Heirs to the Realm

A thousand years ago the old world broke. Now the ash has cleared, and four peoples are coming back up into the light to find a green, fertile realm full of the ruins their ancestors left behind.

On the last night before the Breaking, a handful of elders swore an oath, each in their own tongue. Only pieces of it survived. The mice read their lines and see a mouse on the throne. The badgers read theirs and see a badger. Nobody has read the last two lines, because nobody can.

And all as one shall be the heir of all;
Who would be one alone, alone shall fall.

They're going to fight over it anyway.

Heirs to the Realm is a classic real-time strategy game at creature scale. Gather and build, advance through the ages, and lead armies of mice, badgers, hares and rats to war over the land they once shared.

Start with a town hall and a handful of citizens. Send them out for food, wood, stone and gold, put up cottages and storehouses, and plant fields to ensure you survive. Every settlement claims the ground around it, so growing your realm means pushing your borders out across the map.

Three ages. Advance from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. Every age brings new buildings, new units, new strategies.

The Chronicle. Earn Lore and spend it on research, from farming and better tools to sharper weapons and heavier armor.

Claim the spires. The ancients left strange spires standing across the land. Hold them for Lore and sight, and hold multiple to gain an even bigger advantage.

Shape the land. Bridge the rivers, tunnel through the ridges, and wall it all in with palisades, gates and towers.

Take charge and build an army worthy of the true Heir. Deduce your opponents strengths and weaknesses, and counter with your own strategy.

Walled off city? Build siege engines to take them down or breach their fortifications to attack their heartland.

Day and night. When the sun goes down every soldier lights a lantern, and battles are fought by their glow. Night cuts how far you can see, so plan your raids around it.

Seasons and weather. Leaves turn and fall, snow piles up and slows the march, and rain closes in your sight. Campfires keep your troops warm and heal them between fights.

Fog of war. Unexplored land lies under a rolling mist. Scouts, towers and lanterns push it back, and ridges hide what's behind them.

A new land every time. Maps are generated from a seed, with rivers, ridges, plateaus, woods and fords to fight over.

All four peoples field the same core army on even terms, so battles are won by how you play, not who you pick. But each builds, dresses, farms and rides its own way, and each has its own reason for believing the realm is theirs.

The Rootborn (mice). One of the root, who keeps the eldest word... They kept more of the old writing than anyone, and they read their lines best. It's written down, so it must mean them.

The Burdened (badgers). One of the burdened, shouldering the stone... Their lines are carved in the stone vaults they hold. They carried the realm once, so the realm is theirs. They don't talk about what else they carried.

The Swift (hares). One of the swift, who outrun wind and flame... They stayed out on the open ground through the long dark, and they don't trust anyone who hid from it. To them the prophecy just means whoever survived.

The Teeming (rats). One of the teeming, many as the rain... They've lived off what the ancients left behind for a thousand years, and they're the likeliest of anyone to suspect the whole prophecy is hollow.

Set up a match your way and take on the AI. Play anything from 1v1 to 4v4, or a free-for-all for up to eight, against Easy, Normal or Hard AI opponents and allies. Choose the starting age, the stockpile, the map size, how many spires it holds, the starting season and how long each season lasts. Every map comes from a seed, so you can replay ones you liked.