How to play Your Empire
There are no armies to drag around and no menus to dig through. The whole game is the map and one question: what do you do about this? Here is how a reign goes
Your first reign, step by step
Start a game
Open yourempire.cc and press the start button. You can play as a guest with a nickname. The game gives you a random country, a random ruler and 2 to 5 real neighboring cities, anywhere on Earth
Watch the top bar
Six numbers stay on screen: treasury, population, army, stability, the ruler's age and the year. Everything else lives in the cities and in the events. The map is your whole interface, and you can pan and zoom it freely
A map that is the whole interfaceLet time run
Time moves by itself: one real minute is one game year. Pause it when you need to think, or speed it up (x1, x2, x5, x10) to reach the next trouble faster
Open the event
When something happens the game pauses, the place glows red on the minimap, and a big notice appears. Click it and the camera flies to the city with the choices open over it. Only one event is open at a time. You can collapse the card to look at the map first, and the big notice stays
Events: the only thing you doChoose, and read the arrows
Every event offers 2 to 6 options. You see the numbers tied to the situation and what changes right now, shown as arrows and icons: treasury down, army up twice. There are no exact figures and no hint about what happens years later. Sometimes doing nothing is an option, and it has consequences too
Keep the powers in line
Your country has forces of its own: nobles, clergy, merchants, officers, peasants and more. Some back you, some do not. Wars, revolts, plots, famine and hard choices raise your stress, and stress shortens your life. Events may offer a new form of government, such as a parliament, socialism or communism
Forms of government Forces inside the countryReach the end
The game ends when the ruler dies or you lose every city. Death can come from old age, illness, a revolt, a coup, poison, a battle or an accident. Then you get the final screen with your stats, an epithet and a card to share
The final card, the chronicle and the leaderboards
Things worth knowing
- Read the arrows before the jokes. The text is for fun, the arrows are the bill
- Cruelty works until it stops working. Fear fades, grievances stay, and unrest and plots grow
- Watch your stress. Every hard year takes something off the life you were given
- Advisors disagree on purpose. Take one side and the other one remembers
- Your neighbors are not scripted. Their rulers decide half the time at random and half the time to their own advantage, so a quiet border can stop being quiet
- You do not babysit the game. The server keeps it, so close the tab and come back later, even from your phone
Ready?
Your first ruler is young and a little too sure of themself
Plays in your browser on desktop and phone. Guest play, no download