How to Install Europe Mod and UCP for Stronghold Crusader

Tired of sand, camels, and cactuses? Prefer the greenery of the original game?

In this guide I will show you how to install the Europe Mod, step by step, and have the appearance of the first game. I will also show you how to install the Unofficial Crusader Patch (UCP), which comes in the same bundle.

I personally, being bad with computers, zero modding experience, had no idea how to install this mod. I hope this will help others to install it.

READ BEFORE CONTINUING

1. This will overwrite stronghold crusader. You won't be able to play the original desert-themed stronghold crusader without reinstalling it.

2. This is not endorsed by Firefly.

3. You do this at your own risk. If anything goes wrong, uninstall the game and verify game files.

4. Some functionality is not present in the modded version. For instance, not all ai lords are present. This is intentional.

Why would I get this mod?

For many, including myself, the original Stronghold has a better art style than Crusader.

Also, the original Stronghold does not have a skirmish mode. However, in this mod you are able to play skirmish mode with the European setting.

What am I getting when I install this mod?

After installing this mod, you will get two things:

1. You will get a europe themed version of stronghold crusader, that looks like below:



2. You will receive various gameplay changes through the Unofficial Crusader Patch (UCP). These changes can be found here[unofficialcrusaderpatch.github.io]. These changes are designed to improve the game. For instance, in the original game, some of the Snake's castles don't have an entrance. UCP fixes this.

Installation Steps

Step 1: Go to https://www.moddb.com/mods/essential-stronghold/downloads/essential-stronghold-v3

Step 2: Click download now:

Step 3: Once it has finished downloading, open using win rar. You should see this:


Step 4: Open file explorer. Go to This PC > Local Disk (C:) > Program Files (x86) > Steam > steamapps > common > Stronghold Crusader Extreme.

Step 5: Go back to the win rar tab. Click on and go into the Stronghold Europe HD folder. You should now see this:


Step 6: Highlight everything in the Stronghold Europe HD folder. Drag it into Stronghold Crusader Extreme folder.

Step 7: If you get message pop ups saying there are duplicates of files (you will get them), click the replace option.

Step 8: In the win rar tab, go back to the zip folder by clicking on the two dots '..' at the top.

Step 9: Finally, drag the Stronghold Crusader.exe into the Stronghold Crusader Extreme folder. If you get popups saying there are duplicates, click the replace them option.

Congratulations, you have installed UCP and the Europe Mod.

FAQ

Does this work with the steam version?

Yes, this works with the steam version.

Do I launch this game from steam or from the exe?

You can launch it from steam.

At the start I saw German writing, is this mod in German?

No, this mod is in English. The original mod was made by members of the German community.

Why does it start from mission 51?

I am not sure. There are only 10 or so missions.

How can I get back to the original desert theme?

You will need to uninstall Stronghold Crusader, verify the integrity of game files, and potentially remove any mod files.

Is this mod bug-proof?

No, this mod is not bug proof. There are still bugs, namely in the editor. Let me know if you are having issues with the editor.

Alternative Method

If the above method does not work, there is a slower, alternative method. You can download the UCP and Europe Mod separately. It is important you do it in this order:

1. First download the Europe mod at and drag the contents into Stronghold Crusader Extreme folder.

https://www.moddb.com/mods/stronghold-europe/downloads/stronghold-europe-hd-v15-beta

Europe provides it's modified exe for you, so remove the existing stronghold crusader.exe (best to rename it to .old or something so you can get it back) and then rename the Europe provided exe (Stronghold Europe HD.exe) to stronghold crusader.exe so ucp can find it.

2. Download UCP mod from the link below and place its contents in the Stronghold Crusader Extreme folder:

https://unofficialcrusaderpatch.github.io/

Credits

Thanks to Synka who helped me install this mod and explain it.

Credits to Unofficial Crusader Patch modders.

Credits to Stronghold Europe modders.

I do not own any of these mods, credits to the creators.

[The Impractical Engineer]

Alright, also if you want some more Europe-designed skirmish maps to play with (the default ones aren't suited to the new textures), let me know. I have made a TON.

[Buntkreuz]

Btw, saw the comment below and will try that.

[Buntkreuz]

Today i copy pasted a lot of data around and it didnt work saddly.
All i could manage was to screw up the Trails completely, where i had Crusader Maps, with Europe template and the Europe Mission setup.
That meant stuff was happening like a mission with 7 players ending up on a map for 5 players with 2 keeps spawning inside each other and such.

Modders should stop packing mods into each other.
Recently i read that this was a major issue with Skyrim and Oblivion too.

Will try again tomorrow and if i find a way i post it.

[The Impractical Engineer]

Yeah look the missions are pretty shabby. You could try copying the europe gm folder and repalacing the normal gm folder on the vanilla crusader. This should keep the europe textures without the extra fluff. I don’t know if this works though so I’d create a backup of any files you replace.

[Buntkreuz]

Any way to install this without the missions? Just the visuals?
I prefer the Europe Visuals but lets be frank, the Mods Missions and "Crusader Path" are outright the most awful i have ever played.
YOu dont even get to build 80% of the buildings in most missions and Crusader Path there.
Theres even missions with 6 AI enemies who can build Slaves but you are forbidden to build Wells.
Or missions where the AI has a 300 Unit headstart with a fully built castle directly next to yours and 5 catapults firing at you, while you have nothing (no mercenaries, no market in any of the missions btw).
The design there is just the worst i have ever seen in any RTS and i wished modders would stick to the basics and simply provide a visual overhaul but keep their wannabe content to separate mods.

[r̲a̲n̲g̲o̲ ツ]

Also, for anyone wondering, I installed UCP patch after modifying these files and everything works fine for me.
SC version 1.41 UCP 2.15b

[r̲a̲n̲g̲o̲ ツ]

I actually found the way. 3:)
Download https://www.moddb.com/downloads/stronghold-germany ,replace only gfx and gm folder in your installed directory but make sure to save copy of original folders. After that you just copy and paste ORIGINAL FILES with these names to GFX and GM folder:

skirmish_trail_icons.gm1
icons_front_end_builder.gm1
icons_front_end_combat.gm1
icons_front_end_economics.gm1
interface_icons3.gm1
icons_placeholders.gm1
interface_icons2.gm1
icons_front_end.gm1

--> Those are from GM folder, now GFX folder:
skirmish_trail2.tgx
skirmish_background.tgx
skirmish_trail.tgx
skirmish_trail_vignette.tgx

I hope this helps someone else! :)

[r̲a̲n̲g̲o̲ ツ]

Hi there. Can somebody tell me if its possible to onlt have " the looks of it " on Crusader? I don't like not having the rest of the AI's and not having trails and etc. I just wanna have it look like EU but keep everything's else the same.

[Regicide]

Hey and thanks for your reply. So far, I just did what they say, putting the files in the folder and overwrite anything. Both .exe files are still there, because the Europe one has a different name. i still can play both versions!

[The Impractical Engineer]

You build the mercernary post just as normal