Nigel

Greetings Ladies and Lords, I am happy to announce that I am starting a Community Challenge on the Official FireFly Discord. 🏰 The Freebuild Multiplayer Challenge 🏰 - You build a castle in Freebuild and add some troops as garrison force. - I will convert it to a multiplayer map and add some troops as attacking force - We meet online and see if your castle can hold the attack. You can choose the difficulty of the attack from 120% to 300%, or anything in between. I will calculate the value of your defending army by troop and weapon costs. Difficulty 120% means, the army value of the attacker will be 120% of the army value of the defender. At 120% you should be able to defend your castle easily, even if it was built more for beauty than for strength. At 300% I don't think you will be able to defend your castle, unless you are extremely good. Think and choose wisely, a difficulty that is to your liking. The game is played without recruiting during the siege. We only use the troops that we have at the start. No repairs of walls and towers during the siege. You can use as much gold for buying your troops as you want. Some additional rules apply (see below) but there is no need to build a super-efficient power-economy. You are free to build a beautiful, realistic looking castle. There are some additional rules for the defender and attacker to make the battle interesting. Check out the full rules and information in the competitions section of the FireFly Discord. https://discord.com/channels/439428269822181376/619185103574401025/1177628674804162650 This challenge will start today and run until 31. Jan. 2024. You can sign up for this challenge on the FireFly Discord or just let me know in this thread here. I also want to say thanks to Eagle Prince, who gave me permission to use one of his great SH1 maps, Danube River, as map for this contest. 🙂

Hi guys, sorry for beeing absent for such a long time. I seem to spend most of my time on the official FireFly Discord these days. But glad you are still active and talking about the current games 🙂 There was quite a discussion on the Discord about "bugs" in the map editor, that allows mapmakers to create some really cool stuff: the magic eraser trick, the 2000 stone trick and other things. I think these are the bugs that Nick has in mind when he says that they will not fix them. Skrimish, for sure ist not coming and I could imagine that it would be a major re-work of the game code to achieve that. When the initial code was written, the idea of skirmish was not there at all. Larger maps, they are still trying to implement, but it is not easy and may or may not be possible. For higher unit limit, Nick is more hopeful and it is quite possible that we will get that. What I am rally happy about it, that there will be some nice Quality of Life additions. Auto-market will probably be implemented and I am hoping for a "recruit 10 units with 1 mouseclick" feature. There is also a demo on Steam (not sure if it is still available for download) and they have a feeback form where they are asking for our opinions.

Thought I would open up a thread for it 🎄 Merry Christmas to all of you and all the best wishes for the New Year 2022. ☺️

Hi guys, as this is as much an AOE4 thread as a "how are you doing" thread, let me join in here. I also saw the AOE4 release and it is much covered on youtube and other media. There was even a lengthy discussion on it on the official FireFly discord 😀 As for myself, I still prefer Stronhold style games with more focus on beautiful castle building and not purely RTS gameplay. But that said, AOE4 certainly looks like a good game and I will probably get it at some point. Probably also at a sale like you, EaglePrince. I am sorry to hear of the death of your girfriends father, EaglePrince. And also about your loss, Chris. Best wishes, for your grandmother's recovery, Eagle. This crisis is really harsh. Some of my friends an a cousin of mine got severe cases and required hospitalization. Fortunately they are all better now. I myself and my closer family have been spared so far. We keep beeing super careful. Hopefully, when this winter is over, we will have overcome this crisis. Glad to hear that your career in Academia is developing, Eagle. Teaching students and designing your own lectures must be a really interesting thing. I had the chance to teach some younger students during my own student days. I always had liked that. 🙂

Today is a special day for Stronghold. It is the 20th anniversary of the release of the original Stronghold 1 Tasha from FireFly has posted a little pic on the official FireFly Discord to celebrate the occasion 🙂

Hi guys, Just to let you know that I am hosting a Map Making Contest for Warlords over on the FireFly Discord. If anyone wants to check it out, here is the link: https://discord.com/channels/439428269822181376/875060707174002688/875060708713312307 All wellcome to join 🙂

Looking forward to seeing some nice videos from you now 🙂

Yea, I love the field hospital. Not so much for it's strategic benefit - I don't know yet if that is big or small. But you know I like to role-play my games. And finally I no longer have to make this tough decision about what to do with my veteran heros, that return from a battle with 10% HP. Do I send them to their deserved retirement and thereby loose the value of their equippment? Or do I keep them for another battle, and thereby send them to their certain death? Decisions, decisions.... but with a field hospital, I know what to do 😄

Hi guys, the new roadmap for Warlords is out. Stronghold: Warlords - Summer & Autumn Roadmap (Kublai Khan, New Unit & Skirmish Trail!) - YouTube Enjoy the video 🙂 I wonder what that new mystery feature will be.

The "namely" does not sound too bad to me. But then again, I am also not a native English speaker, just someone who uses English a lot during his work. Maybe you could also substitute the "namely" for "This is, since". Your sentence would then read "The equation ... has no real solutions. This is, since ... and therefor ...". It sounds a little more long-winded to me, but it would avoid the doubt about the word namely (and would also work for your Persian example 🙂 ).

Yes, I think this game is better than Crusader 2. In so many ways it has improved: unit collision, the warlord system, different levels of housing to name just some of them. Unfortunately it also has a few points, where it falls behind Crusader2: game balance and exploits. Regarding exploits: There are some really strong ones, which allow to play with a cheesy strategies. But yea, I dont understand the complaints about this: if you don't like exploits, don't use them. Of course this is a problem in MP, when people want to win at all cost. But like you said on the Steam forum: it has always been better to play with friends. Playing randoms can often just be annoying and a waste of time. Regarding balance issues: it is actually possible to create a very strong, but one-sided economy. I won't go into details here, because I don't want to spoil it for anyone reading this. But again, it is the same as with exploits. If you don't like it, don't use it. For MP however, it means that we will need some good house rules to make it fun and exciting. At least for competitive MP. For casual, just for fun MP games, it is not a problem at all. Ah, well, I am not bothering to try fighting the trolls. I respond to those players who give fun and constructive feedback and just enjoy the game 🙂

Yea, unfortunately the Steam Forum is in a pretty bad state. It was dominated by haters right after release. They were bashing FireFly for the bugs that the game had. And yes, to remain honest, there were many bugs and balance issues on release and there still are. But I even so, I do not think that the game deserved the s******m it was getting. But as a result of it, the Steam Forum is pretty deserted right now. I am mostly on the official FireFly discord. The people there maintain a positive attitude and try to give criticism in a constructive way. If you want to join it, the link is https://discord.gg/qMG7Zae. You have to join one of the "factions" to get full access to the site. Type ?dynasty, ?horde OR ?shogun in the chat box. I am with the Shogunate, but the other factions are also cool. You can't go wrong, whatever you choose.

Glad you jumped on the boat and made your way to Asia, EaglePrince. I hope you will like the adventure. I myself am half way through the campaign so far. Taking in at a leasurly pace. Hit me up if you want to do something on multiplayer 🙂

AAron from FireFly has just started a new series of videos: The Stronghold Show. Welcome Sire! - The Stronghold Show - YouTube It is a new format where FireFly is combining updates on their games with spotlights on community created content. Check it out and support it if you like it. If it is successful, they will make it a monthly show. I really think that is a good concept, in particular as they are giving recognition to what the community is creating. 🙂 This issue is highlighting Jergy's wonderful SH2 maps and Udwin's work on YouTube videos for Stronghold.

For those who are interested: there is currently a 20% discount on Steam for this game. Offer ends 10th of May.

Hi EaglePrince, I actually just posted a review on Steam. You should be able to see it here: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198021871235/recommended/907650/ Beyond that, I can say that I am really enjoying it. Some of the hardcore players say that the AI is too easy, but for a casual gamer like me, the "hard" difficulty setting of the missions is just fine. I find that I can complete most missions on the second attempt and even had to go back to "normal" on one occasion so far. I guess easy and normal are more for players that are new to SH and there is extreme difficulty now for the pros. I haven't tried much multiplayer yet. As always, there are reports of instability in MP after launch and I am waiting for some more patches, before I go into that area. I also like their discord channel. The mods there keep it nice and constructive. And the devs are posting there and asking for feedback and questions. For sure a step in the right direction for FireFly.

Greetings Mylords, I haven't been here for a while - simply because I have been busy with other stuff and have not been playing Stronghold for quite some time. But with the arrival of Warlords I have gotten back into it and I am having a lot of fun with the game. I am mostly active on the FireFly Discord right now. It is a really nice server and the mods keep it flame-free and constructive. As I see most of you are waiting for more patches before getting the game. When you do, I look forward to meet you on the field for same games 🙂

I joined the metagame on the side of the Shogunate before I read that Matthew is a mod for the faction of the Horde. But, lo and behold, the Horde won. Congratulations Matthew. It was a fun game. GG, I really enjoyed it. By the way, Matthew, what is your discord name on that server? Mine is just "Nigel".

Nice to see a new inn opening here. I used to be a regular customer of the Dancing Bear Inn and have fond memories of that place. The drinks, the tall stories, the friendly brawls. And Chomper and I became really good friends. I still have the scars to proove it :)

Hi guys, been away from the game for a while, but Stronghold will always be among the games I follow. I joined their discord and am taking part in their meta-game as a member of the Shogunate team. A fun little thing and I hope this is a sign that FireFly will be doing more stuff for the player community. Oh, Eeagle, glad you remember that one and I am gad I gave you the pointer to it in the olden days. Much fun :)

EaglePrince, congratulatins also from me. Much deserved and for sure this is good news for the site :)

Nice analysis, odisseus. I remember in the olden days when I played a lot of multiplayer SH1, all the good players ended up fielding armies of pikemen to attack the enemies. And that even though by concept it would have been the pikemen for defence and the swordmen for attack. But you give the reasons why in the hard test on the battlefield it turned out the other way around. Nicely explained :)

Odisseus, I just tried the three maps, that are uploaded. Nice ones. Short and sweet. I particularly liked the Broken Truce. That one could be build up into a sequel of the story. :D Re-join the king's forces and defend his throne.

Nice to hear from you again, Paul. Glad you are well (and remember us when it comes to spear pressure :P ) I also have times every now and again when I get off PC gaming and back to board games and such things. But right now, while we are waiting for SH Next, I got back into Attila Total War. I started playing a forum campaign with Edward Dunferline (whom I met during the Crusader 2 times). This is as much about story telling as it is about co-op MP battles. If you guys are interested in a good read, you can find it here.

Hmmm .... 6 out of 10 Not all that easy then. Or it was just coming home after a long work day..... (any excuse will serve). A fun quiz, though. I am really enjoying these :)