Barbarian Kings

Quick start — win the continent of Allaven in a dozen turns of your first war.

The idea in one breath

You are a king. Tax your provinces, raise armies from the races of the land, and march them across the hex map. Every king moves at the same time, in secret — so think about where your rivals will be, not just where they are. Take most of Allaven, or destroy every rival crown, and you win.

Your first turn, step by step

1Read your realm. The ledger on the right shows your treasury, income, upkeep, and provinces. Green‑bordered land near your start is yours; gold borders mark unclaimed ground worth grabbing.
2Muster troops. Click one of your provinces, then choose a race to raise. Mountains give Dwarves and Airships; forests give Elves; plains give Knights. Any land can levy cheap Barbarians. Don't spend every coin — keep a little for magic and upkeep.
3Work a spell (optional). If you have a wizard, cast a strategic spell — raise the dead in a home province, or scatter a threatening enemy army.
4Give orders of march. Click “Give orders of march →”. Select an army, set how much of it should march with the slider, then click a highlighted destination. Gold highlights are safe moves and land‑grabs; red highlights are attacks.
5Sound the advance. When your orders are set, click “Sound the advance ⚔”. Every king's armies move at once, battles resolve, and the chronicle records what happened. Then it's the next turn.

Winning battles

Combat compares your attack strength to the defender's defense strength to find the odds, then rolls a die. Better odds mean better results — but terrain helps defenders, so a small force of Dwarves in the mountains or Elves in a forest can hold against much larger armies. Soften a hard target first with a Fireball, or shield your own line with Warding.

Concentrate force. Three small armies arriving one at a time will be beaten in detail; the same strength arriving together wins.

Saving and restarting

Press Save in the top bar to open the Royal Archive. You have three save slots — save before a risky assault, keep an early-game bookmark, or park a campaign for later. The game also keeps an autosave at the end of every turn (and as you issue orders), so closing the tab costs you nothing: the title screen will offer “Continue your campaign” when you return.

Restoring returns you to the exact moment you saved — treasury, armies, prepared spells, your written orders, and even the dice yet to be rolled. To abandon a war and start fresh, simply begin a new one from the title screen; your manual save slots are kept.

Saves live in this browser's local storage. Clearing site data clears the archive, and saves don't travel between browsers or devices.

Three habits of a winning king

  1. Expand early. Empty provinces are free strength and income. Grab them before your neighbours do.
  2. Watch the leader. The AI kings ally against whoever's ahead — so don't leap into the lead unprotected, and use that same instinct against them.
  3. Keep the books. If upkeep outruns income you'll be forced to disband troops. Hold enough taxed land to pay your armies.