Not too long ago, Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition welcomed The Canary and The Trader to its ranks, bolstering out its roster with a couple of interesting, if weaker, AI lords to jostle with. With the new year having arrived, Firefly Studios have continued their campaign across the desert with two more, in The Sergeant & The Lioness. They already sound more fearsome, but do they live up to their reputations?

Yes, Staff Desert Sergeant!

There’s plenty of other material to harvest from this winter update to the game, but the two new lords are the main draw. Both are much more militarily equipped compared to The Canary and The Trader, and will be a tougher test of your survival skills. The Lioness features a Caliph-akin castle with a second layer and moat, focused mainly on using light to medium Bedouin units. She fits alongside foes like the Snake or Caliph in terms of challenge, more a constant, competent nuisance.

The Sergeant, however, is a grizzled war veteran who knows a thing or two about meetings of swords. His castles are large, well defended and a challenge to siege effectively. He takes time to build up forces and begin waves of assaults (mostly utilising Pikemen and Crossbowmen), but once he builds up steam, he becomes a menace. They pair well together, and become even more concerning when teamed up with other powerful lords. While not quite on the level of Saladin or The Wolf, they’re a solid match.

Both characters are fully voiced once again and their lines are great. Their approach to matches is unique and they offer a nice balance when fine-tuning a skirmish, or when used as part of the Sands of Time Trail they’re incorporated into. I enjoyed facing off against them more than the previous two, and these are the kinds of new additions that make Firefly’s support of their Definitive Editions so good.

The Pride of The Lioness

Firefly have appeared to double down on their newest incarnation of skirmish trials with another fresh Sands of Time Trail. The emphasis is expectedly on The Sergeant & The Lioness. The emphasis is also expectedly on being so challenging it’s akin to hammering a nail into your own hand using the other. The Trail of The Cobra is comprised of nine battles, each of which becoming more ludicrously imbalanced than the last.

I swept through the first couple of stages without much issue, only to be accosted by a flurry of defeats and demoralising failures thereafter. Once again though, I want to reiterate that this is precisely why these Trails were added to the games. They offer a much higher skill ceiling and test of your understanding of the mechanics. For series mainstays, this will be another welcome challenge that they’re sure to rise to. The final battle is a straight up massacre and if you can achieve a below-par time on that, you have my respect.

The Sergeant & The Lioness and the Trail of The Cobra are beaming successes as a result. They expand out Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition’s roster of varied foes brilliantly, while adding yet another brutally difficult yet rewarding experience for those who’ve mastered everything else. Could the developers have gone all-in on a mega challenging lord that could tear the Holy Lands asunder? Yeah, probably, but what they’ve delivered feels solid and well executed nonetheless.

Build-a-Lord

While not part of the paid expansion itself, it’s worth considering this DLC alongside the free update brought to Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition. Included in the game is a new Editor tool, allowing players to customise their own campaign Trails through a series of skirmishes you construct (using already available maps or your own custom maps), as well as your own custom Lords. That’s right, you can now take your Build-a-Bear experience and create a desert conqueror instead. What a world.

This update alone provides almost endless replayability potential. If you’re of the mind to utilise Steam’s Workshop features and explore campaigns built by other players, the possibilities are, quite literally, endless. I’ll be honest in saying that my creativity skills are equivalent to the structural integrity of wet paper. So while I may not get the most out of the editing tools available, other people certainly will. I had a go at creating a skirmish Trail and was pleasantly surprised by how intuitive it was.

All of which fills my castle storming heart with joy. Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition lives up to its name, thanks to Firefly Studios’ steadfast efforts to bolster and expand the title into a flourishing playground of castle management and siege warfare. There’s never been a better time to play old-school RTS’ like Stronghold and Age of Empires. The Sergeant & The Lioness delivers a tasty new serving of combat you’d be remiss to not take up arms for.

Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition – The Sergeant & The Lioness is available February 3rd on PC (review platform).

Developer: Firefly Studios
Publisher: Firefly Studios

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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