Alliances

1:46 Alliances are Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era's co-op and team mode, added on Sep 30, 2026 in the Roadmap Patch, version v0.81.02 (Unfrozen). Allied players take their turns at the same time, always, trade and request resources, see through each other's fog of war, pass armies and artifacts between their heroes, share a storage reached through Remote Footholds and the Pocket Dimension spell, and win together when either of them meets the map's victory condition. It works both against the AI (PvE) and against other teams (PvP, such as 2v2), and it came with 5 templates made for it. Unfrozen calls it "the biggest and most requested addition" of the patch, and says resource trading between allies is "a feature new to the series".

Quick facts

How Alliances work

2:02 Unfrozen built Alliances around simultaneous turns: "No more waiting for your ally to finish their move: you act in parallel" (Unfrozen). Allies who meet on the map keep acting at the same time instead of switching to turn by turn. To make that work, a temporary lock stops one player from touching heroes or objects the other is using; while a player is in combat, for example, the ally cannot interact with that player's heroes, and the lock lifts as soon as the battle ends.

• Vision: allies share the fog of war and see each other's planned movement paths.
• Exchange: allied heroes meet in the normal exchange window, where both players can give and take artifacts and armies.
• Resources: a dedicated screen sends resources to an ally or asks for them, and the player list shows more notifications for trading.
• Shared storage: through "Remote Footholds" and the "Pocket Dimension" spell, allies reach a common Alliance storage to move artifacts and armies at a distance.
• Victory: "if just one of you meets the map's victory conditions, you both win!"

The Oct 2, 2026 hotfix (v0.81.04) fixed the Alliance count shown on templates and added an indicator for heroes and objects that cannot be interacted with at that moment (Unfrozen).

Setting up an Alliance game

There are three ways in, in Unfrozen's words (Unfrozen):

1. With friends, co-op against the AI or team against team: create a lobby from the Multiplayer menu and invite them. The lobby has an Alliance column beside each player's faction, hero and color.
2. Alone with AI allies against AI opponents: start from Quick Start on one of the 5 templates pre-configured for Alliance play. Unfrozen's own screenshot of the Alliances filter shows the templates Countdown, Horns, Mayhem, Syndicate and Three of a Kind, with Mayhem set for eight players in four alliances on a 144 by 144 map.
3. Customized in Custom Game, on any existing template or on the classic map "Broken Alliance" (The Mysterious Island).

2:51 The fully random generator that arrived the same day has an Alliances switch too: turned on, it puts players in random teams where it can (Random Map Generator). Unfrozen says more scenarios, maps and templates will support Alliances as the game grows, some existing maps will get an option to play as allies, and "more advanced features may be added based on community feedback".

How long it took

4:04 Teams were wanted from the start. In its Dec 6, 2024 FAQ, Unfrozen said the random map generator would launch with player-versus-player and player-versus-AI games but no co-op or teams, which it aimed "to add this later during Early Access" (Unfrozen). The roadmap of May 28, 2026 put a "Teamplay Mode" in Stage 1, for Q3 2026: "You will be able to play together as a team versus AI-opponents or another team of players" (Unfrozen). Community Feedback #5 on Jul 28, 2026 showed a work-in-progress allied exchange screen and promised Teams and Alliances "later in Q3" (Unfrozen), and they shipped on the last day of the quarter. Unfrozen said the feature "required significant changes to the UI and core game mechanics".

4:32 Devlog #6 on Sep 3, 2026 previewed Alliances once more, four weeks before release, with the screen for sending resources to an ally.

The rest of the Roadmap Patch

4:33 Alliances shipped in one patch with several other changes (Unfrozen, Patch Notes):

• Advanced Random Map Generator: a fully random map built from settings (size, players, Alliances, richness, difficulty, symmetry, win conditions), in single-player Quick Start (Random Map Generator).
• Save and load: saves split into Single Player and Multiplayer tabs, each match with its own profile, sorting by date, name or in-game time, loading straight from the window, a minimap image and hero roster for each save, filters by type (Campaign, Template, Scenario, Map, Tutorial, Challenge, Other) and by connection (Hotseat or Online), and bulk deletion. Older saves sit in an "Unsorted" category.
• Quick Start: more information, sorting and tags for templates and scenarios.
• Emoji wheel: more emojis, now in combat and towns as well as on the map, with more ways to customize it.
• Matchmaking: automatic cheater detection and a low-priority queue, a starting rating of 1000 for everyone, extra points for calibration wins, gains and losses that depend on rank (at the lowest rank a win is worth 40 and a loss costs 10; at the highest it is the reverse), a bigger effect of the rating gap, and a reset of the ranked leaderboard (Multiplayer).
• Smaller changes: the alternative combat camera is remembered between battles, siege traps take priority over other traps, and the Temple law "Sacred Lands" became "Sacred Protection".

Frequently asked questions

Is there co-op in Olden Era? Yes. Since Sep 30, 2026 Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era has Alliances, which let players team up against the AI or against other teams, with simultaneous turns and a shared victory.

Can I play with friends against the AI in Olden Era? Yes: create a lobby in the Multiplayer menu, invite your friends and put them in your alliance against AI opponents. Steam also lists online co-op and shared or split screen co-op for Olden Era.

Can I play Alliances alone in Olden Era? Yes: Quick Start has 5 templates set up for Alliance play with an AI ally against AI opponents, and the fully random map generator can also sort players into random teams.

How many players can be in an Olden Era Alliance game? Unfrozen has not published a maximum per alliance; its own screenshots show an eight-player lobby on the Diamond template and the Mayhem template with eight players in four alliances.

Do allies share turns in Olden Era? No, allies always act at the same time: turns stay simultaneous even when allied heroes meet, with a short lock on heroes or objects the other player is using, such as during a battle.

What else came in the Olden Era Roadmap Patch? The Sep 30, 2026 Roadmap Patch (v0.81.02) also added the fully random Advanced Random Map Generator, a new save and load screen, Quick Start tags, a bigger emoji wheel and a matchmaking update with a ranked reset.

Sources

• Hotfix: Missing Emojis, Lobby & Stability, Unfrozen, Oct 2, 2026
• Alliances & Updated Random Map Generator, Unfrozen, Sep 30, 2026
• Community Feedback #5: Upcoming PVE Content and Events!, Unfrozen, Jul 28, 2026
• Building the Future - HoMM: Olden Era's Early Access Roadmap is here!, Unfrozen, May 28, 2026
• FAQ: Part 2, Unfrozen, Dec 6, 2024
• Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era on Steam, Steam store page, read Oct 21, 2026
• Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era | Q3 Roadmap Patch: Introducing Alliances!, Unfrozen Official, Sep 30, 2026 (video)
• Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era | Community Feedback #5: Upcoming PvE Content and Events!, Unfrozen Official, Jul 28, 2026 (video)
• Devlog #6: Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era - more PvE Content and Roadmap Patch Preview!, Unfrozen Official, Sep 3, 2026 (video)