Siege defence: pitch ditches burning before the towers

About this game

Developer: Firefly Studios · Publisher: Firefly Studios · Platform: PC (Steam) · Art style: Realistic 3D · Screen type: Battle / Tactics

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What to study

The HUD under stress tells the story the flyovers cannot: an objectives panel folded away so the field stays readable, a seven-stock resource bar whose zero (stone, mid-siege) is the whole tactical situation, and a popularity book still insisting morale is at 100 while the pitch burns. Defence reads as layers - stakes, ditch, towers - and the interface mirrors it in layers of its own, from the minimap's red mass to the scribe's calm green total. Frame at about 1:18 in the Story Trailer (Steam), a scene-change survivor (v1_0021 at 78.2s) inspected at full resolution in this run.

Patterns

How the screen is arranged.

top-bar bottom-dock side-panel

Components

Parts on screen.

Minimap Resource bar Quest tracker

Screen inventory

• the field: a black pitch-ditch maze scorched into the grass, one section alight under an archer formation in blue and white; stake belts arc around the approach; three towers with archers on their roofs cover the ditch line
• top-left, an OBJECTIVES header with a collapse chevron - mission text is a foldaway layer, closed during the action; beside it Rank 8 Baron, honour 403/500
• top-right, the resource bar at full wartime width: seven stocks (207, 17, 0, 32, then 262, 17 and 1,920 gold) - the stone stock reads 0 in the middle of a siege
• Day 7 / 6:33 at top centre; bottom-left minimap shows the red assault massing against the blue keep with the camera frustum drawn; bottom centre dock; bottom-right the scribe's book (100 rising, 40/40, TOTAL +3) and ledger

Top 3 colors

#3d3b13 25%#22210b 20%#474814 18%

Top three palette colors by share. The remaining colors make up the rest.

Source and credit

© Firefly Studios, Stronghold 4 screenshot: Stronghold 4 - Skirmish Trailer and Story Trailer videos (Steam), shown for design study and commentary. PlayCraft is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Firefly Studios.

Source tier 2 (publisher-released) · screenshot: Steam store page · Steam page

Source details

Fetched 2026-10-21. verified 2026-10-22: scene-change survivor v1_0021.png (78.2s) inspected visually at full resolution in this run; keeper file siege-hud.png is a byte copy of that survivor

no published policy found (checked 2026-10-22); fair-use study use, takedown honored within 48h

Rights holders: see Copyright & takedown.