Dead Crown
A stained-glass window in a dark stone hall: a crowned knight on a white horse crosses swords with the Death Knight on a black horse wreathed in green flame.

Dead Crown

The dead have risen. Hold the realm a little longer.

A hex strategy game of towns, armies and a war against the risen dead.

Follow development

Windows · in development · a free demo is planned on Steam

The game

You lead the Covenant, the last lords of the living, against the dead, who grow stronger as the war goes on. Build your towns, raise your armies, and hold.

A painted hex map

A painted hex map

Towns, roads, rivers and fields, and a war that moves through four seasons a year. Winter slows the living. The dead do not feel the cold.

Towns that grow

Towns that growComing in 0.3

Every town lays out its streets once and grows into them, from hamlet to market town to sprawling metropolis.

Armies and battle lines

Armies and battle lines

Hold the line with zone of control, move troops by wagon and road, and see the odds before you strike.

Research

Research

Three research trees, unit lines up to tier 3, and a choice of two at the top of every line that shapes your army.

Heroes

Heroes

Lead with the Warlord, the Steward or the Confessor. Each sets a style of play of their own, and finds treasures made for them.

Walls, sieges and great rites

Walls, sieges and great rites

Raise walls, bring rams and catapults to theirs, or win without a final battle: a holy rite held for 24 turns.

One town growing: a hamlet, a market town and a metropolis
One town as it grows: hamlet, market town, metropolis.Coming in 0.3

A living worldComing in 0.3

The war is fought across a whole world, from the hot equator to the frozen poles. The seasons come on week by week, and the weather changes how armies fight.

The same land in spring, summer, autumn and winter
The same land in spring, summer, autumn and winter.
A blizzard over an army in the far north
A blizzard over an army in the far north.

Heat and cold take sides

The cold favours the dead: they march stronger, and the fallen freeze where they lie, waiting to rise. In the heat their plague burns hotter, but their bodies rot.

Weather with a temper

Downpours, thunderstorms, blizzards, heat waves and cold snaps, forecast a week ahead. Pull your army indoors before the blizzard, or march under it unseen.

Seasons you can see

Meadows turn from green to gold to rust, snow lies deeper toward the poles, and the far north sinks into a long dark winter under a sun that barely sets in summer.

Two sides

Balanced, but never mirrored. The living farm, trade and pray; the dead raise the fallen and spread the blight. Your hero bends your side's strategy further. Every rule is tuned across thousands of simulated matches, so either side can win.

The living

The Covenant

Farmers beside knights, priests beside plague doctors: what is left of the old order, sworn to one another because nothing else holds. They rule by consent, guided by Chancellor Wren.

  • The Warlord, a hero in iron and red on a black horse
    WarlordHero
  • Templar, a knight on a white horse
    TemplarHoly cavalry
  • Shield wall veteran with spear and round shield
    Shield wall veteranTier 3 shield line
  • Crossbowman aiming his crossbow
    CrossbowmanTier 3 bows

The unliving · playable later

The Pale Dominion

Every grave in the land answers when the crown calls. They rule by fear and grow stronger as the war goes on, guided by Chancellor Rook.

  • The Death knight, a hero in black armour on a skeletal horse
    Death knightHero
  • Corpse eater, a hunched ghoul with a gnawed bone
    Corpse eaterFast ghoul
  • Bone guard, a skeleton with spear and shield
    Bone guardTier 3 shield line
  • Skeleton archer drawing a bow
    Skeleton archerTier 3 bows

The world

The old king's tomb, open and empty, by candlelight
“The plague came in a wet spring... and by winter, the king was dead. They buried him with his crown. That was the mistake.”

The crown was made to bind the realm to its ruler, living or dead. Something climbed out of the tomb wearing it. And deep beneath the old king's tomb, a door no one has found stays shut.

In the wildComing in 0.3

The road

  1. Now · In development: closed alpha (version 0.2.3)

    In private testing: a full match against the dead as the living.

  2. 0.3 · The world comes alive: the free demo on Steam

    Growing cities, a climate from equator to poles, monsters in the wild, and a computer that fights like a general, as a free demo with the game's Steam page.

  3. Early access

    When the living and the unliving are both playable, each with its campaign, and Conquest.

  4. 1.0

    A third people joins the war. Each people has a campaign in three acts, and Conquest.

  5. After launch

    One against one.