From the Devs
[h1]Mercatoria[/h1]
A hex-grid, turn-based grand strategy game set in the Age of Discovery,
inspired by the 1999 classic Imperialism 2.The year is 1492. You take command of one of six European powers — England,
France, Spain, Holland, Portugal, or Sweden — and compete for dominance of
the Old World through trade, industry, colonisation, and war. Across the
Atlantic, the New World lies mostly unexplored: sugarcane, tobacco, fur,
and diamonds await the nation bold enough to reach them first.
Every turn is a year. Every map is new. No two games play the same.
What you actually do in Mercatoria
Build a transport network. Resources don't appear in your stockpile
by magic. Send Engineers out to build roads, connect your iron ore mines
and timber clusters to your capital, lay down a harbour, and watch your
industrial base come to life. Rivers give free transport. Roads take 1–3
turns to build depending on terrain. Every hex matters.
Industrialise. Raw materials become finished goods in your capital:
timber becomes lumber and paper; iron ore and coal become steel; wool
becomes fabric for training your workforce. Lock your production batches
manually or let auto-production handle the grind.
Grow your workforce. Level 1 workers produce 1 Labour per turn.
Upgrade them through four tiers using luxury goods — sugar at tier 2,
cigars at tier 3, fur hats at tier 4 — and a single worker can do the
output of eight. But luxuries need to come from somewhere, which usually
means the New World, which usually means you need a navy.
Explore, colonise, and conquer. Send Explorers out to prospect for
hidden minerals. Build fleets. Establish bridgeheads. Land armies on
indigenous territory and claim new colonies — or leave the natives in
peace and trade with them instead.
Wage war, or avoid it. Combat plays out over up to six rounds of
simultaneous fire: artillery first, cavalry second, infantry and warriors
in melee. Units earn medals that stick with them across battles.
Generals automatically emerge in every garrison of 10+ units and boost
morale and deployment. Forts reduce incoming damage. Terrain matters.
Encirclement matters.
Trade and diplomacy. The World Market is a shared auction house —
your order gets matched with nations that like you more than your
competitors. Subsidise allies. Boycott rivals. Form Non-Aggression Pacts
and Alliances. When an ally gets attacked, you'll get a war request
popup. Decline it and your alliance breaks, and your relations sink.
Research a deep tech tree. Over 80 technologies covering farming,
mining, transport, military tactics (four eras of infantry, cavalry, and
artillery), and extraction — the techs you need to upgrade your resource
hexes beyond Level 1. Only one research slot at a time. Choose carefully.
Win the Old World. Control 70% of Old World provinces and you win.
The New World doesn't count toward victory — but its wealth can fund
your conquest.
Features
- Procedural maps — every game is a fresh world of 180×110 hexes
- 6 playable major powers with distinct AI personalities (Militarist,
Trader, Expansionist)
- 6 neutral minor nations and 8 passive indigenous peoples in the New World
- 20+ resources, recipes, and manufactured goods
- Over 80 technologies across 7 research categories
- Four eras of military units — Infantry, Pikemen, Musketeers, Grenadiers,
and their Cavalry and Artillery equivalents
- Three classes of warship — Sloop, Frigate, Man-of-War
- Veteran units that earn medals and improve over time
- Full fog of war with exploration and scouting
- Singleplayer vs AI
- Multiplayer — LAN TCP/IP and Steam P2P, lock-step turns
- English and Dutch language support
- Save slots (8 manual + 1 autosave)
A word from the developer
Hi. I'm Dennis, the one person working on Mercatoria. I'm not a studio.
There's no marketing team, no publisher, no second developer. Mercatoria
is what I build in my evenings and weekends because I love strategy games
and because nobody has made a proper Imperialism 2 successor in 25 years.
Mercatoria is in Early Access. That means:
- The game is playable, stable, and has hundreds of hours of content
today — I wouldn't release it if it wasn't.
- Some rough edges still exist. A few UI elements are placeholders, some
balance numbers are being tuned, and I'm still adding features.
- Your feedback matters. If something is unclear, unbalanced, or
buggy, tell me. Steam forums, Discussions, reviews — I read all of it.
- I update when I can. Sometimes that's weekly, sometimes life gets in
the way. I'll always be honest about where the game stands.
I want Mercatoria to be a game strategy fans actually enjoy playing for
years. I can't promise I'll implement every request, but I can promise
I'll read every one and take them seriously. If you loved Imperialism 2
and have been waiting a long time for something in the same spirit —
welcome aboard. Let's build this together.
— Dennis, Groundwork Studio
Join the community
Talk to the developer, report bugs, find multiplayer partners, and shape what comes next.
