Strategos News

[p]Greetings Strategoi![/p][p][/p][p]After a long period of development, testing, and iteration, we’re happy to finally share some concrete news:[/p][p]
Strategos will officially release in Early Access on January 20th.[/p][p][/p][p]From the beginning, the goal with Strategos has been to create a real-time tactics wargame that treats ancient warfare with the seriousness it deserves — large formations, fragile morale, imperfect command and control, and battles that unfold through momentum rather than micromanagement. Reaching a full release is an important milestone, but it’s very much the start of the next phase rather than the end of the road.[/p][p][/p][h3]What Comes Next[/h3][p]Throughout 2026, we plan to continue expanding Strategos with:[/p]

• [p]Additional historical reenactment battles and text-based campaign scenarios[/p]
• [p]Further development of the map-based campaign and additional theatres across different wars[/p]
• [p]New factions and units, especially chariots[/p]
• [p]Further refinements to AI, balance, and command mechanics[/p]
• [p]Quality-of-life improvements and usability enhancements[/p]
• [p]Ongoing performance and stability updates
  [/p]

[p]Strategos is a game built on systems, and systems grow stronger with time, feedback, and iteration. Community input will remain a key part of shaping what comes next.[/p][p]Thank you to everyone who has followed the project, tested builds, and shared feedback so far. We’re looking forward to seeing your armies clash on January 20th — and to building the future of Strategos together beyond release.[/p][p][/p][p]— The Strategos Team[/p][p]
[/p][p]
[/p]

[p]There have been a large number of fixes and improvements to Strategos in these final weeks running up to release. We have mostly been working on getting the first theatre of operations for the map-based campaign playable for launch, while also overhauling the game's UI and generally improving gameplay:[/p]

• [p]UI[/p]
  • [p]Tooltips[/p]
    • [p]background/outline[/p]
    • [p]Terrain hover[/p]
    • [p]Unit panel[/p]
    • [p]Armor, veterancy, etc...sprites[/p]
    • [p]all new cursors[/p]
  • [p]Finished all unit portraits[/p]
  • [p]Total Banner overhaul[/p]
    • [p]New backgrounds and highlights and borders and morale bar[/p]
    • [p]Still in progress, along with updating all icons, sprites and buttons in the game[/p]
    • [p]added faction icon to banner when state turned off[/p]
    • [p]Top down banner icon improvements[/p]
  • [p]Overhaul to text-based campaign UI[/p]
  • [p]Overhaul to Manual UI, in-progress shot here:[/p]
  • [p][/p]
  • [p]In Battle UI[/p]
    • [p]changed stop, speed and line shift button sprite visuals and functionality[/p]
    • [p]chevron and pushback mode button changes[/p]
    • [p]added faction icon to menu in battle[/p]
    • [p]still in progress, but partial overhaul can be seen here:[/p]
    • [p][/p]
    • [p]new faction display and score panel[/p]
    • [p]improvements to aiming arc visual and color[/p]
  • [p]added more on hover and on click sounds to various bits of menu UI[/p]
  • [p]Unit card overlapping on large battles[/p]
  • [p]New fonts across game[/p]
  • [p]Updated many texts like shock troops, shaken/wavering, combat advantage points, etc....[/p]
  • [p]Added credits page and rearranged main menu[/p]
• [p]Maps[/p]
  • [p]Various minor fixes to terrain colliders, map borders and such[/p]
  • [p]Some reenactment battle unit type improvements[/p]
• [p]Bugs[/p]
  • [p]Courier bugs fixed[/p]
  • [p]Hotseat deployment fixes[/p]
  • [p]Grouping units fixes[/p]
  • [p]Fixes to visibility setting[/p]
  • [p]Fixes to text-based campaign bugs with registering battle completion and UI navigation[/p]
  • [p]Shooting stop distance bug fixes[/p]
  • [p]Fixes to mapping shooting death visuals to casualty numbers[/p]
• [p]AI[/p]
  • [p]Fixes to defensive AI dynamics[/p]
  • [p]Improved sparabara/bow line AI as and vs[/p]
  • [p]Improvements to AI group moving, reorienting to player at extreme angles, group speed setting, improvements to AI cavalry flank and reserve usage in those scenarios[/p]
  • [p]significant improvement to combat mesh carving and AI flank seeking and alignment and navigating around combat[/p]
    • [p]improve AI ability to find player flanks to attack and navigate to them[/p]
    • [p]some updates to combat mesh collider size[/p]
  • [p]improved some pathfinding near map edges[/p]
  • [p]more intelligent AI pursuit of shooting targets[/p]
• [p]Visuals/Animations[/p]
  • [p]Fixed some incorrect idle animations[/p]
  • [p]Fixes to animating updates at long distances[/p]
  • [p]updates to projectiles sticking in ground visuals[/p]
• [p]Map-Based Campaign[/p]
  • [p]UI overhaul in general is in-progress for map campaign[/p]
  • [p]AI overhaul[/p]
    • [p]Better at longer term decision-making and pathfinding[/p]
    • [p]Better at supporting allies under siege and seeking out enemy armies[/p]
    • [p]Better at prioritizing combat vs diplomacy[/p]
  • [p]Army regeneration, recruitment and mercenaries[/p]
  • [p]Capital garrison armies[/p]
  • [p]Countless bug fixes and other improvements[/p]
• [p]Factions[/p]
  • [p]Colors and icons all updated[/p]
    • [p]Many dozens of faction icons added[/p]
• [p]Achievements[/p]
  • [p]Added decent number of achievements and fixed bugs with them[/p]
    • [p]For winning various campaigns, battles, difficult scenarios etc.…[/p]
• [p]Localization[/p]
  • [p]Massive increase in localization coverage[/p]
  • [p]Improved quality of existing menu, tutorial, and tooltip localizations[/p]
  • [p]Overhaul to text-based campaign historical texts[/p]
  • [p]added localization for text-based campaign battle titles and loading screen tips[/p]
• [p]Combats/Unit Movements[/p]
  • [p]Improved flank charge visuals[/p]
  • [p]many fixes to charge/evade/pursue movement visuals and smoothness[/p]
  • [p]Fixed issues with reforming formation on taking casualties while charging, pursuing and evading or shooting[/p]
  • [p]fixes to animation start/stop around going from walk->run and back[/p]
• [p]Controls[/p]
  • [p]Select all[/p]
  • [p]Fixes to right click drag move partially off map[/p]
• [p]Settings[/p]
  • [p]Smaller units and smaller number of units on reenactments if desired[/p]
  • [p]Quality difficulty just decreases quality of one side i.e. like out of supply[/p]

[p][/p][p]Thanks for reading, and you can look forward to an exact release date announcement very soon!
[/p]

[p]We've been busy preparing Strategos for launch these past 6 weeks since the last major Progress update, including keeping the demo updated.[/p][p][/p][p]As listed in the demo update patches, we've fixed many bugs, updated the existing tutorials, done major optimization work, edited various map issues, improved the camera and controls, added a large number of settings options and explanations, improved localization, updated various button and campaign texts, added unit type symbols and other banner improvements, added various sound effects and better tooltips, and made many quality of life updates in general. We've also improved the AI (especially in edge cases), courier readability, and popup and waypoint visuals, and we've made water, fog, grass, rock, and shadow visual improvements, and added banner animations. [/p][p][/p][p]We also added some new maps, 100s of unit portraits, faction color and icon matching, a third, advanced tutorial, various achievements, animation blend improvements, range overlays on hover, optional projectile trails, a morale meter, and many campaign balance and text improvements, along with many AI, gameplay and camera improvements.[/p][p][/p][p]We are still working on an ongoing in-battle UI and Banner overhaul, and on completing localization, as well as finishing the first map-based campaign so it is ready for launch. [/p][p][/p][p]We are very excited for you to play Strategos in January![/p]

[p]-significant reduction in tutorial text[/p][p]-various updates to pursuits, evades, pursuit to charge combats, and light horse behaviors[/p][p]-fix some bugs with restarting battles[/p][p]-improved AI use of reserves once battle joined[/p][p]-updated tooltip appearance, including faction colored border[/p][p]-add press tab to cycle commandable units and move camera to them, can be useful especially later in a battle to just tab around seeing who needs something to do[/p][p]-added morale meter to help player understand rallying[/p][p]-greatly improved AI group moving and edge cases[/p][p]-couriers display (larger and yellow highlight) highlight if enroute *to* a unit to give it a command [/p][p]-some fixes to tutorial map visuals[/p][p]-improved AI usage of generals rallying[/p][p]-implemented officer banners[/p][p]-various fixes to top-down banner display including selected versions[/p][p]-fixed resolution issues with start button[/p][p]-fixed issues with light infantry flank charge poa calculations[/p][p]-various AI deployment improvements[/p][p]-some significant optimization work helping both base fps and some types of lag spikes, plus low/med/high quality settings (which mostly affect shadow quality/existence but some other things as well)[/p][p]-edits to impetuous charge range and range display[/p][p]-jump to selection on faction dropdown[/p][p]-more fixes and updates to unit type symbols[/p][p]-improvements to AI taking rear charges around their allies flanking the same unit[/p][p]-edits to UI scaling min/max[/p][p]-changes to tooltip details toggle and content of simplified tooltips[/p][p]-fix some bugs with waypoints displaying old or erroneous commands, and added pursuit and evade waypoint visuals[/p][p]-fix on hover units while under UI like combat log so doesn't show tooltips[/p][p]-remove lasso select on banners[/p][p]-improved popup text visuals[/p][p]-swapped out one map[/p][p]-replaced some unit portraits[/p][p]-fix up position of selection highlights on elephants[/p][p]-match faction colors to faction icons better[/p][p]-fix to some flank/direction bugs with elephant combats[/p][p]-replaced unit card group coloring with number in corner[/p][p]-fix to officer shifting position in combat bugs and other various adjacency issues[/p][p]-fixed some bugs with recoil to overlap charges[/p][p]-fixed some bugs with charge to evade that was making it almost impossible sometimes for pursuers to actually catch evaders and other pursuit fixes[/p][p]-fixes to bugs with combat end by rout from proximity cohesion check due to ally rout[/p][p]-edits to scroll rotate strength on group move[/p][p]-fixes to some audio source null checks[/p][p]-some fixes to unit colliders to try and mitigate or remove bugs with simultaneously overlap to charge multiple units at once[/p][p]-updated some aspects of highlight projector shader and sorting so more visible over terrain or under water[/p][p]-visual improvements and optimizations to water and shadows[/p][p]-star next to major factions on unit selection[/p][p]-some tooltip text updates, like guard called hold, major armies note on unit selection, too far away so will move to attack note, fixes some missing spaces etc...[/p][p]-minor fixes to tiling and fog and water appearance on a number of maps [/p][p]-added bob and scale animation effect to selected unit banner[/p][p]-minor adjustments to shadows[/p][p]-fixes to defender/attacker moving/idle receive charge line up or not based on adjacency [/p][p]-fixes to some restart battle null refs from not resetting some selected units[/p][p]-many fixes to unit alignment on charge/adjacency, fixing some group moving to combat/charge appearance [/p]

• [p]Added Unit Type symbols to banners[/p]
• [p]updated UI visuals for selection highlights and deployment zones[/p]
• [p]updated visuals for UI popup text[/p]
• [p]units play sfx on receive orders[/p]
• [p]added new idle sounds[/p]
• [p]better top down banners and fixed some bugs with them displaying[/p]
• [p]fixed some crucial bugs with mixed courier/shout commands on shooting units[/p]
• [p]changed and clarified in-cover banner icon (tree)[/p]
• [p]improved banner selection of unit[/p]
• [p]added translations for the manual[/p]
• [p]improvements to tutorial translations and other tooltip and menu item translations[/p]
• [p]some fixes to shooting at units in cover[/p]
• [p]fixes to flank combat fighting coordination[/p]
• [p]fixes to rout by proximity ally rout while in combat bugs[/p]
• [p]update shooting combat logs[/p]
• [p]improve ai find targets and group move, fix to group move stall bug on some deployments[/p]
• [p]clarified when out of couriers total or when only one general out of couriers, including star visual and sound notifications[/p]
• [p]more fixes for camera zoom[/p]
• [p]alt+right-click and drag then single-click now cancels without deselecting units[/p]
• [p]stop screen edge movement if not focused on program[/p]
• [p]fix playing wrong click noise on move to shoot if soldier had to turn around to shoot. [/p]
• [p]fix use thick lasso toggle visual[/p]
• [p]fix light infantry auto drop flanks[/p]
• [p]update to friendly fire and damage to units overlapping shooting target[/p]
• [p]fixes to start/stop shooting at unit beyond max range bug[/p]
• [p]translations for some missing UI popups and quick controls note[/p]
• [p]fixed bug with background music on restart[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p]