The game action takes place in a medieval fantasy setting. The players get to develop their starting town with resources collected from the nearby lands, to raise increasingly powerful armies which they use to advance their conquest.

Starting conditions

The player begins as a lord of a small castle on a remote island. With the help of a few poorly armed fighting men, or by itself, it battles bandits and monsters, to collect resources and help the people of the island.

Castle Building

The castle building happens in steps, called seasons. Each season, the player gets to organize and manage the town with all economic actions taking effect at the end of each season. Season length varies based on kingdom size, with larger kingdoms having longer seasons.

Armies

The player builds weapons in the castle. These weapons can be equipped on soldiers trained in the barracks. It is the equipment given to the soldier that defines it's abilities. Soldiers can wear 5 different pieces of armor and use 1 weapon in each hand. The number of items available to the player, which is initially low, grows fast forcing the player to balance the increased weapon costs with the cost of recruiting more soldiers.

Exploration

The player commands armies lead by lords. Initially, only one army can be moved around, on a grid based map. Moving the army reveals more territory with new challenges and opportunities.
The large maps contain quest givers which offer missions taking place in smaller areas. These areas are otherwise hidden. Completing quests allows the player to advance deeper into the world.

Combat

The combat happens on a hex grid, with the units involved taking turns to act based on their speed.

Progress

There are two aspects of progress in the game.
One is the economic progress. Developing a castle, and later on conquering other castles and developing those, will advance the kingdom technology allowing the player to get its hands on more powerful equipment, or in larger quantities.
The second one is the advancement of each army commander, the lords, by gaining experience. Experience is used to train skills that improve the battle abilities of an army, either by allowing a more numerous and specialized force, or by boosting the individual soldiers strength.

Player vs Player interaction

For the first few steps a new player makes, there is no pressure from other players. The first castle the player owns acts as a sanctuary which cannot be touched by others. As the player progresses, it can choose to get more involved with other players, by running missions on islands accessible by everyone.
Eventually, player conflict becomes inevitable.
Players will find each other on the map and may choose to attack. The engagements happen either directly, by two armies meeting, indirectly, when an army is inside a mission area and the other one finds it, or with an army attacking a player owned castle.

Objectives

The game does not have an ending. The objective of each player is to hold the most advanced castle it can for as long as it can.