Open Historia Est. MMXXVI

✦ A free, open-source strategy game · AI-driven alternate history ✦

Open Historia WarorPeace

Lead any nation on a living world map. Say what it does in your own words, and an AI plays out the rest of the world. The history you make is yours.

⬇ Download the App ▶ Demo in your browser

The browser version is a demo — it streams the world map over the network, so expect lag. The desktop app runs locally and is how the game is meant to be played.

  • Freeno price, no ads
  • AGPLopen source
  • 36languages
  • Offlineruns on your machine
Begin the chronicle

Open Historia is an independent, open-source project and is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, approved, or authorized by Pax Historia. Pax Historia has no involvement in the development, operation, or distribution of Open Historia. Pax Historia™ and all associated trademarks, trade names, and logos are the exclusive property of Pax Historia.

File Nº 01A Year in the World1 / 10
Chapter I

The world, as it stands

1 January 2016. Some two hundred nations, every border where it lies. Start in the present, in 1939, in an age long gone, or in a world someone drew from scratch.

You lead one country. An AI plays every other, each with its own leaders, aims and memory. Scroll on, and watch what they do with a year.

Archive

1 The built-in Modern Day map: 3,662 regions, every one with a name and an owner. 2 A scenario can begin on any date, even before Christ.

File Nº 02A Year in the World2 / 10
Chapter II

The world does not wait

Every turn, the AI plays the other nations at once. Most of them argue. Some of them arm. And one August night, two of them fire.

Ten missiles leave Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming on the great circles over the Arctic. Most are caught in the air. Some are not.

The story says what flew, what was stopped and what got through, and the map remembers where it fell.

Flash traffic

3 The rest of the world is played in the same AI request as your own country: one per time skip.

File Nº 03A Year in the World3 / 10
Chapter III

The front moves

In the confusion, Pyongyang moves. Where two countries at war share a border a front forms, and the game fights it region by region, troop by troop, before the story is told.

Keep scrolling and the line comes south: Seoul, Daejeon, Daegu, and at last Busan.

War declared

4 Battlefields, the War Room and seasons on the front are in the stable app since 2.5.

File Nº 04A Year in the World4 / 10
Chapter IV

Choose a nation

None of that was yours. You are France: a permanent seat at the Security Council, an army, a voice. Its card shows what you answer for.

Every other country has a card of its own. Read the others before you deal with them.

Selected

5 In the game: click any country on the map to open its card.

File Nº 05A Year in the World5 / 10
Chapter V

Speak, and it is done

There's no menu of three hundred buttons. Write your orders the way a head of state would give them, in your own words and your own language.

Your advisor reads them first and tells you what they'll cost.

Orders

6 Orders wait in a queue and are carried out by the next time skip.

File Nº 06A Year in the World6 / 10
Chapter VI

Then the world moves

Press time skip and weeks go by at once. The AI plays out the whole world for the period: crises, markets, elections, wars far away. Every event is dated, placed on the map and remembered.

This month, the capitals answer you.

Dispatch

7 A time skip is one request to your AI, however long the period it plays.

File Nº 07A Year in the World7 / 10
Chapter VII

Words before weapons

Write to any government in your own words, and it writes back in its own voice. Propose a treaty, offer a deal, apologise, threaten.

They remember what you said, and so does everyone they tell.

Diplomatic pouch

8 Each government answers from what it knows, in the language you play in.

File Nº 08A Year in the World8 / 10
Chapter VIII

Answer to your people

Governments answer to parliaments, factions and voters. The Assemblée must let you sign, and the opposition will make you pay for every concession.

Leaders change, factions rise and fall, and institutions debate and vote in their councils.

Order of the day

9 The Political World: leaders, political forces, institutions and puppet states.

File Nº 09A Year in the World9 / 10
Chapter IX

The table

Wars end at a table. Armistices are drawn, ground and reparations settled, and old enemies can leave as allies.

Or nobody comes, and the fighting goes on. It's your chronicle.

Ratified

10 Alliances, defence pacts and guarantees call their members in when war comes again.

File Nº 10Your Chronicle10 / 10
Chapter X

The next chapter is yours

That was one year of one campaign. Every game writes its own: the pins on the map are a few that others have dreamed up. Yours may never fire a shot.

⬇ Download the App ▶ Try the demo
Your move

Any year on the calendar

Pick an age, or make one

The map and the calendar are the scenario's. Begin on the real world as it is today, on any date in its past, or on a world drawn in the editor. Scenarios from other players are a click away in the Community tab.

3000 BC — AD 476

Antiquity

City-states, legions and pharaohs. The calendar runs before Christ.

🏛
476 — 1453

The Middle Ages

Kingdoms by marriage, crusades by letter, empires by accident.

🏰
1453 — 1815

Sail & Empire

Fleets for the Indies, wars for a throne, congresses for the peace.

⛵
1914 — 1918

The Great War

Trenches, ultimatums and the alliances that drag everyone in.

🪖
1939 — 1945

The Second World War

Europe on the globe, 1939: the screenshot below is one of these.

✈️
1947 — 1991

The Cold War

Proxy wars, spies, blocs and the long peace of deterrence.

🛰
2016 →

Modern Day

Built in: the real world's borders, its 3,662 regions and its tensions.

🌐
Any year

Worlds of your own

Draw continents, paint nations, set the date, and press Apply & Play.

🖌

Seen in the game

Not a mock-up. The game.

The map you just read is the map you play on. Click a photograph to see it full size.

Open Historia gameplay — a strategic world map with events and nations
Exhibit AA world at play: events, nations and the map they change
Europe on the globe in a World War II — 1939 campaign
Exhibit BEurope on the globe, 1939
The Community tab: scenarios players have shared, ready to import
Exhibit CThe Community tab: scenarios players have shared
Advanced Statistics: a country's inflation charted over the years
Exhibit DAdvanced Statistics: a country's economy over the years

What you can do

Two ledgers, one world

Everything on the table, sorted the way a head of state would sort it. Everything here is in the stable app.

War

When it comes to it.

⚔️

01Battlefields & the War Room

Where two sides meet, the game fights the land war itself, troop by troop. Talk to your generals, draw routes, dig in, fortify, deploy.

♟️

02An enemy that plans

Every few days the other side rehearses several plans on a copy of the battle and picks one. The difficulty decides how sharp a commander you face.

⚓

03War at sea

Fleets patrol, blockade, escort, seek battle or withdraw. A blockade cuts into the enemy's economy.

🕵️

04Espionage

Sabotage, recruit a source or assassinate, with the odds and the risk of capture shown first. An operation never traced is never tied to you.

❄️

05Seasons & weather

Rain, mud, snow, frost, heat and fog slow armies down and wear troops out. Lakes and seas can freeze hard enough to cross.

🎖️

06Troops on the map

Deploy and move armies and fleets. The AI resolves fronts, and the borders follow.

Peace

For as long as it lasts.

✉️

07Diplomacy in your own words

Click any country to negotiate, threaten or ally through open conversation. Every government answers in its own voice.

🕊️

08Peace & alliances

Losses and blockades wear a country down until it asks for terms. Alliances, defence pacts and guarantees call their members in.

🏛️

09The Political World

Governments with their own leaders and factions, institutions whose councils debate and vote, puppets that answer to an overlord.

📱

10Rostra, the world's feed

Leaders, journalists and ordinary people post as the world turns. Read them, search any country or region, post as your own leader, quote, and put a question to the public in a poll.

📜

11Events the AI writes

Every time skip plays out the world: crises, elections, markets, discoveries. Some come to you as a scene to play out or let pass.

📋

12Projects & operations

Your government's long efforts, from research programmes to covert operations, moved along by events and your advisor.

🦉

13An advisor at your side

Guidance, economic analysis and briefings whenever you ask.

✦ And the rest of the archive ✦
🖌️

14Draw your own world

A full map editor: draw regions, paint owners, place cities, then Apply & Play.

🌐

15A hub of scenarios

Import community scenarios in the game or publish your own, all under CC BY 4.0.

🌍

16Thirty-six languages

The whole game is translated, from Arabic to Vietnamese.

🤖

17Your own AI

Gemini, OpenAI, Anthropic, any compatible service, or a model on your own computer.

🎨

18Themes

Six looks for the whole interface, from the original to Midnight Navy, Graphite, Forest, Oxblood and Sepia, chosen when the game first opens.

🔒

19Runs on your machine

Local-first: your saves and scenarios stay with you.

⚖️

20Free & open source

AGPL-3.0 and built by its community. Fork it, mod it, ship it.

🎵

21A score for every campaign

Music by Scott Buckley, from the menu to the War Room.

Up and running in minutes

Three steps to the table

No accounts, no store, no build tools. Download the app for your system, open it, and play.

I

Download

Pick the download for your system: an installer on Windows, a zip on macOS, a .deb package on Linux (AppImage below it for everything else).

II

Open it

Run the installer on Windows, or drag the app to Applications on macOS. Nothing else to set up — the app brings everything it needs with it.

III

Play

Open Historia opens in its own window. The world map downloads once, with a progress bar, then you connect an AI, pick a scenario and start reshaping history.

Run Open-Historia-Setup.exe and follow the installer, then open Open Historia from the Start Menu. If Windows SmartScreen warns, choose More info → Run anyway — the installer isn't code-signed yet.
Unzip the download and drag Open Historia into your Applications folder. The app isn't code-signed yet, so the first time macOS closes it and says it can't check it: choose Done, then System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway (on macOS 14 and earlier, right-click the app and choose Open). Once only. If it says the app is damaged instead, macOS quarantined the download — clear it with xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Open Historia.app" and open it again.
On Debian, Ubuntu and derivatives install the .deb (sudo apt install ./Open-Historia-amd64.deb) — it lands in your applications menu like any other program. Otherwise use the AppImage: chmod +x Open-Historia-x86_64.AppImage and run it, nothing installed system-wide.

Downloads

Pick your platform

Desktop is the full experience. The Android app plays on its own — nothing to run alongside it.

Recommended
🪟

Windows

Windows 10 & 11 · ~136 MB

An ordinary installer. Run it and Open Historia lands in your Start Menu like any other app — no Node.js, no setup script, no terminal window. The world map downloads itself the first time you open it.

⬇ Download Installer
Native · runs smoothest, with the best performance. Updates shortly after the beta.
⬇ Native Installer
Beta · the newest features first. A separate app with its own saves.
⬇ Beta Installer
🍎

macOS

Apple Silicon or Intel · ~163–169 MB

Unzip and drag Open Historia to your Applications folder. First launch: macOS closes it once because it isn't code-signed yet. Choose Done, then System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway (macOS 14 and earlier: right-click it and choose Open).

⬇ Apple Silicon ⬇ Intel
Native · runs smoothest, with the best performance. Updates shortly after the beta.
⬇ Native for macOS
Beta · the newest features first. A separate app with its own saves.
⬇ Beta · Apple Silicon ⬇ Beta · Intel
🐧

Linux

.deb for Debian & Ubuntu · x86_64 · AppImage for other distros · ~125–161 MB

The .deb installs like any other package on Debian, Ubuntu and their derivatives. The AppImage is one portable file for every other distribution: make it executable and launch it — nothing to install, no packages to add.

⬇ Download .deb ⬇ Download .AppImage
Native · runs smoothest, with the best performance. Updates shortly after the beta.
⬇ Native .tar.gz
Beta · the newest features first. A separate app with its own saves.
⬇ Beta .deb ⬇ Beta .AppImage
📱

Android app

Everything on the device · ~65 MB

Install it and play, even offline. Your games, the scenario workshop and the whole world map are on the phone — no server to run, no download after install, nothing to set up.

⬇ Download APK
Beta · the newest features first. A separate app with its own saves.
⬇ Beta APK

Already installed? The app updates itself (see How do I update later?). Installing the newest download over the top works too — your saves and scenarios are kept. · All releases

Good to know

Questions & requirements

Do I need to install anything else?

No. The desktop app and the Android app bring everything they need: no Node.js, no setup script, no terminal. The desktop app downloads the world map the first time it opens, and the Android app carries it inside. The one thing you supply is an AI — see Connecting an AI Provider.

Is it really free?

Yes. Open Historia is free and open source under the GNU AGPL v3. The AI features connect to an AI provider you choose — see Connecting an AI Provider or ask in Discord for setup help.

Which AI can I use?

Gemini, OpenAI or Anthropic with your own key; any service that speaks OpenAI's or Anthropic's API, such as OpenRouter; or a model running on your own computer through Ollama or LM Studio. A Fallback list of backup models takes over when one is busy or out of allowance. In the beta's desktop app, your own Agent (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode or Antigravity CLI) can answer what you start instead. More in AI Providers and Models.

Where does it run — is my data uploaded?

On your own device: the desktop app in its own window, the Android app on your phone, the browser version in your browser. Your saves and scenarios stay on your device, and your AI key goes only to the AI provider you choose. Visits are counted only if you say yes. The privacy policy lists everything the game contacts.

What licence are shared scenarios under?

Every scenario made in Open Historia that is posted or shared in any way is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0). The game says so before you publish and writes it into the file.

How do I update later?

The desktop app updates itself. When it opens, it installs a waiting update first — only the parts of the app that changed, or the whole installer when a release needs it — and restarts on the new version; choose Open the game now instead and the update installs when you close the game. An update that comes out while you play shows as a banner at the top: Update now, then Restart now. Your saves, scenarios and map are kept. On macOS, where the app is not code-signed yet, an update that needs the whole app is offered as a download instead. The Android app shows the same banner and fetches the new version for you to install, and the browser version reloads onto it. The beta is a separate app that updates itself the same way, from its own releases. A copy run from the source code updates the way it was installed: pull the newest code, then run npm install and npm run build again.

What is the beta?

The game's newest version, ahead of the stable one and less tested. It is a separate app, Open Historia Beta, with its own saves, and installs beside the stable app on Windows, macOS, Linux and Android. New features come to it first: shared games are there now. Its download sits under each stable one above, and the stable desktop app offers it after it is installed and after each update.

What about mobile?

Download the Android APK and open it — that is the whole setup. Your games live on the phone and the whole world map is inside the app, so it plays even in airplane mode, with no server to run and nothing to point it at. The beta Android app installs beside it. On iPhone and iPad, play the browser version in Safari.

⚔ WarPeace ✦

The next page is blank.

Download once, open it, and you're playing.

⬇ Download the App ▶ Play now in your browser