Kingdom, Dungeon and Hero | Realm of Aerde | Ep. 01 | Introduction and First Turns

Kingdom, Dungeon and Hero is a new fantasy wargame from Alvaro Souza's Kraken Studios (Warplan, Warplan Pacific), and is set to release in July 2024.
This has instantly become one of my most anticipated games of 2024, with its blend of operational level wargame strategy and blobber-style CRPG autobattler combat as you explore dungeons. The Warplan games are excellent, deep wargames that are relatively simple to learn and play, with a mid level complexity of mechanics and endless replayability, and if this is anything as near good as those were, it's gonna be a big success I think.
The game has a manual already, and is apparently almost complete. That gives me great hope, since there's 6 months to polish before release!
The demo with a single short scenario has just released on Steam for you to check out now.
store.steampow...
krakenstudios....

[@junio-]

kudos to you and your communication skills. The game seems extremely promising. It's now in my wishlist. Can't wait!

[@battlemode]

Hey thanks! High praise indeed! My communications skills are variable, I reckon you caught me on a good day :D The developer will be happy about the wishlist, it seems to be quite popular already and a lot of people are intrigued. Keep watching and I'll talk more about my hopes for the game as I go.

[@mizzourah]

Thanks, after watching, I DL the demo and I'm hooked!

[@battlemode]

Great stuff!

[@sstewart116]

looks like my kind of game!

[@explorminate]

Looks pretty promising. Can really see it being a lot of fun with the procedural stuff. Hope to see it further fleshed out in the next few months!

[@battlemode]

The developer did say he might even consider doing a proc-gen "proper" 4X mode if it sells well enough and people really want it

[@KrakenStudiosGames]

@@battlemode The maps for the game are complex and I am trying my best to have it procedural generated with roads, names, and enough spread. It's quite hard to accomplish.

[@battlemode]

I can believe it@@KrakenStudiosGames, I had a look at the scenario editor and it's pretty big, with a lot of tools! I guess it'll depend on whether you think it's worth the effort. I know a few people who would be much more likely to buy and play if it did have random maps. For me, it'd be "nice to have" but if it wasn't there, it'd not be enough to put me off buying.

[@adhabens]

This game could be fantastic, you presented it very well, the sheer amount of mods that could be made with all sorts of AD&D old school forgotten realms settings and heroes, it is like a fantasy campaign generator with endless possibilities and worth buying just for this reason alone.

[@battlemode]

Yes! The community will be able to do great things with it

[@merrydiscusser6793]

Looks quite a bit more interesting than the demo. Your excitement is infectious. :)

[@battlemode]

I've been playing this a bit tonight, played about 40 turns in around two hours, so it's really fast to play. Great game, can't wait to show more of it off

[@tenhouradaygamer1009]

Hooray! Can't wait to play this and experiment with everything!

[@prototype102010]

Thanks for covering this! I've had it on my wishlist for a while honestly thinking it was more like Dwarf Fortress Adventure mode... kind of, some other youtuber described it as that. This looks way better though! I hope that to a degree there is just a random map mode just for even more replyability.,

[@battlemode]

It's nothing like Dwarf Fortress, or Shadow Empire, or any other game people claim it's like. The only game it's remotely similar to is the original Warplan game it's loosely based on, by the same developer, and that's dramatically different still because it's a WW2 wargame.

[@TheJoshman01]

I'm immediately in love with that map editor. Thats amazing, and huge for a game like this.

[@battlemode]

It just had another update, gonna check it this weekend.

[@jaristossmith9125]

This looks amazing! Can't wait for the next episode

[@battlemode]

I'll upload more soon, excited to play it again!

[@Timlagor]

12:20 "subtle manner" -those flying chariots are SUPER subtle!

[@battlemode]

It's UFO's man! ::Elon Musk smoking joint meme::

[@tiagoferreira5368]

Man I can't wait for this game. It's March and I'm already obsessed.

[@battlemode]

Same here! It's good already and it's still months from release.

[@TeamGames19]

The style reminds me of battle for wesnoth

[@battlemode]

A little bit yeah!

[@dirkschulz7282]

short translation of the narrator: "books=bugs" :) On a serious note, WarPlan allready was fantastic, hope KDH will be as good.

[@battlemode]

It's different I think but of a similar quality. I'm gonna start a new series as the game has changed quite significantly since these early videos.

[@imperialus1]

This looks very cool.

[@battlemode]

It's really good, about 70 turns (nearly half way) through a full campaign offline and it's been fun.

[@joramhh1637]

3:20 The Dredmore scenario reminds me a bit of the old AH Blitzkrieg. Except with knights and orcs!

[@battlemode]

Yes! It kinda reminded me of fantasy Barbarossa, by the looks of it, with the player as fantasy Soviet Union

[@robinmattheussen2395]

Oh, I had heard that Kraken was developing a Fantasy game based on the Warplan engine, cool to finally catch a glimpse of it. Yeah, I thought Warplan was quite a good game actually. They *only* thing I took real issue with is that it lacked a bit of that historical flavor and immersion that I like my historical games to have (like, say, in the Strategic Command games or the Decisive Campaigns series). Also I would have liked an alternative to NATO counters (yeah, yeah, I'm lame like that). Other than that: it played well, the interface was quite good and it had a quick pace. And while I'm personally not a huge fan of the Unity engine, it's still way better than most of those ancient engines using old Windows APIs that many wargames use. Most wargames have all sorts of compatibility issues on Linux, but Warplan runs without any issues whatsoever.

[@battlemode]

It's shaping up to be a really good game. Will scratch an itch for a fun, fast to play strategy game that's quite different to WW2 wargames

[@Melganor]

#Want long videos! ^^

[@battlemode]

I love longer videos but sadly if they go much over 30 minutes people tune out.

[@wojszach4443]

yes im folks, and hey back to you

[@battlemode]

Hello!

[@MrProfilen]

I feel like this game has great modding potential if it's not too hard. You could do some really cool conversion mods.

[@battlemode]

Yeah, I'm interested to see what people do with it

[@maddadplays7565]

Can u make your kingdom and start a map whit just 1 city like more 4x stile of play..

[@battlemode]

You can't found cities so no, not unless you made a scenario with just one city at game start.

[@giolerfan3552]

45 minutes in and I have no clue whats going on. sorry i respect the effort but you just read what it says without explaining anything or what to actually do or how to play. maybe this wasnt met for a beginner's guide though.

[@AirbourneTug]

I know what you did