Stronghold (1st ed.) board game review

[Anatoli]

Some time ago I read that Stronghold was like playing a "Helms deep" simulator – and it is. For those with little to no knowledge of Lord of the Rings, you have a siege with a dwindling number of defenders trying to survive long enough against impossible odds as wave after wave of attackers crash against your walls.

The game is primarily meant to be played by two players, but can be played with two teams of two players each. One side plays the human defenders, using archers, warriors and a few veterans led by two commanders manning the walls. The human defender tries to slow down the attacker by volleys of arrows, cannon fire, setting up traps along the paths to the walls, using hooks to knock down ladders and attempting to train up the combat level of his few soldiers to make them better. The pool of human defenders is very small, and if you level up an archer to a warrior – then you will have one archer less. Walls are strengthened with both additional layers of stone as well as improves log barricades.

The attacker receives a random assortment of 14 goblins/orcs/trolls at the beginning of each turn. Several steps of the game beginning with gathering additional resources (wood), then building siege engines, performing magic rituals, moving troops on the board towards the walls and finally attacking with whatever you can trying to create a breach where you have at least one attacker left while the defender has no men defending a broken wall section.

Check my blog for the full review:

http://anatolisgameroom.blogspot.se/2018/04/stronghold-1st-ed-board-game-review.html

[vodkafan]

It looks interesting.  Enjoyed your review of the game play and mechanics. I would be tempted to replace all the cubes with 10mm miniatures for a start.

[Anatoli]

10 or 15mm miniatures would fit the spaces without problem and would indeed make it more appealing, you would still need the cubes for the attacker as you generate random trolls/orcs/goblins each turn. But once the randomizer event is done you could use models on the board.

[vodkafan]

I went to my local game shop and he told me that the second edition is out of print and is currently selling for around the £85 mark. one First edition like yours was selling on Amazon for about double that price. 

[Anatoli]

Wow didn't know that. I got my 1st edition, second hand, from a Swedish online boardgame trading group