What is Kesselgrid
A strategy game about the two world wars
You lead one country, turn by turn: its economy, its army, its diplomacy and its politics at home. The rest of the world is played by an AI that follows the same rules and only sees what you would see.
History sets the stage with its real events and dates. From there, the decisions are yours.
Two world wars
Choose your war
From the last years of peace to the trenches, the revolutions and the treaties that redraw the map of Europe.
Europe 1910
The war in Libya, the Balkan wars, Sarajevo, the trenches, the blockade, revolution in Russia and the peace treaties, with the United States waiting across the Atlantic.
The Balkan Wars
October 1912: the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire, on a close-up map at 12 km a hex with weekly turns.
From the Spanish Civil War to the fall of Berlin. Lead any of 43 nations in Europe or 85 across the whole world, or follow the British army from the beaches of Dunkirk to Sicily.
British campaign
From the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940 to the desert war in North Africa and the landings in Sicily in 1943, with cinematic briefings and mission objectives.
Europe 1936
The Spanish Civil War breaks out in July 1936, and in historical mode the great powers follow the dates of the real war. If France falls, choose Vichy, Algiers or De Gaulle.
World 1936
The whole world on one map, from the war in China in 1937 to Pearl Harbor and the Pacific.
North Africa 1940
The desert front between Libya and Egypt, and the battlefield of the ranked online matches.
Sicily 1943
Operation Husky: the Allied landings on Sicily, to fight alone or side by side with a friend.
Tutorial: Poland 1939
A guided first game in September 1939 with General Guderian as your guide, learning the basics one turn at a time.
Or build your own with the map, scenario and campaign editor, which does everything the official scenarios do.
War is more than the front line
Every front is a whole war
01
Fronts, supply and terrain
Every hex counts. Look for the weak point, push through and cut the enemy off from his supply.
- Terrain, rivers, roads and railways shape every move
- Encircled armies run out of supply and wither
- Trenches dig in wherever a front stands still
- Landings, air wings and naval blockades that need real planning
02
Diplomacy at the summit table
Meet other leaders face to face. Every war must be justified before it is declared, and every war keeps a ledger of what it cost.
- Alliances, defence pledges, puppet states and tribute
- Trade provinces across the table
- Allies vote to fight on or make peace
- Treaties like Versailles that redraw the map
03
Industry and trade
Mines and foundries turn coal, iron ore, oil, bauxite, tungsten and rubber into steel, fuel and parts. What you lack, you buy from other countries through contracts that travel by sea.
- Trade laws, embargoes and autarky decide who you deal with
- A production plan you set by dragging bars
- Mines and oil wells that grow with your technology
04
Cards up your sleeve
Each great power has its own special abilities, played as cards at the right moment, from the Afrika Korps to Big Bertha and the Alpini.
05
See it your way
Switch at any moment to a printed paper map, like a staff officer's sheet on the war table, or keep the painted view with every unit on the board.
Research
National technology trees for infantry, armour, artillery, air and navy, unlocked year by year.
Mobilisation laws
Five laws decide how many men you can call up, from a volunteer army to total war.
Intelligence
A dossier on every rival, and a report on your own country with charts of money, men and industry.
Politics at home
Leaders and ministers with their own traits, political agendas, state legacies and nations of many cultures. Garrison your provinces or watch the rebels rise.
An AI that plays fair
It prepares its wars, covers its borders and launches its own invasions, and it only sees what a player in its place would see.
Defeat has consequences
Nations capitulate, governments go into exile and fight on, and occupied land can become a puppet state.
Roads and railways
Lay dirt roads and railways across your own land to move armies faster. The AI builds and upgrades its own network too.
Weather
Rain, blizzards and sandstorms sweep across the map and hit the armies caught in them.
Editor
Build maps, scenarios and campaigns with the same tools the official ones are made with.
From the front
Screenshots from the current build
Rendered by the game at 3840×2160. Click one to enlarge, then browse with the arrows.
The Western Front, May 1915
The great powers in 1941
The political agenda
The country summary
The Balkan Wars, 1912
Spectator mode, 1939
The war dispatch
The world in January 1936
Europe in 1910
Recruitment
Dunkirk, 26 May 1940
North Africa, June 1940
Berlin, January 1936
The campaigns
The multiplayer lobby
Ways to play
Alone, with friends or against the best
Solo
The campaign, the sandboxes and your own scenarios against the AI, at the difficulty you choose.
Online with friends
Lead allied nations in co-op against the AI, or take any side in a multiplayer war, with turns in order or all at once.
Ranked 1v1
Competitive matches with a turn clock and an Elo leaderboard, on an authoritative server that also enforces the fog of war.
Spectator
Let the AI play the whole war and watch history unfold, nation by nation, at up to 25x speed.
One game for PC and Android, in 12 languages.
Who makes Kesselgrid
Un Tercio Studios
Kesselgrid is made by Un Tercio Studios, the one-person studio of Víctor Nolasco Sánchez in Spain. Development began in September 2025 as a university final project: a web prototype called Hexfront. In 2026 it was rebuilt from scratch in Unity, grew into a full strategy game for PC and Android, and took the name Kesselgrid.
Víctor handles everything: design, code, the online servers, the AI and this website. A Steam page is on its way, and a devlog with every week's changes goes out on Discord.
Coming soon to Steam
Join the front
Kesselgrid is on its way to Steam for Windows PC, and Android will follow. Until the store page opens, follow development, report bugs, suggest ideas and find opponents on our Discord, and watch the news and the timelapses on X and YouTube.
Press, content creators and players: contact@kesselgrid.com. Logos, key art, screenshots and facts in the press kit.