Stronghold is a two-player game telling the story of a siege. Players take opposing sides: one has to defend the stronghold, and the other has to break into the castle as soon as possible. The game board represents the stronghold itself as well as the surrounding terrain, where enemy forces are placed and whence they proceed to the walls.
The defender has a small number of soldiers manning the walls, while the invader has an infinite legion of attacking creatures. A desperate fight takes place every single turn. The invaders build war machines, equip their soldiers, train them, and use black magic rituals to achieve victory. Meanwhile, defenders repair walls, build cannons, train soldiers, and do everything they can to hold the castle as long as possible.
If the invader manages to break into the castle before the end of seven rounds, they win; otherwise the defender wins.
This second edition of Stronghold features:
• Ten objective cards for the invader and ten hidden defense plan cards for the defender; each objective encourages the invader to consider a particular move, while each defense plan shows the defender different ways to surprise the invader
• Shorter gameplay than the first edition, with attackers being placed on the board during set-up
• Gameplay limited to two players only, replacing the team rules in the first edition
• Streamlined rules and an enhanced rulebook
• Improved components, such as a larger game board and new artwork
- Fantastic siege warfare feel
- Extremely balanced 1v1
- Unique mechanic where enemy actions give defensive player more time tokens
- Both sides have different ways to sabotage
- Hard to get to the table
- Rulebook is not great
- Fiddly components and rules
- Siege warfare
- Fantasy/Medieval
- Abstract/Direct
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- asymmetrical gameplay — One player is defending a stronghold while the other attacks, with different objectives and actions.
- Dice Rolling — Used for enemy activation and potentially other game elements.
- Resource Management — Managing workers and their actions.
- sabotage — Both sides have ways to sabotage the other.
- Worker Placement — Moving workers around to deal with incoming threats.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Man this is like the feels like the battle of helms deep
- this game you can't do that this game you have you're just balls to the wall as soon as the game begins you're you've got to be going and attacking and pushing your advantage
- magic the gathering what it's me and the relationship is just it's all over the place it's it's basically an abusive one at this point
- the premium edition has everything for it
- production quality is top notch fanta stick
- this is a great moba style game
- it's it's it's it it was one of those that kind of was one of my early uh additions to my collection and it's always been a favorite
References (from this video)
- Extremely solid head-to-head game.
- Both attacker and defender feel balanced.
- Has so much theme.
- The dynamic of offense/defense decisions is enjoyed.
- The game felt like a back and forth with the defender able to counteract.
- A niche game that is rarely played.
- The rulebook is 'very very bad'.
- Head-to-head combat, attacker vs. defender
- Medieval
- Conan
- Level 7 [Omega Protocol]
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area Control — Implied by attacker vs. defender dynamic.
- Asymmetrical play — One person plays as the attacker and one as the defender.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's also done in hadrian's wall where you are like man i only have these certain workers oh wait let me combo off and now i have 18 of these kinds of workers
- this one just it's it's an absolute blast to play
- garfield games typically hits the nail on the head like chef phillips i think is an excellent designer
- the deluxe box for paladins of the west kingdom it was like a cheap insert uh and it technically holds everything but man is it not like it was not intuitive
- what this one brings in is it flips the script and you are playing the the evil forces
- plus it has monsters drawn by the mikko as we just just as we just uh talked about
- it's a good one i mean it's just people that i that i hate like i don't find this or this box design is awesome but his people are also monstrosities