Three Hammers

What the game is, what it is built on, and the rules we set before drawing a single sprite.

A bowman who was meant to be a crossbowman, a commander with no clan, and an enemy that was "good enough".

The first mission runs end to end on the engine, on painted terrain, with its briefing. Here is 85 seconds of it.

The first painted maps were too massive and too flat. Ten reference screenshots and one engine crash later, the terrain look was rebuilt.

Every mission opens with an illustrated still, scrolling text and a narrator. Here is how those are made, and what is real about them.

The first Bronzebeard building, drawn out of the Forge's own masonry so it belongs in the same yard.

The fifth mission is the first with a real computer opponent, and the first where you can avoid a fight by paying for it.

A rifle unit with a shield, and an honest sheet of the attack frames that did not work.

The buildings were approved on sight. The soldiers were sent back for more armour, came back in plate, and are learning to walk.

Two short clips from the first mission, straight off the engine: the hold's yard at work, and the company fighting through the trogg camp.

Twenty hours of landings: the cast gets portraits, the Sharpshooter takes the field, Dunbrek is besieged, and the first research goes on the board.

A heal you can watch land, a ward that stays visible for as long as it works, and the last placeholder icons gone from the command panel.

Dead units used to freeze for a few seconds and vanish. Now they fall, settle, become bones or splinters, and fade. Here is how, and what it cost.