Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Lightseeker Camp Campaign

The maps are finally getting to a state where there is some challenging in figuring them out.  However, it's still really all about getting the build right, not which hero you have.  I'm inclined to give Veruk and Oloch 'B's for this map, since they're slightly more likely to allow leaks than other heroes due to their low DPS.  I'm feeling a bit burnt on grades at this point.  I'm not sure if the bonus mini-campaigns will warrant grades or not.  I'll finish this series, of course, but in the end I may end up ranking the heroes just based on overall impression rather than trying to average what few grades we may have.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Lightseeker Camp Campaign

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - City of Lozagon Iron

Finally we have a map that's fun and interesting.  I mean, it didn't warrant giving grades of course, because why would it, but at least I enjoyed myself while making the recordings.  It was highly reminiscent of Unseelie Court iron from Origins.  The gimmick here of course is exploiting the Feast of the Damned upgrade to be able to use Soul Impact over and over again to eliminate the sheep so your towers can largely deal with the non-sheep enemies.  You still need a setup that can handle the sheep though, which Rocket Riders plus an Orc Shaman with the Static Shock upgrade takes care of.  Like most Vengeance maps it's mostly about the build, and whatever your hero provides is just gravy, so everyone still gets an 'A'.  If you're on mobile and this is your first chance to use Orc Shamans you probably realize they're not really worth spending money on.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - City of Lozagon Iron

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - City of Lozagon Heroic

We have another thoroughly meh heroic mode that honestly isn't even as challenging as the campaign mode, which is a cardinal sin in level design.  All heroes do perfectly well, so it's back to 'A's for everyone.  All in all, just another boring chore to get through.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - City of Lozagon Heroic

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - City of Lozagon Campaign

At last we finally have a campaign mode that's actually fun and interesting and doesn't feel like a chore.  I like the environmental challenges you have to deal with on this map - the house that eats your units, the acid Magnus drops on your troops, and the Golem Houses are a terrific surprise the first time you encounter them.  It's a decently tricky map, and I changed my strategy from my campaign walkthrough by going for an all Spectral Mausoleum setup, going all-in on Possession.  It works pretty well, especially against the Golem Houses.  I toyed with giving Veruk and Oloch 'B's here, as there are a couple of points where things get slightly tricky due to their underwhelming DPS, but ultimately decided against it.  Ironically the biggest threats here for mob leaks are the Hunting Eagles and Watchdogs, not the actual powerful enemies.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - City of Lozagon Campaign

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (Steam) Impossible Hero Challenge - Silveroak Outpost Iron

Yep, we're right back into the trivial, as I feared.  This one, like many iron modes before it, instead of presenting an interesting challenge to be puzzled out, leads you by the hand to the solution.  By restricting you to Melting Furnaces and the ever-useless Goblirangs, along with pre-built Elite Harassers and an analysis of the enemy spawns, it makes it fairly obvious that you need to put a Melting Furnace in the lower right to deal with all the trash mob spawns, then upgrade the Harassers to deal with the Elven Rangers and Gryphon Bombardiers.  When the solution is obvious, finishing the map becomes a chore.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance Impossible Hero Challenge - Silveroak Outpost Iron

Stronghold Hostile and Neutral Walkthrough - World 1

The CRPG Addict just finished playing Stronghold, and it really gave me the itch to play it again.  I'm not abandoning my Kingdom Rush Vengeance or Skyrim series, I just felt the need to revisit a beloved classic in the meantime.  Well, beloved to me anyway.

When I started this blog / YouTube channel, my original intent was to focus on really old games like this - mostly games from the early 90s which is when I got into PC gaming.  I had no idea I was going to get so hooked on the Kingdom Rush series which has taken the lion's share of my focus so far, but I'm happy to start working on my list of classic PC games.

Stronghold is not very long or very hard (once you master the quirks of the interface), so this will be a fairly brief diversion.  It's not a very well-remembered game, but those who do tend to remember it fondly.  It's an early form of 4X game, except the interface is pretty awful.  The part for managing buildings is okay, but managing units is a bit of a nightmare.  You can't tell individual units where to go - you have to put them in a "ready" state, then use "magnets" to attract them to locations and hope the right units travel there.  It's cumbersome to say the least.

I've decided to do a walkthrough for each of the five pre-generated worlds.  In each case I'll be playing on Hostile (the hardest difficulty) and playing a Neutral ruler, meaning I have to both achieve the rank of Emperor and destroy all enemies in order to win.  I'll do each season as a separate video, and I don't expect any of the worlds to take more than five in-game years to win.  Here is my strategy guide for the game, and here is the first playlist:

Strategy Guide

Stronghold Hostile and Neutral Walkthrough - World 1