Running a medieval castle economy
Stronghold 2: Steam Edition is a real-time strategy and simulation game set in a medieval kingdom falling apart under rival barons. You build and manage a castle, work an intricate economy, and decide how to treat the peasants who keep it running. Feed them well or tax them into the ground, hand out medieval justice with gibbets and gallows, rehabilitate criminals or execute them. Unhappy peasants turn to crime and have to be punished, so the state of your people directly shapes what happens in your settlement. Alongside the management side there is siege warfare, with close combat fought inside castle structures rather than only outside the walls.
Playing together online
The Steam Edition adds online multiplayer, so a group can play against each other over Steam. Up to eight players can battle in Kingmaker and Deathmatch modes. In Kingmaker you gain Honour through title, strategy or force and try to dominate the field; rival lords can raise entire armies on their title alone. There is also an offline skirmish mode against computer-controlled opponents when nobody is available. Alongside competitive play, the in-game map editor lets you craft custom scenarios and share them through Steam Workshop, so one person in the group can build a map and the rest can play it.
Before you start
Expect a game that mixes city building, resource management and war rather than pure combat. You will spend time on your economy and your peasants' happiness as much as on armies, and crime and punishment are systems you have to deal with as they come up. Classic medieval events and castle-life activities like duelling inside buildings and holding lavish banquets sit alongside the fighting, and the campaign puts you under siege from the warmongering Lord Barclay while powerful barons jostle for the throne. The Steam Edition includes Steam multiplayer, Workshop support, achievements, visual enhancements, a new map pack, an art book, the soundtrack and trading cards.