We all saw the trailer at Summer Games Fest 2025, narrated with the gravely tones of Tom Hardy as we saw a Knight Commander step through the lines of his troops, clapping some on the shoulder, and preparing them for battle. It was mostly CGI, but the tail end gave us our first peek at some very early gameplay. It was just 15 seconds, but it was enough for all of us to sit up and take notice. Ahead of Summer Games Fest 2026, I sat down with Developer Raw Power Games for another peek at the upcoming battler. It’s not at all what I expected, but it’s much better than I could have imagined. Let’s take to the field in Chronicles Medieval.
If you didn’t pick up on it in the brief bit of gameplay from last year, Chronicles: Medieval puts you into a massive, dynamic, medieval European sandbox. Part Mount & Blade, part Bannerlord, but clearly something bigger than both, as it also aims to deliver battles at a scale only matched by games like Total War. Sounds impossible? I thought so too, till I saw it in motion.
When I say “large scale”, that’s a very subjective term. Truth be told, it’s also one that might change over time, but the team is aiming at delivering battles of 2000 incredibly detailed troops clashing at any distance. After creating your own commander, you’ll recruit, train, and lead them into epic battles. Combat at that scale is never as easy as it looks. When you are close to troops, you’ll inspire them and can command them more directly, but sending complex battle formations to distant troops is impossible, as the best you have at a distance is flags to indicate position. Do you sit back and direct them from atop a hill, or wade into the melee to unleash steel of your own for more immediate control? Brilliant strategist Sun Tzu said, "All warfare is based on deception," meaning that when capable of engaging the enemy, you should appear incapable. Whenever possible, make the enemy reveal their lines while keeping yours hidden and impenetrable. Battles can be won and lost before they ever begin.
While we didn’t dig into the specifics, we could see in the corner that not only did each type of troop have a number indicating the amount of that type of soldier in the group, but also what individual formation they’d at least start in. Lined up and prepared for combat, you could easily see mounted Heavy and Light Cavalry, Knight, Foot Serjeant, Master Yeoman Archer, Warbowman, Sword Serjeant, Esquire, Master Armsman, and much more. If you’re playing on the French side, I believe I spotted Coustilliers, Halberdiers, and Knights with full plate, ready for the fight. Sword aloft, we set towards the center of the field.
Zooming in dramatically, we can see that our commander is from an English Household, armed with a lance and a shield. The other troops are equipped with a mixture of pikes, spears, lances, swords, swords and shields, and various types of bows. As we selected various troops, groups of troops, or entire regiments, we see that we can issue commands including advance, hold, fallback, engage, charge, or retreat. That’s well and good, but it’s the interaction with the morale system that’ll likely be the true arbiter of the battle’s outcome.
Before the ring of steel, we can see that our troops have descriptions like “Confident, Offensive, and Moving”. As the meter at the top of the screen indicated losses on both sides, we saw these waver. As those losses mounted and the bodies piled up, our demo driver did their best to work through the five (so far) troop configurations, attempting to use the wall, wedge, mixed, column, and diamond formations to break various types of enemy emplacements. Pushing your Commander into the fray, however, can change things.
Inspired is a special status for your troops, and they can only receive this status when directly in your sphere of influence. Inspired troops are far more resistant to becoming disillusioned with battle and wavering, either becoming routed or retreating entirely. It’s unclear if you can bring back a fully broken troop formation, but your presence on the battlefield can turn the tide.
As you’d expect, all troops have a counter. Mounted cavalry will crush bowmen under their hooves, but basic pikemen can make short work of their charge. Halberds have reach over swords, but swords and shields can break pikemen once they infiltrate. It’s paper-rock-scissors with buckets of blood.
While we didn’t see it demonstrated, the team assured us that close quarters battle is more active than simply clicking on another troop and waiting for the outcome. When directly controlling your Commander, you’ll have combinations, blocking, counters, and something that sounds a little like the control system for Space Marine 2 to contend with your enemies – high praise indeed.
While the game is headed into Early Access, we’ve already gotten hints of a far larger game than what we saw. The team has a campaign planned, skirmishes, sieges, field battles, and more lie ahead as the team brings the game into sharper focus. Whether you fight for glory, adventure, power, money, loyalty to the crown, broken alliances, the love of battle, or to rewrite historical battles, the story you forge is uniquely your own.
Speaking of forging, the team was also quick to mention that they’d be offering up all of their tools to the modding community. The tools they’ve used to bring the game to life will be given to the modding community to continue to build on the platform. It’ll be exciting to see what ideas modders can deliver, given the tools, support, and tech they need to reshape the world of Chronicles: Medieval.
To cap off the demonstration, we got confirmation of something we all heard – Lars Mikkelsen is going to be bringing Johannes Gutenberg to life with his gravelly and commanding voice. How he and others will tie into the main campaign is yet to be seen, but after just a short demonstration, it’s already clear this is going to be an amazing genre blend.
Chronicles: Medieval is heading into Steam Early Access on PC in 2026. Console versions will follow, with timing to be announced at a later date.
