Issue

The game was running fine and suddenly I cannot start the game. It says "failed to initialize engine".

Cause

The most likely cause of this is the major Windows 11, version 24H2 Update.

You can check if you have this version of the Windows Update - search for 'System' and open the Windows Update > System. Within Windows specification you can see the version of Windows Update.

Investigation

Microsft appear to have changed something in Windows 11, version 24H2 Update that prevents the game from being able to run in full screen mode.  The only way to currently run the game correctly is if it is run in windowed mode.

We are currently looking into the issue and we will hopefully be able to release a fix soon.

Workaround

In the mean time you can use this workaround -

1. Open File Explorer
2. Navigate to the Documents folder
3. Open the Stronghold Warlords folder
(You may want to backup the file elsewhere first)
4. Delete options.xml
5. Run Stronghold Warlords as per normal

The options.xml file is usually located here -
\Documents\Stronghold Warlords\Profiles\options.xml

The game will launch in windowed mode and run correctly.