Strategy Sessions Weekly: Cities Skylines 2’s First DLC Confirmed, Stronghold Crusader’s New Warlord

Cities: Skylines 2 just earned back some trust, Stronghold Crusader fans get a new campaign next week, and one city-builder rumour is worth filing under “wait and see.” Here’s what actually matters for your next session.

🎯 Quick Wins

Iceflake Studios confirmed on 23 July that a first paid DLC for Cities: Skylines 2 is now in development. This follows six free patches since Iceflake took over from Colossal Order, and it’s the clearest sign yet that the studio is treating the game as a long-term project rather than patching it up for a quiet exit.

Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition’s fourth DLC, The Surgeon and the Baibars, releases 4 August. It adds two new Lords and a nine-mission Trail of the Vulture campaign, giving existing players a genuine reason to reinstall rather than a reskin of old content.

Rising Moonshade hit full release this week. It’s a squad-based medieval fantasy tactics game built around limited resources and randomised mission rewards, which makes each run feel distinct rather than a fixed puzzle to memorise.

🧠 Strategy Spotlight

The story worth sitting with this week is what Cities: Skylines 2’s turnaround actually means for anyone who wrote the game off at launch. Steam reviews have shifted from mostly negative to mostly positive over the past several patches, and a paid DLC in development is a signal Iceflake plans to keep supporting the game rather than treat it as a sunk cost.

If you shelved CS2 after a rough first few months, this is a reasonable point to reconsider. The free patches have addressed a lot of the performance and simulation complaints that drove the initial backlash, and a studio committing to paid content is usually a sign they believe the foundation is solid enough to build on. Hold off on the DLC itself until pricing and scope are confirmed, but the base game is in a noticeably better place than it was at launch.

👀 Worth Watching

A new pirate-haven city-builder and management sim launches 31 July on PC, focused on production chains and crew governance rather than combat. Worth a look if you enjoy the logistics side of city-builders more than the aesthetics.

Total War: Warhammer 40,000 got a new gameplay trailer showing Ork Stompa combat and orbital strike mechanics. There’s still no confirmed release date, so treat this as a “watch this space” rather than something to plan around just yet.

💬 Community Corner

The most useful discussion in the community right now isn’t about a single game, it’s the “is it worth going back” question CS2 has raised. Players who dropped the game are comparing notes on which patches fixed which specific complaints, which is a genuinely useful resource if you’re deciding whether to reinstall. Worth a scroll through if you’re on the fence.

⏭️ Next Week’s Prep

Stronghold Crusader’s new campaign lands 4 August, so next week’s roundup will cover first impressions of the Trail of the Vulture missions. Keep an eye on the pirate-haven sim’s early reception too, since first-week feedback usually tells you whether a management sim’s systems hold up past the tutorial.

The short version: Cities: Skylines 2 is in a strong enough place that a paid DLC is now in development, Stronghold Crusader gets a proper new campaign on 4 August, and Total War: Warhammer 40,000’s Ork Stompa trailer is exciting but still dateless. If you shelved CS2 at launch, now’s a reasonable time to look again.