Custom Battles: Choose Your Field, Army and Opening Plan

Following the Custom Battle release, we have rebuilt the setup around three steps: Field, Host, and Plan. Pick the ground, build both armies, set an opening formation, and begin. Begin battle stays available from every stage once both armies are ready.

Choose the field

Five biomes are available: plains, riverland, steppe, mountain, and basin. Reroll the seed for a new layout, then set clear, rain, or fog. Weather changes the battle for real: rain slows marching, shortens missile range, and weakens fire, while fog cuts sight and range. The preview shows the selected seed's actual terrain and whether a river is present.

Build both armies

Set exact troop counts for each side and add up to five historical officers per army, including the commander. Officers come from one shared pool, so the same officer never appears twice in a battle. Four archetypes decide which shared cohort each officer joins; they do not form separate detachments. Both army summaries stay on screen while you edit, and optional budgets can differ between sides or stay unused, so uneven forces are allowed. The combined limit is 1,000 bodies across both armies, officers included.

Set an opening plan

Four existing formations, Crescent, Iron Wall, Crane Wing, and Flying Wing, are applied through normal deployment. The plan diagram is a schematic; blocked ground keeps the safe starting line, and you can reposition before combat begins. Quick Match stages Cao Cao against Liu Bei using presets drawn from their campaign starting officers and specialty troops. Named setups, undo, and rematch keep your choices. The Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Sun Ce, and Lu Bu presets stay available and editable, as they were before this refresh.

Try an unusual matchup and tell us which controls need work, how the budgets feel, or whether large battles slow down. The updated demo is available now. Download the updated demo on Steam