A long tabletop diorama running through two thousand years of war: a Roman camp, Mongol horsemen on the steppe, Napoleonic columns, a snowy St Petersburg square and a D-Day beach.

A history learning app for iPhone

Step into the wars and empires that shaped the world

A history learning app, built like Duolingo. Stand on the map where it happened, meet the people who were there in hand-painted scenes, and answer a few questions on what you saw. Each lesson takes about five minutes.

Download on theApp Store

7 days free, then $39.99 a year. Cancel before day 7 and pay nothing.

A lesson question in the app: Crassus, the richest man in Rome, guarantees a vast sum of Caesar's debts. Why would he? Three answers to pick from.

How a lesson works

Read the map. Meet the people. Answer the questions.

Every lesson is about five minutes and tells one turn of the story in three moves. Here is the first lesson of the Caesar campaign, 61 BC.

  1. The app's map step: the Mediterranean in 61 BC, with Roman territory marked.

    01

    The map: where it happened

    A 3D map built from real terrain flies you to the place and the year. Borders, armies and routes move as the story does.

  2. The app's painted scene step: Julius Caesar in a Roman atrium, with narration and dialogue.

    02

    The painting: who made it happen

    Meet Caesar at 39: ancient family, huge charm, no money. Hand-painted scenes and short dialogue, with the source on screen and invented lines marked Dramatized.

  3. The app's quiz step: You are Caesar. The deadline is today. What do you do?

    03

    The questions: what you learned

    Predict what Caesar did next, tap the right place on the map, or spot the myth. You find out straight away whether you were right, and why.

The lesson complete screen: Three men, one secret deal, with a new character card, an Atlas place and a Timeline moment.

Every lesson leaves something behind

Finish one and you collect a character card, a place for your Atlas and a moment for your Timeline. Keep a daily streak, earn XP, and work through four units of three lessons in each campaign.

  • 60 lessons
  • 5 campaigns
  • About 5 minutes each
  • Narrated in every scene

Five campaigns

Two thousand years of power, told as a story

Each campaign follows one rise, or one fall, from the first spark to the last battle. Twelve lessons each, in the order it happened.

Genghis Khan on a steppe horse on a grassy ridge, a long line of horsemen and white gers behind him.

1162–1281 · 12 lessons

The Mongols: Outcast to Khan of Khans

A hunted boy on the steppe builds the largest land empire the world has ever seen.

Mongol Empire map and timeline →
Napoleon with a spyglass on a snowy hill at sunrise, French columns advancing through fog below.

1789–1815 · 12 lessons

Napoleon: From Revolution to Waterloo

A Corsican nobody rides a revolution to an imperial crown, then loses it all in an afternoon in Belgium.

Napoleonic Wars map and timeline →
Lenin speaking from an armoured car outside the Finland Station at night, a crowd with red banners below.

1905–1922 · 12 lessons

The Russian Revolution: Fall of the Tsars

A Tsar quits on a train, an exile rides home in a sealed carriage, and the largest country on Earth tears itself apart.

Russian Revolution timeline and map →
Winston Churchill leaning over a wall map of Europe in the underground Cabinet War Rooms, cigar in hand.

1939–45 · 12 lessons

World War II: The War for Europe

Six years, three great powers against one, and a continent redrawn by fire.

WW2 map of Europe →

Three ways to see the past

One battle, three views

Austerlitz, the morning of 2 December 1805. The app shows every moment in the view that explains it best: faces for people, dioramas for armies, the map for geography.

Painted close-up: Napoleon on a white horse above the fog at Austerlitz, Marshal Soult beside him.

Painted close-ups

The people, drawn like a hand-made animated film: gouache, pencil lines and faces with character.

Isometric diorama: French columns climbing the snowy Pratzen Heights through the fog.

Battle dioramas

Whole armies, sieges and cities as miniature tabletop scenes, so you can see how a battle was won.

The 3D map in the app: the Mediterranean in May 1798 as Napoleon's fleet sails for Egypt.

The 3D map

Real coastlines, rivers and mountains, with the borders of each year. Scrub through time in the Atlas.

Gallery

Every scene in every lesson was painted for the app. A few from the five campaigns:

Cleopatra reclining on her golden barge at Tarsus.Diorama of the siege of Alesia, ringed by Roman walls.Subutai and Jebe, Mongol generals, planning by a campfire.Diorama of the great kurultai of 1206, rings of gers around the khan's tent.Napoleon kneeling to kiss Josephine's hand in a candlelit salon.Diorama of the battle of Trafalgar, two lines of sailing warships.Rasputin at the bedside of the young Tsarevich Alexei, the Empress watching.Diorama of the Winter Palace at night in October 1917.Women of the RAF moving markers on the plotting table of a filter room.Diorama of the Mongol siege of Samarkand.Codebreakers at Bletchley Park bent over an Enigma machine.Diorama of the naval battle of Actium.

The Timeline

All of it on one line

Every moment you unlock lands on a single timeline across all five campaigns, in the order it happened. See how far apart Caesar and Churchill really are.

  1. Caesar on a white horse at the Rubicon by night.

    49 BC

    Caesar crosses the Rubicon

  2. The great kurultai of 1206 on the steppe.

    1206

    Temüjin is named Genghis Khan

  3. Napoleon above the fog at Austerlitz.

    1805

    The sun rises over Austerlitz

  4. Lenin stepping off the train at the Finland Station.

    1917

    Lenin comes home to Petrograd

  5. Diorama of landing craft coming ashore on Omaha Beach.

    1944

    D-Day on the Normandy beaches

Painting of a young woman with earbuds on an evening train, smiling at her phone, while Roman legions march past the window.

Narrated

Press play on the train home

A British storyteller reads every lesson, and the people in each scene speak in their own voices. Each campaign has its own score underneath.

Prefer to read? Turn the voice off and follow the words on screen.

Pricing

Your first week is free

One plan unlocks everything: all five campaigns, every lesson, the Atlas and the Timeline.

  1. 1

    Today

    All five campaigns, every lesson, unlocked.

  2. 5

    Day 5

    We remind you that your trial ends in 2 days.

  3. 7

    Day 7

    Your plan starts. Cancel before then and pay nothing.

Best value

Yearly

$3.33 a month, billed yearly

$39.99

Monthly

Billed monthly

$7.99

Start my free week

US prices. The App Store shows the price for your country. Cancel any time in your Apple account settings.

From the YouTube channel

Wars, empires and the maps they left behind

The app comes from the Steel & Sovereigns channel: a new Short every day at noon and a long video every Tuesday, in the same painted style.

Watch on YouTubeTikTok @steel.sovereigns
Caesar on horseback.Genghis Khan on horseback.Napoleon on a grey horse.Tsar Nicholas II and Lenin in the snow.Diorama of the D-Day landings.

Questions

Before you start

Is this a game?

No. Steel & Sovereigns is a learning app, built like Duolingo but for history. Each lesson tells part of a real story and then asks you a few questions about it. Streaks and XP keep you coming back, but you never control armies or play out battles yourself.

Is there a free version?

There is a free week instead. Start the 7-day trial and everything is unlocked. Cancel before day 7 and you pay nothing; we remind you on day 5.

How long is a lesson?

About five minutes: a map, a few painted scenes and two or three questions. A campaign is twelve lessons, so at a lesson a day you finish one in under two weeks.

Is it accurate?

Every lesson is fact-checked against the historical record, and the source sits on screen under the scene. Where we imagine a line of dialogue, the scene is marked Dramatized.

Is it suitable for teenagers?

Yes. There is no gore. Hard chapters, such as massacres and famine, are told plainly in the narration and never turned into a game.

Which devices does it run on?

iPhone. [PLACEHOLDER: iPad and Android plans]

Will there be more campaigns?

[PLACEHOLDER: what comes after the first five, and when]

A commander's campaign table at night: a relief map of Europe covered in miniature armies, lit by candles.

Start your first lesson

Five campaigns, sixty five-minute lessons, and the first week free.

Download on theApp Store

7 days free, then $39.99 a year or $7.99 a month.