a couple weeks before they launched the game!
I remember thinking back then, you were either into stronghold and age or command and starcraft and i was the latter. I caught up on age of empires over the years but this video showed well what im still missing out on and how nostalgic the whole genre feels now.
The music in Crusader is just so good. Especially tracks like Sandal Maker or Caravan!
Great video I was shocked to see that you don't have at least 100k subs because of the quality of ur vids keep it up
Thanks man :)
Fantastic video - great work lad
I hope you make a video for Stronghold 2 too.
Such an underrated game, and really the best of all of them if you're only in it for castle management.
The amount and quality of voice lines for the NPC's is absolutely amazing, and I was very sad to see most of them was cut from Stronghold 3, even though some of the buildings is also present there. The soundtrack is also a blast. All the oldie goldies are there with many more medieval bangers.
Another truly magnificent video from the talented Mr. Pepp.
All these phrases from the game warm my heart. Stronghold Crusader was one of my first PC games and I still keep playing it having lots of fun. And a few days ago I discovered that balistas can burn buildings. Never used them before. Nice education tempo for 20+ years of playing the game I guess.
The amount of games i restarted trying to mimic the various lords castles must be signs of some sort of illness but I wouldn't have it any other way. Also I don't think i'll ever forget the voice lines, like some sort of sleeper agent activation word ready to release a torrent of UK accents asking for various materials and uttering threats. Also I learnt the word adjacent out of necessity because I didn't think to look it up. Thanks Firefly, I'm forever grateful
Love this game. Started playing Stronghold way back when I was also an early teen.
More than 10 years later, still revisiting it from time to time. Wish there could be an update for mosques for the full Arab lord experience.
Great video, it is well produced! Better than many video essays by people with 100k+ subscribers. Voice lines from the game are maybe slightly too loud. Like your humor, enough to be engaging without feeling forced or overbearing. Thought the Monty Python reference was hilarious. Would love some more stronghold content from you. Subbed
Thanks for the feedback :) glad you enjoyed.
Love those video essays born out of love for something specific that played an important role in ones life!
My friend showed me Stronghold when I was in elementary school. I am 26 now and I still play it to this very day. I played every single stronghold game, yet Stronghold 1 and Crusader are still one of the best strategy games I have ever played.
Nice vid Bonani man, hoping we get some more nostalgia reviews but this one was very special to you I feel :) Also, Sandal Maker is the best Crusader music track, dont @ me
Great review of a fantastic game. Keep up the good works man.
When Crusader was released i was about 4 years old i love the game ever since, first watching my dad then playing myself and i play it unregularly too this day.
As you pointed out the enemy lords having their own personalities with enthusiastic VAs made the game so much more memorable for me too. Ive seen attempts of fleshing out factions in other strategy games, but no other has this loving attention to detail (not in how deep they are as characters but in a presentation sense).
Whats also great is that the original 4 Lords served basically as difficulty settings on their own. I can still remember the feeling (not really the game) when i beat the Wolve for a first time. Amazing.
aahhhh good stuff
13:38
except you are doom :D :D
This Video is awesome. I have been playing Stronghold Crusader since the Gold box with all the titles until Stronghold Legends and let me tell you: Crusader is the BEST GAME I HAVE EVER PLAYED IN ALL MY 7 years!
You made me want to buy the game to check it out...turns out I already own it!
Since I was a kid, RTS has always been my absolute favorite genre. I have so many favorites from classics like AoE1&2, C&C RA2 and Generals, I miss the golden era of RTS. I'm super hyped for Broken Arrow as it gives me World in Conflict vibes. My current comfy RTS is Planetary Annihilation: Titans as the galactic conquest mode is top tier (think old Battlefront) and the ability to have a game span over multiple plants in a galaxy is HUGE (literally in size and gameplay). Super good video, Peppito! peppL
great video, not only interesting but funny, I played both games and I think you captured the essence of them well.
Thanks :)
hi from iran! you don't believe me if i say this is a viral game back then and even now in my country for almost 20 Years. we even translate and doub the main version and it's nostalgia for every 2000 kid. face-red-heart-shape
love the content man, keep it up! 🌞🦁
That's amazing to hear! So interesting to see the games impact on different places around the world.
This was one of the first games I ever played, alongside Heroes of Might and Magic. Castle Jam and 'wood needed' are the soundtrack of my childhood...
Boomschlang. What a blast from the past.
Microsoft Intellimouse > Razer Boomslang, come at me.
I actually adore this video. Well done.
Thanks for watching :)
My brother and I love this game! I still play it on my 3k PC with the old cozy graphics! Awesome video :)
This one of my childhood games too
Iconic meme phrases still echoes through the eras within my mind
Me lord as someone who played this as the 11-14 year old this was a trip down memory lane and very hilarious at that!
Great video about a gaming masterpiece. I’m 30 and have played this game for almost all of my life lol. I absolutely adore it. It’s a work of art, truly. The score and the clear amount of love and attention that went into it are almost unmatched. My only criticism with your video is the archers are not Welsh, they are from the north east of England, likely geordies. Besides that, a great video highlighting the best RTS of all time.
watching the Enemy castle Burn to ashes never gets old, i still play crusader kings from time to time.
Extreme childhood nostalgia with this one, Can't place that there my lord
This legendary masterpiece deserves definitive edition for now! One of the best RTS games ever!
cant wait to hear you talk about old strategy games more :)
I didn't fully grasp just how much this game meant to me until your review at the end, it was a formative experience for a girl with not a lot going on for her to be sure.
I remember when I visited my Aunt back in 2003 and came to my cousin who played Stronghold Crusader and how it blew my mind when I saw a woodcuter taking some wood into stockpile where fletcher took it and made a bow which he put into armory. It was such a great time when I got my PC after a few years and was able to play it.
I had completely forgotten about Stronghold but spent many hours playing it with a mate when I used to take my PC over for the weekend. Obviously we had both played the shit out of AoE by that point, and this was refreshingly different, with slightly more thought needed for resources and production. Love the wall/tower system too.
And as mentioned, the characters and voicelines really brought it to life. I remembered nearly all of the characters
Bruh my feels
Nice video. Subed. ❤
Keep them coming. 🎉
Indeed it is. I remember as a kid played it a lot but never managed to finish the campaign. So a year ago just sit for a week and played it all my free time and finished it, it was great.
I like the fact that you place your brewaries against the wall in the first mission against the Sultan. That was my favourite aspect of the game, where the buildings are stacked more neatly
This is my all time favorite game and i dont believe ill ever be able to play it again...
Thanks for the video. It was very nostalgic 😃
Thank you for watching :) I hope you get a chance to play it again!
I keep coming back to this game. It is so good and still holds up.
Man the nostalgia was strong with this video, well earned like and subscribe. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go reinstall one of my favourite games
This video makes me feel all fuzzy remembering my childhood playing Stronghold legends on my family pc, not knowing at all what I was doing but having the best time killing dragons and pissing off Vlad and Siegfried. The memories!
Played this since before I can remember, just got my friends into it recently. What a fucking banger game. We already say to each other, “wood needed sire” and it’s on the thumbnail, nailed.