Lead a dynasty, not just an army
Old World is a turn-based historical strategy game where you rule one of 7 kingdoms and carry it across generations. Characters age, gain experience, fall ill, and die, so the heir you raise today becomes the ruler you play tomorrow. Marry for political advantage, raise heirs, and keep the four noble families in each kingdom on your side. Put the right family in charge of a city and you get their benefits; push them too far and they turn on you. Your court is full of named characters with their own personalities and traits — recruit warriors, philosophers, and builders, then use them as governors, diplomats, spymasters, generals, or tutors for your children.
How a group plays together
Old World supports Online Co-op, Online PvP, and Remote Play Together, plus hotseat, asynchronous, and cloud play modes. You can team up to build a shared empire or face each other as rival kings and queens. The map is full of unsettled tribes, barbarian marauders, and remnants of earlier cultures, and ruins hide artifacts and heroes of the past. Historically inspired scenarios give you concrete goals — lead Carthage to victory as Hannibal in the Punic Wars, hold the line against Barbarian Hordes — while weekly challenge games and fictional scenarios let your group compete on the same footing. Randomly generated and handcrafted maps both exist, so no two campaigns need to play the same.
What to know before starting
Orders are a shared resource across your whole realm. Instead of moving each unit once per turn, you can move a unit multiple times until it fatigues or your Orders run out, which makes turn planning a real decision. Buildings consume wood and stone rather than an abstract "industry" resource, and population growth does not depend on food alone. Technology is not on a fixed path — randomization keeps the tree different each playthrough. The game includes over 3,000 events drawn from history and mythology, plus ambitions and legacies tied to conquest, development, faith, and more. Quality-of-life tools like undo for mistaken commands and nested tooltips help you see what a decision actually does. Mods are supported, so your group can add new worlds, empires, and dynasties beyond the base content.