Play Fantasy Empires Online

Game Overview

Fantasy Empires is one of those old MS-DOS games that somehow crammed way more depth into its pixelated world than it had any right to. You start by picking a faction—elves, dwarves, orcs, the usual suspects—and suddenly you're juggling city-building, hero recruitment, and army management all at once. The first time I played, I lost three heroes in a row because I underestimated how fast those goblin archers could shred my knights.

The battles switch to real-time once armies clash, which keeps things tense—no leisurely chess moves here. Watching your leveled-up paladin cleave through enemy lines feels amazing, right up until a lucky fireball turns them into a charred stain on the battlefield. No take-backs, either. Heroes stay dead.

It’s janky by modern standards, but there’s something about the way it blends RPG progression with grand strategy that still hooks me. Just save often, unless you enjoy the taste of bitter defeat.

Each game uses different controls, most DOS games use the keyboard arrows. Some will use the mouse , "Alt" ,"Enter" and "Space bar".