Chronicles Medieval nations: Currently Revealed Factions, Units, and Battle Styles

Discover the currently revealed Chronicles Medieval nations—England, France, and the Holy Roman Empire—plus their units, tactics, and army-building choices.

Chronicles Medieval nations: what is confirmed so far

Choosing among the revealed Chronicles Medieval nations will shape more than the color of your banner: each culture is tied to different troop strengths, deployment habits, and army-building choices. The current Chronicles Medieval nations lineup is England, France, and the Holy Roman Empire, although the available material presents them as the roster shown so far rather than a guaranteed final list of every culture. That matters because Raw Power Games is building a medieval sandbox RPG in which recruitment, battlefield positioning, morale, diplomacy, and personal combat all influence the story you create.

This guide reflects the publicly revealed design as of September 1, 2026. The official Chronicles Medieval game page lists Steam Early Access on PC for early 2027, with console timing still to be announced. Because the developers describe many systems as works in progress, the identities below should be treated as confirmed design direction rather than final balance data.

The revealed Chronicles Medieval nations roster

At a glance, the currently shown roster contains three major faction identities: England, France, and the Holy Roman Empire. The game is inspired by the political tensions and warfare of fourteenth-century Europe, but the developers have stated that it is not intended to be a strict historical recreation or a direct simulation of the Hundred Years’ War.

Nation or faction identity	What has been shown	Battlefield tendency	Main troop emphasis
England	A major faction and character-start option in developer footage	Longbowmen favor the flanks, where they can maintain clear sightlines	Exceptionally skilled bowmen and flexible supporting troops
France	A major faction and character-start option	Heavy cavalry gravitates toward the vanguard	Fearsome cavalry and powerful shock attacks
Holy Roman Empire	A major faction revealed alongside gameplay footage	Dense Vanguard and Middle Guard formations	Tough, heavily armored melee infantry

The army-management developer diary adds an important detail: each main faction is planned to have dedicated Levy, Household, and Mercenary unit lines with separate progression trees. These trees still include melee and ranged troops, as well as infantry and cavalry, but their development reflects each faction’s regional military identity.

Why “nation” is only part of the picture

“Nations” is the clearest search term, but Chronicles Medieval appears to use the word faction in a broader medieval sense. England, France, and the Holy Roman Empire provide large cultural identities, while the campaign itself is built around local forces, settlements, characters, titles, and shifting political relationships.

That approach fits the developers’ stated goal of creating a sandbox rather than a fixed historical reenactment. A faction’s identity should influence recruitment and battlefield behavior, but the player’s alliances, holdings, army composition, and decisions can still reshape the campaign.

The full map and final list of playable cultures have not been shown. The developers have also said that more cultures and terrain will be revealed over time. As a result, locations mentioned in battlefield examples should not automatically be treated as separate playable nations.

England: longbowmen, flanks, and controlled pressure

Among the revealed Chronicles Medieval nations, England has the clearest ranged identity. The developers describe English bowmen as exceptionally skilled, while English Longbowmen are specifically shown preferring the flanks during deployment.

That preference is more than a visual detail. A flank position can give ranged troops better lines of sight while keeping them away from the first collision between infantry formations. It also gives the player a reason to think about terrain before the battle begins.

Battle stage	Practical English plan	Why it fits the revealed systems
Deployment	Place Longbowmen toward a flank with open sightlines	Their preferred battle-line position supports ranged attacks
Initial movement	Send archers toward a ridge or protected firing position	Initial Orders can move a unit before its Standing Order takes over
Incoming fire or cavalry threat	Consider Loose formation while exposed	Loose formations make units harder to hit and less attractive to charge
Flank crisis	Enter Command Mode and issue a local repositioning order	Local commands let you redirect a specific unit without managing the whole army

A practical opening is to place English archers on one flank, assign a defensive or versatile Standing Order, and give them an Initial Order toward useful high ground. Supporting infantry can protect the approach and prevent enemy cavalry from reaching the archers unchallenged.

This is a planning example, not a confirmed optimal build. Final accuracy, damage, ammunition, and unit-count values may change before or during Early Access.

France: heavy cavalry and the vanguard

Of the currently shown Chronicles Medieval nations, France is most explicitly associated with heavy cavalry. French cavalry is described as a faction strength, and French heavy cavalry naturally moves toward the vanguard during the battle-line deployment phase.

The French battlefield identity therefore rewards patience before impact. Cavalry needs room to maneuver, a suitable target, and enough time to adopt the right formation. Charging immediately is not always the same as charging effectively.

Formation or tool	Revealed purpose	Main limitation
Line	Mobile base formation for movement and repositioning	Does not provide the specialist benefits of advanced formations
Skein	Concentrates shock cavalry for a powerful charge	The formation needs time to reform after its initial impact
Wedge	Punches through an enemy line and can be used by infantry or cavalry	Highly specialized and less useful for unrelated tasks
Spear Wall	Designed to stop charging cavalry	Extremely slow, making it difficult to reposition once committed

A useful French sequence is to maneuver in a flexible base formation, use an Initial Order to threaten a flank, and switch to Skein or Wedge as contact becomes imminent. The timing matters because reformation is not instant. Changing formation at the wrong moment can leave cavalry exposed or cause it to miss the charge window.

The system also gives opponents a clear answer to cavalry. Spear Wall is built specifically to resist a mounted charge, so a French commander should avoid repeatedly attacking prepared polearms from the front. A local order, a flanking maneuver, or pressure from another unit may be more valuable than another direct charge.

Holy Roman Empire: dense infantry in the center

The third of the announced Chronicles Medieval nations is the Holy Roman Empire. Its most recognizable battlefield profile is a dense Vanguard and Middle Guard supported by tough, heavily armored melee infantry.

This identity suggests a more deliberate opening than the French cavalry approach. Instead of relying on one decisive impact, an Imperial army can use its central mass to secure ground and create time for the player to decide where the real breakthrough should occur.

A practical HRE-style plan is to establish the center in a compact formation, then shift into an advanced defensive formation as the enemy approaches. Shield Wall is designed to hold ground, while Square offers protection from multiple directions at the cost of mobility. Block, one of the base formations, is tighter and deeper than Line and provides additional staying power while the army moves or prepares.

Cohesion is another stat worth watching. The army-management diary explains that higher cohesion helps a unit preserve formation density, respond more quickly to commands, and resist disruption from cavalry charges or infantry pressure. When choosing between similar units, cohesion may be just as important as raw damage.

The exact balance is not final, so players should not assume that every HRE unit will outperform other factions in a particular matchup. The confirmed takeaway is the faction’s emphasis on disciplined, durable melee formations.

Building an army across the Chronicles Medieval nations

The key to using the Chronicles Medieval nations is to treat a faction identity as a starting point, not the whole army. Every main faction has three categories of units, and each category serves a different purpose in recruitment, progression, and campaign management.

The game uses power tiers from 1 through 10. The categories do not begin or end at the same level, which creates a progression curve rather than a simple system where every new recruit is automatically stronger than the last.

Unit category	Typical starting tier	Typical progression ceiling	Campaign role	Important tradeoff
Levy	Tier 1	Tier 5	Common early-game foundation	Less training and equipment than elite lines
Household	Tier 4	Tier 8 or 9	Powerful mid- and late-game troops	Recruitment, promotion, and upkeep are expensive
Mercenary	Tier 3	Tier 7	Fills weaknesses in a faction’s roster	Costly and more vulnerable to morale problems

Recruitment depends heavily on location. Quartermasters at settlements and castles provide access to units and replenishment. Levy troops typically appear at settlements, while Household troops are associated with castles and the buildings constructed there. Regional culture influences which native Levy and Household units become available.

Mercenaries provide the main way to diversify an army. The developer example suggests adding English mercenary archers to a French force for stronger ranged support, or recruiting French mercenary cavalry to give a Holy Roman Empire army additional power in the vanguard. These combinations are not free, however: mercenaries require substantial spending and their morale is more easily affected than that of Household units.

A practical army-management checklist

Objective	Actionable route	Revealed rule or statistic
Expand your command	Improve your character’s commander skill	Progression can unlock up to 10 unit slots
Increase army strength	Grow unit maximum sizes as the campaign advances	Units can reach roughly 100 troops, with armies eventually approaching 1,000 soldiers
Replace losses	Visit quartermasters and use category-matched replenishment resources	Recruitment pools are limited and refresh globally each in-game week
Promote veterans	Let units fight, earn experience, and pay promotion costs	Experience comes primarily from battlefield performance
Maintain loyalty	Provide food and full pay consistently	Low morale can lead to desertion outside battle

Promotion is not simply a linear upgrade button. At certain points in a progression tree, players can keep a unit in its current role, specialize its weapons, or change its battlefield role entirely. A melee infantry unit might develop toward sword fighting or polearms, while other branches can change between infantry and cavalry or melee and ranged roles.

Army size also has a cost beyond the unit-slot limit. More troops require more food, equipment, wages, and replacement resources. A large Household-only army may be possible, but the developers describe it as especially expensive. A mixed force of Levy, Household, and Mercenary units can provide more flexibility while keeping the economy manageable.

Morale connects these decisions to the battlefield. Units move through Inspired, Confident, Concerned, Wavering, and Broken states. Inspired is only available during combat, while Confident is the normal stable state. Concerned and Wavering are warning stages, and Broken causes a rout.

A rout and a retreat have different consequences. A routed unit is considered lost, even if some soldiers survive. A retreat is an organized withdrawal that allows surviving units to remain with the army. The game can trigger a retreat when overall army strength falls below a threshold, but the player still controls the withdrawal and can cover endangered troops or pursue enemy routers.

FAQ about Chronicles Medieval nations

Which Chronicles Medieval nations are currently confirmed?

England, France, and the Holy Roman Empire are the three major faction identities currently shown in the available developer material. The developers have not published a final list of every culture or playable faction, so this should be treated as the current revealed roster.

Do the three nations play differently?

Yes. England is associated with skilled Longbowmen and flank deployment, France with heavy cavalry and vanguard pressure, and the Holy Roman Empire with dense battle lines and tough melee infantry. Exact unit statistics and balance values remain subject to change.

Can armies use units from other nations?

Mercenaries are designed to fill gaps in a faction’s native Levy and Household rosters. Examples shown by the developers include English mercenary archers serving in a French army and French mercenary cavalry reinforcing a Holy Roman Empire force. Mercenaries cost more and can suffer morale problems more easily.

When can players try these factions?

The official game page currently lists Steam Early Access on PC for early 2027. Console versions are planned to follow, but their timing has not been announced. No specific release day has been provided.