Crown & Plough
From the legions of Rome to the factories of Victorian Britain: pick one era out of two thousand years of European history, be born as one person, and live a single life through to its end in this browser life simulation.
How it works
- Choose an era and be born. You cannot choose the land or the family you are born into. Of every 100 children, 62 are born peasants, 24 to knights or minor nobles, 11 to lordly houses, and only 3 to royalty.
- Set this year's focus, every year. Pick one of martial training, learning, livelihood (governing), gathering strength (levying troops), socialising or family, and that year's stats and wealth will change accordingly.
- Decide at the crossroads. Marriage offers, plagues, revolts, campaigns, duels, investments: each era brings its own events, and your choices change your life.
- Play the grand strategy. Once you hold land, use the Diplo tab to send gifts, form alliances, arrange marriages and make vassals, and declare war on a claim or a holy-war pretext. Occupy enemy land on the map to build war score, then take territory in a peace treaty. Three holdings make a duchy, eight a kingdom, sixteen an empire. Expand too fast and your neighbours will form a grand coalition.
- Carry on the house. Check siblings, children and grandchildren in the family tree and name your heir. Choosing a child other than the eldest may spark a succession crisis. The legacy you build through house traits and prestige passes down the generations.
Crossroads of Fate and ruling the realm
At a few moments in a life, an event comes that can change everything: an inheritance from a distant relative, a reward for saving the king's life, an empty throne beside a child king, a great revolt, a false accusation, a romance with royalty, a rival house feuding across generations. Rule a duchy or more and you must manage stability and the favour of your court nobles (Marshal, Steward, Chancellor, Archbishop, Spymaster), while training, equipment, siegecraft, standing-army reforms, tactical choices and decisive battles decide your wars. As choices pile up, your personality changes too.
Rumors and quests, secrets and heirlooms
Rumors spring up all over the map: a ruined temple, a hermit in the mountains, a beast terrorising a village, treasure from a shipwreck. Set out yourself and, on a journey of one to three years, you will meet ambushes, hedge knights and shady map-sellers, and on arrival a life-or-death choice awaits. There are multi-stage quests such as a revenge tale hunting your father's killer, a search for the Grail following three clues, and a secret letter from your liege, and you can blackmail or expose others with secrets dug up at court. Heirlooms you find stay with your house for generations. Detailed tips are in the play guide.
Five eras
| Era | Start | Great historical events you will meet |
|---|---|---|
| Roman Empire | c. AD 117 | The Antonine Plague, the Marcomannic Wars, the Crisis of the Third Century, the breakaway Gallic and Palmyrene Empires, the Edict of Milan, the East–West division, the fall of the Western Roman Empire |
| Middle Ages | c. 1200 | The Fourth Crusade and the Latin Empire, Magna Carta, the Mongol advance west, the fall of Acre, the Hundred Years' War, the Black Death |
| Renaissance and the Age of Discovery | c. 1500 | The Reformation, the Battle of Mohács, the Siege of Vienna, the Battle of Lepanto, Dutch independence, the Spanish Armada, the Thirty Years' War |
| Age of Revolution | c. 1789 | The French Revolution, the Partitions of Poland, the Napoleonic Empire, the Russian campaign, Waterloo, the Revolutions of 1848 |
| Victorian Age | c. 1850 | The Great Exhibition, the Crimean War, the unifications of Italy and Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Congress of Berlin, the First World War |
About the map and historical accuracy
The map was made by transferring Natural Earth 1:50m public coastline data and major rivers, lakes and mountain ranges onto a 160×134 grid, with real place names and countries for each era placed across 168 regions. Once the game begins, the world runs freely, so results often differ from real history. Countries and events are simplified for the sake of the game.
Saving
Your progress is saved only in this browser and is never sent to a server. Clearing your browser data will also erase your records.