Update # 11 - Major Improvements

This week’s update is one of the biggest so far — the world map AI has been completely reworked, making diplomacy, war, and late-game strategy far more dynamic and challenging.

Nations will now actively declare wars, form alliances, and create coalitions against stronger powers — including the player. You’ll see large-scale rivalries and shifting power balances, with major factions conquering each other and reshaping the map over time. The late game now feels alive, unpredictable, and much harder to dominate.

Alongside the AI overhaul, today’s update includes dozens of important fixes, improvements, and balance changes across both the world map and RTS modes. In addition, all Slavic and Muslim nations now have culturally accurate Lords and Kings, with 18 new portraits added.

Thank you all for continuing to send reports and feedback — every update brings the game closer to the polished experience we’ve all been working toward.

And now, here are the full notes for Update #11:

World Map AI Reworked

• Major improvement to how AI handles diplomacy and attacks in mid to late game

• World map nations will now actively engage in politics, declaring war on each other and on the player in some situations

• AI players are now much more aggressive in late game, often resulting in several superpowers conquering other nations

• Major nations will actively fight among each other (for example, England can destroy France)

• Nations will form coalitions to attack the player in mid to late game if the player becomes too strong

• Late game diplomatic difficulty rebalanced to be much more challenging

• Fixed all situations where AI players had no enemies

• Fixed AI armies that would sit idle near cities

• Eliminated exploits allowing the player to remove all enemies through diplomacy

Major Fixes and Improvements

• Restored windowed mode (patched to live earlier last week)

• Fixed major exploit allowing players to loot towns indefinitely

• Auto-resolved battles now consume food, similar to RTS battles

• Fixed major issue where building and unit pop-ups were missing information on required technologies

• Fixed occasional issue with large towns loading with zero resources

• Fixed issue with livestock and cavalry climbing onto palisade walls

• Fixed major diplomacy issue where AI nations could be at war with the player while the player was not at war with them

• Fixed diplomacy issues in Sandbox mode where some nations traded with enemies at campaign start

• Fixed Sandbox mode startup issue where some nations had no enemies

• Fixed issue with Oil Pot spawning on the ground

Art Updates

• Added 12 new Slavic lords and Kings

• All Slavic Lords now have a proper Slavic culture portrait

• All 18 new Muslim lords and Kings added

• All Muslim Lords now have a proper Muslim culture portrait

Minor Bug Fixes

• Fixed missing information on the RTS victory screen showing ? marks

• Player gates no longer open automatically after victory in RTS battles

• AI players will now retreat and stop attacks after losing an RTS battle

• Fixed delay in resource display when entering large towns

• Decks and bridges in large towns are now darker and more natural-looking

• Cavalry diamond formation now correctly increases trample damage

• Fixed twitching animation on destroyed fire carts

• Peasant "Gather Food" button now targets cows as well as chickens

• Updated descriptions for Fletcher building and research technologies

• Updated Pilgrim Hospital and Herbalist descriptions for clarity

• Fixed Ballista description mentioning iron requirement incorrectly

• Fixed Damascus lacking correct number of building plots, causing buildings to disappear

• Fixed a dozen other world map cities with incorrect building plot setups

Balancing Changes

• Knight Command’s Rally Horn ability greatly boosted – now lasts twice as long

• Monk’s Pray ability greatly boosted – now lasts twice as long

• Market building in RTS mode now generates (and consumes) resources 30% faster

• Significantly reduced basic and elite Spear unit resistance to arrows

• Fletcher building now locked until researched

• Improved the effect of Herbalists and Hospitals on healing garrisons and nearby armies on the world map