Kingmakers is taking the idea of bringing a gun to a sword fight to an entirely different level, putting players armed with modern weapons into enormous medieval battles involving thousands of soldiers.
Developed by Redemption Road Games and published by tinyBuild, Kingmakers is an upcoming action and strategy sandbox set in medieval England. Players are sent roughly 500 years into the past with one goal: change history and prevent an apocalypse in the future.
However, you won’t be limited to the weapons of the period.
Players can bring modern firearms, vehicles and other military equipment onto battlefields filled with swordsmen, archers, cavalry and siege weapons. Assault rifles can be used against charging medieval armies, while vehicles and other modern technology can completely change how battles unfold.
A new gameplay deep dive released in September has now provided a much closer look at how all of these ideas actually fit together.
Kingmakers isn’t simply a third-person shooter. Players will also command their own armies using real-time strategy mechanics, switching between fighting directly on the battlefield and controlling troops from a tactical perspective.
You can build and manage settlements, gather resources, upgrade your forces, construct defences and position different types of soldiers around the battlefield before jumping back into the action yourself.
The scale is one of the game’s biggest selling points. Redemption Road says battles can feature thousands of soldiers fighting simultaneously, with individual units controlled by AI handling elements including decision making, pathfinding and loyalty.
Destruction also plays a major role. Castles, defensive structures and parts of the battlefield can be damaged during combat, while siege equipment and modern weapons give players very different ways of breaking through enemy positions.
Players won’t have to build their medieval empire alone either.
Kingmakers supports online co-op for up to four players, allowing a group to fight together while commanding armies, controlling vehicles and defending settlements. Each player can participate directly in combat while also contributing to the larger strategy taking place around them.
The latest gameplay showcase also revealed more of the game’s progression, officers, upgrades, enemy waves, abilities, vehicles and settlement systems, giving players a much clearer idea of how substantial the strategy side of Kingmakers will be.
There is still no confirmed release date.
Kingmakers was previously expected to launch into Early Access in October 2025 before Redemption Road delayed the game to continue development and optimisation. Its Steam page now lists the release simply as “Coming soon.”
There is at least another opportunity to play it on the way.
Players can currently request access to an upcoming Kingmakers playtest through Steam. The developers say they plan to send out a large wave of invitations when the next test begins.
With massive simulated medieval armies, castle sieges, base building, four-player co-op and the ability to arrive on the battlefield carrying modern weaponry, Kingmakers continues to look like one of the more unusual upcoming strategy games on PC.