From Swords to Starships, in a Single Match
In the tradition of Empire Earth and Rise of Nations, Unending Empire is a real-time strategy game where history doesn't reset between matches: it plays out inside one. Found a medieval town, gather food, wood, stone and gold, and carry it age by age through the Medieval, Gunpowder, Imperial, World War I, World War II, Modern and Future ages, with Energy joining the economy in the Imperial age. Your archers become musketeers, your galleys become ironclads, your knights give way to tanks, and the battle that began beneath castle walls can end with a kinetic strike from orbit.
Play the whole sweep or just the part of history you love: Start Age and End Age settings, with presets for Medieval to Imperial, the World Wars and Modern to Future, let a match cover any stretch of the seven ages or all of them, and three speeds (Blitz, Fast and Epic) set how long each age lasts. Each age-up opens a short "what's new" panel, and explainer cards with staged demos show each age's new way of fighting the first time you reach it.
Nations That Evolve
Start as one of 7 civilizations: the Kingdom of England, the Holy Roman Empire, China, Japan, the Abbasid Caliphate, the Mali Empire or the Norse. At World War I and again at the Modern age, choose who your nation becomes: 28 evolved identities, 35 nations in all. England can rise as the British Empire or break away as the United States, and the United States can grow into Pax Americana or join NATO. The Norse can end the game as the Einherjar Corps, marching in Valkyrie Battle-Suits.
Every nation has its own economic rule, combat doctrine, unique units and a National Power:
Economic rules change how you earn: Norse Timber Halls are paid for in wood, English farms bring in gold from the Wool Staple, Chinese town centers train workers two at a time, Japanese workers fight back as Ashigaru Levies, and Mali's caravans carry their gold along the Salt Road, where raiders can take it.
Doctrines change how you fight, and they change as your nation does: England's Thin Red Line volleys become the British Empire's Mad Minute and then the United Kingdom's Marksmen, or the United States' Fire Superiority and Pax Americana's Overmatch.
83 unique units, from Samurai, Berserkers and the Reichsritter to the Mark IV Landship, Big Bertha, the Shiranui Fighter and the Thunderhead bomber. Every Modern identity also carries a Future signature unit into the last age.
National Powers you aim and time: Clothyard Volley, Viking Raid, Way of the Warrior, Pilgrimage of Mansa Musa, Creeping Barrage, Carrier Strike, Codebreakers and 28 more.
Each civilization's own line: every starting civilization has a building of its own, such as England's Royal Dockyard with a shore battery over the slips, the Norse Longhouse that hides workers from raiders and Japan's Somayama Camp that replants its forest; Special Forces of its own, from England's Pathfinders to Japan's Shadow Infiltrators and China's Tunnel Wardens; and a late-game heavy hitter: bombers that carry a warhead, the Lorelei Railway Gun, the Thousand-Rocket Salvo, the Drone Swarm Storm, Every Army Has a Price, Fimbulwinter, or Japan's Titan, a walking fortress that strides over walls.
Or build your own in the Nation Builder: spend an 80-point budget on up to 6 passives, an economic rule and a doctrine and national power borrowed from the game's nations, then give it a name, a banner, a coat of arms and the look of a starting civilization, and take it into skirmish or online play.
Every Age Fights Differently
Units don't just grow bigger numbers each age; they gain new things to do, and new counters.
Medieval to Imperial: shield walls, braced spears against charging knights, musket volleys, bayonet charges, and field guns that must unlimber before they fire.
The World Wars: infantry dig trenches, engineers string barbed wire, howitzer barrages crater the ground, early tanks break through the wire (and sometimes break down), armor is weakest from the side, machine guns pin infantry, halftracks carry squads to the front, and submarines stay hidden from everything but sonar and recon aircraft.
Modern and Future: guided missiles against flares, helicopters against tanks, then shields against EMP, a power grid to raid, drones that need a command range, jump-jet exosuits, hover tanks, satellites for recon, jamming and kinetic rod strikes, and strategic warheads that every rival is warned of while a silo arms them (a Superweapons setting turns warheads, kinetic rods and the heavy hitters off).
Every combat unit has a verb or stance of its own: reiters and dragoons fire on the move, frigates turn to fire broadsides, galleons carry a landing party, marines clear garrisoned buildings, and self-propelled howitzers shoot and scoot.
Drill choices: three either/or technology pairs in every age; research one half and the other is closed to you.
Air orders: fighters intercept over a spot or escort a bomber, bombers fly a bomb run along a line, and drone carriers recall their drones to mend.
184 unit types on land, at sea and in the air, including 16 combat ships and 24 aircraft, from biplanes and observation balloons to stealth bombers and aerospace fighters.
Retrofit veteran units into the next age's equivalent and they keep their veterancy ranks, or keep yesterday's army on the line as a cheap defense.
Formations: Line, Rectangle, Pincer, Spread, Circle and Square, and they matter: lines volley, rectangles lock shields, squares hold off cavalry, pincers find a tank's flank.
Build an Economy That Lasts
Workers harvest and haul, farms keep you fed for good, and merchant caravans run trade routes that rivals will try to raid. Later, coal, oil and reactors feed an Energy economy that powers the modern war machine, each late age leans on different resources, and rich Oil Fields and Rare-Earth Sites between the starting positions are worth fighting over. Research 134 technologies and raise 14 Wonders, two for each starting civilization, from Himeji Castle and the Forbidden City to Bletchley Park and the Three Gorges Dam.
Many Ways to Win
Conquest: destroy every rival.
Launch: run a space program in the Future age. Build a Launch Complex, then raise three Launch Modules at powered sites spread across the map, where every rival can see them, and hold out through the countdown (five minutes, ten on Blitz): enemy troops at any module stop the clock, and losing a module sets the program back a stage.
Wonder: hold a Wonder for eight minutes: a Modern-age Wonder, or a Gunpowder-age one when the match ends before the Modern age.
Dominance: relic sites stand in the middle of the map and between the starting positions. Soldiers take one by standing on it, and a team that holds most of them for ten minutes wins.
Score victory at a set time, a peace timer, home-ground attrition, and Exile: lose your last town center and your nation flees in a settler wagon to found a new capital.
Campaign, Editor and Workshop
The Chronicles: a campaign of 7 missions, one for each starting civilization, walking from the Medieval age to the Future, each with a briefing, bonus objectives and three difficulty levels.
A tutorial in 7 chapters: your first town and conquest, battle drills, empire and industry, sea and sky, the Modern and Future ages, Special Forces, and superweapons.
A scenario editor: paint terrain, forests and resources, place any unit or building, set each player's nation, age, team and resources, and script objectives and triggers. Publish your scenarios to the Steam Workshop and play the ones you subscribe to.
Play Your Way
Online multiplayer for up to 8 players through Steam lobbies and friend invites, with spectators, team chat, resource and unit gifting, a team surrender vote, the AI taking over for a player who drops, and resuming saved multiplayer matches.
Skirmish against AI at 6 difficulty levels (Easy to Insane) with 5 personalities: Aggressor, Boomer, Turtle, Technologist and Opportunist. Mix AI allies and enemies in teams.
14 map types in 4 sizes, including Islands, River Crossing and Highlands and named maps such as Flanders Fields, the Ardennes and the Nile Delta.
Huge armies: population caps up to 1,000 in a duel (shared out in bigger matches).
Saves and autosave, end-of-match graphs, replays you can seek and rewind and watch from any player's view, Steam Achievements and Cloud saves, partial controller support, and full key rebinding.
Accessibility options: a colorblind palette, high contrast, reduced flashing, captions for interface sounds and alerts, UI scaling, and spoken menus and chat for screen-reader users.
Playable in 14 languages.