Exatcly, in the first opus, you are thrown to The Wolf at the very last, which is for the better ;D

Also, agreed on 'it doesn't get old', really unique experience. Missions have a great variey.

Stronghold original is a castle and combat sim. You manage the castle by building structures for food and setting up a simple series of production lines (wood cutters for wood - stone and transport for stone - mines and transport for iron etc...).

You can then build walls and towers to form your castle and defend yourself against attacks.

Stronghold only has a campaign mode (which is fun). Stronghold Crusader takes the campaign to the Crusades with the addition of muslim mercenaries and a dessert setting (stronghold original is a British setting). IT also adds a skirmish mode so you can battle the AI.

Those two original games are still the strongest in the series and the most all round fun. Stronghold 2 added a LOT more castle sim management elements which over complicates the game (many of their maps are also too small to build a working castle and defences). Stronghold Legends is a fun title; built off the back of the second game but simplifying the castle sim elements back toward the original pattern - the addition of mythical units is fun but does break balance up a fair bit.
Stronghold 3 is to be avoided - apparently its ok now but its launch was a disaster (wolves were running through the walls). There is apparently a new stronghold title in development.

I've sunk a to of time into the original two games - loads of fun in them if you like the idea of castles and sieges.



I'd also strongly recommend checking out Knights of Honour (on steam). It's a lesser known title but a lot of fun. It runs in real time over a large European map where you manage regions (each one ruled by a fortified location). You develop the main castle/keep whilst smaller towns around the settlement contribute resources in the form of money and food - as well as religion and shipping based on special structures/harbours).
Combat is done either as AI controlled auto battles or you can go into a separate real time battle. It's like a more charming view on the Total War games; but running in real time instead of turn based. You also have limited armies so late game where you've a larger empire and where rebellions can strike up within your army it can be a challenge to keep the kingdom together. Diplomacy works well - alliances, vessels, marriage arrangements.
It's a great title and sadly overlooked by many but well worth checking out!


I would also suggest checking out the range of Paradox strategy titles - Hearts of Iron series as well as multiple others. These are much more in depth than most and whilst they run in real time you've a lot of control (as much as you'd expect in a Civ game and more) so often you've got to pause things. They also don't focus just on combat - running armies is typically expensive to diplomacy is very key (Crusader Kings 2 is very strong in these elements as well as running a family/dynasty through a historical period).