There were two games called Stronghold; one is quite a lot older than the other. It's the newer stronghold and its series Forward Observer means.

I played the new Stronghold and it was fun, simple but fun. It had nice little touches, and who didn't love ordering your archers to shoot fire arrows into a pitch ditch when there was a horde of enemies in range to get crisped? If you can find it I recommend buying a copy.

The semi sequel, Stronghold Crusaders, was disappointing as it offered very little new except for some crusader style graphics. It only offered skirmish games with none of the original's objectives, so it got repetitive quite quickly.