This is one of the worst games ever made. It looks as if no effort was put into it. Sloppy and not fun at all. Torture.
I don't even care about the improved graphics or mechanics or buildings or anything modern about this game. These aspects are irrelevant since we are in 2011 and nobody expects a game coming out and looking like crap. All i want to talk about is the absurd difficulty and total breakdown of the economic system.
I started the economic campaign since i though it would be better to get to know the game better before i do some sieges. I knew from Stronghold 2 that economic campaigns cam be a real pain in the behind especially because you have limited time to do almost impossible tasks.
So Mission no. 1 is supposed to get you started. You have to acquire some stone and lots of wood in a limited amount of time. The first time i tried this 1st Mission (!!!!!) i failed. Just because i thought i could do things slowly as i am advancing. By the end of the time i found myself with only half the wood. The second time i tried i knew where and how to place my building, how to keep my 24 peasants with half and even quarter rations since 6 farms were hardly able to feed them. I had 3 woodcutters who did their job and by 3/4 of the time i was done. All this torture in the 1st Mission... not to mention that half way into the map when i had my whole infrastructure up and running i was just sitting and looking at some amazingly slow people moving around, really they move as if going to an execution... its so boring it aches.
Mission no. 2 takes you near some ruin which you must clear of wolves and rebuild the abbey there. This time you receive some 6 spear-man and 3 archers, which makes you feel some comfort. However this time your farms produce grain which you turn into bread via a mill... so if in the first mission you needed 1 peasant to produce food now you need 3 peasants to gather the grain, make flower and finally produce food.. 3 men you somehow need to find. And all these during wolf attacks. And don't think wolves are some skinny dogs you kill with one arrow. When the pack came the men were overrun easily and the damn beasts created havoc. Killing my only baker left my whole economy dead, food ran out in seconds and people started leaving. So rather than torturing myself with having to wait and hope i will find some way of recovering, although taxes were on 0 from the beginning of the game and i didn't have enough gold to even place an armory I decided i rather just do something else.
I wont tell you to buy or not to buy the game. Do as you wish, on your responsibility. I am a seasoned RTS player... starting from Warcraft 2, Starcraft or C&C: Tiberium Sun to this day I played almost everything there was... and still this game looks tormentingly frustrating to me.