Stronghold is one of the most under rated games.

Stronghold has it all: city building, fighting and defence campaigns and it's a simulation of the Middle Ages.

Being great at city buildings, gathering resources and timing the growth of your cities will not be enough. If you've been a great war machine, fighting off armies on land, air and sea, that won't be enough either. Stronghold pushes you to become both a builder and a fighter.

To win at Stronghold you need to build, fight and thrive all at the same time. The early levels are there to show you how the game controls work and give you a mild taste of the challenge to come. I enjoyed the city building, it's my favourite part.

I'm not a great fighter

The trouble playing Stronghold (for me) were the military campaigns. I was happy getting my village set up but just as it began to thrive I'd need the fighting force which I had not given much attention to. Stronghold is more realistic that way. The battles don't wait for you to be ready.

I do have a mild god complex

One feature of Stronghold which I especially have fun with is the ability to choose to be a nice ruler or a mean and heartless rulers. In your kingdom you are the woman (or man) in charge. Do you build nice things, make the village and kingdom pretty and keep everyone happy or ... Do you build devices to discipline and torture your people and keep them working for you out of fear?

Don't think you have to be nice. These are not real people, just game characters created from code and pixels. No one is watching over your shoulder to tell about your mistreatment of your village. At any time you can change your ways and offer them some pretty flowers. At least for a little while. Just a tease or a little misdirection to get keep them from leaving the village, dying or other minor but annoying things which would inconvenience you.

Of course, just as you have your villagers in line there is an army camped outside your boundaries just lining up to attack your castle and destroy everything you have built up.