Knights and Merchants is a real-time strategy/empire building action game that takes place during medieval times. Players build, manage and wage war within a medieval environment. The game could probably be best described as a strategic economy simulation, with elements of war. The economics however, play a major role. Player’s manufacture a variety of different products, produce numerous buildings and make related goods – all from the Middle Ages. Among the many characters players control indirectly, serfs are used to construct and maintain buildings and roads. Players have total control over military units.

Players assume the role of an ordinary captain in the Palace Guard. A conspiracy against the king catapults the captain into a situation where he finds himself responsible for the defense of the last royal province. This is all that remains of the shattered kingdom, which has been split into numerous small principalities and earldoms. And now even the king himself, ensconced in his capital, is threatened by enemy armies. This is the starting point of your Middle Ages adventure, as you, the player, must win back all those provinces which once belonged to your king.