The Game

Hearthlands is a real-time strategy game in which you take a role of a king in your own medieval/fantasy realm. You cannot control your subjects directly. Instead, you focus on city-building, resource management, diplomacy, magic, and other things a typical king deals with on a daily basis. The world of the game, maps, characters, and opponents are procedurally generated.

The game is very flexible: you can create a powerful empire and rule your vassals with an iron grip, or establish a humble fishermen's village. Or build an impressive temple complex. Or found a small, bur well-defended outpost. Or be a host of a wizard's manor.

All characters, from a hauler to a knight have their own minds and behavior patterns. If you like games like The Settlers or Pharaoh you know how pleasant and interesting it is to just watch people scurry about.

World Map

There are two types of maps in the game: world map and local map. World map shows the location of your city in relation to your opponents. Other locations on the world map include ruins, lairs and such. Both types of maps are procedurally generated.

The game has a diplomacy system. Diplomacy allows you to trade with your buddies, conquer your rivals, protect your city from invasions etc. AI opponents are not scripted and act much like everyone else — based on their own understanding of the situation.

Local Map

Local map is not just a place where you build your city and gather resources. There are randomly generated encounters, such as: goblin camps, graveyards, wizard towers etc. Goblins may steal from you from time to time, or even launch an invasion; graveyards may occasionally spawn skeletons; bothering a wizard may have disasterous consequences.

You may not have all of the resources you need on your local map, which encourages you to find another way of getting them by trading with other cities, demanding tribute from your rivals, asking your allies for help etc.

City Building and Population

One of the important parts of the game is building a prosperous medieval city.

Houses you build attract migrants and provide your citizens with a place to live. Almost every building needs a certain amount of workers, so you need to make sure you have enough houses and population to keep up with your growing economy.

You need to supply your people with food and luxuries. If all the needs of a house are satisfied it evolves to a more advanced house, which has higher capacity, pays higher taxes, but needs even more resources to evolve further.

There are 8 types of food (apples, turnips, fish, honey, eggs, cheese, wurst and bread) each having its own nutrition value, 4 types of alcohol (cider, beer, wine and mead) and 4 types of luxury resources (furniture, boots, clothes, and pillows). Yes, pillows is a luxury resource.

Most advanced houses may also require a certain appeal value for the area they are built in. While parks, statues and fountains increase the appeal, production buildings decrease it greatly. No one wants to live near a sawmill or a pigsty.

Resources

The game has a lot of resource types!

Most of the resources can be spent on different things. For example, grain can be turned into flour, and then into bread (food), or you can feed it to chickens to get eggs (also food) and feathers. Feathers can then be turned into pillows (luxury) or arrows (military). Grain is also used in beer production (along with hops) and as a fodder for horses.

Other Things

There are four cultures to choose from, each with unique industries and special traits.

The game has several types of units which you can add to your army. Military part of the game is strongly dependant on the economy: you will need a supply of iron, wood, leather, and other resources to equip your soldiers with weapons and armor.

You can research various improvements for industry, economy, military and diplomacy.

You can research magic spells and use them to defeat invaders or improve the economy.

Platforms

Hearthlands is available on Windows, Mac OS and Linux.

Media

Download hi-res images and screenshots here.
Feel free to use them in your articles, posts and videos about Hearthlands.

Contact me

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. I appreciate any comments, suggestions and ideas.