Fit check
Is Strategy & Tactics: Dark Ages worth it for you?
We tell you who should skip it, too.
Play it if you…
Good fit- Turn-based strategy players who want battles centered on positioning and battlefield conditions
- Historical-fiction fans who prefer multiple factions and troop types over a single army
- Campaign players who want squads and commanders to develop between battles
Skip it if you…
Saves you a refund- Players seeking a fast, lightweight strategy game may find the focus on formations, terrain, weather, and unit development demanding
- Players looking for a single continuous empire-management structure may find the scenario-based battles narrower in scope
- Players seeking a non-historical fantasy setting may not want its alternate-Middle-Ages armies and real historical figures
Our take on Strategy & Tactics: Dark Ages
Rather than treating strategy as a contest of army size alone, the game makes positioning, weather, terrain, and leadership central to combat. Its alternate history also places gunpowder guilds, war elephants, musketeers, crusaders, and ancient formations in the same tactical setting.
What is Strategy & Tactics: Dark Ages?
Strategy & Tactics: Dark Ages is a turn-based tactical board game set in an alternate Middle Ages.
Players command six factions, including nomads, Imperial soldiers, Normans, gunpowder-wielding guilds, knights, and Mesopotamian cults. More than 50 squad types draw on historical troops. Units gain experience and develop skills after surviving battles, while generals bring distinct abilities, traits, appearances, and personalities. Leaders can be placed in a pantheon for reuse between campaigns, and historical figures such as Joan of Arc and Genghis Khan can be hired. Scenarios include civil wars, pirate raids, plague-stricken kingdoms, nomad attacks, and peasant uprisings. Positioning, feints, ambushes, terrain, and weather affect battles, while weapons and armor can be improved at the royal forge.
How Strategy & Tactics: Dark Ages plays
- 01Six Playable Factions
- The factions include nomads, Imperial troops, Normans, guilds using gunpowder, knights, and Mesopotamian cults.
- 02Squad Development
- Surviving units earn experience and improve their skills over the course of battles.
- 03Distinctive Generals
- Commanders receive individual abilities, traits, appearances, and personalities, with some generated at the start of each game.
- 04Varied Scenarios
- Missions cover civil wars, coastal pirate attacks, plague, nomad incursions, and peasant revolts.
- 05Battlefield Conditions
- Formation, positioning, terrain, rain, and fog influence the effectiveness of different troops.
- 06Equipment Upgrades
- Weapons and armor can be improved at the royal forge.
Strategy & Tactics: Dark Ages compared to similar games
Old World is also a historical strategy game, but it focuses on guiding an empire across multiple generations, including marriage, heirs, and long-term legacy. Strategy & Tactics: Dark Ages instead centers on turn-based tactical battles, scenario objectives, squad experience, battlefield conditions, and individual generals.
Strategy & Tactics: Dark Ages: platforms & release
Is Strategy & Tactics: Dark Ages worth it?
It is worth it if: turn-based strategy players who want battles centered on positioning and battlefield conditions. Skip it if: players seeking a fast, lightweight strategy game may find the focus on formations, terrain, weather, and unit development demanding.
Where can I download Strategy & Tactics: Dark Ages?
Use the Download Now button on this page: it opens Strategy & Tactics: Dark Ages's store page, where you can choose how to get it.
What platforms is Strategy & Tactics: Dark Ages on?
Windows only.
