The basic features are similar to those in the previous year's special, Codex Victoria, including:

• Ancient Europe map
• 87 conquerable regions that produce victory points
• New conquering system
• Confederacy system
• Troop forwarding and troop merging
• Hospital that lets you heal wounded troops

However, there is no advanced start (also known as boosted start) this time. Everyone begins the game in a regular starting village without extra settlers. Also, the regular tasks at the start are back. What about tribes? Shadow Empires is special about that and some servers will have 5 tribes (including Huns and Egyptians) and some only the original 3.

So, what's new in Shadow Empires?

Factions

This is a completely new concept in the game. At the start, each player selects a faction, players of the same faction start the game close to each other on the map. Factions rival each other to gain control of regions, victory points and ultimately win the game.

See more details about how it works in our Factions article.

Distribution of powers and victory points in regions

The world has changed and the position of specific powers on the map is different. What's more, regions with large and unique artefacts produce more victory points than in the past.

Check our article about regions for more details and a new map showing all regions, powers, victory points and where on the map various factions start the game.