Stronghold Kingdoms: First Impressions with Ripper X
26Ripper checks out the midevil castle building game Stronghold Kingdoms. Stronghold Kingdoms (SHK) is a massively multi-player online real time strategy game (MMORTS) with a Medieval castle building theme. It was developed by Firefly Studios and based upon their commercially successful and popular Stronghold series of games.
In addition to the central theme of castle construction and design, Stronghold Kingdoms incorporates a variety of architectural, economic, military, agricultural, mercantile, industrial and political elements which challenge players ability to prioritize, direct work-flow and resources and administrate their holdings in the manner of a medieval land holder or noble. An individual player's success is not entirely predicated upon the ability to defeat computer-generated enemies, but also upon teamwork with fellow players.
The player begins relatively alone, one village amongst others in a single parish. From this beginning, strategic decisions are made and dialogue established with fellow parish members which introduces the social aspect of Stronghold Kingdoms. All players can vie for stewardship of the parish, dependent on rank. When two or more players wish to be Steward they can negotiate to decide who will take control of the parish, or take it by force, razing out the opposing players village from that parish. If Theology is researched, then monks can be deployed to infiltrate the parish and influence the vote. This is usually referred to as a monk war in the game vernacular. When the successful candidate becomes steward they gain control of the parish army along with the ability to set taxes (tithe), and build the necessary guilds to improve life for all in the parish.
Download Stronghold Kingdoms Here:
http://strongholdkingdoms.com/