I have spent an impossibly large amount of time playing RTS games. I've played every Command & Conquer, every Ensemble Studios game, Total War, Supreme Commander, StarCraft, as well as dozens of others; not to mention every Stronghold game. However, if I had to choose my single favorite, it would probably be Stronghold Crusader. Partly, it's because it looks and sounds great even 10 years later. This game may not be in true 3D like Age of Mythology (also 2002), but you'll come to understand why when you have several thousand soldiers on screen simultaneously. I really like the sound design: the soundtrack is great and I actually enjoy the guy who verbally notifies you when "your granary is full, my liege". Most of the reason that it's my favorite, though, is personal taste and how this game manages to hit all of my favorite features. I've always loved turtle tactics and defense building, and I like a slower, more strategic RTS. Crusader exemplifies all of these qualities in spades. You can literally build any castle imaginable. You can employ hundreds of archers and dozens of ballistae. You can dig enormous moats, hire slaves to set enemy castles on fire, send assassins to scale their walls, set upon them with catapults, or (my personal favorite) make an army of knights and siege machines so huge it completely overruns your enemies. This game is literally Minecraft in RTS form; you can spend hours coming up with new strategies and castles. To sum up, the two best things about this game are the castle-building and seemingly unlimited population limits (I think it's 10,000). However, this game is probably not for RTS newbies: frankly, for an RTS, it's pretty complicated and daunting, but once you get the hang it, it becomes like second-nature. It also could be a good stepping stone to games like Total War and Sins of a Solar Empire. In my opinion, it hits a sweet spot in terms of complicatedness. If I was to choose one RTS to bring to a desert island, I would probably choose Stronghold Crusader. It's not only the best Stronghold game, but possibly the best RTS game. By the way, as a note, there was no nostalgia involved in this rating. I first played this game in 2010 in its low-resolution form, and I still loved it.
