As Chronicles: Medieval marches closer to early access, we got a sneak peek of how Raw Power Games built the battle system for their debut title. The preview was hosted by Senior Game Designer Gareth Bourn and Community Lead Clemens Koch, who helped explain the magic that makes a great adaptation of medieval warfare.
Chronicles: Medieval is a real-time grand strategy game set during the Hundred Years’ War, where players interact and go to war with real historical nations and figures involved in the conflict. We don’t know a ton about the campaign system just yet, but we did get to hear more about the battles that Chronicles is all about. Oh, and we also found out that Lars Mikkelsen will be narrating your adventures on the battlefields of the 15th century as Johannes Gutenberg. If the voice of Grand Admiral Thrawn can’t inspire you to win your battles, who can?
The development team behind Chronicles: Medieval has plenty of experience across the gaming industry, including in other real-time grand strategy games like Total War: Warhammer II and Total War: Three Kingdoms. This, paired with plenty of history buffs on the team, has made for a game with deep historical roots that even affect its battle system.
Every battle begins with the Battle Planning stage, where “battle lines” are formed and prepared for the coming onslaught. Bourn described the battle lines as being different than formations you would find in other grand strategy games, explaining that “There is no prescribed shape an army has to conform to in our game. Each unit carries its own preferences, both type and culture. Our deployment system reads that to place units where they fit best.”
Some examples Bourn provided were how French Heavy Cavalry are vanguard units on account of their historical reputation of leading the charge, or how the forces of the Holy Roman Empire favour a dense vanguard of heavily armed men “for the enemy to break themselves against.” While players can make changes after the lines first generate, Bourn said a feature will be coming for players to save new preferences that fit more to their liking.
Just before the battle truly takes place, there are several tactical decisions a commanding player can make to start off a battle strong. The standing orders of every unit can be set to either aggressive, defensive, or adaptive. The former two are rather self-explanatory, but the adaptive orders specifically tell the unit AI to “do whatever they think is best,” which could mean changing their own formation to clash with an oncoming or defending unit.
Every unit’s initial order can be set, such as moving to flank or charging head-on, and afterwards they will fall back to their standing orders for guidance if they aren’t being actively commanded by you. Bourn also described how “the system shows its teeth” with a list of advanced formations aside from regular line formations. “There’s shield wall for infantry holding ground, spear wall to delete charging cavalry, square to be unflankable, skein for shock cavalry charges, and wedge for punching a hole.”
Bourn does clarify that each of these formations can be pretty bad if used in the wrong situations, and that timing each one is important because of how slow reformation speed can be. This means Chronicles: Medieval is less about micro-managing each unit perfectly, and more about making the right tactical choice at critical moments.
Finally, the battle may begin. You’ll take control of your army’s commander on horseback in third-person view, which means you can either advance slowly and control the battlefield with precise orders, or lead the death charge towards the enemy like Erwin Smith and trust your soldiers to act on their standing orders. Your commander will have their own skills you can invest in, like leaning into one-handed or two-handed weapons, along with over a hundred weapons to choose from to really make your commander your own.
As the heart of your army, your presence is important to help motivate your soldiers to keep fighting, so that they don’t break underneath the pressure and flee mid-battle. Earning kills and performing executions near your units will inspire them to fight harder and keep them from routing, so strategic aura farming is actually an important mechanic in Chronicles: Medieval. After either you or your enemy retreats or has their strength depleted, the victory or defeat is announced for the player, with the losing side fleeing until the battle truly ends.
While Chronicles: Medieval has a larger narrative campaign to get involved in, Bourn describes that armies with unique cultural tactics, units that understand their role, and a commander that can shape the battlefield are all part of how there are still stories to be told with boots on the ground. “The men you lead, the ground you choose, the orders you give, the risks you take with your own life on the line, all of this [combines] to make a story none of us could have written for you.”
These field battles and a sandbox mode will be the main component of early access for Chronicles: Medieval, with England, France, and the Holy Roman Empire as the playable factions. Raw Power Games is also developing other types of battles, like sieges post-launch, and more factions will be coming to the game as well. Chronicles: Medieval will be launching early access on Steam sometime in 2026.
