Castle Battle · Against the machine

The Campaign

Ten marches, one for each kingdom, of ten battles each — 100 fields in all, fought against the AI. Five of every ten are won by something other than bringing a keep down.

The marches

Orc Horde · The Emberwastes

The Emberwastes Rising

The Gilded March has put forts on the ash. Burn them off it.

Human Realm · The Gilded March

The Border of the Cold

The Barrowlands take a field a season, and the border needs to move back tonight.

Elven Court · The Wyldwood

The Wyldwood Wardens

Axes in the Wyldwood, and none of them ours. Find out whose — quietly, if they’ll allow it.

Dwarven Clans · The Frostcrags

The Frostcrag Reckoning

Third winter running, reavers in the high passes. Settle it properly this time.

Undead Dominion · The Barrowlands

The Long Night

The Thousand Shrines have started binding your dead where they fall. Unbind them.

Jade Dynasty · The Thousand Shrines

The Thousand Shrines

Something is coming out of Whisper Hollow, taking a village a night. Close it.

Mythic Beasts · The Untamed Range

The Untamed

The Court is fencing the wild and calling it wardship. Tear the fences down.

Steampunk Hold · The Screaming Forge

The Note on the Forge

The Screaming Forge was mortgaged three centuries ago. Somebody has come to collect.

Damned Covenant · The Cold Duchy

The Unlisted Asset

Something fell that was never in the ledger. The Covenant cannot bear an unowned thing.

Star-Fallen · The Long Crater

The Long Crater

The only other people who can cut hull plate have decided the wreck is theirs.

The ten beats

Every march walks the same ten beats, and each beat has one job in the story. What changes from march to march is who you fight, where, which rule bends and what is said about it.

1
Raze the keep
The Muster
Teaches this kingdom’s own hand. Nobody bounces off the first one.
Terms: The standing works — A spawner is already raised and already yours.
2
Take the toll
First Blood
A plain duel with a body count on it — the beat that says a march is fought, not queued.
3
Raise the tithe
A Twist
The first bent rule, and the first battle won with a ledger. Teaches that the terms move.
Terms: The empty chest — You march with nothing. Everything you field, you earn here.
4
Raze the keep
The Rival
The antagonist arrives. The first battle that can genuinely be lost.
5
Hold out
Adversity
The low point of the arc, and it is meant to be. Teaches holding.
Terms: No walls of your own — Your keep cannot be fortified. Meet them in the field.
6
Burn the camps
The Ally
Relief, with furniture: burn the camps that feed the assault. Cut this and the whole back half reads as one long push.
Terms: The war-chest — An ally has paid for this one. Spend it well.
7
Raze the keep
The Siege
Teaches the fortify tiers by putting them in your way.
Terms: Walled against you — Their keep was fortified long before you came.
8
Hold the ground
The Reversal
Taking is not the only way to win. The surprise beat.
Terms: The thin muster — Only your cheapest ranks answered the call.
9
Raze the keep · Eight commanders
The Gathering
Eight commanders. Every system at once, and the widest board.
10
Raze before the horn
The Crown
The rival’s capital. It must not read as the first battle with more hit points.
Terms: Walled against you — Their keep was fortified long before you came.

Four chapters

I · The Muster (fields 1–3) — Who you are, and what you can already do.
II · The Rival (fields 4–6) — Somebody is on the other side of this, and they have a name.
III · The Long War (fields 7–9) — Walls, ground, and every host in the country at once.
IV · The Crown (fields 10) — Their capital, and a clock.

How a field is won

A field asks for one of 28 things. Every one of them keeps the ordinary win: razing the enemy keep still ends any field in your favour.

Objective	What it asks
Raze the keep	Bring their walls down. Nothing else ends it.
Hold out	Keep your own walls standing until the horn.
Hold the ground	Take the contested ground and keep it — the clock only runs while it is yours.
Break the works	Put their spawners down. The keep can stand.
Raze before the horn	Their walls, and quickly. Time is the other enemy.
Take the toll	Put their soldiers in the ground. Their walls can wait — or fall, if you would rather.
Raise the tithe	Bank the war-chest while they try to stop you. Razing them ends it too.
Light the beacons	Stand at each cold brazier until the fire takes. Kindle every one — or raze them instead.
Bring the wain through	The wain rolls only under escort. Outnumber them beside it and see it to their gate.
Burn the camps	Their war-camps feed this assault, and they will keep mustering until they burn. The keep can stand.
Bring down the quarry	One of theirs is marked, and it holds the prize. Put it in the ground — it runs for its gate when it is hurt. Their keep falling ends it too.
Cull the ranks	Not a body count — a particular kind of body. Put down the ones named. Razing them ends it too.
Stop the wain	Their wain rolls for your gate under their escort. Outnumber them at the axle and drag it back — if it reaches your gate, the field is theirs.
Get the column through	Walk your soldiers into the ring at their gate. Every one that passes is off the field, and counted.
Bring the ram to the wall	The wain is a ram. Walk it to their wall and the masonry comes down — then raze what is left standing.
Burn the toll-houses	While one of their toll-houses stands, half your income is theirs. Burn every one. The keep can stand.
Break the ward	Their keep takes no harm while the ward stands. Break the ward, then raze the keep behind it.
Keep the vigil	Every brazier burning at once, and kept that way. They can douse what you lit — be on all of them.
Stand over it	The thing at the centre is yours to keep. Every soldier of theirs inside the ring wounds it. Keep them out until the clock is run.
Work the seam	Only gold banked while you hold the ring counts. Hold it and let the purse fill — or raze them instead.
Close the book	Raze their keep, and lose no more than the book allows. One body past the mark and the field is theirs.
Beat the shift	Raze their keep before they have fielded the number named. Their muster is the clock.
Hold the closing ground	Hold the ring while it shrinks. By the end there is room for a handful, and they will want it.
Bring the ark home	The ark stands on the prize. Whoever reaches it carries it, at their own pace; it drops where they fall. Yours to your gate takes the field — theirs to their gate loses it.
Carry the torch	Only the torch lights these fires. It starts at your gate, passes hand to hand as bearers fall, and they can put out what it lit. Every fire burning at once, and kept.
Take the key	The marked one carries the key to their door. Bring it down, pick the key up, and walk it to their gate. Their keep falling ends it too.
Bring down the beast	Something is loose on the field, and it fights everyone. Whoever puts it down takes the field — so it had better be you.
Break the sluice	Their sluice-house holds the water back. Break it and their lane drowns for the rest of the day — then raze what is left standing.

Medals

Taken. The field is yours.
Unbroken. Taken without losing your Builder.
Swift. Taken inside the clock.

The Ascension

A crowned march is not retired. It can be walked again, harder, rung by rung:

Rung	What changes
The March	The road as it was written.
The Hard March	Every foe fights a tier above its station.
The Long Siege	...and wherever they had walls or war-camps, they have more of them.
The Early Rival	Your rival does not wait for the fourth field.
The Thin Purse	A tier harder again, and the tree opens a point poorer.
The Crown Denied	Everything at once. Almost nobody takes this one.

The boon tree

Between fields a march buys boons with the points it earns — 24 open to every kingdom, and a branch of its own for each. A march can carry up to 18.

Tier 1

Boon	Cost	What it does
Full Coffers	1	The tithe comes in faster from the first minute.
The Deep Levy	1	The realm will answer for twenty more.
The Standing Works	1	A spawner already raised, and already yours.
The Iron Tithe	2	Every coin sooner. Every soldier later.
Scorched Earth	2	You will not be taxing this ground. Take it off the dead instead.
The Ashen Ranks	2	Everything went into the blades. Nothing went into the walls.
The Long Column	2	Forty more, and every one of them slower for the crowd.
The Bare Standard	2	The masons were paid off and the money is in the chest. There will be no walls.
The Chosen Few	2	Three kinds of soldier, and all of them the best you have.
The Siege Train	2	What you raise will stand. Working it up will cost you.
The Forced March	2	Sooner and faster, and twenty fewer of them to send.

Tier 2

Boon	Cost	What it does
The Second Tithe	2	And faster again.
The Spoils	2	Half again on every body your army leaves.
The Great Host	2	Twenty-five more, and room to lose some of them.
The Quick Muster	2	Every spawner works an eighth faster.
The King's Masons	2	You open behind a curtain wall, and the next one is cheap.
The Foundry	2	Working a spawner up costs a fifth less.

Tier 3

Boon	Cost	What it does
The War-Chest	3	You march with twice the opening purse.
Blooded	3	Every blow your army lands is a harder one.
Hardened	3	Every soldier takes one more blow than they would have.
The Drill Yard	3	And an eighth faster again.
The Ramparts	3	Your works are a third harder to pull down.

Tier 4

Boon	Cost	What it does
The Banners Raised	4	The whole army stands taller, and hits like it.
The Long Warpath	4	They arrive sooner, and reach further when they do.

What it pays

The first field pays 260 gold and each field after it more, up to 1,115 for the tenth; the first time a field is taken it pays two times that. Crowning a march is worth 4,500 more, and crowning all ten 40,000.

The marches

The Emberwastes Rising

The Border of the Cold

The Wyldwood Wardens

The Frostcrag Reckoning

The Long Night

The Thousand Shrines

The Untamed

The Note on the Forge

The Unlisted Asset

The Long Crater

The ten beats

The Muster

First Blood

A Twist

The Rival

Adversity

The Ally

The Siege

The Reversal

The Gathering

The Crown