With just a little less than two more months to go until the release of Firefly Studio’s latest castle-sim addition Stronghold: Warlords, the studio has recently released another deep dive look into the upcoming game in the Trebuchets, Mortars & Ballista (Siege Weapon Reveal!) video. Unless PETA watches the latest video and intervenes, Stronghold: Warlords is currently scheduled for a January 26, 2021 release date.
As the Trebuchets, Mortars & Ballista announcement post states, gunpowder siege weapons are making their debut in Stronghold: Warlords. For the first time in the studios’ castle-sim series, you’ll be able to deploy “thunder crash bombs, the fearsome mortar, hwacha fire arrow cart and more” onto the battlefields to burn your enemy’s forts and forces to ashes. Bombs, cannonballs, and rocket launchers will also be available, providing means for both direct and indirect fire against enemy strongholds and troops on both sides of their walls.
However, Firefly Studio devs, and particularly the games’ player base on the studio’s Discord, weren’t fully satisfied with just introducing gunpowder to their arsenals. Apparently, there was much discussion, and even official voting polls, had in the Stronghold Discord, which resulted in the in-game addition of diseased animal ammunition making its return to the Stronghold series.
Diseased animal ammunition includes pigs and water buffalo, and both animals can be dead or mostly dead yet still alive. When launched into enemy strongholds and territory, they will explode into a sickening small or large disease cloud and kill any hapless people caught in the cloud after a few short seconds. Naturally, the ammunition is best used according to the creature’s size. Pigs are easier and faster to load, will launch further downrange, but have a small disease cloud area of effect. Water buffalo take longer to load, don’t travel as far downrange as pigs do, but have a larger disease cloud area of effect.
The Siege Weapon Reveal video also goes into some detail covering other siege weapon ammunition available, including the thunder crash bombs. Mortars and ballista are covered, as well, with tips on how they compare to other siege weapons, and how they can best be used on the battlefield. In total, Strongholds: Warlords is set to include “10 siege weapons, 16 units and a plethora of siege defences”, and all will be either immediately playable at launch, or unlocked as you progress through the game’s 30 mission single-player campaign.
Source: Firefly Studios