Seven Kingdoms II: The Fryhtan Wars
A sequel blending human kingdoms and Fryhtan species in real-time strategy.
Seven Kingdoms II: The Fryhtan Wars is a real-time strategy game blending history and fantasy, developed by Enlight and launched in 1999. It follows the original Seven Kingdoms and its enhanced version, Seven Kingdoms: Ancient Adversaries. The game stands out for carrying forward key features from earlier titles, including the need to juggle a strong military with a stable economy.
In gameplay, players manage Gold, Food, Reputation, Population, Loyalty, and Espionage, much like in Ancient Adversaries. Human populations can be assigned to tasks such as farming, construction, research, spying, mining, factory work, or military service. The game offers both single-player and multiplayer modes. Single-player includes random map skirmishes, built-in scenarios, and a campaign made up of dynamically generated scenarios.
Twelve human civilizations appear: Normans, Celts, Vikings, Greeks, Romans, Carthaginians, Egyptians, Persians, Indians, Chinese, Japanese, and Mongols. Seven Fryhtan species are also present: Minotauros, Exovum, Kharshuf, Kerassos, Bregma, Grokken, and Ezpinez. Human kingdoms have unique military units with slightly different stats, as well as distinct gods that grant special powers from "seats of power," which also provide unique bonuses. Differences among basic unit types, seat bonuses, and summonable Greater Beings set each nationality apart. Humans can also build siege weapons like cannons, ballistas, and catapults, which have no combat score and remain equally effective from creation to destruction, though they cost more to build and maintain.
Human kingdoms focus on population, diplomacy, and economy, while Fryhtan kingdoms (called Kwyzans) rely on military units supported by a simple economy, with almost no diplomacy or espionage. Humans can construct many buildings—mines, factories, forts, camps, and war factories—but most Fryhtan species can only build a lair for breeding and one additional structure tied to their unique abilities. Fryhtans gain gold by enslaving human towns and "life force" by killing units, which is needed to breed more Fryhtans. Human kingdoms often contain multiple nationalities, and Fryhtan kingdoms can include multiple species. Mixing both humans and Fryhtans in one kingdom is possible but tricky, as reputation issues can cause human townspeople to rebel.
Quick Facts
- Title
- Seven Kingdoms II: The Fryhtan Wars
- Developer
- Enlight
- Publisher
- Ubi Soft
- Designer
- Trevor Chan
- Released
- EU · October 1, 1999 · NA · October 15, 1999 · WW · February 4, 2015 / (HD)
- Genre
- Real-time strategy
- Modes
- Single-player, multiplayer
- Platforms
- Windows
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Seven Kingdoms II: The Fryhtan Wars retains many concepts from its predecessors that distinguished it from other strategy games. Players must balance a powerful army with a viable economy, managing resources such as Gold, Food, Reputation, Population, Loyalty, and Espionage. The human population can be subdivided for tasks like producing food, building, researching, spying, working in mines and factories, or conscripting into the army. The game includes 12 human civilizations (Normans, Celts, Vikings, Greeks, Romans, Carthaginians, Egyptians, Persians, Indians, Chinese, Japanese, and Mongols) and 7 Fryhtan species (Minotauros, Exovum, Kharshuf, Kerassos, Bregma, Grokken, and Ezpinez). Human kingdoms have unique gods with special powers that can be evoked from 'seats of power,' while Fryhtan kingdoms focus on military units backed by a simplistic economy, with almost no diplomatic options or espionage. Fryhtan kingdoms rely on enslaving human towns for gold and killing units for life force to breed more Fryhtans. Kingdoms with both humans and Fryhtans are possible but difficult due to reputation causing human townspeople to rebel.
Reader's Guide
Seven Kingdoms II: The Fryhtan Wars is significant for its dual-faction design, offering asymmetrical gameplay between human civilizations and Fryhtan species. Human kingdoms emphasize population, diplomacy, and economy, while Fryhtan kingdoms focus on direct military strength with a minimal economy. The game received favorable reviews according to GameRankings. Its legacy includes an open-source project supported by Enlight, which released the GPL source code for both Seven Kingdoms: Ancient Adversaries and Seven Kingdoms II in August 2009, though game data was not released under the GPL. The open-source project aimed to write a common engine for both games. In December 2014, Enlight announced a Steam greenlit HD upgrade, Seven Kingdoms 2 HD, which was released on February 4, 2015, supporting resolutions up to 1920x1080 and a map mode four times larger than the original. The original game CD for Windows is required to install Seven Kingdoms II.
Did You Know?
- Seven Kingdoms II includes 12 human civilizations and 7 Fryhtan species.
- Fryhtan kingdoms can only build two structures: a lair and one additional structure tied to their species.
- Enlight released the GPL source code for Seven Kingdoms II in August 2009.
- The HD version, released February 4, 2015, supports resolutions up to 1920x1080.
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