Mischkalon

Concept and goal

You play a god, not a chieftain: you lay out buildings and paths, and your settlers do everything else themselves. Your yardstick is the wellbeing of your people – food, health, contentment and faith are the heart of the game, because faith is where your power comes from.

• New campaign: free the land from the foreign peoples, region by region.
• Free play: the same world without a goal – build, research, grow.
• Tutorial: a guided first game in five chapters.
• Multiplayer: against friends over the network or via a Steam lobby.

Nine ages and research

The game begins in 10,000 BC; the years count backwards until you arrive in the High Middle Ages. Each age brings new buildings, professions and goods – from fire and the hand axe through bronze and iron to cathedral, castle and world wonders that only a single city can build.

Over 90 discoveries are spread across eight research branches that build on one another. The research board (F key) shows what's possible next.

Settlers, goods and wellbeing

• Your settlers fetch raw materials, carry them to the building site and build for themselves. Professions are filled according to a priority order that you set (P key).
• Fields, gardens, orchards and vineyards; sheep, goats, pigs, cows and horses.
• Long production chains: grain → mill → bread, ore → smelter → sword.
• Health, contentment and faith: shoes, books, bathhouses and temples make your people stronger – and increase your divine power.

Divine powers

Eight powers are at your disposal, paid for with your people's faith: bless your settlement, make rain fall, heal the wounded, summon game, or hurl lightning at your enemies. You cast them with the function keys F1 to F8, and the war consecration with F11.

Raiders, tribes and battles

• Foreign tribes live all around your valley: give them gifts, pay tribute – or clear out their camps.
• Raiders roam the map; guards stand against them, while walls, towers and gates hold them back.
• Sieges: scaling ladders against the wall, burning gates – if you've built well, you'll hold out.
• You command your troops yourself: stances, fixed squads on the number keys 1 to 4, and formations with spears in front and bows behind. Against warriors, archers and shield-bearers, the morale of both sides also plays its part.

Campaign and multiplayer

• With cartography, the region map opens up: a relief landscape with mountains, forests and sea, 27 regions.
• Free province after province, lead several armies using waypoints and keep them alive with supplies.
• Multiplayer: up to four players on the same region map, over the network or via a Steam lobby with invites. Armies march against each other's provinces – whoever conquers a province takes over the opponent's actual city.

Leaderboard and achievements

Every victory goes onto the leaderboard with points: 100 points for each age after the first and 10 for each invention, multiplied by the difficulty (Easy ×1, Medium ×1.5, Hard ×2.5), plus a speed bonus that starts at 1,000 and drops by 10 for every game year that passes. On Steam there are also achievements – from your first defeated raider and your first world wonder to winning the campaign.

Controls