River Oath is a turn-based strategy game written for Kalgoorlie Retro Gaming. The River Intendancy of the Lian Empire has stolen the dike money, and the old flood-markers say the Great Flood will come in the seventh month of the twentieth year. You lead a band of outlaws on the Long Jade river and its two branches: win the people over with deeds that become tales, steal and expose the officials' ledgers, raid their garrisons on a hex battle field with boats and river current, and bring the Intendancy down before the water does. Keep the dikes standing as you go: a victory with the dikes in good repair is The River Kept; with the dikes failing it is A Hollow Pardon.
One to four players take turns at one computer, with a hand-over screen between them, and the computer leads the other bands. With nobody playing you can watch the computer play every band. In the browser you can also play online with up to six players.
It has the same retro look as Sengoku and The Broken Seal, whose screen and hex battle it builds on. Every place, person and tale in it is invented.
The current version is 0.1.2 (7 November 2026).
| Edition | Where | Players |
|---|---|---|
| Browser | https://retro.theiguru.au/riveroath/play/ (nothing to install) | One player against the computer, up to four taking turns at one computer, none (watch the computer play), or multi-player games online for 2 to 6 |
| Desktop | Windows and Linux, from https://retro.theiguru.au/riveroath/ | One player against the computer, up to four taking turns at one computer, or none |
The two editions have the same rules, screens, music and save files. The browser edition is a port of the desktop's Free Pascal code to TypeScript, and its self-test plays the desktop's own recorded games and battles and must come out exactly the same. Export and Import move a campaign between the two: see Saves.
| Page | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Strategy guide | For new players: the first year, food, goodwill and tales, the dikes, choosing a way to win, battles, keeping your people, common mistakes |
| How to play | The month and its tasks, the river and the seasons, tales and goodwill, the dikes, the officials, the three ways to win, battles and hot seat |
| Multi-player games | Players, invite codes, the open month and its deadline, raids, offers and prisoners, the emails |
| Installing | The desktop edition on Windows and Linux; the browser edition |
| Saves | Slots, autosaves, export and import, where saves are kept |
| Source and licence | Building from source, the tests, the GNU GPL |
| Version history | What changed in each version |
The same help is in the game: press H on the main screen.
From https://retro.theiguru.au/riveroath/, the Heisenbergs Files area on the BBS, or the anonymous FTP at home (riveroath folder):
| File | What it is |
|---|---|
River-Oath-0.1.2-windows-x64.zip | Windows (64-bit): unzip and run river_oath.exe |
river-oath_0.1.2_amd64.deb | Linux package for Debian, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Mint and others |
river-oath-0.1.2-linux-x64.tar.gz | Linux without a package (on the website and FTP) |
river-oath-0.1.2-source.tar.gz | Source (Free Pascal 3.2.2 and Lazarus 4.4), GNU GPL |