|
| By Brad Cook Early in the film Excalibur, a young King Arthur rides with his loyal knights to assist Leondegrance, whose castle is under siege by enemy forces. In a pitched battle, Arthur defeats the enemy knights, bringing the mythic hero one step closer to unifying Britain under his rule. |
|
 Will you be able to defend your kingdom? |
If you’ve ever wished that a videogame could capture the power and
excitement of that moment, then the castle-builder/real-time
strategy (RTS) game Stronghold is for you. It’s the latest title from MacSoft,
who made sure you can visit the Middle Ages in either Mac OS X or Mac OS 9.
Sieging castles can be a dirty business.
Take a Trip Through Time
Firefly Studios developed Stronghold, and executive producer/co-designer Eric Ouellette says: “We thought that a medieval setting with a blend of strong builder and RTS elements would make a fantastic game. The medieval period had a lot of fantastic siege equipment, pageantry, weaponry, and customs. We really wanted to focus in on these areas and give people a flavor of what it was like to live in medieval times.”
Ouellette and his team also wanted to offer a little bit of humor to color the action, as MacSoft product manager Al Schilling points out: “I really like the way Firefly has provided a lot of ‘light moment’ touches to the game. They really help to make the gameplay more enjoyable.”
Protect your villagers and sources of food.
Stronghold’s gameplay blends the best of building games like Sim City with the best of RTS games like Age of Empires II: Gold Edition. Your goal is to not only build a good castle and ensure your peasants’ happiness, but to also make sure your fortress will withstand the onslaught of an enemy attack. In addition to the combat scenarios, there are economic simulations in which your goal is to build a prosperous fiefdom.
Many Ways to Play
The game takes place between the 11th and 14th centuries, when castle building evolved by leaps and bounds.
|
Performance Patch: Download the patch for Stronghold which includes multiplayer fixes and game enhancements. |
As in real life, the castle inhabitants in Stronghold use burning oil, archers perched in towers, and other weapons against their attackers, who employ catapults, ladders, and even wall-weakening tunnels. If you want to try your hand as the attackers, the game offers invasion scenarios in which you must successfully siege a castle.But that’s not all: Stronghold also includes a free build mode, in which you simply have fun building a castle, a series of campaigns that follow a storyline, and multiplayer action over the Internet, through the Mac-only service GameRanger. When you’re done battling your friends online, you can trade the castles you built with them.
Archers can reach over defensive walls with their arrows.
The campaigns come in two types: military and economic. In the former, you play the son of a nobleman who was killed when he tried to help other nobles unite the kingdom after the king was captured in another country. The land is divided by four of your father’s enemies — “The Rat,” “The Pig,” “The Snake,” and “The Wolf” — and you must unite the kingdom by defeating them. (To learn more about your enemies, see “Kingdom Divided By Four” on page two.)
In the economic campaign, you play missions that require you to manage your fledgling kingdom while dealing with plagues, wild animal attacks, and a host of other maladies.
Build your kingdom any way you see fit.
Stronghold “is just tough enough to keep [you] engaged without becoming overly frustrating,” says Schilling. “This is a very difficult thing to achieve and Firefly has done a nice job with it.”
Should the game get too tough for you, check out our Tips and Tricks section on page two.
A Call to Build
So do you think you’re ready to build and defend your own castle? Then look for Stronghold at the online Apple Store, a Apple retail store, or an Apple authorized reseller near you.
 |
|||||
|
|
|
|
|||
 |
|||||
Learn who your neighbors are and pick up some tips on the way out. 
  
|