The game uses an overhead world map viewed from a strategic perspective. A player controls one sovereign, moves armies between locations, captures cities, explores special sites, and develops settlements that produce gold, troops, and improvements.

Each turn supports exploration, recruitment, diplomacy, and combat. Battles are resolved automatically according to unit strengths, abilities, terrain, and army order. Campaigns progress through conquest, the destruction or subjugation of rival kingdoms, and the accumulation of economic and military advantages.

Players can choose standard campaigns, scenarios, or customized maps. Heroes, magical locations, special units, and researched or discovered advantages add variation to the basic city-and-army cycle.

Expand early, but avoid leaving newly captured cities undefended. A compact group of productive settlements is usually easier to protect than a thin line of distant conquests.

Use scouts and heroes to reveal ruins and valuable locations, compare enemy army compositions before attacking, and keep gold available for recruitment. Special units and terrain can change the expected result of an otherwise similar battle, so do not judge armies only by their headcount.