9 Kings

You rule a small village that is destined to grow into an impregnable citadel. Around it lie the lands of other kings, each with their own deck, army and ambitions.

The world is populated by knights, dark sorcerers, mages, bombardiers, hellish imps and even sentient mushrooms. Kings can be robbed, made peace with, or fought in war.

9 Kings is a strategy game with a roguelike structure, where you grow a kingdom by assembling it from buildings, troops and spells. The game came out in early access in May 2025, so the content may still change. It is made by the studio Sad Socket. The core of the game is the deck. Each of the nine kings has a starting set of buildings, warriors and spells, and your domain is built from these cards. A village gradually turns into an impregnable citadel, while the capital trains and strengthens the army. The placement of buildings and units also affects the result, so the order of placement is as much a part of the strategy as the choice of cards. The exchange of power is set up in an interesting way: attacking rival kings can be robbed, and you can take cards from their decks. With some rulers it is more profitable to make peace, with others to declare war for the troops they have. The units are varied: knights and dark sorcerers, mages and bombardiers, hordes of imps and sentient mushrooms. Gold goes to mercenaries, dark magic brings back the fallen, and the forces of nature help crush the enemy. The goal of most runs is to push combinations of boosts and modifiers to the point of absurdity, "break" the game and end up with an army that nobody can handle. Dozens of events await you during a match. You can play solo or in asynchronous online wars: there you compete against eight rivals, and the winner is the one whose kingdom lasts longer than the rest. Controller support and achievements are included. For fans of card strategy and building who care about experimenting with builds, it is a good reason to take a look, keeping in mind the early access status.