Mount & Blade: Warband vs Stronghold Crusader
Mount & Blade: Warband
Mount & Blade: Warband is hailed as one of the best installments in the Mount & Blade game franchise. This time around, you play as an aspiring leader who has his sights aimed at the currently vacant throne of Calradia. Assemble your army of battle-hardened warriors and dive into the fray as you battle your way up to what you want! The game brings realism to medieval battlefields with a ton of improvements, ranging from the ability to turn thrown weapons into a make-shift close combat weapon when the enemy gets too close to the ability to pick up projectiles off the ground to be used as extra munitions. There plenty of new features as well. You can now marry a lady for political gain or simply because you like her; grant lands to your companions, turning them into your vassals; as well as its incredible multiplayer battles that support up to 64 players and has varying modes. The game's multiplayer aspect is also very well-balanced, so that players will be able to fight each other on a somewhat equal footing.Mount & Blade: Warband is the epitome of the Mount & Blade series and honestly, if you're a fan or even a newcomer looking to give the series a try, this is definitely the game to get. The game is available on both PC and consoles (PlayStation and Xbox).
Stronghold Crusader
Stronghold Crusader lets you venture to the distant Arabian lands and dive into the historical, religiously-charged war between the Crusaders and the Saladin's forces through its four massive campaigns documenting the the First, Second and Third Crusades, as well as conflicts within each of the individual Crusader states. Aside from playing as Richard the Lionheart or Saladin, the Sultan of Syria, there are also 100 unique skirmish missions, a wide variety of units to recruit to your side of the fight, as well as an in-depth empire-govrning system that will see you building self-sustaining fortresses in the desert.Stronghold Crusader is an excellent real-time strategy game that infuses the mechanics that had made the Stronghold franchise such a success with the accurate historical elements of a real and bitter war that had happened way in the past. This is a game that may interest real-time strategy players, that's for sure!