Seven Kingdoms (video game)

Seven Kingdoms
Developer(s)	Enlight
Publisher(s)	Interactive Magic
Designer(s)	Trevor Chan
Platform(s)	Windows, Linux
Release	November 30, 1997
Genre(s)	Real-time strategy
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer

Seven Kingdoms (Chinese: 七王國; pinyin: Qī Wáng Guó) is a real-time strategy (RTS) computer game developed by Trevor Chan of Enlight Software. The game enables players to compete against up to six other kingdoms allowing players to conquer opponents by defeating them in war (with troops or machines), capturing their buildings with spies, or offering opponents money for their kingdom. The Seven Kingdoms series went on to include a sequel, Seven Kingdoms II: The Fryhtan Wars. In 2008, Enlight released a further title in the Seven Kingdoms series, Seven Kingdoms: Conquest.

Seven Kingdoms made departures from the traditional real-time strategy model of "gather resources, build a base and army, and attack" set by other RTS games. The economic model bears more resemblance to a turn-based strategy game than to the traditional "build-workers, and harvest-resources" system in games such as Command & Conquer, StarCraft, and Age of Empires.

The game features an espionage system that allows players to train and control spies individually, who each have a spying skill that increases over time. The player is responsible for catching potential spies in their own kingdom. Inns built within the game allow players to hire mercenaries of various occupations, skill levels, and races. Skilled spies of enemy races are essential to a well-conducted espionage program, and the player can bolster his or her forces by grabbing a skilled fighter or give one's own factories, mines, and towers of science, a boost by hiring a highly skilled professional. For instance, having a skilled Persian general can make capturing and keeping a Persian village much easier.

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