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Stronghold Crusader offers several single player modes to play in.

Skirmish Trail[]

Fight through 50 linked Crusader games, defeating both European and Arab lords as you progress for victory.

The Skirmish Trail is a long challenge of 50 preset missions, where you can test your skills against various teams consisting of AI players. The trail starts off as relatively easy, but increases in difficulty: first unfair advantages, later more opponents join the fray.

The player can also use up to 3 chickens to skip unwanted or very hard missions in the trail. Chickens can be reclaimed by completing the skipped mission.

A second skirmish trail has been added with Stronghold Warchest, extending the tally to a total of 80 missions. This trail features a completely new set of maps, enemies and scenarios. The trail has since been included in Stronghold Crusader HD.

For the list of Crusader skirmish trail missions click here.

List of Crusader all skirmish trails missions - video walkthroughs:

"First Edition" Trail (1-50 missions);

"Warchest" Trail (51-80 missions);

"Extreme" Trail (1-20 missions);

Custom Skirmish[]

Skirmish with enemy lords (...) Build, defend, plan your strategy...

Custom Skirmish is the base game mode of Stronghold Crusader, where the human player fights AI lords in a match. Much like multiplayer Skirmish, a player is eliminated, when his Lord is killed, granting gold and part of their remaining stock to the victor. The last team (or player) standing is victorious.

Participating AI players, alliances and starting positions on the map can be determined in the gameplay lobby. Starting conditions are defined by the skirmish game mode, which can also be further influenced by giving the human or computer player an advantage:

  • Standard: the normal gameplay mode. All players have a minimal starting stock of food, wood and stone, as well as a handful of troops.
  • Crusader: Standard mode with a large number of starting troops. Makes players much more resilient against rushes.
  • Deathmatch: all players start with a large stockpile of resources and gold. Ideal for building a huge economy, giving players a chance to develop quickly.

Advantage can be given in one or two degrees, making one side stronger, while weakening the other, at the same time. Note that "computer players" refers to all AI players, therefore allies of your own are affected as well.

Game mode No advantage 1 degree of advantage 2 degrees of advantage
100% starting army 150% vs. 50% starting army 125% vs. 75% starting army
100% gold gained from tax 120% vs. 100% gold from tax 150% vs. 100% gold from tax
Standard / Crusader 2000 gold each 4000 gold vs. 2000 gold 8000 gold vs. 2000 gold
Deathmatch 10000 gold each 20000 gold vs. 7000 gold 40000 gold vs. 3000 gold


The starting army depends on whether you have chosen to play an Arabic or a Crusader lord in your profile, giving you units from the mercenary post and the barracks, respectively.

Lord Standard / Deathmatch modes Crusader mode
Arabic 5 Arabian bowmen, 7 slaves 50 Arabian bowmen, 10 Arabian swordsmen
Crusader 5 archers, 7 spearmen 40 archers, 10 swordsmen, 4 knights


AI players have their own set of units and therefore they also get their own set of starting armies.

Historical Campaigns[]

The historical campaigns are a mini-series of 5 campaigns each, which cover the historical events of the various Crusades. They feature:

  • the European conquest on the Holy Land, fighting against the Arabs and Saladin's forward armies,
  • Saladin's skirmish, where Saladin fought for the recapture of Crusader territories during the Third Crusade
  • the Kings' Crusade (also known as the Third Crusade), led by the three most powerful European rulers,
  • Crusader States, which is a fictional campaign demonstrating the infighting of the Crusader conquerors.

For the list of historical campaign missions, click here.

Castle Builder[]

Build peacefully, with just the camels for company!

This game mode features a peaceful sim mode, where the player can build a castle peacefully, without the disturbance of adversaries. Peace maps feature an inhabitable land, where wild animals reside.

SHC - Skirmish

In Castle Builder, players can also inject various events to make gameplay more interesting. A bigger collection of events also appear in custom skirmish maps.

Custom Scenarios[]

Design and play your own maps.  

This is the option with which Stronghold Crusader maps are made. A complete map editor is available at the player's disposal, granting the ability to make their own scenario. Feature enemy lords, include custom events and make use of many more options.

External Links[]

  • Stronghold addiction Youtube channel - a series of videos played by Stronghold Addiction and contains walkthroughs for all the missions from the Crusader and Warchest, Extreme trails, also custom games and deathmatches.
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