Just a few days ago, during Summer Game Fest, Raw Power Games revealed the first gameplay of its medieval sandbox simulator, Chronicles: Medieval, and today we get to see more.
The video, presented by Senior Game Designer Gareth James, showcases how you prepare for a battle in the world of the game and the basics of how it’s conducted.
Before a battle, you can let the game set up your units depending on their strength and weaknesses, or you can customize your deployment.
There are basic formations that trade off elements like speed and maneuverability, and advanced formations that have deeper effects. Each formation is really good at its specific job and rather bad at everything else, so choosing the right formation is relevant.
Timing is also important, as the game rewards reading the battlefield and preplanning as opposed to continuous micromanagement of your units. If you have to redeploy them, it’ll cost you precious time.
Before the battle even begins, you can give your units full advance routes, and you can set standing orders so that they will behave aggressively, defensively, or in a neutral way if they don’t have specific orders.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that Chronicles: Medieval is an impersonal strategy game, as you’ll be playing the commander directly in third-person view. While you can stay back and direct the battle from afar, you can also get stuck in and fight side-by-side with your men.
You also have Command Mode, which lets you slow time to direct your troops, although the battle doesn’t really stop.
We also hear how the game is aiming to simulate battles of many different sizes, from small skirmishes to massive engagements. The developers are aiming for 1000 vs 1000 men, but they’re not yet ready to commit to that number.
Morale will be another important factor, as rarely do battles end with the annihilation of one side. Units can have different morale states between inspired and broken. The actions of the player on the field heavily influence morale.
Broken triggers a rout that cannot be recovered. The unit is lost and will simply try to leave the battlefield.
It’s worth mentioning that you can order a retreat, which is different from a rout, and your units will try to leave combat orderly.
Once a certain threshold of routed units is passed, the battle is won or lost, but the player still retains control to perform actions like covering their retreating units or riding down the routing enemy.
You can check out the video below, alongside a number of screenshots.
Chronicles: Medieval is coming in 2026 for PC. If you want to read more, you can check out its settments, the combat, and its political systems.
