Warlords Under Siege

Warlords Under Siege is a high-octane “distilled” real-time strategy game with heavy roguelike and deckbuilding elements, developed and published by Redkar Games. It sits in that addictive sweet spot between the city-building defense of Stronghold and the “survivor” power-scaling of Vampire Survivors.

As of May 2026, the game has solidified its place as a cult favorite in the “RTS-lite” subgenre. Following its full 1.0 launch in late 2023, the developers have spent the last two years expanding the game with the “Iron & Sorcery” updates, which added complex magic systems and deep meta-progression that keeps even veteran generals on their toes.

The Premise: The Last Bastion

The game drops you into a dark, unforgiving fantasy world where the light of civilization is flickering out. You aren’t conquering an empire; you are desperately trying to keep one alive. You are placed in command of a small, central keep surrounded by hostile wilderness. Your goal is simple: survive the night.

As the Warlord, you must manage your meager resources to build walls, towers, and barracks while fending off ever-growing swarms of orcs, undead, and eldritch horrors. The narrative is told through the struggle itself—every successful defense feels like a hard-won chapter in a story of survival against impossible odds.

Gameplay: The RTS-Roguelike Hybrid

The brilliance of Warlords Under Siege lies in how it replaces traditional, often tedious RTS tech trees with a fast-paced Deckbuilding System.

• The Card Economy: Instead of clicking a menu to build a farm or a barracks, you draw cards from a customizable deck. These cards represent buildings, units, and powerful “instant” buffs. Do you play the “Stone Walls” card now to shore up a breach, or save your gold to play the “Veteran Archers” card? This randomness forces you to adapt your strategy on the fly, ensuring no two sieges play out the same way.
• Micro-Management vs. Automation: While the game handles the basic “auto-firing” of your towers, you have direct control over your units and your Hero. You can physically move your infantry to plug gaps in the wall or lead a daring cavalry charge to take out enemy siege engines.
• The “Survivor” Scaling: Every time you level up during a match, you choose from randomized upgrades. You might increase the fire rate of your ballistas, give your soldiers life-steal, or grant your Hero a devastating “Whirlwind” attack. By the end of a 20-minute match, your keep should be a fortress of glowing, magical destruction.
• Procedural Siege Warfare: Maps are procedurally generated, meaning the “choke points” and resource locations shift every time you start a run. You have to scout the immediate area around your keep quickly before the first wave hits at dusk.

Meta-Progression: The War Forge

In true roguelike fashion, losing a match isn’t the end. Every run earns you Gold and Souls, which are spent in the “War Forge” between games.

• Permanent Upgrades: You can permanently increase your keep’s health, starting gold, or the base damage of your units.
• Deck Customization: As you progress, you unlock more powerful cards. By 2026, the pool of cards has expanded significantly, allowing players to build specialized “decks”—such as a “Pyromancer” deck focused on fire traps and AOE mages, or a “Stalwart” deck focused on heavy armor and impenetrable stone fortifications.
• The Hero Roster: You can unlock and level up different Warlords, each with their own unique active abilities and passive bonuses that fundamentally change your playstyle.

Key Features:

• RTS Meets Roguelike — A unique mashup that combines the tactical positioning of a strategy game with the “one-more-run” addiction of a deckbuilder.
• Deep Deckbuilding — Craft your own strategy by choosing which units, structures, and spells will appear in your draw pile.
• Massive Unit Counts — The engine is optimized to handle hundreds of enemies on screen at once, creating truly epic, chaotic siege spectacles.
• Hero-Centric Combat — Lead from the front with powerful Hero units that grow in power and gain new abilities as the siege progresses.
• The “Master of the Keep” Update (2026) — The most recent major update, which introduced “Under-Mountain” maps and the ability to build vertical, multi-layered defenses.
• Challenging Boss Encounters — Every few waves, a massive Boss unit appears (like a Giant Siege Crab or a Dracolich) that requires specific tactical counters to defeat.

Release Dates:

• Steam Early Access Launch — June 2022.
• Full 1.0 Release — January 20, 2025.
• “Iron & Sorcery” Expansion — November 2024.
• “Master of the Keep” Update — March 10, 2026.
• Current Status — Fully released and actively supported with monthly “Community Challenges” as of May 2026.