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There are lots of resources to manage in the strategy classicStronghold Crusader, but often battles are won and lost by gold. Most of the game’s important buildings, not to mention every military unit, costs gold, so if the treasury runs dry you’ll need to come up with a solution, and fast.
Whether you’re new to the game or returning with the release of the Definitive Edition, this guide will take you through everything you need to know to keep the gold flowing, from managing workers and production to actually collecting income.
Taxes And Peasants
Your main source of gold in Stronghold Crusader is fromtaxation; you can set your tax rate with theslider that appears when you select your Keep. Each peasant (but not soldier) living in your fortress pays taxes every month, whether they are currently assigned to a workplace or not; therefore,the higher your population, the more taxes you will collect as time passes.
Your tax rate is set to zero at the start of a new game; you won’t start collecting any income until you change it, but the accompanying Popularity penalty means it’s usually worth relying on your starting funds to establish a basic resource economy first.
Raising taxes, even a little bit, willreduce your overall Popularity. This means that unless you have other ways to keep your Popularity positive (or at least neutral), it willfall every month. This isn’t a problem until it gets below 50, but once that happens it can be hard to fix. See below for more information on Popularity and how it affects your stronghold; the short version is,if you raise taxes, have some way to keep the people happy to make up for it.
Alms For The Poor
You can also set your tax rate to be negative,distributing gold to the peopleinstead of taking it from them. Like raising taxes, the cost each monthscales with your total peasant population.Handing out almsraises your Popularity, making it a powerful (if expensive) short-term fix for an unhappy workforce.
Whether you’re taking money or giving it away, the impact on Popularitygrows with the amount taxed or distributed. Higher taxes mean lower Popularity, while bigger donations mean more Popularity.
Popularity And Population
Your Popularity has adirect effect on the population of your stronghold. If you’re popular (with a total Popularity above 50), your population will steadily grow until it reaches the housing limit. If you’re unpopular (with a total Popularity of 50 or less), peasants will abandon your settlement until their problems are addressed… or there’s nobody left.
It doesn’t technically matter how far above or below 50 your Popularity is; growth or decline happens at the same rate, though having a Popularity near 100 gives you more grace for emergency measures like half rations or higher taxes. By the same token, it will take a lot longer to claw your way back from a Popularity of, say, 10 than it would from 45.
You canhover over the campfire by the Keepto see the current growth or decline; a ring will appear, filling up either green or red. If it’s completely green, a new peasant will appear if there is housing available; you canbuild new Hovelsto make room, but remember that doing so willincrease your needs for food, religion, and ale. If it’s completely red, a peasant will leave.
If there is no workplace currently available, new peasants willwait at the campfireuntil there is one. They’ll eat food, drink ale, and pay taxes while doing so, and they canalso be recruited at the Barracks, Mercenary Post, or other military buildings. Since soldiers arenot considered part of your population, they’ll stop consuming goods once they join the army, and a new peasant will soon take their place at the campfire.
You should always have at least a few idle peasants ready to be conscripted.
Popularity Factors
The following things will contribute to your popularity. Use them to keep people happy, and you’ll be able to get away with raising taxes higher and higher.
Tip(s)
Food
Keep people fed, and they’ll be happier. You can set the ration level at the Granary, but be careful not to run out of food.
You get a Popularity bonus if there aremultiple types of food stockpiled.
Fear Factor (Entertainment)
The “Good Things” tab lets you build maypoles and other entertainment buildings.
Peasants will stop at entertainment buildings to enjoy themselves, slightly slowing down your economy, but soldiers will also get an attack bonus if you have enough such structures.
Religion
Religious buildings employ clerics to wander around offering blessings. More clerics offer greater coverage, and bigger churches grant flat Popularity bonuses to make up for their exorbitant cost.
Spread out your smaller religious buildings, especially to make sure that outlying resource camps have easy access to them. The less distance a cleric has to walk, the more blessings they can offer, potentially giving you a bigger bonus.
Ale
Brew ale from hops and serve it at Inns. Each Inn can serve 30 peasants; the more of your population has access to ale, the higher the bonus.
Each barrel of ale lasts about two-and-a-half minutes on the default game speed, from the moment it’s delivered to the Inn.
Resources And Storage
Keeping a content workforce is one thing, but you also need to make sure they can do their jobs effectively. That’s whyefficient layouts and use of storageis so important in Stronghold Crusader.
Workers need totravel to and from their workplaces, and alsopick up and deliver goods. The less distance they have to travel, the more efficient your fortress will be.
A lot can depend on the individual map you’re playing on; if the only sources of stone and iron are on the other side of the region from your Keep, there isn’t much you can do about that except adapt to the situation.
There are three main storage buildings; thegranary, stockyard, and armory.Each can be expanded to create more space, but only adjacent to the existing structure; that means that once these three key buildings are in place, they will form thecentral hubs for resourcesfor the rest of the game.
If you have control over where they go (which isn’t a given on every map), it can be useful tospace out these three buildings, essentially creating districts within your settlement. That way, there’s room for all your industries to grow, and people don’t have to walk very far. For example, a row of bowyers, tanners, and blacksmiths separating the stockyard from the armory can easily reach both, picking up raw materials from the stockyard and dropping off finished gear at the armory.
Notable Resources And Buildings
Most buildings just require one or more workers to arrive, produce a resource, and bring it back, but a few have extra rules. For example:
Buying or selling resources at the Market is always a useful way to get out of a jam, but the availability of goods differs from map to map. Consider producing some goods in large quantities just to sell, so you’re never without plenty of gold.
