Five archers shouldn't have much trouble felling the mighty dragon you sent to demolish an entire enemy castle. The big base-buster units, like the ice giants and dragons, cost an awful lot to build and are taken out much more easily than you'd expect. Instead, the heroes move along at an utterly glacial pace, slowing down any unit group-selected with them. The big units should be terrifying to the enemy, and the heroes charging your walls should be intimidating. If combat is going to be a big part of your game, you'd expect it would be flashy and exciting. Who hasn't heard of Lancelot and the Knights of the Round Table or Count Dracula? The departure from the sim aspects will further alienate fans of the original, and the tedium of the actual combat and sameness of each faction's units should finish off everyone else's interest in the franchise.
STRONGHOLD LEGENDS FREE BUILD SERIES
Now that balance has been tipped entirely in the opposite direction as the series tries to find a narrative and something to put on the cover with which people will identify. This series started out years ago with an emphasis on building your home fort into a real working castle and an economic powerhouse, with occasional combat to keep things interesting. It's just so underwhelming and unpleasant to play (to the point of being nonfunctional in many cases) that uninstalling it will be my favorite part of the game. The idea of throwing Siegfried, King Arthur, Vlad the Impaler, and a few other medieval legends together in a RTS isn't a bad one, per se. My apologies to all those who picked up the game already, those I couldn't get to in time who are now trudging through the boring, broken gameplay at the nougat core of Stronghold: Legends.