Stronghold: Crusader – Demo Readme

Introduction

Welcome to the Crusader playable demo.

The full game features 4 Historical campaigns and a 50 mission ‘Skirmish Trail’, but
for the demo we wanted to focus on Crusaders open ended ‘skirmish’ mode. This lets
you tailor the gameplay to your taste, short or long, fast and furious, slow build up,
economic strategy, or serial sieger, you decide! We have set up three examples of
possible Skirmish games, to give you a small taste of Skirmish play….. there is plenty
more to come!

We have also included an in game tutorial. If you haven’t played the original
Stronghold game, you should spend a few minutes looking at this, otherwise you
should move straight into the skirmish games.

Enjoy!

Firefly studios

For further information regarding Stronghold: Crusader, please visit:

http://www.fireflyworlds.com
http://www.take2games.com
http://stronghold.godgames.com/crusader/

Contents

Section 1 - Skirmish Mode

Section 2 - System Requirements
Section 3 - Keyboard Commands

Section 1. Skirmish Mode

Setting Up Your Identity

You can choose which type of Lord you wish to play within the demo, either Crusader
or Arabic and choose your portrait. The portrait you choose will be displayed when
you move your mouse pointer over sections of your castle or buildings. (This picture
will also be shown to other users in the full game during multiplayer mode). You can
create your own portrait, if you load the faces.bmp (located in the root of the demo
folder) file into a paint package. You will notice we have left two free slots for your
own portrait. The correct size for this portrait is 64 x 64 pixels.

Playing Skirmish mode

You will notice three buttons in the Skirmish mode screen labeled1, 2 and 3. These
buttons will allow you to choose between the three skirmish games that we have set
up for you.
1. Zephyr
Very Easy (1/10)
New to Castle building? Let the desert breeze wash over you. Your opponent, ‘The
Rat’, should prove to be no more than a mere annoyance and with a large human
advantage you have all the gold you need to see him off.

2. The Vultures Claws

Easy (4/10)
The 2 Caliphs have you trapped between them and will constantly threaten your
economy, but a small gold advantage should be enough to allow you to turn the tables
on them.

3. Lionheart
Quite hard (8/10)
In this set-up the Lionheart will really test your castle building skills.
This is a deathmatch game, so everyone starts with plenty of gold and the action will
be fast and furious. There are only 3 enemies, but the absence of any allies’* means
you must think through your strategy carefully.

* In the full game you can ally up with AI Players or multiplayer players, the addition
of just one ally in a skirmish changes the game dramatically…. Amongst other
things, you can order them to attack an enemy or come to your aid. Have them act as
your economic workhorse and ferry goods to you whilst you do the fighting.

Section 2. System requirements

OS: Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000,

Windows XP.
CPU: 300mhz AMD / Intel processor (550mhz + preferred)
RAM: 64 MB
HDD: 145MB
VIDEO: 4MB DirectX 7.0 compatible graphics card (800x600 upwards)
SOUND: DirectX 7.0 compatible sound card

Section 3. Keyboard Commands

In-Game Commands

Flatten the landscape - SPACEBAR: Press SPACEBAR to flatten the landscape

and buildings. Press SPACEBAR again to return the landscape & buildings to
normal.

Pause Game - P: Pressing the P key once will pause the game. Pressing it again will
resume the game.
Grouping Troops - CTRL + 0 to 9: To create a group of troops, highlight the troops
by dragging a section box over them and press CTRL and select 0 to 9. Once
grouped, simply press the appropriate number key to select the troops. Pressing that
number again will centre the screen on those troops.

Multiple Waypoints - SHIFT + left clk: Select a troop and hold down the SHIFT
key then click on the map to set up to nine waypoints on the map.

Bookmarking Locations - CTRL + ALT + 0 to 9: Pressing CTRL & ALT & 0 to 9

creates a bookmark of the current location on the map. Press ALT and the appropriate
number to return to this location.

Select Units of Same Type - Dbl-clk on troop: Double-click on a troop to select all
units of the same type visible on screen.

Scrolling - Arrow Keys: You can scroll the map using the arrow keys.

Interface Panel :- TAB: Press TAB to turn the interface on & off.

Zoom: - Z: Press Z to zoom in and out.

Rotate the screen: - X or C.

Adjust game speed: - + / - (Keypad): Press + to increase the game speed and press -
to decrease it.

Cycle through Bookmarks: - Mouse Wheel down: Cycles through bookmarks.

Screenshots - ALT & Q – Screenshot1, Screenshot2, etc.

Pull Down Landscape: - V: This will 'pull down' the landscape, allowing you to see
behind objects.

Signpost: - S: Pressing the S key will cycle you through the signposts on the map.

Keep: - H: Press H to centre on the keep.

Keep (Mouse): - Mouse Wheel up: Centres on the keep.

Barracks - B: Press B to centre on the barracks.

Market - M: Press M to centre on the market.

Troop Assembly Points (Barracks) - You can create assembly points for each troop
type in the barracks panel. Open the barracks and press 1 - 6 and you will get a flag.
Place the flag and the troops will walk to the location.

Return to the previous location - If you wish to return to one of your buildings and
then return to the previous location, you can press one of the keys assigned to a
building, such as: A (Armoury), B (Barracks), M (Market), N (Mercenary Post), G
(Granary), you can then press SHIFT and the key previously pressed, to return to the
previous location.