Quick Look: Stronghold Crusader II

The crusades were called by the pope and their mission was to retake all those places you hear about in the bible for Christianity from the Muslims. They sorta succeeded at first and then failed real hard.

Stronghold Crusader is still the best game in the series, Firefly don't do 3d well.

Camel Assassin is such an evocative name.

The Drew/Dan combo is my favorite!

The guy telling you what to do is the main Meerkat from the compare the market adverts (which will make no sense to non uk bombers)

Love SH Crusader. Can't wait to see if this has the guy saying "saving" when you save. IT BETTER

Nice. Papyrus on the main menu. Classy as fuck.

@dropkickpikachu: I actually said "holy shit" out loud when that popped up. Jesus.

I didn't know it was possible to know so little about history :P

The last rts i played was The settlers 3 ..and this looks like The settlers 3. Not much happening in the years of rts i'm guessing??

SIMPLES!

(thought his voice sounded familiar:o)

"Is this game somehow based on history?" ... GOD DAMMIT DAN. JUST... AAAARHRRHRHGGG.

Don't hurt me like that, it makes me cry myself to sleep.

But in all seriousness... god dammit Dan.

@mashzapotato: Not really the truth. Those parts of the world had been held by Islamic states for hundreds of years before the Crusades. The Umayyads and Abbasids were completely tolerant of Christians living in Jerusalem and the pilgrimages were very profitable to them.

Things turned bad much later when new kids on the block, the Seljuq Turks, came a started raiding and capturing cities indiscriminately making things bad for business on both sides. The Byzantines put in a call to Pope Urban II for help deal with them and the Pope saw this as a chance to unite Europe in a common cause for the first time since the fall of the Western Roman empire (and at the same time probably try to convince the Byzantines to acknowledge the Pope as the head of their church)

Things got confusing when by the time the Crusaders got there the city of Jerusalem was already taken by Fatimid Egyptians who weren't fans of the Seljuq Turks and so went to war with each other and the Crusaders took advantage of this discordance and proclaimed it to be a miracle.

Because of all this and a lot of other different nations getting involved it just became a war of people having claim over land just like any other war, with most famously the Egyptian (although really a Kurd) Saladin. Because the Fatimids felt they took Jerusalem fair a square from the Turks felt they were hard done by they started expanding everywhere including Damascus which was a Islamic city that actually allied with the Crusaders hoping they would create a sort of buffer state between them and the Fatimids.

There's a lot more to it than this brief summation but you can see that it was a little more than an "us vs them" situation

This looks really good. Also, I don't know shit about the Crusades. They didn't really teach it in depth at school and I've never really cared enough to look it up in any way.

I can tell by reading your message you're displeased, but the answer is still unclear...... is it?

@icantbestopped: well played good man, well played.

But you must find the answer yourself if you are to walk across this bridge. So I will ask you again! WHAT.... is your favorite colour?

Papyrus font in the menu. No thanks.

@indieslaw: Right? I know typefaces can be expensive to license but are you really gonna use the most embarrassingly cliche "Middle Eastern" font possible?

Kudos to Drew for the Brian Regan oxen reference.

I'd rather have Dan and Drew admit they don't know anything than Brad being confidently and blatantly wrong about any historical thing,

Please come to next-gen consoles !

@danryckert Dan you might like the Warhammer 40K Dawn of War series. Lots of base building and blowing up of stuff.

Is this game set in Arizona or something? There are no cacti in the middle east.

The original stronghold throwback is still my favorite quick look

I've never played one of these games, but i'm really tempted to pick this up now.

Dan, Drew...

Gosh darnit buggers! Did't you pay attention in school at all? Do they teach you whippersnappers history!?

Well.. no I guess I can't expect any more from Dan... fabric of the universe would dissolve... But DREW! the thinking man!

I'm not sure if I'm more ok with Brad just inventing "stuff he read", or these guys just plain declaring all they know middle eastern/european history, comes from Monty Python. Funny movies.. for sure.. but... really?

Anywho! Game looks serviceable .. if a bit budget in a lot of areas... yes.. Papyrus :(

Ah, the Crusades. Not the most fun of settings, but its interesting to see more medieval history games.

YOU'RE DOWN THERE, WE'RE UP HERE. YOU WALKED INTO THE WRONG GOD DAMN ROOM COMMANDER.

Yes, The Rock also taught me about the strategic importance of elevation.

That screen shot is priceless.

stronghold games always had weird learning curves were its not too hard then suddenly goes off edge and games becomes really difficult and demands that play it in the way they want you to play.

its one of most annoying things about stronghold games and makes it often not fun to play as the game is reducing options and choices down to single right answer and then that result destroys any creativity player might of had on how deal with scenario.

New premium feature: @danryckert plays Dwarf Fortress.

SAVING!

@danryckert : The Crusades were pretty much a christian version of the Jihad. The pope called on all good christians to go and slaughter the infidels (=muslims) in the middle east to liberate Jerusalem. Doing so would get them a ticket straight to heaven. The Inquisition on the other hand was the Catholic Church killing and torturing everyone in Europe who weren't (the right flavour of) Christian. So yeah, they kind of were the same, apart from the people that got killed, and where it happened. Just religion being religion.

Man, I loved Stronghold as a kid. I was terrible at it, but I loved it.

I remember in the original Crusader, you can put Lord Vader as a name and the dude would actually say it. That was the best to a 10 year old Star Wars addict. I love the original so much.

Not in Dawn of War 2 and expansions. Very little base building, more team management (a lot of blowing up stuff tho :D). I really enjoy that game but is a very different take on strategy, is more tactical and squad focused

Stronghold is so goddamn rad!!!

Now I want more Keflings games.

Not a game I would play, but it looks interesting. Thanks Drew and Dan.

@bugbarbecue: We have that in Aus too.

WOW. I expect Dan to be absolutely ignorant about history, but Drew?

Also, Stronghold is so great. The stockpile stuff and the way they handle things is just the right amount of difficult.

This series is not that hard, but you just need to laser focus when you start building.

In an alternate universe where the crusaders sailed to Americas discovered cacti and decided to spread the joy of cacti with the rest of the world.

The Cacti RISE!

Every time I hear Dan's voice, I am disappointed.

Listening to how little some people know about history is terrifying.

finally a QL of this game. its so awesome. if you liked the original crusader then you will like this one.

Boxen.

I got your ref Drew. It did not fall on deaf ears.