Old World

Old World PC is a historical 4X strategy game set in classical antiquity, combining empire management with dynastic succession, court politics, tactical warfare, and a large library of event-driven decisions. Originally revealed as 10 Crowns, it is now sold under the Old World name on current PC storefronts. Mohawk Games, led by Civilization IV designer Soren Johnson, built it for players who want a tighter, more personal alternative to a standard civilization-building sandbox.

The game is published by Hooded Horse and focuses on a zoomable, overhead strategic map rather than a character-level camera. Its campaigns are structured around leading a kingdom through successive rulers, managing cities and armies while trying to preserve enough legitimacy, family support, and resources to keep the state intact.

Orders make every turn a strategic budget

Old World uses a shared Orders system instead of limiting most units to one simple action per turn. Orders are spent across your entire realm, allowing units and characters to move, attack, scout, improve tiles, perform missions, or take other actions. A military unit can act multiple times in one turn, but repeated movement and combat consume the same finite pool that your governors, workers, diplomats, and spies also need.

This creates a distinct rhythm. You may have enough strength to attack, but not enough Orders to move the army into position, reinforce a damaged flank, and secure the captured city afterward. Legitimacy helps determine how many Orders your kingdom receives, so political stability directly affects battlefield flexibility.

Combat takes place on the same hex-based map as exploration and city development. Terrain, roads, rivers, elevation, unit roles, and action economy all influence the outcome. The result is less about moving an entire army once and more about deciding which units deserve your limited attention this turn.

City development is similarly concrete. Old World separates resources such as food, wood, stone, iron, civics, training, money, and science, while population growth depends on more than a single generic food total. Improvements, specialists, family assignments, and adjacency planning turn each settlement into a collection of connected economic decisions.

Players coming from broad empire sandboxes such as hex-based 4X games like Sid Meier's Civilization VI will recognize exploration, research, city building, diplomacy, and warfare, but Old World compresses the historical scope and makes individual rulers matter much more.

Dynasties, families, and mortal rulers

The defining system is the dynasty layer. Leaders grow old, suffer illness, gain traits, and eventually die, leaving an heir or another successor to carry the kingdom forward. A strong ruler can stabilize a fragile empire, while an unlucky succession may reduce legitimacy and expose unresolved tensions inside the court.

Each of the seven kingdoms includes four noble families. Assigning family members to cities provides practical benefits, but the relationships are not decorative. Families can become dissatisfied, overly powerful, or entangled in events involving marriages, rivalries, ambitions, and political favors.

Your council can include roles such as spouse, heir, ambassador, chancellor, and spymaster. Other characters may serve as governors, generals, tutors, or specialists. Their personality archetypes and traits affect what they do well, so recruiting a capable court is only the first step; placing the right person in the right position is the real challenge.

Old World also uses ambitions and legacies to give campaigns direction. These objectives may emphasize conquest, development, faith, diplomacy, or other long-term accomplishments. They prevent the late game from becoming only a question of having the largest territory, especially when your empire is pursuing an ambition victory rather than simply accumulating score.

Events that change the political map

The game contains more than 3,000 historical and mythological events, many of which are linked to characters, religions, foreign dignitaries, court positions, or the current ruler. Choices can alter opinions, traits, relationships, resources, and future event chains. They are not merely flavor text because a decision made during a marriage negotiation or succession crisis can create strategic consequences several turns later.

Exploration also has a narrative purpose. Ruins, artifacts, heroes of the past, unsettled tribes, and barbarian marauders occupy the wilderness, giving scouts more to find than empty territory. Scenarios expand this structure with focused objectives, including campaigns involving Carthage and Hannibal, barbarian invasions, and other historically inspired conflicts.

The event system can be adjusted through game options, which matters for players who prefer a cleaner competitive ruleset. Modes such as No Characters, No Events, and competitive settings allow groups to reduce or remove parts of the dynasty and narrative layer rather than treating the default campaign as the only way to play.

Base game and paid content

Old World is a paid game with optional paid DLC rather than a free-to-play service. The current content lineup includes seven named add-ons: Empires of the Indus, Wrath of Gods, Behind the Throne, Wonders and Dynasties, Pharaohs of the Nile, The Sacred and The Profane, and Heroes of the Aegean.

The base game already supplies the core Orders, dynasty, family, character, religion, city, combat, event, scenario, and multiplayer systems. The DLC packages are focused expansions rather than cosmetic bundles. They add new nations, leaders, historical characters, scenarios, events, map scripts, wonders, projects, religions, and specialized mechanics.

Behind the Throne adds rising stars, stress, revelry, estates, slums, opulence projects, political eras, and Grand Viziers. The Sacred and The Profane expands religious play with clergy, religious dissent, cult projects, and more than 350 events. Wrath of Gods introduces Aksum, dynamic terrain, and nine calamities including floods, plagues, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes.

Empires of the Indus adds the Mauryas, Yuezhi, and Tamilakam, along with the Huns, new religions, wonders, resources, jungle terrain, and South Asian maps. Pharaohs of the Nile centers on New Kingdom Egypt and adds Kush. Heroes of the Aegean provides six Greek historical scenarios and introduces the Hittites to the main campaign, while Wonders and Dynasties adds new rulers, dynasty starts, historical characters, events, and eight wonders.

Who should play Old World?

Old World suits players who enjoy turn-based 4X strategy but want their empire to feel like a succession of human reigns rather than a permanently controlled abstraction. It is particularly strong for players who enjoy planning around imperfect information, adapting to randomized technology choices, and turning family politics into a strategic resource.

It is less suitable if you want a simple city-builder, a purely deterministic tech race, or a campaign where leaders remain unchanged from beginning to end. The game asks you to read tooltips, track relationships, understand several resource types, and accept that a promising ruler can die at an inconvenient moment.

Players seeking the older, more traditional form of this genre can also compare its compact historical focus with classic turn-based empire management in Sid Meier's Civilization IV. Old World shares the same broad 4X foundations, but its Orders economy and generational court are much more central to every campaign.

PC features, multiplayer, and localization

The PC version supports single-player, online PvP, online co-op, hotseat, asynchronous play, cloud play, shared or split-screen multiplayer options, and cross-platform multiplayer according to the current storefront listing. Steam features also include Workshop support, a level editor, Steam Cloud, achievements, and Remote Play Together.

Mods are a substantial part of the PC ecosystem. The game supports user-created worlds, empires, dynasties, and fictional settings, giving experienced players tools to extend the sandbox beyond the historical framework.

The current PC localization list includes English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese, and Korean. The storefront lists interface and subtitles for these languages, with no full audio localization indicated.

Old World FAQ

Was Old World previously called 10 Crowns?

Yes. The project was originally announced as 10 Crowns and later rebranded as Old World. Current storefronts and publisher materials use Old World as the official name.

Is Old World a traditional Civilization-style 4X game?

It uses familiar 4X foundations such as exploration, expansion, resource management, research, diplomacy, and war, but its Orders economy, mortal leaders, noble families, court characters, and event chains give it a stronger dynastic and political identity.

Does Old World have multiplayer and co-op?

Yes. The PC version supports online PvP, online co-op, hotseat, asynchronous games, cloud play, shared or split-screen options, and cross-platform multiplayer. Multiplayer settings can also reduce or remove character-focused systems for a more competitive format.

Does the base game include the main dynasty and Orders systems?

Yes. The paid base game contains the central Orders, dynasty, succession, noble family, character, city, combat, research, event, religion, scenario, and multiplayer framework. DLC adds optional content and new mechanics on top of that foundation.

What is the best Old World DLC for court politics?

Behind the Throne is the focused choice for players interested in court intrigue. It adds rising stars, stress and revelry, estates, opulence, slums, political eras, and Grand Viziers, all of which deepen the internal management of a kingdom.

Does Old World have mods on PC?

Yes. The PC version supports mods and includes Steam Workshop integration, allowing players to create or install additional worlds, empires, dynasties, and fictional settings.