The gaming industry has always been preferring the Western theme when it comes to RTS games. For example, you can easily find a game that tells the medieval story like Lornsword Winter Chronicle, or World War II in Europe such as Land of War: The Beginning.

Hence, we have very few chances to find a strategy game that portray the battle taken place in the Far East. This somehow turns the Eastern battlefield into a great concept, and Stronghold: Warlords is the latest one to take this theme into its goods.

The game was first announced back in E3 2019, and it's coming to PC very soon. Below is the newest trailer of Stronghold: Warlords, showcasing the soldiers of Vietnamese and Chinese unit, which you can have a look to see its characteristics:

Overview on Stronghold: Warlords

Stronghold: Warlords is the next 'castle-sim RTS' game in the Stronghold series. This time, it will portray the ancient war in the Far East, featuring 4 regions including Japanese, Chinese, Mongolian and Vietnam. Your task in this game is very simple: build your Stronghold and deploy troops to siege others'.

To be your specific, you can step into the epic leader of many races - from Genghis Khan's leading troops of Mongol horseman to the Shogun of samurai clansmen. For the first time in the series, you can recruit 'Warlords" - the leader of your troops. They have their distinctive characteristic and certain power that brings certain abilities and power to your army. Those powers are upgradable and the more prosperous your castle is, the more powerful they'll become.

Stronghold Warlords New Trailer 3
Build troops to take down enemies' castles

In order to develop your castle, you'll have to manage the industry, including applying taxation to gain some money. Using the money and resources you've collected, you then will fortify your borders and develop advanced weapons, equip it to your troops and start invading the others'. Stronghold: Warlords has 3 different play modes, including campaign, skirmish and multiplayer, which you can enjoy at your will.

Stronghold Warlords New Trailer 1
Warlords can be achieved by defeating them

Deep strategic elements with many kinds of units

In order to protect and expand your territories, you'll have to precisely deploy your troops consist of certain units. Each kind of unit is useful in certain situations, such as the light and small troops for small and surprise skirmishes, or the heavily-armored ones for large-scale sieging. The trailer above has shown the units from Vietnamese and Chinese.

To be more specific, the Vietnamese units are the Spear Tribesman and Blowpipe Tribesman that takes the inspiration from the first Vietnamese military troops back in the 300th century BC. They're cheap to deploy, and due to their light equipment, they attack very fast and very mobile. However, due to their short-range and low-damage, they'll take forever to siege down castles, so you should consider choosing other types for that task.

Stronghold Warlords New Trailer 6
The Tribesman of Vietnamese troops are good for early skirmishing

The Chinese units are much more diverse, which are mainly separated into two categories: The Auxiliary and the Imperial.

First of all, the Auxiliary category consists of two types - the Archers and the Axemen. The Archers shine when it comes to defending your troops, since they're light-armored and can deliver rains of arrows if you put them into the right spot to make use of their far range. Additionally, they can also deploy traps to prevent your opponents from approaching your territories - a perfect method of preemption.

Stronghold Warlords New Trailer 7
The Auxiliary troops of China are good for defending

The Axeman is on the opposite sides, as they excel at low-range combat. They wear heavy armors, so they're very tanky, being able to stand on the front lines and absorbing the damage for the fragile backline. They're also good at defending too since your opponents won't have a great time passing the gate that they're holding.

The Imperial type is much more expensive, and they need a longer time to make as well. Including Bannermen and Crossbowmen, they'll pay off their cost by the ability to deal tons of damage and have a lot of health to tank damage. They're definitely a must when it comes to attacking.

Stronghold Warlords New Trailer 8
The Imperial troops are made for sieging!

Release date

Above are only two of the race that you can deploy in Stronghold: Warlords. At launch, the game will include the Japanese and Mongolian troops as well, and information about them is likely to come in the near future.

Stronghold: Warlords will come out for PC via Steam in 2020.