# Captains and Kings tags: #game/wargame/captains-and-kings ![[Captains and Kings (cover).jpg|600]] "It isn't easy for a Captain that would be King." Two Hour Wargames' High Medieval warband-and-army game, and it's the THW engine pointed at the age of mail, banners, and ambition. **Captains and Kings** starts you with a single unit and asks how far the ladder goes — from leading a raid to sitting on a throne, if your banner holds. It's the medieval-chivalric corner of the family, built on the same reaction engine that runs everything else, and it knows the best way to test a man's nerve is to point a crossbow at his captain and see who flinches first. ## Setting The scope is the High Middle Ages, roughly the 9th to 13th centuries, laid out as **fourteen armies** from **Viking raiders** to **Crusading knights** — enough period shelf to fight almost anything the era can throw at you. You don't start as a king; you start as a captain with a war band and rise by battle success, **Social Standing**, and gathering men under your banner, with the crown as the long game. There are rules for everything from small **raids between war bands** up to the **stand-up fight between armies**, a set of **siege rules**, ten scenarios, and three full campaigns. It campaigns-linked or a one-off, runs in whatever figures and scale you already own, and — like the rest of THW — will play solo, same-side against the game, or head to head. ## Mechanics Captains and Kings runs on the standard THW reaction system — figures react to what's happening rather than waiting for your turn, with the usual nerve tests deciding who carries on and who breaks when the volley lands. What the family does with those bones here is scale: the same engine handles a handful of war bands scrapping over a ford and a proper army stand-up with banners and a chain of command, and the **campaign** layer is where the "Captain to King" promise lives — your standing, your gathered men, and the crown all accrue as you go. Add **siege** rules and the ten scenarios and you've got the medieval era in a box, with the reaction roll keeping the pace honest. ## Editions - **Captains and Kings** (High Medieval warband combat, Ed Teixeira / Two Hour Wargames, product THW-1070). *In the library.* ## References - [Two Hour Wargames](https://www.twohourwargames.com/)