After 150,000 demo downloads, three times as many as Stronghold: Definitive Edition... We have channelled thousands of your Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition feedback forms into new player-requested enhancements!

Ahead of the game's July 15th launch, today we dive into some of these community-requested features, confirming key information on maximum unit counts and more in our final ‘Feature Spotlight’ development diary.

As some of Crusader’s most knowledgeable and experienced players, your feedback on our upcoming Definitive Edition has been invaluable. So naturally suggestions and ideas discussed online were studied in close detail, ahead of the game’s reveal earlier this year. Your Crusader: DE feedback was then examined after January 20th through the demo’s feedback form.
Many features have been requested by players since January.

These include raising the overall troop count to a whopping 10,000 soldiers in a single game, to match that of Stronghold Crusader Extreme, which we can confirm today. We have also made the addition of a few Islamic buildings and related workers for the game’s Arabic and Bedouin Lords, as well as many vital bug fixes. The latter addresses specific exploits and issues discovered by the game’s most dedicated players across more than 20 years of play.

From map sizes up to four times the size of those available in the original, through to custom toggles for skirmish mode and online leader boards, we are striving to tick every possible box for fans of the original game. A Definitive Edition should include absolutely everything possible that players want out of Crusader and that’s what this final version of our game intends to deliver!

After a few eagle-eyed players infiltrated the help files, Assassin style, in our Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition reveal demo, we thought it was time to pull back the curtain on our 8 new units. Today’s Feature Spotlight video brings with it new footage and juicy gameplay details for our Bedouin soldiers, expanding the original roster with fresh tactical options at launch on July 15th.

Inspired by the roaming Bedouin tribes of the Middle Eastern deserts, these eight new troops open up a whole new world of siege tactics (and hurt!) on your rival lords. Be they friends you played the OG Crusader with way back in the day or new Stronghold allies found in our official Discord server[discord.com], enemy Lords and Ladies won’t know what hit them. From camel-riding lancers and bowmen, to sneaking fire-starters and demolition specialists, our expanded remaster adds plenty of new options for commanders in the art of medieval warfare.

In our latest Feature Spotlight we reveal exactly what these new units are capable of and how you might use them to your advantage in your next medieval conquest. So please check out the video, learn their strengths, weaknesses and let us know what you think in the comments below! Player feedback has been a huge part of the success of our Definitive Editions, so as always we’d love to hear your thoughts for this upcoming game and of course future titles.