Conquer the Old World in this historical, epic strategy game from Soren Johnson, Lead Designer of Civilization IV and Offworld Trading Company.

Old World is a historical strategy game where you lead your empire through multiple generations, building a grand legacy to last beyond your own years. This is an era of great leaders, from the revered to the feared.

Wage massive wars, manage your court, and build a dynasty — or watch your empire crumble to dust. What legacy will you leave behind?

Players select a historical leader and compete with other nations for dominance. Use strategy and cunning to settle new lands, acquire wealth and resources, and take down rivals. While these leaders are legendary, they’re still only mortal; once they meet their demise, the future of the nation depends on their heirs.

Hooded Horse is excited to reveal the next DLC for Old World, Behind the Throne DLC is coming to all platforms on May 28, 2024.

This new Old World add-on focuses on character interactions – their wants, needs, and ambitions. New gameplay mechanics include the emergence of powerful rivals – figures with the popularity or authority to challenge your ruler in various ways. Stress mechanics will see characters struggle under the pressures of court life, forcing them to engage in revelry. What revelry you ask? The good old-fashioned kind – gambling, opulence, the usual.

The DLC pack also comes with other new features, such as:

• Over 350 new events, mainly themed around politics, intrigue, and personal ambitions.
• Over ten new character traits, such as “Stressed,” “Impulsive,” and our personal favorite – “Unpopular.”
• A collection of new goals & ambitions.
• Three new improvements and projects – Estates, Slums, and the “Opulence” project.
• Six new historical characters who can become “Rising Stars” – important characters who have the potential to become your greatest ally or your fiercest rival.
• New character portraits and event art.

Old World (and all DLC) is localized from English into German, French, Spanish, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese,  Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Japanese.

Key Features:

• An innovative new Orders system: Orders are a resource players use to command their units as they see fit, unlike traditional 4X games which limit every unit to one move each turn. Giving players control of who can take an action and how many times adds a new layer of strategy to the genre.
• Real leaders: Old World features a selection of seven real-life leaders including Cyrus of Persia, Ashurbanipal of Assyria, and Dido of Carthage. Every year is a turn, so these leaders will give way to their descendants as the game progresses.
• Legitimacy: Each ruler must prove that they are worthy of the throne. As you accomplish Ambitions, finish Wonders, and gain renown (as “the Wise” or “the Avenger” or “the Peacemaker”), your Legitimacy increases, granting additional Orders each year and improving your standing with the people.
• Succession: Every turn in Old World represents a year, and the rulers are mortals who won’t last forever. They will need to get married and produce an heir to continue their line. When a ruler dies, the heir who takes the throne chooses a new Ambition to make a new name for him/herself.
• Events: Old World has a powerful and deep dynamic event system that generates a procedural story for your nation based on your decisions, your accomplishments, and your characters. The game has over 1,000 unique events, many of which are inspired by historical events from the period. These events give characters Memories, Traits, and Relationships, which can then trigger later events, so be careful what you choose.
• Ambitions: Your dynasty achieves victory by fulfilling 10 Ambitions, each one more difficult than the last. These Ambitions are dynamically generated from the Events of your game and the desires of your characters. No two games will ever play out the same way, and the wise ruler will know when to change direction.
• Engaging scenarios: Beyond the standard game on random maps, players can also play in the ancient Mediterranean or in scenarios with special conditions based on historical accounts.
• Politics: Each nation has four noble families who can be granted stewardship of your cities, with each one providing unique and powerful bonuses. You’ll want to balance how to distribute cities among your families carefully as those with too many will begin to think they deserve the throne while those with too few will grow envious of their rivals. Pleased families will keep their citizenry under control while angry ones will incite revolts.
• Territories: Cities form cohesive blocks of territory, with an urban center and rural hinterlands. Each improvement occupies a single tile, including Wonders and urban buildings, such as Shrines, Amphitheaters, and Garrisons. This territory grows based on where the player constructs Improvements and trains Specialists on the map.
• Resources: Resources in Old World, such as Food, Wood, Stone, and Iron, are stockpiled as they are produced, to be spent on units, improvements, Wonders, and so on. Borrowing some algorithms from Offworld Trading Company, a dynamic marketplace allows players to buy and sell the resources at any time, with the prices fluctuating based on supply-and-demand.
• Technology: The technology tree borrows mechanics from card-building games to add variety and create interesting decisions. Each technology available to research is added to the player’s deck, and when it is time to choose the next technology to research, the player draws four cards, chooses one, and then discards the others, which will not reappear until the deck is reshuffled. Thus, choosing between two desirable technologies is a difficult decision as the player knows they will not see the card they just passed over for many more turns.
• Flexible multiplayer: Old World supports a wide variety of multiplayer modes, including asynchronous, play-by-cloud, hotseat, team games, scenarios, and a variety of turn speeds and styles.

Old World is available for PC (Steam / Epic Games Store / GOG.com).