REAL-TIME STRATEGY · BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1066

$word

WAR · OATH · KINGDOM

A real-time strategy game for up to eighteen players, human or computer, on a map of Britain and Ireland split between eighteen kingdoms. You win by taking all 90 provinces.

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One email when $word opens to more players. No newsletter.

Join the $word Discord

Playtests, updates and bug reports are in the Discord.

SEE IT RUNNING ↓

THE REALM

In play

The map above is the game’s own geography, province for province: the English earldoms, the Welsh kingdoms, Scotia and Moray, and the Irish kingdoms. This is that same realm running.

The $word strategic map with a Watchtower's sight rings drawn over southern England and the province inspector open beside it — Selecting a province shows its owner, garrison, morale, production and buildings. Watchtower range is drawn on the map. The game keeps running while panels are open.

Wiltescire and Hantescire side by side, each with its capital, garrison badge, resource icon and dashed province border

Provinces

90 provinces, five to a kingdom at the start, each with a garrison, morale, a resource and buildings. Morale affects production and healing, and a province with very low morale can revolt.

The five resource icons: a stack of gold coins, cut logs, iron ingots, a grain store and dressed stone blocks

Resources

Gold, wood, iron, food and stone. Every kingdom produces four of the five and lacks one, and the kingdoms that have yours are your neighbours. Trade for it, or take the province that makes it.

III

Movement

Roads are fast. Moving off-road is slower but keeps the army hidden from enemy settlements and watchtowers. Armies refill supplies at home and drain them abroad, so a long campaign has to be fed.

Southern England in clear view beside neighbouring provinces darkened and badged with a question mark because they are unscouted

Sight

Villages, armies and Watchtowers each reveal a radius around them. Troops on roads can be seen from further away than troops off-road. Unscouted provinces hide their garrison.

Ships

A port builds four kinds of ship. Fleets fight each other at sea, where archers aboard add to a fleet's strength, and a fleet sitting off a rival's harbour shuts it down until it is driven away.

A castle standing in Wiltescire beside a road, with a watchtower and a farm in the fields around it

Sieges

A castle has 100 wall points that an army has to break before it can attack the garrison. Sappers and siege engines damage walls, the damage persists between assaults, and repairs take time.

THE WORKS

What you raise

Every province has slots, and what goes in them decides what it is worth. These are the game’s own models.

DRAG TO TURN

400 Wood + 200 Iron. Sees 70 km down a road, and 35 km of the ground an army is trying to cross unseen.

The $word political map of Britain and Ireland with every province colour-coded by kingdom and unscouted provinces marked with a question mark

Eighteen kingdoms

Britain and Ireland in 1066, 90 provinces, eighteen kingdoms at war from the first minute. You only see what your villages, armies and towers can see.

Zoomed-in view of southern England showing roads, rivers, woodland, garrison strengths and province borders

Armies

Armies march across the map in real time, along roads or off them. Every army carries supplies, and one that runs out starves in the field.

A $word fleet of two ships crossing the Irish Sea from Gwynedd with 60 troops aboard, its sea route drawn as a dashed line

Fleets

Ports build longships. Fleets carry armies over the Irish Sea and round the coast, land them on an enemy beach, blockade a rival's harbour, and ride out the storms that drift across the map.

The $word buildings menu listing Training Ground, Farm, Watchtower, Market and Port costs for a coastal province

Economy

Provinces produce gold, wood, iron, food and stone. You spend them on farms, markets, ports, castles, training grounds and siege workshops, and on the troops and ships those buildings unlock.

Diplomacy

Make peace, form alliances, grant passage, trade resources on an open market and send private messages to other players.

The $word multiplayer lobby, headed Eighteen kingdoms one map, listing the kingdoms and who has claimed them — Lobby
Up to eighteen players. A computer player takes any kingdom without a human.

The $word victory proclamation reading THE REALM IS CONQUERED — Victory
You win by holding every province. Allies who have each allied with one another win together.

GENRE: Real-time strategy
PLAYERS: 1 to 18, human or computer
MAP: 90 provinces, 18 kingdoms
SOUNDTRACK: Original adaptive score
PLAYS IN: The browser · desktop, tablet, phone
STATUS: Closed alpha

Follow development

The waitlist sends one email at launch. Playtests are organised in the Discord.

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