Stronghold seems to throw everything but the kitchen sink at you, randomly. Bandits are attacking the castle, my lord. Now wolves are attacking the castle. Now wolves are attacking the castle again. Now all of your wheat fields outside the castle and your granary on the inside have both spontaneously combusted, my lord. Now there's a plague. Now you're being attacked by bandits riding wolves that are also on fire. Meanwhile, the wood cutters I set up at the very beginning of the level have yet to return with any wood for even the first time, my bowyer is still hobbling his pokey ass back from the stock pile with his first batch of wood, and my lord, the only attack unit, is wandering around like an idiot in midst of all this chaos. It's too much.

I was enjoying the game until about four or five missions in. This just seems random and cheap. I feel like I'm losing because I got unlucky with a random number generator than because I'm doing anything wrong.

I also had some randoms here and there, but not to that degree.
Maybe you playing on hard mode ?

I'm at lvl 11 now and only 2 missions I've played on easy mode, all the others are normal.

It pays to get a few archers early on to deal with wolves and bandits - some missions will also have some weapons for you to start with in your armoury (check around the top left of the screen it normally lists starting stocks if you've not build a granary/storehouse/armoury for them to auto fill).

It sounds a little extreme and your woodcutters shouldn't take that long to get back with provisions - check that you're building your cutting houses near to the woods themselves and sometimes it pays to have your storehouse and granary away from your main keep (depends on the map setup, most of the time close to the keep is a good place).

Other than that you've just got to get your gameplay speed early on working well so that you've got those few archers - got food coming in in good amounts and built up a little gold (remember you can spend gold to bribe your people if your reputation falls below 50 - whereupon you start to lose people - which you don't want to happen because that quickly destroys things).

I'd say play a few rounds in the free building option just to get a feel for castle management without random events kicking in and then hit the challenges where things - challenge you.

It's the medieval period. Toughen up, my liege.

Hehe ;)
If you want a real challenge the sequel was even harder to balance out and keep all your fussy people happy and content. And all that is way before you even get to building your armoury, weapons and defences.

So should I be prioritizing a fletcher, armory, and barracks over food, then?

No your first aim is to get wood and basic food first (though partly it depends what resources you start with of course - some maps you have more than others).

You need simple food early on to keep your people fed and happy, you won't have much gold (and you'll need all you can for the fletcher) so you can't rely on bribing happiness out of your people. Don't go mad with food though, built it as you need it early on and instead focus on getting woodcutter huts down and getting the wood in.
Remember if you fail to get enough food you're on a timer down to 50 - once there its a difficult area to get out of the negative (when people leave your castle) when you don't have reserves of gold and beer to boost happiness

Once you've got that healthy wood income its then time to get that early fletcher, barracks and armoury - use the market to sell excess wood and food if need be to generate gold.

I tend to put up lots of wood cutters, a little food and a house early on.

Then as soon as I have enough to get some wheat, I get some wheat up.

You shouldn't need a fletcher for a little while (most maps start you out with a few troops).

You should also avoid building things you don't need. For instance, once you get your wheat up, you might be tempted to build a mill and 5 or 6 bakers. But you don't need them yet. While you have two or three wheat fields up, keep building woodcutters to bring in the wood. Once you have some wheat ready for grinding, then put up the rest of your bread-making system. And then, after you have lots of food coming in, lots of wood coming in, start making your army.

There are only a few maps where wolves, bandits and all of that hit you hard. Most maps don't have a problem like that. I agree that those wolf maps are not very fun. (of course, it's a piece of cake compared to a few of the final maps)

You may want to stop playing the military campaign for a little while and try out the economy campaign. You can complete it in a few days and it will help you learn how to optimize your economy. Then, you'll just have to throw in a few modifiers to get your early game strong.

Don't forget to look at the tips available, too. Hints will often help you with how to set up your early game.

I tend to try and get a mill down fairly fast once I've got wheat coming in - because that way I can build up a good store of flour for when I put the bakeries down so that they can get right onto baking instead of having to wait for flour to be made first.

Wood, then food, the fletchers. After that it's a balance between getting enough recruits to come and be archers, and having enough gold to pay them.

I'm currently well and truly stuck on level 15 of the military campaign. I'm 99% sure I'm doing something very wrong, but I still can't figure out what.....

ok.. Im guessing your on the 4th mission on economic campain?? would you like some spoilers??? If soo read what i did..



















My veiw of the map is the bandits will be spawning in the north east,, at the top right corner of your monitor..

Start out,, I built a barracks, and armory, and build 5 archers before you get anything.. put um on the roof. Next build 3 woodmills.. I put a couple near the south, that little grove and the other right near my castle.. there are enough trees to keep him semi busy and it keeps the ones that grow inside your castle fairly clean.

next in the southern feild i had a few clusters of farms.. spread um out a little to keep fires to from catching each other.. put a well inbetween the little cluster.. i clustered as all 5 farm types.. 2-3 each.

get a armor maker, and one or 2 flechers.. You can have one making crossbows, and the other bows, Make yourself about 5-8 crossbowmen... now you have a good army to deal with banidts quickly.

Follow this with a mill, bakery, brewery, and inn.. get up iron and add a few pikeman as well.

Now expand to stone about this point, along with a bit more wood, just above the stone... your army will be more than enough to deal with wolves and bandits.. soo now you expand north you have something to attack with..

as you get the wood, add more wheat fields, in the north, more stone and oxen carts.. and add a bit more iron.. by the end of the game i had this.. 2-3 leather armor makers, 10+ bakery, 2 mace makers, 2 fletchers, 4 brewers, 2-3 inns. 8+ wheat farms, 3-5 apple orchards, 4-5 cows, 2-3 hops,

, this will let you over come wheat blights that hit on the occasional year. (if you have enough in stock to last you through the blight) Expand for more bread,, and just build your walls.. By the time your game nears the end.. and your castle is walled in, you should have plenty of an army.. 5-8 cross bow, 12-15 bowman, 8+ pike man.. mobilze the army,.. and kill the wolves and bandits before they even enter your lands.. :)


Hope this all helps ya.. It took me about 10 hours and 5-6 restarts to figure out how to beat the mission.. good fun all around! (btw,, i just barely beat it on easy lol )