Fall of an Empire News

Hi all, I've just pushed a patch that should fix some common problems with the demo.

[h2]Gameplay Improvements[/h2]
- Rebalanced spearmen effectiveness against cavalry
- Increased success rate of spying missions
- Armies now weaken when faction is in debt
- Gold reward added for defeating Corvinia
- Population now only reflects recruitable adult male population
- Adjusted seasons to match northern hemisphere

[h2]User Interface Updates[/h2]
- Added Main Campaign button to main menu
- Updated new campaign buttons in main menu with icons
- Added armies and treasury information to province overview
- Updated villa description to mention tax increase
- Army strength now hidden when not actively spying

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]
- Fixed AI units repeatedly moving in and out of settlements
- Corrected issue with Corvinia armies spawning out of bounds
- Resolved population declining without apparent reason
- Fixed armies walking away during battles
- Addressed crash reporter issues

[h2]Quality of Life Changes[/h2]
- Reduced road winding for improved navigation
- Multiple save game slots now available
- Added saving and loading options to pause menu
- Pause menu behavior corrected to not reopen after closing

[h2]Combat and Diplomacy[/h2]
- Changed garrisoning mechanics: players can now force out other factions' garrisons from their own settlements
- Clicking on enemy armies now shows their faction information
- Clicking on flags of other factions' armies opens diplomacy screen

[h2]Tutorial and Documentation[/h2]
- Updated tutorial instructions for fighting Vituria
- Added population tooltip for clarity
- Made it clearer which dialogue options antagonize Corvinia

[h2]Miscellaneous[/h2]
- Added faction defeat messages
- Fixed issue where closing the menu would automatically unpause the game

Hello all! I am very excited to say that after a lot of work over the past few months, the demo is now live. The demo was previously set to be released as a separate prologue, but now due to changes with Steam has been released as a demo with a separate page.

In this 45-minute prologue, you will follow a path as the devious Duke of Histria against the elderly and decrepit Emperor Lucius Vetus, defeating rebellions and rivals, growing your power and armies until you can unseat him.

This is a vast improvement over the demo that was released last year, which I found to honestly be half-baked. Major additions to that previous demo include:

• Improved battles
  
• Improved graphical quality
  
• Better storyline
  
• Resource management
  
• Procedural cities and farms
  
• Dynamic seasons
  
• Food and starvation
  
• More detailed map with more settlements
  
• Building management
  
• Terrain effects
  
• Management of unrest
  

That's just the beginning. It now has a ton of quality-of-life features and a lot more general polish that will, hopefully, make the game a lot more entertaining.

Hello all! Due to the new changes to how demos work on Steam, including allowing them to have their own pages and achievements, Path to the Throne will now be released as the main game's demo, rather than a separate prologue application. This will make it easier to find and download the prologue - rather than having to search for it, it will be visible directly from Fall of an Empire's page.

Hence, Path to the Throne will be delisted as a separate application.

Path to the Throne is still on track for an October 1 release date. I'm looking forward to releasing it!

- Joe

Hi all, I've got some good news: in three months, we're releasing a prologue, "Path to the Throne". If you've played the demo, it's a total overhaul of that. I thought it wasn't all that great - too mechanically simple, too janky, to be a proper grand strategy game. So for the past ~12 months I've been totally redoing the game to better fit my vision.



Revamped Combat: The system has been rebuilt from the ground up for more strategic depth - rather than the simple system where two armies battle it out with no player interaction, they're now made up of multiple phases, in which each army can choose from one or more actions to turn the tide of the battle - bribe your enemies, spy on them to see what units are fielded the next phase or switch which units you will field. This is all done in real-time.

Espionage: New covert options to undermine rival factions - spy on them, steal from them, sponsor rebellions in their territory.

Resource & Food Management: Balance your needs more carefully with 18 resource types with different effects - some are needed to build specific units, some are for improving relations with vassals, some are needed to produce different kinds of resource. Food is required to maintain your population and your population's relations with you - lacking food causes starvation.

City Buildings: Construct and upgrade buildings to shape your urban centers - churches, walls, military barracks, monasteries, granaries, workshops, docks and more. Each level of settlement has different types of building - small rural churches in villages, basilicas in large cities. Special locations like monasteries and military camps can construct special buildings like cloisters and redoubts.

Improved Graphics & Animations: Including new siege combat visuals, better lighting and post processing, new models, shaders and textures, a cleaner, more intuitive and better-looking UI (with more tooltips and a more efficient use of space), and more.

Better AI: The enemy AI has also been improved to be more challenging - it now makes better and more tactical decisions about what to build, where to attack and how to control its armies.

Seasons: The game world now changes according to the season - snow gradually comes down the mountains in winter, in autumn the leaves of deciduous trees turn red and fall from the branches, the grass dries out in summer. This also affects the game world - certain resources are produced more or less depending on the season, so the player has to build granaries to prevent starvation.

Procedural Cities: Watch your settlements grow organically based on size and fortifications.

Expanded Factions: Three distinct factions to defeat with unique dialogue trees and diplomatic options - Corvinia, Virturia and the Imperial Domain.

Enhanced Settings: More control over your game experience - granular graphics and audio settings.

All these features will, of course, also be added to the main game, which will be released in Q3 next year. Your continued feedback will be crucial as we move towards the final release.

Path to the Throne will be available on Steam for Windows on October 1 9am PST. Stay tuned for our upcoming trailer. As always, check out the Discord or r/fallofanempire for more news.

The Republic of Vicisoria was founded as a trade colony of Sarmachia circa the 12th century BC. Originally a small post developed to exploit whales and valuable spices, the colony fell under the influence of Rephsis shortly after its history began.


Vicisoria was the birthplace of the Guild system that later spread to the rest of the Empire. Most of the governance of the province was originally led by the guilds, with each one having the ability to make their own laws (as long as these laws didn't conflict with a law of another guild, a problem that caused multiple long-running disputes and low-level conflict between them).

For seven hundred years Vicisoria was ruled by a hereditary council consisting of the leaders of the four (originally seven) biggest trading guilds and two representatives from the Naval Guilds that defended the province. Over time the wealth and power of the two guilds grew to equal that of all trading guilds combined, and after a quirk of inheritance led to the admirals of both becoming the same person he overthrew the council and led the province himself as its Admiral, with total approval from the Emperor, who retained the right to pick the Admiral's successor.


Vicisorian sailors were the first to discover the southern continent of Zeugitania, and the first to begin building colonies there. The five Zeugitanian provinces were known for their culture, which was strongly influenced by that of Vicisoria, which became prosperous from controlling trade and exerting influence over the southern provinces. However, it was dealt a major blow when famine struck the colonies and the cities started being harassed by barbarians from beyond the desert. After the imperial decision to abandon the five provinces, the remaining population was largely resettled in Vicisoria, giving the province's culture an exotic flavour.


The current Admiral of Vicisoria is Constantinus. It was his great-grandfather who finally began passing the reins of power from father to son, without consulting the Emperor in Rephsis. Constaninus's goal will be to continue this arrangement, and any hints of its end will not go down well. Descendants of Zeugitanian colonists also wish to attempt to restore control over the former colonies, although this is an expensive task that's almost certainly doomed to fail. Vicisoria, as an important naval power, is vital for the safety of the empire. If the Western Provinces fall to barbarians it will be open to attack, and this would be disastrous for your future as Emperor.