If you are brave enough to install the game, here are three hard-won tips from 100+ hours of gameplay:
The most dangerous threat in Extreme is the massed Knight charge. Stronghold- Crusader Extreme
Everything moves faster. Peasants gather resources at a slightly accelerated rate. Siege weapons reload quicker. This means that the "stall" tactics that worked in the original—waiting for the AI to run out of gold—no longer function. The AI cheats aggressively with resources but is still bound by the unit cap, which is now 10,000. If you are brave enough to install the
Upon release, Stronghold: Crusader Extreme received mixed-to-negative reviews. Critics called it "lazy" (reusing assets), "broken" (pathfinding collapses), and "unbalanced" (trebuchets are irrelevant). Players were split: veterans of Crusader hated it for ruining the tactical depth; masochists and LAN-party enthusiasts loved it for the sheer absurdity. Siege weapons reload quicker
However, history has been kinder. Extreme is now seen as the spiritual predecessor to the "horde mode" and "survival RTS" subgenres (e.g., They Are Billions, Diplomacy is Not an Option). It asked a question few RTS games dare: What if the enemy had no respect for your time or your CPU?
Furthermore, Extreme inadvertently highlighted the core tension of the Stronghold series: the conflict between the castle architect (who wants elegant, efficient keeps) and the warlord (who wants to drown enemies in blood). Extreme chooses the warlord, violently and without apology.