CHIEF'S FIRE Lead from the fire.You are the chief, not a god.
Lead a tribe through ten generations of an ice age. Your orders only travel as fast as your fastest runner, your scouts bring back news that is already old, and the ice closes in a little more every minute.
This is the real game running in your browser right now. Nobody is steering it. Take over a tribe of your own whenever you like.
Lead your tribeA strategy game where distance is real
Most strategy games let you see everything and command everyone at once. Here you stand by a fire in the snow, and the world is as big as a runner's legs.
Your voice has a reach
People inside the gold ring around your chief obey at once. Everyone else gets the order when a runner reaches them. You only have two runners, and a runner can be killed on the way.
You see what you are told
You see live around your chief, your villages and your connected towers. The rest is reports from scouts: faded figures stamped with their age. The camp they found may be a decoy.
Drums beat runners
Build drum towers within reach of each other and orders cross the map far faster than anyone can run. Rivals know it too, and a broken chain leaves your far camps deaf.
People grow old
Villagers, warriors and scouts become elders, and elders hold your tribe's skills. Lose them and the newest skill is forgotten. When your chief dies, the heir takes over and the line goes on.
The ice does not wait
From minute ten the ice closes on the centre of the map and kills what it covers. Move your village in time, or be the one who holds the last warm valley.
The wild pushes back
Wolf packs hunt lone villagers. A cave bear guards the richest herd. Storms blind your scouts, strangers ask to join your fire, and rival chiefs send envoys with offers and threats.
Ninety minutes. Ten generations.
A match has a hard end. Nobody camps forever, and every game tells a whole story.
Settle
A village, a handful of people and one elder. Set villagers to hunt and cut wood, raise a lodge for your elders, send a scout out.
Expand
Huts, watch towers and a drum line. The ice starts to bite the edges of the map. Raids test anyone who left their villagers alone.
Clash
The warm valley thaws. Every chief wants it, and standing in it means leaving home. Truces are made and broken.
Final blizzard
Almost everything is ice. Whoever still has people in warm land when the storm ends has carried their line through.
Three ways to win
Pick one early, or keep all three open and see what your rivals leave you.
Scatter them
Leave a rival with no chief and no possible heir and their tribe breaks apart. Do it to all of them and the land is yours.
Hold the warm valley
Once it thaws at minute 45, stand in it with your chief and five others for a full generation while no rival sets foot there.
Outlast the blizzard
If nobody has won by minute 90, the tribe with the most people alive has kept its fire burning longest.
The chiefs who made it
Win a match, type a name, and you are on the board. No account needed.
| # | Chief | How they won | Points |
|---|
Questions people ask
Is it really free?
Yes. Open the page and play. There is nothing to buy and nothing to install.
Do I need an account?
No. There is no signup and no login. Your match is saved in your own browser as you play, so closing the tab or refreshing brings you straight back to it.
What do I need to play?
A computer with a mouse and a current browser. You select with the left button and give orders with the right, so it is not built for phones.
Who am I playing against?
Rival tribes led by the computer, on easy, normal or hard. They use the same runners, the same drums and the same old reports that you do. They cannot see what their scouts have not told them.
How long does a match take?
Up to 90 minutes at normal speed. You can pause at any time, speed the clock up to eight times, and come back to a saved match later.
Is there sound?
Yes, music and effects, with their own volume sliders and a mute switch in the menu.
The fire is lit. Your people are waiting.
Free to play, right now, in this browser. No signup.
Play Chief's Fire