Found your House
Create an account, name a House and motto, then follow the opening campaign from workers to your next holding.
Read guideThe foundations
Ten short guides to the playable public alpha.
This guide follows the game that is live today. Rules and balance may change during the alpha; the controls in the game remain the authority for costs, timing, and outcomes.
Resources and rates
Wood and iron build, grain feeds and provisions, and coin funds crews and orders. Each holding keeps its own stores.
Read guideHoldings and workers
Assign foresters, miners, and farmers; choose rations; improve buildings; and keep enough idle population to fund wages.
Read guideBuildings and projects
Raise your Keep, production buildings, Barracks, Storehouse, Caravan Yard, and Wall one timed project at a time.
Read guideNew holdings
Raise the capital Keep, grow the capital, pay the charter stores, and choose a specialized site for your next holding.
Read guideHouse roads
Send resource convoys or infantry between your holdings. Capacity, available routes, distance, and grain all matter.
Read guideRaids and occupations
Train infantry, strike border camps, scout rival holdings, raid stores, occupy holdings, and reclaim lost land.
Read guideReports and notifications
Review completed orders, returns, rewards, and incoming threats; optionally allow browser notifications.
Read guideLetters and alliances
Write privately to other Houses, manage unwanted contact, form alliances, and coordinate with trusted banners.
Read guideBrowser and account help
Learn what continues after the tab closes, how refresh works, and what to do when account access is lost.
Read guideFound your House
Open play.bannermarch.com, create an account with an email address and a password of at least 12 characters, then name your House and write its motto. Your first heartland holding begins with people, stores, production buildings, a Keep, and a small military base.
Follow the opening campaign
- Assign workers so wood, iron, and grain production all begin moving.
- Start a building upgrade and wait for the project to complete.
- Train infantry in the War Room.
- Raid the frontier when at least three infantry are available.
- Grow the capital and raise its Keep to unlock another holding.
Resources and rates
Wood and iron are the foundation of construction. Grain supports population, infantry recruitment, and army travel. Coin comes from rents and customary dues, supports House crews, and funds most orders.
Each holding has its own stores and storage capacity. A resource rate can be negative: crew costs reduce coin income and rations consume grain even while other work continues. Use the resource strip to inspect current amounts and hourly rates before committing a project.
Orders spend from the selected holding. Stores in another holding are not available until a convoy delivers them.
Holdings and workers
Each holding is a fief of your House: one managed place with its own people, stores, buildings, and garrison.
Foresters produce wood, miners produce iron, and farmers produce grain. Worker positions come from the matching production building. Assigning House crews redirects residents from local livelihoods, reducing rent income and adding crew support costs.
Rations trade grain for population growth. Lean rations conserve grain and slow growth, Common Table balances the two, and Generous Table spends more grain to grow faster. Changes and worker assignments are made from the Courtyard household and crew views.
If a new worker assignment would exceed the fiscal limit or drive coin income too far negative, leave more people in local livelihoods or improve the economy before expanding the crews.
Buildings and projects
A holding can run one construction project at a time. Costs and duration rise with level. The Keep adds housing and expands the capital’s holding limit every two levels. Forestry, Mine, and Farm add jobs and yield. Barracks accelerates training, Storehouse protects more local stores, Caravan Yard expands convoy capacity and routes, and Wall strengthens defense against player raids.
Open the Works from the Courtyard, choose Buildings, and compare the next level’s full cost with the selected holding’s stores. Confirmed projects continue on the server after the browser closes.
New holdings
The capital must have room for another holding, at least 50 residents, and the charter cost shown at the Charter Table. Twenty residents depart with a successful expedition. Raising the capital Keep increases the number of holdings your House can support.
Choose a site for a real economic reason: woodland favors wood and slightly reduces grain, highland favors iron and reduces grain, and riverland favors grain while slightly reducing iron. Your first heartland seat is balanced.
House roads
Once you control more than one holding, the House Roads panel can send resource convoys or infantry between them. Cargo is removed from the origin when the order is confirmed and arrives after travel time.
Caravan Yard level determines convoy capacity and how many resource routes can be active. Army marches are limited by available infantry and consume one grain per infantry per travel day; marching units are unavailable until they arrive.
Raids and occupations
Train infantry at the Muster Yard. Frontier raids are immediate encounters against non-player camps: choose Night Raid or Assault, commit at least three infantry, and compare the preview before launching. A defeated camp can retaliate later.
The Nearby Realm shows rival holdings and live campaign movement. A raid steals exposed stores and sends surviving infantry home after travel time. An occupation campaign attempts to seize the holding; survivors remain as a garrison rather than returning. Walls, Keep militia, Barracks training, tactics, readiness, and force size contribute to the outcome.
Occupation policies split production between local stores, disruption, and tribute. Tribute travels home in a physical convoy that the rightful House can ambush. If your holding is occupied, launch a timed liberation from another free holding, negotiate terms, or reclaim it through the hedge-camp recovery route if every holding has fallen.
Reports and notifications
The Chronicle keeps a newest-first journal of founding, economy, building, military, colonization, and logistics events. Outcome cards summarize completed projects, arriving transfers, battle results, and offline progress; major battles can include a phased replay with visible casualties.
The bell shows completed outcomes, stewardship warnings, and active incoming threats. Browser and optional Herald email alerts can warn about selected urgent events while the game is closed.
Letters and alliances
The Scribe’s Office supports private House-to-House correspondence, letter requests, archiving, and blocking. Occupiers can use the same office to propose a return, withdrawal, ransom, or truce.
Houses can form alliances, invite members, assign responsibilities, and issue alliance notices or rally orders according to role. Correspondence is part of play, but the Community Standards still apply to every message.
Browser and account help
Confirmed orders continue on the server after the tab closes. Unconfirmed form edits do not become actions. Use the refresh control after a connection problem; the game reloads the authoritative House state.
Use a current Safari, Chrome, Edge, or Firefox release. Sign out from the game controls. Abandon Chronicle permanently clears the current House’s lands and journal while keeping the account, so use it only when you intend to restart.
Use Forgot your password? on the sign-in screen to request a one-use recovery writ. Never send a password, session cookie, or authentication token to another person.
For account, waitlist, or site help, visit Support. Current service information is available at status.bannermarch.com.