Stronghold 4: build in peace, prepare for rain

A handsome wall in Stronghold 4 has work to do when the rain comes down. Heavy rain reduces archery range, while snow hinders crop growth. Firefly's medieval England gives a castle builder reasons to watch both the battlements and the fields: the weather reaches the people defending the fortress and the economy keeping it alive.

October's expanded PC demo offers an appealing way into that double responsibility. Free Build arrived on 8 October, followed by Skirmish on 19 October. You can spend time shaping a citadel, then take on rival lords in a deathmatch. Ahead of the 7 December Steam Early Access launch, those two modes put the pleasure of making a castle alongside the pleasure of finding out how well it works.

Room to build, room to attack

The Free Build update brings what Firefly calls its largest map yet. Its invitation is wonderfully straightforward: construct a desired fortress section by section, admire it in peace or test it against enemy incursions. That gives the act of building some space of its own. A carefully arranged castle can be a project you linger over before asking it to survive a fight.

The same update adds moats, a late-game unit called The Captain, and wool and weaving production chains. It's a pleasing spread of additions for a castle sim: something for the perimeter, someone for the army and more work inside the settlement. Wool and weaving also give the medieval economy a specific material to follow, alongside the conspicuous business of putting up towers.

Look at Firefly's coastal fortress screenshot and the appeal is easy to see. Stone walls and round towers sit close to the cliffs, with fields, smaller buildings and a church sharing the green land behind them. The castle occupies one part of a larger working place. There's plenty to enjoy in the arrangement before an attacking army enters the picture.

Its timber settlement offers another attractive view of that relationship. Palisades enclose a dense cluster of buildings, with cultivated plots and windmills spread across the foreground. Different materials give these two official scenes different silhouettes. Choosing how a stronghold looks is part of the attraction, and the game includes cosmetics and feudal details for customising it.

Three lords beyond the walls

Skirmish adds opponents to that building proposition. The demo's deathmatch features three CPU lords: Penryn, The Snake and Sir Longarm. Penryn is also the protagonist of the narrative campaign, so the demo places its leading character amongst the people you can fight. The Snake and Sir Longarm bring familiar names back to the contest.

A deathmatch gives a fortress a clear purpose beyond completing its outline. You're building in a contest with other lords, with an enemy's defences becoming something to overcome as well as your own becoming something to protect. Free Build and Skirmish therefore offer different reasons to care about the same subject. One makes room for the construction; the other gives it opposition.

That distinction also makes the expanded demo a useful introduction to Stronghold 4's planned solo modes. December's Early Access version includes a Free Build sandbox, a curated Skirmish Trail of bespoke scenarios and a full skirmish mode with eight distinct CPU opponents. The three names in the demo are a smaller selection than the launch roster, with the trail offering another setting for the fighting.

The fields belong in the picture

Weather ties the military and domestic sides together particularly neatly. Rain reaches the archers through their range; snow reaches the settlement through crop growth. These are specific changes to what a castle and its surroundings can do. A tower's place in the landscape and a field's contribution to the economy both belong in the player's view of the stronghold.

Honour, taxes and food also need balancing to keep peace amongst the peasantry. The inhabitants give the fortress everyday demands alongside its defences. For readers who enjoy that closer view of a settlement, our Theos: Cities of Myth feature on service routes explores another city builder through the daily work that keeps its neighbourhoods going.

Stronghold 4 begins Early Access with a 22-mission prequel campaign as well as those solo building and battle modes. Online multiplayer, a cooperative Skirmish Trail and an economic campaign are planned for version 1.0. For now, the expanded demo's invitation has a satisfying shape: give a fortress time to become a place you like looking at, then give its walls a job. Keep an eye on the fields while you're admiring the towers.