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Thanks  I appreciate it. I am going to rerelease one of my existing games before the end of the year, so the precedent is there now for Saxon Kings being reworked. 

If Battle for Europe v0.2 isn't well received, and I don't have ideas for anything new, there is a good chance I just rework Saxon Kings in 2025. 

Playing tall is something that isn't viable but should be. Another issue with Saxon Kings is diplomacy, it should be there is slow the  early aggressive expansion.

Hi, the limited time I have making games is currently being used to rework my game Battle for Europe, which will release before the end of the year. I appreciate the interest but I have no plans to support multiple games at the same time.

Thanks for the info, I have seen issues if the game is left running for a long time but fresh browser usually runs fine.

That is fair. Next game will have natural borders not straight lines. 

Ok well I will releasing a windows version for the next game, I would be keen to hear your feedback then.

What about the deploy/move/transfer cycle of turns, did that make intuitive sense?

Tutorials are tough because they take up a lot of time that would be used for content/mechanics. But I do agree I need to do a better job of communicating core mechanics. At the very least I will do a youtube video going through explaining mechanics.

Can you give me examples of the ways in which the UI confused/frustrated you?

For the next game I think I will go for the HTML5 and Windows build. Performance increases with the local windows client (browser caps things at 60 fps, when the game could be running at 100 fps, etc.)

I didn't want to debug x2 builds of the game, that is why there is only a browser build.

No I have no plans to update this game, but your feedback has been noted.

Thanks really glad to hear it! Don't think I included any nation bonuses, harvests were determined by dice roll between 1-100, depending where it landed in 1 of 5 sections would determine the outcome. Harvests were also global (if you had a bad harvest, so did everyone else) as I was trying to emulate weather conditions and that could have been clearer.

lmao

Appreciate you sticking around!

Upgrades I agree were a total waste of time and the fact that you contrast them with Reforms being good, is something I would agree with. 

Diplomacy was a total rework from Saxon Kings, but I think its heading the right direction considering coalitions are new. It is going to take a few more games to iron out the meta-gaming but it was a good attempt. 

In terms of combat I think the aggregate/flat percentage for battles has outstayed its welcome. The next game will probably have combat based on the unit level rather than at the army level. 

Nation Wars was intentionally general, it didn't have a theme and was just vague provinces. The goal of the game was for me to think about mechanics. It was always a learning exercise that I would apply to my next theme, either feudal Japan or a rework of my first world war game Battle for Europe.

Thanks for playing the game!

I appreciate your interest, but this game is no longer supported and I will not update it again. I will be releasing a game similar to this before the end of the summer, in the meantime please check out Saxon Kings. Thanks!

The goal is that the people who enjoyed Saxon Kings will enjoy the next game. I am keeping the good parts and reworking the bad parts.

Factions and the combat system will essentially function the same way. The economy has been reworked. You will also have to manage a tech tree and choose between spending resources on your military vs. spending resources on upgrades.

Rebuilding the AI from the ground up is what is taking up most of my time.

Below is the current map but I expect to add additional territories. 

Never. Saxon Kings will not be updated again as I am currently working on my next project, which will release sometime this summer.

If you hold shift-click will deploy 5, ctrl-click will deploy 10. 

You're correct the AI will do that sometimes based on their personality randomly chosen at the start of the game. Its something I picked up at the time when I reworked the AI but left it in. 

Eventually when I make another game in this style I will add coalitions i.e. 1 power gets so strong compared to all the others, that all other factions declare war on the superpower at the same time.

 I am glad you enjoy Saxon Kings, I am currently working on my next game which hopefully comes out this summer if I am not lazy.

The build for next week is currently being tested. Expect a ~50% reduction in turn duration. Thanks.

I spent about 3 months on a new build with 9 new nations as well as a new crisis system that would start wars. Unfortunately it was never released. You can find my current project Saxon Kings which gets all of my time now. 

Yeah that's a good call by you. Since you're on the money so well, the plan is to add Scotland next Friday, and then the following update will be Ireland. The final dev work for Scotland was done this afternoon, and I am just testing the build now for next Friday. Again good call!

Thanks really glad to hear you are coming back to play more. Rivers wont get any changes for now, the plan is to continue to add additional content to encourage longer playtimes.

Content first then we will circle back again to look at mechanics. I agree with your assessment - there needs to be more dynamic choices, and at present rivers limit your options. So although I can't commit to anything for now, I agree there will be a rework on rivers soon.

I have released a new update for my turn-based strategy game set in medieval Britain. The long term vision is to borrow from classic board game like Diplomacy and Risk but in an Anglo-Saxon setting with more flavour/content.

Below you can see the five factions that are currently in the game: Northumbria, Kent, Anglia, Wessex and Mercia.

Your turn revolves around three phases:

• Deployment - Where you spend manpower to raise units that form part of an army, as well as money to build castle to protect your lands;
• Movement - Where you select your armies and attack adjacent territories you do not control;
• Consolidation - Where you fortify your position with your units so hostile armies don't capture your lands. 

At the end of your turn you extract manpower and money from the lands you control, which can be spent next turn.

Below you can see a typical board, where armies are represented with banners, and your fortifications with castles.

You can play it here.

I have added additional sounds and a new camera for when the AI takes its turn. I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and I will always be interested in your feedback! : ) 

I am truly glad you had fun with it. I have actioned the ability to play a 'short' or 'long' campaign now. So have fun painting the map whatever colour is your favourite!

There was a lot of valuable feedback in this post. I have gotten a lot of feedback on reddit for this game and you've raised topics no one else has in this post so its appreciated.

Once additional content is added I will rework the tutorial and #1 will be actioned. Based on your feedback I have added the ability to choose starting location and colour in the scenario designer, as well as a few other options. On #5 you can choose to play a 'short' or 'long' campaign.

Based on your feedback I have added a choice where you can pick a 'short' or 'long' campaign in the scenario designer. Appreciate you took the time to play it, and above all you had a good time with it. 

Because its Windows?

Tab will close the screen but I will add a button for the new version coming end of this month.

Hey thanks for checking out the game. I have created this area for you guys to notify me of bugs and crashes. Thanks in advance, I appreciate every notice and will fix asap.

Thanks very much for these, they have really added flavour to Heartland Frontier and I  will be sure to add any future art you make to the game.

Heartland Frontier is a challenging tile-based 4x strategy game where you fight feudal lords and tribal chieftains in the hope of unifying your homeland and resisting foreign invasion. The heartland is the last true untamed frontier on the continent, a sparse realm trapped between 4 great powers.  

Where I use devlogs to basically outline progress and summarise the core features added to the game every week, I will use this thread to hopefully open up an avenue for discussion relating to the game. So every Friday when I add a devlog talking about new content, I will also update this thread with relevant information or things I think will help contribute to the discussion.

Like I have said on the main page, this is my first project on itch and I chose it because I have heard good things from people I know and from what I have seen, it is a far more productive community compared to some other indie communities. If you would like to find out more information about the game, I have centralised pretty much everything here on itch so check out the game's page here. You will find associated devlogs as well as the latest version of the game to download. But from here I will basically outline the core concepts and then open it up for discussion from you guys. 

Character Design

I like the idea of playing the same game multiple times, as the player it means I am getting value for money (if I purchase the game) and it also means that I can expect each game to be somewhat different. This is a theme that I want to play with in Heartland Frontier, at the start of every game you design your character from a number of options:

• Class - this determines your combat abilities and how you can react to in-game events.
• Faith - this determines how you interact with other characters and how they treat you.
• Background - this determines your starting position and what resources you have at your disposal.

Holdings

Holdings are basically how you make money in Heartland Frontier, they also determine who can project power. If you have a lot of holdings it means you are able to manoeuvre around the map forcing engagements and picking the fights you want to take, if you have few holdings it likely means you are on the back foot.  There are two main holdings you need to worry about:

• Farmsteads - they generate food which can feed your cities and armies.
• Workshops - they generate gold which pays your soldiers and can be used for special actions.

Resource Management

I have tried to keep resource simple in Heartland Frontier. I am not in the business of adding complexity for the sake of complexity. If there is a resource in HF then it is going to be unique and affect gameplay in its own way. As before we discussed how farmsteads produce food and workshops produce gold, the third and final resource is influence. Influence is gained from controlling settlements and it is used for pretty much any complex or special action in the game. If you want to create a faction or found a colony you will need influence to do it.

In addition to resources there are 'Trade Goods' which provide their own unique modifiers:

• Stone - Reduces construction time by 50%
• Sulphur - Enables the recruitment of the skirmisher cohort
• Iron - Reduces cohort training time by 50%
• Gold - No bonus
• Wine - 50% army morale regeneration
• Cotton - 50% army manpower regeneration
• Fur - Increases the growth rate of colonies by 50%
• Ivory - Increases faction member capacity by 1
• Horses - Enables the recruitment of the cavalry cohort

The best way to understand what Heartland Frontier is about would be to watch this video. I play for about 10 minutes and explain some of the core mechanics behind economy and resource management. There are other things I couldn't mention such as class-design, colonisation, fighting wars and recruiting characters into your faction but I am sure I will add another video in the future summarising these points.