We’ve just launched Combat 2.0, a brand new update for our co-op city builder Romans: Age of Caesar! This new update not only adds exciting and unique tactical powers, but also a completely redesigned Empire Map to secure make your impending domination over nearby lands. With key game revisions and balances added to the mix, Romans: Age of Caesar is growing into a thrilling multiplayer adventure spanning ancient Rome and beyond. Continue reading
Simon Bradbury Interview
Welcome to Stronghold Sessions, our new series on Firefly Studios’ YouTube! These videos will be a selection of extended, unedited interviews taken from our ‘20 Years of Stronghold‘ documentary released alongside our initial Stronghold: Warlords announcement. First up is Firefly co-founder and Lead Designer Simon Bradbury, a key architect on every Stronghold title to date. Here we discuss the early beginnings of Firefly Studios, development stories from the Stronghold series and even where Simon sees the games heading in the future after Stronghold: Warlords releases later this year.
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Statement
You might be wondering what’s happening at Firefly Studios during the COVID-19 outbreak and if it has affected us in any way. Rest assured that we are all well and still working on our main projects: Stronghold: Warlords and Romans: Age of Caesar.
However, following government advice, we have now switched to working remotely. Will this impact our work or the content that we deliver? We hope not. We are working with our team to make sure everyone has access to everything they need to work effectively, but please bear in mind that there may be some interruptions or delays in online content as we settle into this new routine. Most importantly we do not expect this change to affect any game releases and everything is still on track as planned.
Our marketing and community team will continue to work hard to bring you as much Stronghold content as you can handle, so look after yourselves, each other and don’t forget to wash your hands.
Military Campaign Demo
We’re back with more raw gameplay of Stronghold: Warlords, our upcoming RTS castle sim! Today’s video showcases of our first full mission taken from the Chinese portion of our main single-player campaign, featuring legendary figure Qin Shi Huang and infamous rebel warlord Lao Ai. This demo is intended as a vertical slice of the full game at its current stage of development. It includes some of our more recent additions including new units, siege weapons and warlord mechanics, in addition to an expanded castle economy.
So sit back and relax as Lao Ai’s fort is decimated by player-controlled warlord attacks, Hwachas, Fire Oxen, classic Catapults and more in a devastating display of gunpowder-fuelled destruction! Combining our first ever use of gunpowder in the Stronghold series with some incredible historic weaponry and the new warlords system, this new demo should give you a flavour of things to come. The demo also features new production chains and economy mechanics unique to Vietnam, China, Mongolia and Japan and firsts for the Stronghold series as a whole. Adding a fresh layer of resource and management gameplay has been a core goal since the start of development.
Economic Campaign Reveal
It gives us great pleasure to reveal that our upcoming ‘castle sim’ Stronghold: Warlords will include a bonus economic campaign! Available at launch and featuring Warlord’s very own version of the Scribe, this six mission campaign will feature feudal events, weather and unique objectives.
Stronghold: Warlords will feature several single player game modes, with the main story split between our combat-heavy military campaign and the more city-builder focused bonus campaign. The full four-part historical military campaign will be set across ancient Vietnam, China, Japan and Mongolia, with players balancing between castle besieging and economic gameplay to succeed over 24 missions.
Alongside this there will be a new ‘Path of Peace’ bonus campaign centred around castle building, resource gathering and reacting to feudal events. With the ability to boost or crush a player’s popularity, events will change fortunes with the coming of monsoon rains, lightning storms, bandit attacks, wildfires, festivals, typhoons and more! Continue reading
The Siege Weapons of Warlords
The Stronghold series has a long history with siege weapons. From almost 20 years ago when players were deploying their first Trebuchets in Stronghold 1 to now, as our fans discover the rampaging Fire Ox in Stronghold: Warlords. So assemble your Laddermen and load up your Catapults as Nick brings you our first episode in this brand new YouTube exclusive series: ‘The Siege Engines of Stronghold: Warlords’.
In today’s episode we kick things off with a mixture of classic fan favourite castle conquerors and brand new tower topplers. We dive in with the chaotic Fire Ox, humble Laddermen, trusty Mantlet and classic Catapult. You’ll see how we’ve improved on these siege weapons from previous Stronghold titles, as well as the new roles they will play in overthrowing enemy fortresses in our upcoming Far Eastern instalment. As Nick announces in the video, this is merely the first of several episodes in our new Siege Engines mini series here on YouTube. So make sure you’re subscribed for future instalments covering the revered Trebuchet and much more!
Warlords Composer Revealed!
Nearly in its 20th year, the Stronghold series has a few consistent staples we wouldn’t dream of changing. One of these is a history of memorable songs and full soundtracks composed by Robert L. Euvino!
From fan favourite hits like ‘Castle Jam’ in Stronghold 1 to soulful desert ballads such as ‘Breathe’ from Stronghold Crusader 2, music has been a highlight of every Stronghold game to date. Fans have grown accustomed to besieging set to had hard hitting orchestral clashes and castle building to the tune of peaceful lutes and idyllic violins, so we’re pleased to announce that Stronghold: Warlords will once again deliver. The game will feature an all-new soundtrack and return to the modular ‘Oud’ musical system from the original Stronghold Crusader, providing a more seamless musical experience during gameplay. Continue reading
Firefly Studios in 2020
As is now a yearly YouTube tradition, Firefly Studios starts the year by looking at the months of productive game dev ahead for our two upcoming games: Stronghold: Warlords and Romans: Age of Caesar! So join Nick as he takes you through all the exciting plans we have for both our East Asian castle sim and Roman co-op city builder in 2020.
After a packed 2019 Stronghold: Warlords is on track to be one of the best Strongholds yet. Armed with the classic RTS-sim gameplay of its predecessors, the core Stronghold dev team has spent the last few months implementing brand new mechanics, upping the ante with animations and of course making sure besieging feels as satisfying as ever. Now that we have our first foot planted firmly in this new decade we plan to move forward, squashing bugs and adding new features with video deep dives to accompany each major update.
While granaries are set alight from gunpowder experiments and Mongols harass local farmers, half way across the world in a small south London studio Rome is of course also being rebuilt! The other half of Firefly Studios is also waist high in game dev, with Romans: Age of Caesar in development as the first ever online cooperative city builder! With our second alpha now well under way, with more major updates coming soon, we are nearly ready to showcase our first ever gameplay trailer! So make sure you’ve hit that subscribe button with notifications on to be the first to see it.
Stronghold: Warlords – Unit Abilities
Inspired by legendary combatants from the Mongol steppe, Japanese shogunate, warring states period China and tribes of early Vietnam, Stronghold: Warlords features both classic and all-new units drawn from history. Exclusive to the new Military Academy, these special hero units will each possess a historically accurate ability that can turn the tide of battle. Introducing the Mongolian Horse Archer, Chinese Fire Lancer and General!
Building on their colt following in the Stronghold series, Mongolian Horse Archers are perfect for dealing with Tribesmen intent on crippling your economy. By outmanoeuvring pesky scouts long before they can get near your farms and peasants, your horse lords can make quick work of lightly armoured troops and exposed siege equipment. Get in there and stirrup trouble! Continue reading
Dev Update 2019
Happy New Year! Firefly begins a promising 2020 with a look back over an exciting year of Stronghold: Warlords and Romans: Age of Caesar development. First a Stronghold: Warlords update straight from Senior Producer Paul Harris. From our initial E3 announcement to subsequent improvements for troops, walls, fear factor, fire and more, the Stronghold production team had a busy year indeed. Fuelled by feedback, design debates, reams of new code and a bunch of promising suggestions from the community, it’s been a fast and furious ride set to continue toward release in 2020.
We then catch up with Online Producer Ben Tarrant and his co-op city builder team working on Romans: Age of Caesar. An entirely different beast full of unique production challenges and lofty design goals, Romans has made great progress in 2019. With our first public Alpha now underway and the game’s update road map revealed, our dedicated group of community testers will be helping us mould this epic MMO throughout 2020 as we return to Rome!
If you want to stay up to date on everything Firefly Studios, including both Warlords and Romans: Age of Caesar, we will of course be continuing our regular video update schedule in 2020. In addition you can also now join the Official Stronghold Discord and follow us on Twitter to be the first to hear the latest announcements straight from Firefly!