https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THPoM0QMmAM

While we finalize our v1.3 update and first DLC 'The Art of War', both coming to Stronghold: Warlords on May 18th, we're taking some time to dive into the complex history of skirmishes and battles surrounding its protagonist Sun Tzu. So to ensure you're the most studied strategist out there before loading up the new six mission historical campaign (or diving into our upcoming free map pack) please enjoy this crash course in ancient Chinese history!



Our tale begins with the inception of Wu during the Spring and Autumn period, running all the way through to the epic Battle of Boju. Sun Tzu was not only one of the most fascinating (and controversial!) figures of Chinese warfare, but also the supposed author of a military strategy guide which has survived and enduring through the ages. Our new DLC is based on his operations within the war of states Wu and Chu and related exploits worthy of digital recreation. After all who says you can't learn some exciting world history alongside optimisations, new maps and quality of life updates for your games?



If you enjoyed today's video, our updates to the game since launch and would like to suggest future Stronghold content on our YouTube channel please let us know! Post in the comments below and we'll keep all suggestions in mind for video content throughout 2021. For now please enjoy our latest v1.2 content update, look forward to v1.3 on May 18th and more Stronghold: Warlords updates in the coming weeks and months.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/907650/Stronghold_Warlords/

Today Stronghold: Warlords gets its first major content update with the release of v1.2! Adding requested features such as a new AI opponent (Sun Tzu), AI invasions in Free Build mode, a new Free Build map, general fixes and AI improvements, this update is now available to all players.

Stronghold: Warlords v1.2 Updates Notes
Build Number: v1.2.20432
Update Size: 451.7 MB

Build Number: v1.2.20432 (Hotfix)

General fixes

• Fixed an issue where Sun Tzu would "block" in his weapon workshops
  
• Fixed missing Hideyoshi icon in skirmish lobbies
  
• Fixed stuck starting troops in "Princes and Paupers"
  
• Fixed small gatehouse incorrectly showing road tiles when placed

Build Number: v1.2.20394 (Original Release)

Updates

• Added Sun Tzu AI Lord
  
• Added the Freebuild panel, allowing players to do the following in Freebuild:
  
  • Launch invasions
    
  • Acquire free gold and diplomacy points
    
  • Turn on Events
• Added new Freebuild map ‘Hillside Fortress’
  
• Turrets and engine platforms can no longer be placed on walls standing on unpathable terrain
  
• Roads can now be connected through gatehouses when tiles are placed on both ends of the gatehouse.
  
  • Note: road pieces will not appear visibly underneath gates, we are working on this for the next update.
• Greatly improved the appearance of ponds

General fixes

• Fixed the landscape textures sometimes disappearing when task switching or changing resolution
  
• Fixed the Diplomacy Map not scaling properly on ultrawide resolutions
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur when weapon workshops were destroyed by fire
  
• Water is no longer visible off the edges of Open Plains and Wide Open Plains
  
• Added some missing pathing tiles on Jungle Clearing
  
• Walls, roads and gunpowder trails can no longer be placed in rivers, ponds or seas
  
• Fixed the wrong scribe speech sometimes being played when selecting work buildings with missing workers
  
• Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause troops in rabble formation move backwards when targeting enemies
  
• Fixed knocked back troops being able to move if given a command momentarily before the knockback began
  
• Fixed a case where ninjas could get stuck when jumping off/onto walls just on the edge of a cliff
  
• Fixed a crash that sometimes occurred due to gatehouse flags being removed
  
• Fix for the Keep roofs not hiding when Lords were atop them
  
• Vertical Sync is now On by default when first launching the game
  
• Added functionality to allow users to change keyboard input language while in-game
  
• Better support for languages that use non-Latin characters
  
• Player estates now show the relevant Lord’s name in campaign missions
  
• General and Lord units now use a pickaxe when destroying walls

Campaign

• Fixed a missing Qin Shi Huang line in Armies of Yan

AI Improvements

• Edicts are picked slightly more reliably on normal difficulty
  
• The AI now prioritises more expensive attack edicts when it has a high diplomacy point income
  
• The AI is better at steadily upgrading warlords as its own castle grows
  
• Fixed a bug that could let the AI block off the top of stairs with buildings
  
• The AI starts building weapons workshops slightly earlier
  
• AIs that do not use tea will now sell all their tea automatically
  
• Fixed a case where the AI could get stuck if it ran out of food and had no more workers on rice fields. The AI will now turn other work buildings to sleep if it needs workers on rice fields quickly.
  
• Fixed a case where attacking armies could get stuck moving to a warlord estate before a siege camp has been placed in it
  
• Fixed an issue with the AI not correctly detecting when it needs iron for troop weapons
  
• Weapons workshops are now placed in a layout which makes it harder for workers to get stuck due to the building layout
  
• Addressed some issues where troops in attacking armies could get stuck, in particular when caught on armoury roofs
  
• Fixed a case where armies could get stuck because they were trying to assemble at a target siege camp position on an enemy estate
  
• Fixed the "free gold per minute" parameter to correctly allow AIs to be modded to receive extra gold
  
• The amount of gold AIs receive on Extreme difficulty can now also be modded by a parameter called “extreme_free_gold_percentage”

Map Editor

• Fixed the keyboard keys moving the camera when the scenario editor is open
  
• Further increased the render distance
  
• The Dragon Gate left and right pieces can now be placed separately as individual objects
  
• New control icons

- Added a new map 'Wide Open Plains' - a rework of Open Plains with 4 larger player estates and 1 Warlord

Stronghold: Warlords v1.1 Updates Notes
Build Number: v1.1.19976
Update Size: 932.4 MB

Updates

• Added Extreme! difficulty to both Skirmish and Campaign modes. (Note: Extreme! difficulty in skirmish will give the AI an unfair gold advantage.)
  
• Total troop limit in skirmish/multiplayer is increased. Example: troop limit in a 2 player game is increased from 200 to 300.
  
• Added 2 new large keeps, Mongol Yurt and Tribal.
  
• Selecting alternative skins for player’s Lord model will also change their keep type.
  
• Updated Japanese voice lines for barracks troops.
  
• Added diplomacy points to overall resource settings in Skirmish lobbies.
  
• Motion blur can now be disabled/enabled via a setting stored in options.xml. (default is for it to be enabled.)
  
• The minimap can now be configured to rotate/face North and scale to fit inside its box by default via new settings in options.xml.
  
• Added a new 2 player skirmish map: Riverbend. Expect a tense push and pull battle as both players vie for control of the warlords guarding the path to their opponent's castle.

General fixes

• Fix for saves crashing on Load due to incorrect refcounts. (Note: Old corrupt saves will still crash on load, but new saves will now Load correctly.)
  
• Fixed “Defending Our Lands” from the Genghis Khan campaign so that it correctly shows the build menu.
  
• Fix for pathfinding obstacles sometimes not clearing after walls are destroyed. This addresses mortars sometimes not being able to path through destroyed walls in ‘The Battle of Yehuling’.
  
• Changed ruins on ‘Heart of an Empire’ and ‘Fortunes’ in the Economic Campaign to fix blocked mission progress. Please note existing saves from these missions will use old ruins types.
  
• Fix for triangular wall pieces sometimes lingering around after adjacent square pieces have been destroyed.
  
• Triangular wall pieces are now broken down more consistently to match the damage level of adjacent square walls (this has no effect on balance but gives a clearer impression of how damaged a section of wall is).
  
• Lord portraits now appear correctly for MP/Skirmish human player non-AI skins in various UI places.
  
• Increased fade distance of buildings on fire.
  
• Updated popularity report formatting to accommodate longer localization texts.
  
• Overhauled the ninja pathfinding system to handle many map and building layouts that could not previously be navigated.
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause groups of Mongolian Horsemen to jostle back and forth after moving to a position.
  
• Fixes for a number of cases where troops could get stuck (especially in gates) and not be able to move again.
  
• Ballistas can no longer attempt to attack defensive stone buildings.
  
• Fixed an issue where troops could get stuck repeatedly failing to attack warlord workers in melee.
  
• Fixed an issue where actors would hover briefly before landing during their knockback animation.
  
• Fixed an issue where actors could get stuck just on the edge of unpathable terrain after being knocked back.
  
• Troops in rabble formation are more reliable at moving to target enemy units on rooftops.

Balance changes

• Halved warrior monk area attack damage to 500, doubled cooldown time to 60 seconds.
  
• Adjusted the way splash damage is applied to walls from siege projectiles, to make overall damage more consistent across diagonal and non-diagonal walls.

Warlords

• Repair and Upgrade Castle edicts can no longer be used when the enemy is very close to the castle. If triggered before the enemy approaches, they will still finish if the enemy comes into range during the edict.
  
• Warlord shipments now only display messages on their first and last shipment, in which they report Current/Total goods sent.
  
• Added an icon to the diplomacy map for ongoing instant attacks.

AI Improvements

General

• AI Lords now use their own respective keeps in Skirmish games.
  
• Added several new overlord taunts.

Town

• Many improvements to AI town building, including smarter positioning of different building types, fixes for several cases where the building layout could result in stuck workers, and increased maximum distance that buildings can be placed from the keep.
  
• Improved granary placement to be more central inside the castle, making it better protected from attacks.
  
• Fixed several issues with turrets and engine platforms not attaching to walls correctly.
  
• The AI is better at calculating how many of each type of work building it needs to build its economy and train an army.
  
• Fixed a bug that could get the AI stuck trying to build an embassy when it already had the max amount allowed.

Strategy

• The AI now takes the number of players on their team into account when choosing whether to target an enemy player or warlord, allowing them to prioritise enemy players earlier in free-for-all games.
  
• The AI is now more likely to target the warlord closest to them over other warlords.
  
• The AI no longer attempts to influence warlords on Easy difficulty.
  
• There’s now a minimum time before the AI will attack any target, which varies by difficulty.
  
• Harder AIs now better at picking Warlord Edicts and issue them more often.
  
• When at very high gold levels, the AI will now aim for triple its normal popularity to get peasants spawning faster.

Castle

• Defensive troops, turrets and engine platforms are now positioned more intelligently based on the direction to the closest enemy player.
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause castles not to build when spawn points are rotated.
  
• Fix for defensive troops on Genghis’ castle walls sometimes getting stuck.
  
• Tweaked the tower positions in Hideyoshi’s castle.
  
• Defensive troops now spend less time running back and forth between different positions on the walls.
  
• On Easy difficulty the AI now only builds a single layer of castle walls.

Armies

• The AI is now more willing to buy weapons to train troops when needed, to preserve the desired unit composition of their army.
  
• Improved the balance of Barracks and Academy troops the AI will train, whether or not they have weapons available.
  
• Fewer troops are now kept in reserve, allowing the AI to attack faster and with larger numbers when up to their troop limit.
  
• Improved the distribution of different troop types in the types of armies sent out.
  
• After capturing a warlord, armies will now sometimes guard the warlord for a period of time before moving to attack a new target.
  
• Armies that encounter an enemy keep on route to their target will now switch targets rather than continuing to their original target.
  
• Armies are better at navigating through allied estates to reach their target.
  
• Fixes for several cases where armies could get stuck while moving to their target or reforming.
  
• The AI will now more reliably start attacking with siege armies based on the number of attacks already made and their own economic development.
  
• Armies are better at tracking enemy lords who have moved away from their keeps.
  
• Fixed an issue that could stop attacks being launched once the AI reached their troop limit.
  
• Fixed several issues with the placement of forward siege camps in Warlord estates.
  
• Improved the AI’s ability to coincide Warlord attack edicts with their own attacks.
  
• Expensive troops such as Generals and Samurai are no longer held back to guard siege weapons.
  
• Fire oxen and rocket launchers no longer target warlord town buildings.
  
• Armies made up of horse archers and other cavalry now have a strong preference to tail other armies when they can, given they tend to be ineffective against enemy warlords by themselves.
  
• If individual troops in an AI army are unable to join the rest of the army for too long, they’ll now suicide in order to avoid the whole army getting stuck.
  
• Improved AI handling of rocket launchers, to avoid firing in areas that may set the ground under their own troops on fire.
  
• Genghis now sieges with more mortars and fewer rocket launchers.

Map Editor

• Added support for WASD/arrow key camera movement (with ctrl for faster movement) and Q/E keys to rotate the camera.
  
• The camera can now pitch closer to zero/ninety degrees, for easier editing.
  
• Increased the render distance.
  
• Spawn points now move up/down if the landscape tool is used underneath them.

Notes

• We have set the achievement ‘Thucing Phantastic’ to hidden for now as it is not tracking correctly. This will be addressed in a future update.
  
• While we have fixed the issue that was corrupting saves, old save games that were previously crashing on load will still crash. Saves made in newly started missions are fixed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYuSRk1PPaA
Today we reveal the first part of our post-release content roadmap for Stronghold: Warlords! This first phase in our overall roadmap of updates for Warlords covers the spring and early summer period, with additional smaller patches planned and more to come in the second half of the year. Everything covered in today's announcement will be added to the game free for all players, released as soon as it's ready.



Our content roadmap for Stronghold: Warlords is divided into two separate tracks of minor or major updates. Minor updates, starting this week with our first proper patch, will be aimed at improving the core gameplay and adding smaller improvements to Warlords. These include the addition of a new Extreme Difficulty mode, AI improvements, new maps and stability improvements. At the higher end of these 'minor updates' you'll find series staple features, such as the addition of invasions controls in Free Build mode.



When it comes to our planned major updates for the next few months we also have two substantial content additions scheduled, as part of this initial roadmap. Planned pre-launch and requested in post-release feedback, our new AI character (Sun Tzu) and later Skirmish Trail #1 update (including 10 missions, a new playable unit and two warlords) will aim to improve the content on offer in both single player and multiplayer modes.

We hope you enjoy this week's update and look forward to future additions to the game. If you're playing Stronghold: Warlords and would like to provide feedback please leave us a review on Steam and join the official Stronghold Discord.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/907650/Stronghold_Warlords/

- Fixed a bug when detecting AZERTY keyboards
- Added a button to automatically generate a save game name

Post-Launch FAQ (Last Updated September 2022)

Hi everyone,

It’s hard to believe that Stronghold: Warlords is finally out there and in your hands! Everyone at Firefly would like to thank our community across various platforms for all the enthusiasm, valuable feedback and constructive criticism you’ve given us. It’s been a blast watching so many of you having fun building up your castles, villages and besieging friends online.

We have put together this FAQ based on some of the feedback we’re seeing across the board. This includes some information that we have previously mentioned, but might have been missed.

We hope you find some satisfactory answers to any issues or queries you may have. If there’s something still on your mind that you'd like to discuss, then please join us on Discord using the invite link at bottom of this post.



Frequently Asked Questions

Will you be adding extra free content to the game?
Yes. On June 21st 2021 we released the final part of our 'Spring/Summer' content roadmap for Warlords, with our v1.4 update. This update added the game's first skirmish trail, new maps, a brand new unit and warlords, with additional features and content added in earlier updates:



Our second Summer/Autumn Roadmap was revealed on July 27th 2021, alongside the release of Version 1.5. The following additional content is now in game and available on Steam:



Our third Autumn/Winter Roadmap was revealed on November 9th 2021 and concluded with our Version 1.10 Update. The following content is now in game and available on Steam, in addition to other minor updates such as an increased unit cap:



Our most recent (and final) release was Version 1.11 which added a new 12 mission skirmish trail, 2 multiplayer maps and new achievements! You can learn more about the update and future plans for the series by clicking here.

Are further bug fixes, stability improvements and optimisations planned?
Fixes, improvements and optimisations will continue while we are still updating the game. Your feedback is very valuable to us and we’re focusing our energy into fixing any problems players have encountered. Beyond this feedback will be incorporated into future Stronghold titles.

I am encountering bugs and/or have a technical issue.

For TECHNICAL ISSUES (for example, if your game doesn't run) please contact Firefly Support by emailing support@fireflyworlds.com or going to https://support.fireflyworlds.com/

For any BUGS you find (for example, unit explodes randomly) you can either follow the above or you can fill in this form by clicking on this link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSffUQ8xrquINv3RS9jkqawspv1Iz2GHIDJlQMU6ZrENohCIzQ/viewform

If possible include a link to a picture or video showing the issue, as this helps us identify and resolve issues faster. Please use IMGUR (or a similar site) to upload an image or YouTube (or similar) for video.

Please Note: The more detail you provide in a bug report the more likely it is we can replicate, find and then fix it. E.g. What level of the campaign were you on? How many players/AI were involved? Did you have 70 fire oxen all explode at once? Etc.

Where's my Special Edition Content?
Within Steam Client you can find the official soundtrack. You can also access all Special Edition content after installing the game, navigate to the game folder and open up a folder titled ‘Special Edition’.

By default this is located at:

C: > Program Files (x86) > Steam > steamapps > common > Stronghold Warlords > Special Edition

Is mod support planned?
No mod support outside of Steam Workshop unfortunately, but we'll keep it in mind going forward. For now you can create custom missions, scripted events and skirmishes in the included map editor.

How do I use the map editor?
Here is a guide: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2419503398
We also have a map editor channel on our discord for people to share ideas, tips and tricks!

The motion blur on the camera makes me feel sick!
As of 24th March 2021, there is now a way to disable motion blur. Please refer to V1.1 Update notes for more detail.

Why did you choose Asia? I want to see more [Legends/Crusader]
Put simply, we chose Asia for its castles, battles, gunpowder and bloody, expansive history! We’re so grateful for our community’s enthusiasm for our older games set in England and the Middle East, but this time, we wanted to creatively try something different. Who knows what the future holds for us, but in the meantime we are thankful to have your support and passion!

Can I change troop/building limits in Single Player?
Warlords has been designed with specific troop and building limits in single player for gameplay and performance reasons. However we appreciate some people may wish to try playing the game with higher limits, in response to this we increased this limit just after launch in Version 1.1 and then again in v1.9.

To further alter these limits in SINGLE PLAYER:
1. Browse to the location of your Documents > Stronghold Warlords > Profiles folder.
2. Using a text editor (we recommend Notepad++) open the options.xml file.
3. On line 4 change the values for single_player_building_limit and single_player_troop_limit (make sure you retain the exact formatting used in the file).
4. Save the file.

PLEASE NOTE: These values only affect single player games not multiplayer games. Changing these values beyond the default limits may adversely affect game performance (depending on your computer).

What about Multiplayer Troop/Building Limits?
As of 24th March 2021, we have increased the troop limit in skirmish mode and multiplayer. Please refer to V1.1 Update notes for more detail.

[Unit/Siege weapon] is too OP!
We will be looking and managing the rebalance of units, etc with future updates and games. Please continue to give us feedback on this.

Will you continue to work on AI?
We will continue to improve AI in the game with player feedback in mind for as long as we are updating the game. This started with our V1.1 Update and continued in subsequent updates, each introducing improvements to AI behaviour. Improving AI is a priority and you can expect further updates to the behaviour and challenge of opponents in future games.

Is Firefly a AAA studio?
During development we had around 10 people working on Warlords, with many of us doing more than one job. We are flattered you think we might be a AAA studio, but we are very much an indie studio. Nevertheless, this did not stop us from making updates and improvements to the game post-launch.

How do I access the manual for Stronghold: Warlords?
Right-click on Stronghold: Warlords in your Steam library, go to Properties, Local Files, Browse and there is a folder called Manuals.

Are you working on a new Stronghold game?
Yes! We are currently in pre-production on the next entry in the Stronghold series. Check out our announcement video, Unreal 5 feature and Q&As for more:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8IEZyeK-8U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBTyVgTS3Nk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7cyVfFVJKc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOV-nlgYeNs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjq9bqFzsOw

If you can think of any additional questions we can add to this FAQ, please let us know and we will add answers where possible.

Visit us on our social media:

• Join us on Discord
  
• Subscribe to our YouTube
  
• Follow us on Twitter
  
• Like us on Facebook
  
• Follow us on Instagram

- Fixed a bug that applied the UI scaling setting to the help file
- Fixed the Qin Shi Huang end video playing incorrect Chinese speech
- Fixed the Toyotomi Hideyoshi start video playing incorrect French speech
- The manuals are also now available from the game installation folder as well as Steam (English, French, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Simplified Chinese)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjLOm-zxwKI
Fans of building, besieging and ‘wuselfaktor’ rejoice! The latest entry in our almost 20 year old ‘castle sim’ series, Stronghold: Warlords is now available on Steam. Today we celebrate the game's long awaited release with a final launch trailer featuring fresh gameplay, the full campaign map and a story preview narrated by the talented Rae Lim.



Including a 31 mission campaign with conflicts and sieges ranging from 300 BC China to 16th century Japan, Stronghold: Warlords both covers a wide historical period and (more importantly) introduces gunpowder to the series for the first time! Introducing legendary figures like Genghis Khan and lesser known rulers such as Thuc Phan, Warlords is designed to build on everything players know and love about Stronghold in an all new setting. Warlords has something for all Stronghold fans, whether you enjoy a single player campaign, unlimited castle building freedom in Free Build mode, offline skirmish or online multiplayer with friends and AI. The game comes complete with everything you expect from a mainline entry in the series, in addition to brand new gunpowder fuelled units, siege weapons and returning favourites like Siege Towers and Horse Archers.



With Stronghold: Warlords release we also have the introduction of the titular Warlords system, a new gameplay mechanic allowing players to conquer, upgrade and command AI ‘warlords’ across the battlefield. A flagging economy can be saved with an Ox or Pig Warlord, who can boost a players' industry and food reserves with their unique ‘Edict’ commands and passive perk abilities. Players looking to rain down fire and fury on their opponents can instead opt for a Dragon or Tiger Warlord, able to supply the player with special units and launch attacks in a pincer movement against their enemies! Whether players decide to forge these alliances through diplomatic buildings like the Consulate or simply by marching in an army and forcing warlords to bend the knee, these bonds can make or break their overall strategy.



Stronghold: Warlords - Special Edition is also available including Stronghold HD, ‘The Art of Stronghold: Warlords’ digital art book, a new soundtrack created by series composer Robert L. Euvino and a special ‘Making Of’ feature-length documentary.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/907650/Stronghold_Warlords

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tojme-8vGY
In our final pre-launch gameplay preview Aaron, Natasha and Nick go head to head with the AI in a triple threat 3v3 multiplayer match! Facing off against two Hard opponents (Genghis Khan and Toyotomi Hideyoshi) and one Medium (Thuc Phan), Firefly's marketing team experiments with incendiary bovines, thunder crash bombs and... Spelling their names out in gunpowder? Watch as we play through an hour-long six player game online, using the latest Stronghold: Warlords build, a Large sized map and four different warlords to spice things up.



At launch Stronghold: Warlords will allow for up to eight players total in Multiplayer, using a mix of four human and four AI opponents, in addition to the warlords themselves. Nine maps will be available to play ranging from Small to Large size, with support for Extra Large maps, a full map editor and Steam Workshop functionality at release. Co-op mode will also allow up to two pairs of players to share a castle estate and control of their forces, while traditional teams also feature for players that prefer to build and maintain their own feudal economy.



Stronghold: Warlords will be available on Steam next week from 6pm GMT on March 9th for $39.99, £29.99 and €34.99. A Special Edition will also be available including Stronghold HD, ‘The Art of Stronghold: Warlords’ digital art book, a new soundtrack created by series composer Robert L. Euvino and a special ‘Making Of’ feature-length documentary.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/907650/Stronghold_Warlords/