Italian indie developer AgeofGames, known for notable titles such as Eukarion Tales, Chroma Wars, and Fantasy Kommander, has just announced a new strategy game that aims to faithfully recreate the political and military landscape of the Italian Renaissance. Titled Homini et Armi: The End of Knights, the game puts players in the role of a Condottiero, a mercenary leader commanding a company of soldiers. Players will need to forge alliances, recruit new mercenaries, take on quests, and much more as they navigate the complex and turbulent world of Renaissance Italy.
This game seems to be a must-watch for fans of historically rich strategy games, especially those who enjoy the intricacies of political maneuvering and tactical warfare.
In this game, you assume the role of a “Condottiero,” a mercenary leader navigating the complex web of alliances, rivalries, and shifting loyalties that characterized the era. The gameplay focuses on managing a mercenary company, where you’ll make crucial decisions about which contracts to accept, who to hire, and how to upgrade your units. The game’s battles take place on hexagonal grids, reminiscent of classic tabletop wargames, and are deeply tactical, requiring careful planning and strategic thinking.
The narrative is richly informed by real historical events and figures, giving players the opportunity to interact with legendary Condottieri and cunning politicians, all while uncovering lesser-known stories from this turbulent period. The developers have emphasized the game’s authenticity, even basing some of the unit designs on the works of Renaissance artist Paolo Uccello.
While the exact PC release date is yet to be announced, Homini et Armi: The End of Knights can now only be watched through its trailer and screens. An overview is below.
Experience a recently unraveled piece of Renaissance history, in the first ever video game directly sourced from unpublished 15th century economic-military texts, and play complex turn-based tactical battles being able to discover unusual fragments of true history.
Trace your path as Lord of a Company of Fortune during the dialogues and managerial phases in the camp or on the historical world map where you’ll choose which contracts and missions to accept and refuse from the nascent regional states of the Italian peninsula.
Homini et Armi: The End of Knights has been developed by a team of experts in medieval history, game design, and the arts. A meticulously researched and immersive game that brings to life the stories of knights, mercenaries, nobles, and servants from 15th century source material only recently explored.
With hexagonal battlefields and dozens of unique units taken or inspired by the creative genius of the great artist Paolo Uccello in the famous painting “The Battle of San Romano”, Homini et Armi will iconically relive the fundamental mechanisms of the history of war in the early Renaissance, giving you the opportunity to write your own story and discover the many, fascinating forgotten tales of many “minor characters” of history, mentioned by name in the accounting books studied and transcribed to carry out this project.
Be a Condottiero and Follow Stories of Mercenaries Written over 600 years ago:
Take on the role of a mercenary captain, leading your company of “Homini d’Arme” into several battles often difficult and far from epic or glorious, due to political-diplomatic compromises useful for preserving your expensive army, made up of many mercenary captains who, like you, are war entrepreneurs.
Choose which contracts, battles and missions to accept, who to hire, when and how to grant upgrades to your units, knowing that in geopolitics and in the mercenary profession any ally, even the closest of friends, could one day become an enemy.
The Archangelous battle system, developed in close collaboration with the SISM (Italian Society of Military History), will give life to iconic tactical simulations inspired by the great classic tabletop wargames, reimagined to create a satisfying experience that builds a bridge between the past and present in the turn-based genre.
With a deep storyline inspired by real historical events and figures, you’ll encounter legendary Condottieri, cunning politicians and enigmatic figures from the shadows that will give you the opportunity to navigate into the complex web of alliances and rivalries between the nascent regional states of Renaissance Italy.
Live the Stories of a Renaissance World never Explored Before:
The story of the game will take place in particular before and after the battles and will be composed of various phases, both dialogic and epistolary, as well as free exploration of multiple historical topics. The decisions you make in the narrative field will influence those in the economic-managerial and military fields, and vice versa.
From the sun-drenched hills of Tuscany to the bustling streets of Florence, Siena, Milan, Venice, Rome and Naples, Homini et Armi takes you on a journey through the art, culture, and politics of the Renaissance era. With a richly detailed game world, and an epistolary element taken from recently interpreted accounting books pages and letters written 600 years ago, you’ll experience once real emotions, hidden secrets, forge alliances, and uncover the mysteries of the past.
Among the mists of history and the many forgotten stories of those mercenary armies, Homini et Armi also deals with the end of the “dream of chivalry”, from an autumn of the Middle Ages, to the progressive fate that would end the once revered role of the Knight. The narrative of Homini et Armi thus aims to portray the vivid existence of those human beings, dragged into the vortex of war, forced to fight forever, in the whispers of historical memory of endless battles, where the clashes of swords and spears still resonate.
A whole new layer of linguistic immersiveness:
The game will feature language options for the Italian Renaissance, including contemporary and 15th-century Italian, as well as English, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese and their 15th century counterparts, all with subtitles of course. To live the game in even more authenticity, why not play in Renaissance Italian and Shakespearean English? A tutorial is at hand to help players navigate the linguistic choices.
Game Features
- Lead and manage a “free company” in the Italian peninsula during the early Renaissance.
- Engage in intense, iconic and complex medieval turn based battles based on the Archangelus Battle System, a simulation system developed in collaboration with military historians.
- Each mercenary unit represents its “Condottiero” that has his own background and is unique both graphically and in the ever changing combination of characteristics and skills.
- Contemporary and Renaissance languages available, play in English or Shakespearean English, Italian or Renaissance Italian, and so on!
- All the mercenary units present in the Italian peninsula, except that of your family which you control directly, can be allies or enemies: choose wisely who and when to join your army.
- Make narrative choices through a multifaceted, dynamic storytelling format, taking you from battle to battle, enriching your experience and introducing you to real historical texts from the 15th century.
- Experience a large variety of terrain types, each with its own effects on combat.
- The game aims to blend history, literature, and digital entertainment to preserve cultural heritage and create an immersive experience.
- Listen or read the historical reconstruction of the Italian language of the fifteenth century or the historical adaptations of various European languages in the Middle Ages.
- Hours of soundtrack with historically accurate music.
- The game’s aesthetics are inspired by the works of Paolo Uccello, particularly the Battle of San Romano.
