How it plays
The RTS you know, with neighbours you can't ignore.
Gather, build, climb through four ages and put an army on the field. Then look at the table. Every other ruler is a trade partner, a threat or both, and the deals you make with them are carried out by the game itself.
What runs today, and what doesn't yet
The native build plays local matches with four culture groups, four ages, treaties, trade, doctrines, Great Works, morale, culture specials, local operations and replays. Private LAN play is implemented. Steam integration, live network checks, outside playtests and final art and audio review remain in release preparation. The docs track the build page by page.
Diplomacy
Treaties aren't chat. The game carries them out.
Sign a truce and the arrows stop. Sign trade access and the gates open. Sign shared vision and the fog lifts. Nobody has to keep their word, because the simulation keeps it for them.
- An offer is private to the two rulers haggling over it. The moment it is signed, it is public.
- Offers expire in game time, and there is one on the table per pair of rulers at a time.
- You can mute a ruler. Their new offers go away. Your obligations to them do not.
- Clauses travel in bundles and end in bundles. No half-deals, no hidden debt.
- I Truce
- No damage between signatories, projectiles and area effects included. Ending it is a public act with a 30-second notice.
- II Exchange
- Resources change hands at once, in full, or not at all.
- III Trade access
- Your caravans may use their markets. Theirs may use yours.
- IV Shared vision
- What their scouts see, you see, for as long as the treaty holds.
- V Recurring payment
- Tribute on a schedule. Pay each installment in full, or default and the bundle ends.
- VI Gate passage
- Their soldiers may walk through your gates. Choose carefully who.
- VII Coalition
- An agreement to win together. Coalitions decide who shares a victory, not who scores points.
Battle
Fights you can follow with your eyes.
Depth comes from things interacting, not from a longer list of numbers. Combat is explained in words and symbols on the screen, and the arithmetic stays inside the simulation where it belongs.
Town Hall
House
Farm
Tree
Villager
Spearman
Archer
Heavy cavalry
Trebuchet
Formations
Line, Loose and March Column for every group, plus Lance Charge, Shield Wall, Harass or Feigned Retreat for the chosen culture.
Morale
Pressure, flanks and losses wear an army down until it breaks and runs. How hard you chase decides how much of it gets home.
Terrain
Forest hides you. Hills see farther. Rivers funnel everyone to the same ford, which is where the ambush will be.
Pillage
Burn the farms, carry off the loot, and cut the caravans that pay for the army you are fighting.
Winning
Three ways to win, all of them in the open.
There is no score. A coalition decides who shares a victory, and every path to one is announced to the whole map before it lands.
- Dominion
- Hold a strict majority of the trading towns through a public countdown.
- Conquest
- Leave no rival standing.
- Prestige
- Complete a Great Work in the High Medieval Age and keep it standing until its public timer runs out.
Modes
One rulebook.
Every mode runs on the same rules. Co-op doesn't get a softer game underneath it, and a duel doesn't get a harder one.
Local matches, co-op operations and a private LAN lobby with rejoining are implemented. Live network release checks remain open.
Realm
The flagship: four rulers, three trading towns. Play locally against AI rulers, or invite friends through private LAN play.
Conquest
Four rulers, each fighting for themselves. Leave no rival standing.
Duel
One against one, the same rules, nowhere to hide.
Locked 2v2
Two teams with a permanent truce, shared vision and open gates between allies.
Co-op Defense
An allied team holds a settlement against declared waves. Every advantage the attacker has is written in the briefing.
Co-op Siege
Starve, raid and breach a fortress fed by real roads and real caravans.
Ground rules
Readable, resumable, replayable, fair.
Readable
Units read by silhouette and kit. A ruler is a colour and a heraldic mark, so colour vision never decides a battle.
Resumable
Save and reload local matches. Private LAN recovery, held seats and host migration are implemented and await live release validation.
Replayable
Every match can be recorded and scrubbed through on a timeline, so the argument about who broke the truce first can be settled.
Fair
Nothing in the game can be bought for an advantage. Handicaps are labelled in the lobby and recorded with the result.