What game in the Stronghold series do you consider best and why?
Also what game in the series has best castle building mode and economy (the features I'm most interested in)?

I tried Crusader for a bit, but didn't play it that much. Stronghold the First is my definitive version for castle building \ ^-^ /, I mean, just check out the cute bunnies you find on the map!
alrite TBH the original stronghold is just very very cheerful. Rolling hills, trees which sway gently in the breeze, the rivers which lazily flows across a valley and streams which cuts its way through a gulley,... I mean its the stuff fairy tales (and imagiontation) are made of.
first time i discovered that the COWS have names was awesome. And u find that everyone is named. And then sometimes you'll catch your peasants doing funny things for no reason, like the woodcutter who went on a bunny rampage. ( I think he confused 'em with the actually Dangerous animals in the game like wolves/bear).
Anyways long story short Stronghold is one cool castle simulation.
(Buy it! Play it! and Relax!)

Just remember to bring along The Holy Hand Grenade when you go bunny hunting ;) Otherwise the bunnies will rip you apart limb by limb :P :D
What about the later games in the series (SH2 and SH:Legends)? How do they compare and do they add to castle building/economic/medieval village management part of the game or do they concentrate on story/rts part instead?

Haven't tried SH:Legends but I can sum up SH2.
It's worse than SH1. The main problem with SH2 is they added more micromanagement to basically everything, and after a while (when you get into the larger settlements with many buildings interacting) it gets confusing and hard to manage. On top of this you're usually waging a war on some enemy. Far too often you're all taken up on the opposite end of the map, trying to make sure your soldiers don't get slaughtered, only to zoom back to your base to find you've been out of food for too long and half the peasants have left because of some cockup in the micromachinery that is the economical and building system of SH2.
Unless you're really into managing every little detail, with low tolerance for fuckups before your kingdom starts reeling rather hard on it's side, I wouldn't get SH2. Just adds lots of complexity while not really boosting the gameplay.

Absolutely agree. SH2 was a big dissapointment. It doesn't even seem like the same people made it. I got it as soon as it was released being a big SH and SH:C fan and was greeted with a sadistic difficulty level partnered with a massive bug infestation. Even after the long awated patch finally came around, it just wasn't fun. Even when SH and SH:C were challenging, they were challenging, not tedious and frustrating. Gone are all the fun details (such as the bunnies) and in their place is a whole lot of annoying micromanagement. I don't mind games that force you to micromanage, but this was just not well implemented. I got really tired of the citizens who were on poop detail, not cleaning up poop and then getting pissed off that there was poop on the ground and setting my castle on fire. Really, really irritating.

stronghold crusader EXTREME is by far the top, ive played at a friends house and it is awsome! i hope gog gets it eventually, til then we can have lots of multiplayer fun at SH:Crusaders.
cheers.

I agree that Stronghold 2 is awful. After just the first 2 or 3 missions I was overwhelmed. In fact, I reached a level I never was able to complete and took a couple months off, then came back, started over and still couldn't complete that level. I won't ever try again. It's too much going on. I also hate the micro management in the second or third level where your buildings constantly burn. I had water boys everywhere but they still burn. In essence, the building takes damage until the fire is doused so the building will eventually be destoyed. It's just a matter of time. I hate that game.

I have played every Stronghold title except Crusader Extreme.
I like Stronghold Crusader the best. The original is very good as well.
I agree that Stronghold 2 overemphasises micro-management. Its ok, but you need to change your tactics. In Stronghold(original) you can pump up your economy by adding a few more houses and you get an instant workforce; you only need to add a few farms to feed everyone. When you use that strategy in Stronghold 2 it can backfire. A larger population in S2 means you need to add a "Dung Farmer" to haul away waste, a Falcon Trainer to kill the rats brought on by a high population, and others. It almost gets to the point that you need more workers to accommodate one new house than the house provides. The way to win in S2 is to keep your population as small as possible and still train an army. That being said, I only finished about 50-75% of the missions in S2.
Now Stronghold Legends does not have all the problems of Stronghold 2 even though it uses the same engine. However it has its own issues... A castles protection is limited when it can have its walls brought down by a wizard or flown over by a dragon. You need 360 degree troop deployment. i.e. a huge army deployed everywhere to avoid being flanked by something flying over the side of mountain that you thought was impassable. This one I only finished a few levels before returning to Crusader.

You can say that they've gone in both directions with the Stronghold series since the release of Crusader.
SH2 takes the micromanagement part, which was both very fun and challenging in SH1, too far and it ends up being a clusterfuck of managing every tiny little detail.
SH:Legends actually goes the other way and removes many of the management aspects of SH1. It ends up being oversimplistic and rather bland.
The Extreme version of Crusader is OK, it's fun to really train a massive army, but it's value as an almost full-priced game is debatable as it doesn't add much besides a higher population limit. If you already have Crusader I'd say take a pass on Crusader Extreme.

I will say Crusader is the best. Stonghold 2 was too much. Just too much. Of everything. So bogged down that if it could talk it would talk like Chris Walken and William Shatner put together. Crusader is more of a streamlined and multiplayer balanced version of the original with a desert theme and whole new faction and is what a true expansion should be.

S:C Because its just awesome :P
Long Live Stronghold Crusader!

For me Stronghold becasue it is freeer for just creating and have this mediival like setting. Crusader second best because it is harder and more warlike. Those games are better then sequals because you can build wherever you want instead of only in your small area.