Seven Gates of Ur

Seven lugals rule the seven cities of the underworld. Most of them were never human: a lion-headed wind demon, the Bull of Heaven, the lord of fire, Ereshkigal herself. You found an eighth city under a god of your choosing, and set out to take theirs.

Rule a dynasty. Your lugal grows old, marries, has children and dies. Heirs inherit by the law you set. Ensis govern your cities and may turn on you; your council collects taxes, watches the court and forges claims. Plot, legitimise a bastard, keep a god's favour, study bronze casting and the war-wagon. Lose your line and the campaign is over.

Build an army from your land. Levies come from your cities' people, and your people eat grain. Recruit men-at-arms as your innovations allow: spearmen, archers, heavy chariots, onager riders, siege engineers, your god's own warriors. Hire lua for a term. Your gurush ride with the royal army.

Make war. Every war needs a cause and is fought for a city. Armies walk the roads month by month, starve when their land can't feed them, and slow in marsh and hills. Besiege a city until it falls, or storm it. Occupy what you can, then make peace by the war score. The lugals play by the same rules: they keep treasuries, raise armies, build, go to war with each other, and come for you.

Fight on the board, or don't. When armies meet, let the generals fight it out, or play the battle yourself on a board of Ur squares: draw up your regiments, throw the bones for orders, and break the enemy's nerve before they break yours.

Every campaign is different. The map is drawn anew each time, with its own rivers, farmland, marsh, desert and hills. The gatekeepers are dealt from a court of fourteen. A house that survives carries its legacies into the next campaign.

Features

• Grand strategy in the Sumerian underworld: a dynasty, a court, ensis, factions, schemes, gods and innovations

• Time runs month by month; pause it, or speed it up and slow it down

• Armies raised from your cities' people, men-at-arms, hired lua, gurush, supply and attrition

• Sieges, occupation, war score and peace, against lugals who follow your rules

• Battles you can fight on a board grown out of the Royal Game of Ur

• A new map each campaign, painted on a clay tablet

• 16-bit pixel art and an original score

• Hard: built to be lost, and played again