Stronghold

Firefly Studios, based in London are one of those developers who seem to like to keep a profile lower than a snakes belly in a thunderstorm.

Despite the Stronghold series of games have sold several million copies and built up an impressive fan base over the past 10 or so years, Simon Bradbury and Eric Oulette the co-founders of Firefly have pretty much done all they can to keep themselves out of any possible limelight. Why? we don't know, maybe there are just very busy beavering away on the next Stronghold game?

Deep in Devon you are trying to find the last troops that are still loyal to the King. With the help of the King's councillor, Lord Woolsack, and one of his knights, Sir Longarm, you will set out on an epic quest to take the country back from the clutches of the usurpers. In a series of encounters you will meet the cowardly Duc de Puce (The Rat), the conniving Duc Beauregard (The Snake), the vile Duc de Truffe (The Pig) and the enigmatic Wolf.

Each has his own favoured tactics and troops, each will fight you differently. Only if you succeed in beating them all will you restore the kingdom.

Stronghold is a castle builder and at the heart of the game there are 21 missions to battle your way through as you seek to defeat four renegade lords and reunite your country. Missions range from breaking sieges and capturing enemy castles to raising gold and holding off enemy attacks

There is also a shorter economic campaign, with missions revolving around gathering resources and/or building weapons within a time limit. These are entertaining enough, but the only threat comes from wolves, bears and the occasional bandit attack, which means that your time is usually spent building up a village and its economy

The Peasants are revolting? Well if you don't look after them they will be. You need to build up enough resources to keep your population happy tax payers. Making sure you are feeding them is a good clue as to how much your rating will go up. That and giving them decent living conditions and a small amount of entertainment will also help! Don't forget the Ale. Your villagers all like a drink.

Life is simple in the Stronghold universe. Wolves and Bears will kill your villagers. Bandits are bad. Feeding people and plying them with booze is good and having a big strong castle with a moat, archers and boiling oil to hand will go a long way to helping you rise up to reunite your country and overthrow the usurpers.