Bloodlines & Banners

About the game

Empire depth. Dynasty soul.

Build an empire on a real Earth map. Raise a dynasty that ages, marries, produces heirs, and carries your legacy across centuries.

The world map — real Earth, hex by hex

The family tree — portraits age through nine life stages

Your heirs are written into the event chains

City view — buildings that change shape with the era

Court officers — loyalties, factions, and coups

The War Council

Champion duel — your best officer against theirs

Army command

Unit roster — spears beat cavalry, cavalry beat archers

Historical event cards with branching choices

The 120-technology research tree

One of 34 world wonders, each with a construction cinematic

Wonder construction — Persepolis

National projects

The same campaign, in a phone browser

Bloodlines & Banners puts two kinds of strategy game in the same campaign: a hex-map empire spanning recorded history, and a living dynasty whose choices echo across it. Both run in your browser, free, with asynchronous multiplayer built around the schedule you actually have.

Your ruler is mortal. They age, accumulate stress, marry, and die — leaving heirs who inherit their traits by blood and by upbringing. How you raise a child matters: upbringing stances shape war, leadership, politics, intelligence, charisma, and prowess. Your court is alive too, with advisors whose loyalty can curdle into factions, coups, and civil war.

Meanwhile the empire climbs a 120-technology tree, raises 50 buildings and 34 world wonders, works seven resource types, and meets rivals under first-contact fog — you do not know a civilization exists until you find them. Ten-plus victory paths are open, from domination to wonders to dynastic prestige.

Why play

What makes it different.

Play in your browser, start in seconds

No $50 purchase, no install, no patch downloads — open a link and you're ruling an empire. Your dynasty, your empire, your browser.

Your bloodline lives and dies with you

Rulers age, marry, produce heirs with inherited traits, and die — succession genuinely reshapes your realm. History is not a backdrop; it's your family.

One game, two genres

A hex-map empire of real Earth layered with living dynasties, officer-led tactical battles, card duels, and branching historical event chains.

Async campaigns that fit a real life

Play-by-cloud turns let a multiplayer campaign span weeks at minutes a day. Friends in different time zones share one history — on their own schedule.

Key features

What you'll actually do.

A living dynasty

Rulers age, marry, raise heirs, and die. Traits pass down by blood and upbringing; succession genuinely reshapes your realm. One mortal bloodline spans all of history — your choices compound across centuries.

All of history, one map

A hex map of real Earth, eight eras from 10,000 BC to the Information Age, 35+ civilizations, a 120-technology tree, and 34 world wonders with narrated construction cinematics. Every age changes how the game feels — portraits, music, unit art, and nine voiced era narrators included.

A world that hides things from you

First-contact fog means you do not know a civilization exists until you meet them, and AI rivals play a genuinely full game — settling, researching, raising wonders, and chasing non-military victories of their own. Your choices in one era also carry forward into the conditions of the next.

Battles with a brain

Arm stratagems in the War Council, set city defense postures, lead officers into the field, and settle a war with a duel between champions. Spears beat cavalry, cavalry beats archers, and sieges depend on the garrison. Then watch the whole engagement replay beat by beat on the Battle VCR.

Free & fair, async-first

No premium currency, no pay-to-win, no energy timers — and play-by-cloud turns that let a campaign span weeks at minutes a day. Depth earns your attention. History rewards it.

The living dynasty system

Your bloodline is the game.

In most strategy games, your ruler is a stat block that happens to have a name. In Bloodlines & Banners, your ruler is a person — with stress, traits, relationships, heirs, and a mortality clock.

When your sovereign dies, succession fires. The heir inherits your bloodline standing, their parent's traits (by genetics or upbringing), and the accumulated legacy of the dynasty. A well-raised heir with strong traits is a gift. An heir raised in neglect — with high stress and a vengeful streak — is a crisis waiting to happen.

Your court is alive too: officers with their own stats and loyalties, factions that form and demand concessions, and civil wars that can shatter a realm when cohesion falls too low. Die without an heir and the empire can fragment outright — whether your successor inherits an ally or an enemy depends on the cohesion you spent decades building or neglecting.

And the line compounds. At each era transition, your bloodline's standing — earned through deeds, marriages, and prestige — feeds into where your next dynasty begins. A run of capable rulers is a stronger starting position in the next age. Succession crises leave scars. History here is not reset between eras; it accumulates.

Closed beta

The full campaign is playable now.

Start in the Neolithic, build an empire, raise a dynasty through eight eras, and win or lose by one of ten-plus victory paths. Free during closed beta, with no time limit and no feature lock — and an in-game feedback button on every session.

Follow on itch.io → Stay in the loop Play our other game now