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Mc Jarvis
United States
Too much geek gold was spent on this text.
This heart is meant to convince you that I feel.
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Intro
The epic siege of a doomed defender's castle is well entrenched in the imaginations of gamers everywhere. It is perhaps no surprise, then, that a game like Stronghold would eventually come around in order to capitalize on the idea of doomed defenders facing impossible odds. There are many emotions that get thrown around in the midst of such battles, and Stronghold successfully gives the feeling of fighting to the last man or alternatively, in the case of the attacker, the feeling of overwhelming an enemy with a flood of attacking forces.
Hook
I was introduced to this game by a friend, and didn't have a chance to I like to think this is my archer that picks off invader trolls. 
Rules
The rules for Stronghold have been covered in other reviews of the game, so I will let you search them for exact details. What I can do, however, is provide a summary of what I think makes the rules and mechanics for Stronghold distinctive. The basic game setup is simple: you have the invader off in the distance building up his forces, and you have the defender within a stronghold rallying his troops to defend against the swarm.
A brief look:
Every game of stronghold ends the same way: with the invader breaching a wall and streaming into the poor stronghold, slaughtering everyone inside. What everyone is really fighting for is how soon the invader breaks in, which determines which side was really more awesome in the eyes of historians everywhere.. The invader starts off with 10 history books(the points in this game) which extol the values of invading armies being strong, and being green. Every turn he fails to breach the walls of the stronghold a historian takes note of how lame the invader is, and this is signified by taking one of those history books and moving it over to the defender's side. This means the game can only last 10 rounds, but it will likely be over by the 6th or 7th round due to the invader no longer realistically being able to win. (There are bonus points to be achieved on the invader's side, so he can still get more than 10 points with those alone...they are just hard to achieve)
In Stronghold, each side of the battle has resources they can spend to do things. The offense starts every turn by drawing 14 cubes from a bag. These cubes will either be white(goblins), green(ors), or red(trolls). There are then 7 phases the attacker goes through which allow him to spend those cubes on specific things. For instance, if he wants to harvest wood he has to do that in phase one, and to harvest wood he must sacrifice one cube. A better cube(like a troll) will harvest more wood than a lowly goblin.
Cards are used to represent phases for the invader.
You can use a different set every game, making the invader very
different from game to game.
There is a lot more to combat than just this, but I think this is the most distinctive feature of the game. It really sets the tone regarding the roles of the invader and the defender. The invader will always determine the pace of the game, but at the same time curse the defender for preparing just a little bit more every time the invader pushes his plans forward. This also makes for a tense game on the defender's side, as you are always waiting to see if you will get many hourglasses or only a few on any given turn.
Offensive Strategy vs Defensive Tactics
Getting onto a wall is a major investment for the offensive player,
and often easy for a defender to stall from breaching. Thought
must be taken to what mounting a wall accomplishes.
This distinction is important, as new players to the game may find the invader more tricky to play. The defender often has concrete tasks, like preventing a wall breach or keeping archers from being killed off. This makes it easy to prioritize goals and generally play the game. The invader often has to seek after long-term more nebulous goals. This makes the strategy a bit more tricky for newcomers to pick up, since you need to be able to visualize the end game.
Do Not Play This Way
When I first taught this game to my roommate, I was a bit more experienced than he. I played the invader, and would take my turn. He would then take his, and because I'm nice I let him think until he found a way to repulse any wall breaches I threatened him with every turn. Sometimes this would take awhile, so I would wander off and watch an episode of my favorite tv show, then he'd make his move, and I'd come back and play my turn. I think this is an example that if the defender has enough time to make his turns, it's usually possible to completely shut down the invader. I don't think it's a fault of the game, but it's worth mentioning that taking turns in a timely fashion is required for the game to be fair.
Wrap upIt's possible to use your own figures instead of cubes.
Make sure they are still colour coded, though- colours indicate
strength values.
I think Stronghold is an amazing game. It offers intriguing asymmetric game play in a way that I have not seen before. It also is firmly entrenched in a theme which is the stuff of legend, and I like that the rules are obviously developed around theme, but still balanced.
This game is just over a year old and still in the hotness list. I think that this is partly because it's an awesome game, but also because of an upcoming expansion for it which, from what I understand, changes the rules set to reflect an undead invasion of the stronghold. Unfortunately it's still pretty expensive to import where I am, so I'm waiting on the Valley Games print of it to eventually come out.
On Deck: Claustrophobia
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