Stronghold: Definitive Edition
Stronghold: Definitive Edition
Game
Game2021
Stronghold: Warlords
Developer Firefly Studios
Stronghold: Warlords is a 2021 real-time strategy video game developed and published by Firefly Studios for Windows. Unlike the previous entries of the Stronghold series, which were focused on Europe during the Middle Ages, Stronghold: Warlords is set in East Asia, with campaigns based on historical events of China, Vietnam, and Japan. It was the last game Firefly Studios released as an independent entity before… From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
229 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon, Lemmy) · newest Nov 5, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
59
Mixed
89 positive · 61 negative
95% range 51–67%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 89 | 61 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 12 | 2 | 55 |
| Mastodon * | 1 | 0 | 8 |
| Lemmy * | 1 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mixed
1,408 of 2,228 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
58% recommend · 90 yes, 64 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 154 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mixed (3,476 of 5,336 positive).
Some players find the game fun and a worthy addition to the series, praising its new setting and warlord mechanics. [1][2][3] Others criticize the game for bugs, crashes, poor optimization, and outdated mechanics, especially in multiplayer. [4][5][6] A few reviewers note that the game is enjoyable on sale but not worth full price. [7][5]
Liked
Representative posts
- [4]
Despite everyone else's backlash. I do like the game, i like the changes, i like the tug of war for the warlords that slows down the otherwise fast paced gameplay, I like the diverse roster of units, especially gunpowder units, the sound design is nice. There are lots of campaigns to sink your teeth into and the AI poses an actual challange especially if they start with a headstart. WHAT I CANNOT FORGIVE HOWEVER, IS …
- [5]
Bought it on sale for $4.00 and it still wasn't worth it. I love the Stronghold games and wanted to at least give it a try. It seems to be missing many of the best features of previous games and I had multiple crashes within the first hour. Just not worth the headache.
- [1]
This game is so much fun. Not liked by quite a few but it is very fun. My second favorite in the series. It adds more strategy to it. Capture forts that gives you different perks. If you liked the others i think this one is worth a shot
- [3]
Stronghold: Warlords is Firefly Studios’ attempt to breathe new life into its long-running castle-building real-time strategy series by shifting the action from medieval Europe to the historic battlefields of East Asia. Released on Steam, this entry brings a fresh setting, a new “warlords” mechanic, and several mechanical updates intended to modernize the formula while still retaining the core identity that fans of …
- [2]
I don't understand why this game owns many negative reviews. Its great game and we do enjoy playing it as multiplayer even more than crusader. music and game play is amazing btw you can feel old China's culture with it 🌝
Summarised from 34 of the 223 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 11, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
Stronghold: Warlords sits at 59% positive across 150 opinionated reactions from 4 sources. Fresh or rotten — where do you land?
Reactions
60 of 229 · most liked first"RALLY IN TRUMP STRONGHOLD FAILS TO FILL SEATS” Mobile 2015 30K fools came to see a game show host owned by Putin spew hate & lies Last night a 10,000 seat hall was 1/2 EMPTY Have MAGA/GOP finally learned? Will they reject Trump but still vote for Tommy Tuberville? VOTE BLUE FOR DOUG JONES
neutral · AI labelView post →One of UESP's own got into the game. Character creation now has origins. These include: Orc: Stronghold, Orsinium Dark Elf: Vvardenfell, Mainland Breton: Systres, High Rock Nord: Eastern, Western Khajiit: Anequina, Pellitine Argonian: Arnesia, Thornmarsh
neutral · AI labelView post →what if, if instead of getting any art done for orctober I listened to the Stronghold ost on repeat and spend all my time building a castle in a voxel builder game? what then?
neutral · AI labelView post →Satan's Stronghold is a good name for a lesbian bar that hosts board game nights
neutral · AI labelView post →Z-Man, Stronghold Games founders lead star-studded launch of new board game publisher Play to Z: boardgamewire.com/index.php/20... @ruelgaviola.bsky.social @gengelstein.bsky.social @nicolebrady.bsky.social @isaacshalev.bsky.social
neutral · AI labelView post →A follow up on Game Update 7.6a regarding the Stronghold Conquest Bonus issue. forums.swtor.com/topic/937886...
neutral · AI labelView post →Many people argue whether Heat or Flame Rouge is the superior design. I frankly don't understand why it matters. Clearly you get the game not published by Stronghold.
neutral · AI labelView post →You know what killed the Stronghold game? Optimization. After Stronghold 2 and then 3, we meet Stronghold: Crusader 2. That's where the fall of Firefly Studio began. Year after year, we met Warlords. The end of an era where Stronghold fans started crumbling like Command & Conquer fans. Buggy, lazy lord animation, clunky, jaggy, and ofc unoptimized. Summary Review: About Description Gᴀᴍᴇᴘʟᴀʏ Well it feels the same as SHC2. The difference is the entire map is now farmable, just like…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Despite everyone else's backlash. I do like the game, i like the changes, i like the tug of war for the warlords that slows down the otherwise fast paced gameplay, I like the diverse roster of units, especially gunpowder units, the sound design is nice. There are lots of campaigns to sink your teeth into and the AI poses an actual challange especially if they start with a headstart. WHAT I CANNOT FORGIVE HOWEVER, IS THE GAME CRASHING EVERY SINGLE ♥♥♥♥♥♥ TIME I'M ABOUT TO WIN, FORCING ME TO…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →What if Minecraft Stronghold was an isometric pixel art game? I used this project to learn more about VFX and effects. I feel like the eye effects turned out really well, I'm very happy with the result. #pixelart #minecraftfanart #minecraft #fanart #ドット絵
neutral · AI labelView post →Tune in on June 7th to the PC Gaming Show (@pcgamer.com) for an exclusive reveal of a brand new Stronghold game. Start Times by Time Zone: PT (Los Angeles): 12:00 PM ET (New York): 3:00 PM BST (London): 8:00 PM CEST (Berlin): 9:00 PM CST (Beijing): 3:00 AM (Mon, June 9)
neutral · AI labelView post →🎬 NEW VIDEO 🎬 Join us for a brand new gameplay video about the 8 new Bedouin units who’ll be ready for battle in Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition when the game releases on July 15th. The demo is also available to play on Steam now! bit.ly/3GphHXz
neutral · AI labelView post →Firefly will announce a brand new 'Stronghold' game at this week PC Gaming Showcase. youtu.be/qLFpwlnLDF0
neutral · AI labelView post →Wario Land 1 is the best Wario Land better than 3 and 4. Stronghold better than Age just because I use it as a City builder instead of strategy game. Deedlit in wonder Labyrinth straight up Team Ladybugs best game. As Dusk Falls aka what if Quantic Dream would make a good game (without Cage).
positive · AI labelView post →Do you folks play silly mindless time wasting games on your phone, and if so, which one is your favourite? I’m currently digging a zombie survival game called “Last Stronghold.”
neutral · AI labelView post →What if Minecraft Stronghold was a top-down pixel art game? I really like how the portal itself looks, the movement effect was difficult to create, but it looks great to me. #pixelart #minecraftfanart #minecraft #fanart #ゆめにっき
neutral · AI labelView post →This game is so much fun. Not liked by quite a few but it is very fun. My second favorite in the series. It adds more strategy to it. Capture forts that gives you different perks. If you liked the others i think this one is worth a shot
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I don't understand why this game owns many negative reviews. Its great game and we do enjoy playing it as multiplayer even more than crusader. music and game play is amazing btw you can feel old China's culture with it 🌝
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I will leave a cat here, so that everybody who passes by can pet it and give it a thumbs up and awards ／＞ フ | _ _ l ／` ミ＿xノ / | / ヽ ﾉ │ | | | ／￣| | | | | (￣ヽ＿_ヽ_)__) ＼二つ
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →#SongBuilding 8️⃣ Castle Halsey | Castle | Badlands | 2015 You gotta admire the deft use of the Agnus Dei to signal "Medieval". And that it's a sample taken from the video game Stronghold is 👨🍳💋 youtu.be/Vk0xkd8qs9I?...
neutral · AI labelView post →First Game: Stronghold Last Game Played: Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines Favorite Game: Neverwinter Nights 2 or Pillars of Eternity (I can’t decide😱) Worst Game: Cyberpunk 2077 Game I've Played the Most: Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous or The Sims 🤭 Most Surprising: Pentiment
neutral · AI labelView post →I started adding some mutually exclusive "tough choices" about secondary NPCs which will tweak relationships with your party members. I did that extensively in my game Planet Stronghold 2 and decided to redo it again here #visualnovel #indiedev #gamedev
neutral · AI labelView post →I lost hours of my childhood to Stronghold. Anytime I see the word "saving" in a game I can hear the announcers voice shouting "SAVING"
positive · AI labelView post →Need a place to relax and get away for a little bit? Galactic Seasons 6 "Building a Foundation" will be coming with Game Update 7.4.1 and features a beautiful Copero Stronghold that can be unlocked from the reward track. youtu.be/hBTlJt387rc?...
neutral · AI labelView post →Your tower defense game needs music that fights back. Stronghold is an adaptive music kit — 3 sets of 3 escalating waves, a victory stinger, defeat stinger and 5 menu track options, all ready to drop into your project. Grab it on itch.io. 🏰⚔️ #gamedev #indiedev #towerdefense #gameaudio #itchio
neutral · AI labelView post →Hopefully the twin thrusts of the video game industry and the RPG industry coming down hard on AI-supported theft will make the board game industry think more about it. Stronghold Games is unfortunately the one normalizing it there: they think they're too big to fail or something.
neutral · AI labelView post →Me: "what was that speed game with the Italian pizza chef called again? I know it was Pizza something. Castle? Stronghold?" My ever helpful oceanic companion:
neutral · AI labelView post →Stronghold: Warlords is Firefly Studios’ attempt to breathe new life into its long-running castle-building real-time strategy series by shifting the action from medieval Europe to the historic battlefields of East Asia. Released on Steam, this entry brings a fresh setting, a new “warlords” mechanic, and several mechanical updates intended to modernize the formula while still retaining the core identity that fans of the franchise expect. While the game does succeed in some areas—particularly in…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →"It's not sexy, but it's one of the most successful genres on Steam" – Stronghold Developer Firefly Launches Publishing Label to Serve the Vast Strategy Market www.gamesindustry.biz/its-not-sexy... #gamedev #indiedev #videogames #gaming #gamingnews
neutral · AI labelView post →The game really isn't bad. All the reviews are just comparing it to stronghold 2 and stronghold crusader 1, but not everyone have been playing the stronghold series 20+ years. Personally I tried stronghold 1 DE and while I do agree that is a good game, I found it a bit too "old" for my liking. This game is beautiful and good, if you actually know how to adapt to a different stronghold game... Long story short. If you don't like it then it is mostly a failure to adapt or you are too nostalgic.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →---{ 02 / 10 }--- Stronghold Warlords took every positive aspect of the earlier Stronghold games and threw it in the bin. What remains is a troop limit, stuttering, a weird UI and synchronization issues. ---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☐ Good ☑ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☐ Very good ☐ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☑ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☐ Very good ☑ Good…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →(Best Stronghold game and better than AoE 2. Yes, I said it.)
positive · AI labelView post →The original Stronghold must be one of my most played games. Replayed it countless timed as a kid, spending hours to fortify each map until every inch of the map was covered in trees, production facilities and impenetrable walls. The military aspect was simplistic, but the management sim aspect was top notch, that hasn't been replicated for over 20 years, until Manor Lords was released.
positive · AI labelView post →Bought it on sale for $4.00 and it still wasn't worth it. I love the Stronghold games and wanted to at least give it a try. It seems to be missing many of the best features of previous games and I had multiple crashes within the first hour. Just not worth the headache.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is almost as bad as Stronghold 3, but even worse. You can take over a province, and then you can't build on it or control it. LAME!! , and even worse people can coerce it into switching. This game is junk and whoever created the idea has never played Stronghold 2. What happened to the castle building sim as it was in part 2. Buy Stronghold 2 not this one it is junk. Only positive is the troop aspect.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Qtp with a video game that transports you back to your childhood Stronghold Crusader. Watching my dad play this or his other strategy war games (but this one was my fave) while he gave me fun facts about history and then begging him to let me play too Or begging him to go play so I could watch
positive · AI labelView post →Game is actually kinda good but this mofo keep crashing all the time i mean god dayum wish it would´t
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →New BASIC game, Stronghold of the Dwarven Lords, converted to BASICAnywhere and refactored. Code list provided along with browser-playable version. Originally listed in 1983's Tim Hartnel's "Giant Book of Computer Games" #gameDev #devLog #retroComputing #retroGaming
neutral · AI labelView post →Absolutely not possible to play in multiplayer, outdated mechanics, game is a piece of ♥♥♥♥
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →QTP with your most anticipated game. Knowing there are upcoming games for both the Stronghold and Thief (well ok a remastered Thief: The Dark Project) series makes me very happy and excited.
neutral · AI labelView post →SIGINT #269 from KH-11 KENNEN (COSMIC TOP SECRET) 1. Mithril Stronghold of Sewage 2. Game Hyperloop
neutral · AI labelView post →so does anyone remember playing Stronghold 2 or am I still the only person I've ever met who's played that game
neutral · AI labelView post →Not a bad game but a lot of bugs, looks outdated and gets boring quickly.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game cant be started anymore. It just blackscreens and you hear a few second of sound. Then nothing happens. It worked fine a few months ago. Terrible game. DONT BUY!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A new Stronghold game- yes please! #Blutoid www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5iF...
positive · AI labelView post →Unnoptimized on Winslop but Optimized on Linux....HOW!!!!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fortnite: "We see you Marathon and we're taking notes." (Images are in-game and concept art from the new Reload mode map, Elite Stronghold.) www.fortnite.com/news/join-th...
neutral · AI labelView post →Stronghold: Warlords is an interesting attempt to push the series in a new direction without abandoning what made it appealing in the first place. At its core, it still delivers the familiar satisfaction of building up a fortress, securing resources, and preparing for war, but the new setting gives the experience a different flavor. Instead of feeling like a simple repeat of older entries, it tries to reshape the formula with fresh ideas and a more unusual atmosphere. What stands out first is…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Bought this to play with my brother cuz we grew up playing this game. Game is so bugged on multiplayer. Dont even try it. 4 years later on this game and they still cant have working multiplayer. Dont buy this junk.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →New game mode, Stronghold Protocol Auto-chess/TFT-esque mode, similar mechanics like combining 3 of the same Operator, and equipping gear #Arknights
neutral · AI labelView post →"RALLY IN TRUMP STRONGHOLD FAILS TO FILL SEATS” Mobile 2015 30K fools came to see a game show host owned by Putin spew hate & lies Last night a 10,000 seat hall was 1/2 EMPTY Have MAGA/GOP finally learned? Will they reject Trump but still vote for Tommy Tuberville? VOTE BLUE FOR DOUG JONES
neutral · AI labelView post →Every siege needs a soundtrack. Stronghold is an adaptive medieval music kit built to respond to your game with menus, combat waves, and stingers, all ready to drop in. Available now on itch.io. 🏰⚔️ #gamemusic #medievalgame #fantasygamedev #indiedev #gameassets
neutral · AI labelView post →The game is Dope, Sire! For real, Stronghold 4 could become great! www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQB6...
positive · AI labelView post →#RandomGameSaturday Pulled out my old copy of Stronghold Crusader. Absolutely wonderful castle building simulator that is simultaneously a completely unhinged RTS. Absolutely addictive game honestly
positive · AI labelView post →that and the strange matt reflective quality of the armour just kind of looking like a Stronghold game cover
neutral · AI labelView post →its like they didnt have the budget but still wanted to make a game.crashes randomly,toops get stuck in open areas game freezes fires damage buildings after they are put out. are yall even trying atp?
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →How sad it is to see this series in such a state. In my childhood, I played Stronghold Legends so much, I was a big fan. Now, looking at warlords, it looks like a scam. The UI and mechanics are horrible, it feels like a cheap copy of a Stronghold game made in 2000s. Stronghold Legends was far better, its campaign was unique and immersive. On the other hand, when I look at warlords, I feel like there’s nothing left of firefly anymore
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →#MSDOS game Stronghold engine rewrite project #retrogaming #retrocomputing #reverseengineering
neutral · AI labelView post →i wanted to love it so much, all the major bugs have been fixed, the only issue is that the game is still not fun, campaign missions are quite short and you don't have time or reason to build a proper castle, economy gampaign is a glorified puzzle... stronghold 1 and stronghold crusaders are still the only good strongholds.....
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Decent, but doesn't really improve on the stronghold formula. In many respects this game is a strict downgrade from Crusader and Stronghold II, in that walls can only be one size, there are very limited tower sizes and designs, no moats of any kind. No siege engineers of any kind. No sappers. I'm not going to get into the laughable unit balance, or how ballista and catapults have a substantially shorter range than archers while simultaneously being almost unable to accurately hit anything.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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