In each level, the player must defend the kingdom and defeat one or more Kings. Along with that there are 50 levels designed with increasing difficulty. There are historical chapters (mostly fictionalized) which are to be completed using the resources given to the player at the start of the missions. There are two ways to build an army either make the weapons and then spend a little gold to turn peasants into soldiers, or turn them directly into soldiers using more gold via the mercenary post. These resources are deposited on the stockpile and the player can choose to either sell or use them for defence purposes. Other than farms there are other resources such as iron ore, quarry (for stone), and marshes (for oil). The colour of the player's units have also been changed from blue to red in order to match the colours of the Knights Templar. The game adds new AI opponents (the number depending on the version of the game) and several new Arabian units purchasable from a mercenary post. As a consequence, farms can only be built on oasis grass, which leads to rivalry among players for limited farmland and resources. The gameplay is similar to the original Stronghold, the major difference being that the game is set in the Middle East. Stronghold Warchest adds one more Crusader Trail, consisting of 30 linked missions. The game also features the Crusader Trail, a series of 50 linked missions against various opponents. Each campaign comprises several battles, such as Nicaea, Heraclea, the siege of Antioch, Krak des Chevaliers, and the Siege of Jerusalem.
These document the First, Second, and Third Crusade, as well as conflicts within the individual Crusader states. Stronghold Crusader features several real-time strategy campaign strings. This changed when an updated version of Stronghold Crusader, Stronghold: Crusader Extreme was released in early 2008. USA or Poland), meaning players in the rest of the world have never encountered the second Crusader Trail, or second set of characters. Stronghold Warchest was only released in a limited number of countries (e.g. This version was a compendium of Stronghold and an enhanced version of Stronghold: Crusader, containing additional characters and an additional Crusader Trail. The game was also released as Stronghold Warchest. Another prominent addition not found in its predecessor is a skirmish mode in single-player, allowing customized battles with AI opponents instead of the linear campaign. Crusader has much in common with the original Stronghold, but differs from its predecessor in the fact that the game is no longer set in England, instead being set in the Middle East during the Crusades. Stronghold: Crusader is the successor to Firefly Studios's 2001 real-time strategy video game Stronghold. Single player, multiplayer ( IPX, TCP/IP or Modem)