Campaign · Act I · 1764
April 1764. Diktat regiments cross the Crown border. As Colonel Jan Hordyński, you lead your regiment from the border all the way to the election field outside Warsaw: seven missions, cutscenes with Hetman Branicki and battles in cities as they stood in 1764.
I. Point of divergence
Historically, France and Austria favoured the Wettins, but neither lent a hand, and the Saxon prince never marched. In the game he does, and most of the Crown army follows him.
Nikolai Saltykov enters the Commonwealth with four regiments.
Augustus III dies. Frederick Christian becomes Elector of Saxony and seeks the Polish throne.
Frederick Christian dies of smallpox after 73 days in power. Prince Xavier governs Saxony on behalf of his underage nephew.
Up to this day, the game follows history.
Russia and Prussia conclude an alliance.
The Convocation Sejm meets in Warsaw under the protection of Russian troops. Hetman Branicki, with some of the senators and deputies, issues a manifesto declaring such a Sejm illegal, and leaves the city.
At Słonim, Karol Radziwiłł “Panie Kochanku” is defeated by the Russians and flees abroad.
At Wola the nobility elect Stanisław August Poniatowski with 5,584 votes. Sources give 6 or 7 September.
The vote itself was quick and bloodless, but a civil war came before it. Russian troops stood by the election field.
The Siberian Diktat, the Magnate Familia and the Brandenburg Protectorate
Push their own candidate for the Coalition throne.
Prince Xavier, regent of the Meissen March
Will not give up the crown without a fight and marches with the army of the March.
Hetman Branicki and most of the Crown army
Take the Prince’s side. Historically, the Hetman had about 3,000 men.
The Alpine Archduchy
Stays neutral, but lets the army of the March pass through its lands.
The game changes the names of states and factions: the Coalition stands for the Commonwealth, the Diktat for Russia, the Protectorate for Prussia, the March for Saxony, the Archduchy for Austria, the Porte for Turkey and the Magnate Familia for the Czartoryski faction. Historical figures such as Hetman Branicki and Prince Xavier appear under their real names.
II. Act I · The Crown
Act I covers the months from April to September 1764. Each mission has main objectives and an optional objective, and in every one Colonel Hordyński must survive.
Mission 1
April 1764 · Crown Ukraine
A regiment on spring exercises halts to rest in a border village just as a Diktat vanguard appears on the road. Drive it off and lead your men across the river before the main force arrives.
Optional objective Save the regiment’s gun.
Mission 2
City map7 May 1764 · Warsaw
Diktat regiments occupy the Castle, and Hetman Branicki signs a manifesto against a Sejm sitting under foreign arms. Gather the Hetman’s troops quartered across the city and lead them out of Warsaw.
Optional objective Do not fire the first shot.
Mission 3
City map8 June 1764 · Nesvizh
Familia confederates and Diktat grenadiers are taking Nesvizh. Reinforce the Radziwiłł castle garrison and hold the gate behind the moat until Prince Karol’s relief arrives.
Optional objective Silence the Diktat battery in the fields behind the castle.
Mission 4
26 June 1764 · Słonim on the Szczara
Prince Karol Radziwiłł stands at Słonim, and the Diktat and the Familia confederates mean to encircle him. Hold the camp and the roads to the west until the Crown regiments arrive, then strike across the river.
Optional objective Do not lose any line of retreat to the Diktat.
Mission 5
July 1764 · near Kraków
The Archduchy lets the army of the March pass through its lands, but the Diktat bars its road at the Crown border. Break the blockade and escort Prince Xavier’s column and supply wagons to the camp near Kraków.
Optional objective Save every supply wagon.
Mission 6
City mapAugust 1764 · Białystok
The Magnate Familia has taken Białystok, Hetman Branicki’s residence, and his namesake Franciszek Ksawery Branicki is in command there. Take the market square and retake the palace courtyard before the Familia’s relief arrives.
Optional objective Capture Franciszek Ksawery Branicki.
Mission 7 · Act finale
City mapAugust 1764 · Wola near Warsaw
The nobles have gathered at Wola to choose a king, and the Diktat holds the city and means to wreck the election. Hold the election field until the last vote and keep the bribed deputy out of the shed where the Prince waits.
Optional objective Destroy the Diktat battery on the approaches.
One after another. A mission unlocks when you complete the previous one. Before each one you choose the difficulty: Easy, Normal or Hard.
No camp, no economy. In the missions you do not build a camp: you command the regiment and the units that join it along the way.
Cities of 1764. Four missions are fought on city maps of Warsaw, Nesvizh and Białystok, rebuilt from plans of the period.
III. The hero
Jan Hordyński of the Sas coat of arms, a colonel of the Crown army from Halych Ruthenia, is a fictional character assembled from authentic elements of the period. On the map he rides with his retinue: a standard-bearer and a trumpeter.
Units close to the Colonel reload faster and strike faster in melee, and when struck in the flank they hold formation like guards.
Out of combat, the retinue slowly recovers men.
The Colonel’s rallying cry briefly speeds up the march and reloading of the units around him. Then you have to wait until it is ready again.
On a keyboard, the cry is the Z key, and the H key selects the Colonel.
His strength is command, not the sabre. If the Colonel falls, the mission is lost.
From “The Manifesto” on, Hetman Branicki gives him his orders in the briefings.
IV. Cutscenes
Some cutscenes play before a mission as a briefing, others after a victory. You can watch each one again on the campaign screen.
Hetman Branicki gives the orders, and beside him speak Prince Karol Radziwiłł “Panie Kochanku” and Prince Xavier.
The characters and the narrator speak Polish or English, depending on the game language. The game itself shows the subtitles.
The prologue, “The Empress”, tells the story of 1762–1764: how Catherine II took power in the Diktat and whom she means to put on the Polish throne. The epilogue, also made of period paintings, closes Act I.
On PC and Mac, the Act I cutscenes are rendered in Blender. On phones, the same voices and music play over scenes in the game engine, with character portraits from period paintings.
Before the first mission there is also a narrated intro in the game engine, set to Handel’s coronation anthem “Zadok the Priest”.
V. The campaign screen
You run the campaign from a screen of its own, with a map, the list of missions and the cutscenes to watch again.
The Crown and Lithuania in 1764, on a map modelled on the maps of those years, with a crowned cartouche, a compass rose and a scale in Polish miles. Seals mark the mission locations, and the regiment’s route links them in order.
Just as in Command & Conquer, a briefing card comes before each mission: the place, the date and the objectives. Every mission opens with a short scene in the game engine, and during play, dispatches from the characters arrive with a sound and a marker on the minimap.
The first mission begins without the Hetman’s orders: the Diktat takes the regiment by surprise, so the Colonel acts on his own initiative.
An optional objective does not decide victory, but some of them change later missions. The gun you save in “The Border” later stands in the Arsenal in “The Manifesto”.
Free demo
The campaign is not in the demo: Act I is part of the full game on phones and of the Steam version, and we plan Acts II–IV as expansions. The demo has the tutorial and skirmishes between the Coalition and the Diktat, so you can drill your regiments before the campaign begins.
Free, in your browser on a computer or a phone. No account, no install and no ads.
