"Withstand me if you can; I have already come to you, and I am plundering your lands." (Life of Alexander Nevsky)

Anno Domini 1237.
Europe and Asia are plunged into the abyss of bloody war. Christians wage war with Muslims and heathens. Catholics battle with orthodoxies. Orthodoxies kill each other.
Brother against brother, and son against father.
From the West, Teutonic Knights have come crusading against heathen and orthodox Slavs, to turn them into the Latin faith. Knight-brothers have already consolidated in Baltic and now look further to the East, where, boundless and rich, Rus lies.
Poland, torn apart with inner contradictions, tries to deter the approaching Order Komturias, already settled firmly on the right bank of Vistula.
But upon all European nations hovers another, imminent threat. From the Far East comes Batu-Khan - the ambitious grandson of the great conqueror of nations, Genghis Khan. Furious hordes sweep across the Great Steppe and the land of Rus, aiming for the West, aiming for the Last Sea, laying one nations under tribute and mercilessly exterminating others. They are determined to fulfil the holy will of the Khan, and it seems that there is no force in the world that can stop them.

The historic mod "Rus 13th Century: Way of the Warrior" reconstructs the events of this dramatic and heroic age. You can unite the forces of Ruthenian princedoms and give battle to the Horde, or gather the Novgorod militia and warmly greet the Order knights on the ice and snow of the northern lands. You can feel yourself a warrior of the Horde, a vassal of the Teutonic Landmeister, or become a proud shlachta and fight for the glory of Kingdom of Poland.

"And the glory of his name spread throughout all lands, from the Sea of Khupozh to the Mountains of Arabia and to the far shore of the Varangian Sea and to Great Rome." (Life of Alexander Nevsky)

Key features:
-full-featured global mod oriented on implementing historical aspects as accurate as possible (due to gameplay and engine restrictions)
-timeline and storyline of the mod disaplay the real events (such as Northern Crusades, Mongol Invasion of Rus’ and so on)
-new HQ map of Eastern Europe as well as new map icons
-intro battles depends on class and faction of Player 
-the names of places, lords and units are spelled in the way of their faction-possessor
-some new locations such as mines, mercenary and bandit camps
-new scenes (with new buildings and various scene props)
-reworked trading system, trade routs and trading specialization of towns are based upon their geographical locations
-new exclusive 2D art by Ganbat Badamkhand
-intro (starting video)
-music is fully replaced
-lots of various quests based on HQ literary principles 
-faction lords represent actual historical characters, with fiefs and appearance based upon historical documents
-Player’s nationality (culture) affects relations with factions
-new troop trees, based upon historical info
-troop hiring and training system reworked in more realistic style
-3 types of troop trees: "levy" ("militia"), "professional" and double branched "elite"
-tons of new clothes, armors, weapons, horses, buildings based on authentic images and reconstructed items
-new HQ textures including global map and vegetation
-banners of all factions are replaced with more historical-accurate analogues
-new face and hair textures, based upon nation appearance
-5 new factions
    1) Ruthenia (united Ruthenian princedoms with 2 separate troop trees: northern and southern)
    2) Crusaders (united forces of German, Swedish and Danish crusaders)
    3) Horde (forces of Mongolian Empire united with the conquered nations: Cuman, Kirghiz, Turkmen, Chinese etc.)
    4) Poland (united)
    5) Lithuania
-volunteers and mercs are replaced with real historical analogues
-brand new system of sound environment
-authentic voice records for each faction
-dynamic global weather system 
-ability to change shield art
-multi-stage siege system
-new types of parties – scouts, patrols, prisoner trains, messengers, rich caravans
-user-friendly installer with a lot of options to choose
-many features could be tweaked by individual demands through in-game menus

Gameplay features:
1.   Riders take damage when they fall from a killed/wounded horse
2.   Morale penalty for units with different cultures in party. Morale bonus for mononational party
3.   Fodder for horses (influences horse speed based on type - common, arabian, steppe). Party speed drastically decreases when there’s no fodder
4.   Icons for parties on global map depend on party's size
5.   Player can control his character while minimap is open. Terrain showing on minimap. OPTIONAL FEATURES
6.   Combat continues after Player has been knocked unconscious. Player can observe battlefield in free-fly mode. OPTIONAL FEATURES
7.   Ability to open Character/Party/Inventory menus in all "combat" menus (by using hotkeys)
8.   Player can recruit troops only in fiefs of faction he belongs to. Player-mercenary can hire anywhere he’d like. Mercs can be hired freely. Positive relations with fiefs and their owners are required. Elite troops can only be hired in Player’s own castle.
9.   Modified systems of morality and the collection of trophies
10.   Armours/weapons degrade over time
11.   New type of NPC: smith, who can repair and upgrade weapons/armour
12.   Player can split his party into smaller groups with NPCs as commanders (only if player leads more than 20 men)
13.   There’re much more various citizens in towns
14.   New icons on minimap for traders/mayors/owners in towns
15.   Character creating wizard reworked due to background story
16.   Brief historical info about troops through dialog with them. Info about items in inventory. OPTIONAL FEATURES
17.   Prisoners can be sold in mines or to the slave trader in Cherson or to ally and enemy lords by flexible rates (while being at towns). Also Player can give prisoners to lords for free in exchange of increased personal relationship. Prisoners’ cost depends on their level and the main party trading skill
18.   Trade routs. Special caravans travelling on historical trade routs
19.   Maximum amount of prisoners increased. The more prisoners are in the party the more of them would escape at night
20.   Decreased structure building time in fiefs
21.   Player can initiate dialog with city/village administration through center menu
22.   Party salary displays week cost for all Player’s troops including garrisoned ones or under NPCs’ control
23.   Lords intercept hostile parties travelling near their fiefs if they’re stronger (hostile party must be spotted first - chances depends on party size)
24.   AI party strength depends on player's level
25.   Professional and Elite units can be upgraded only in their faction's cities. Player can’t upgrade them in the field
26.   Helmets obscure field of view in first person view. OPTIONAL FEATURE
27.   Food stores in castles decreased, recovery time increased.
28.   Wounded units move slower in battle
29.   Player can give some orders to his party right before fight such as hold ground, charge, follow leader, line up in different forms
30.   Alcoholic drinks are all consumable and give morale bonus if any other kind of food is present in inventory or morale penalty otherwise
31.   Bandits can ambush Player (chances depends on honour rating)
32.   Bandits help each other when engaging Player party
33.   Player can lay to rest fallen warriors (increasing honour, decreasing morale)
34.   New type of NPC – teachers. They give a short help info about mod features.
35.   Bows can’t be freely used in inappropriate handwear
36.   It’s possible to speed up or slow down time in missions (by + and -)
37.   New animation for 2h weapons
38.   Added restrictions for joining rescued prisoners
39.   New item type – maps which increasing pathfinding skill while in inventory
40.   It’s possible to upgrade troops of all factions in neutral city Cherson
41.   Players can release imprisoned lords without ransom (increasing relations)
42.   New looting system. Now it takes time to carry trophies from the battlefield. Amount and quality of it depends on Player’s skills and number of dead bodies
43.   Ministering wounded gives experience
44.   Cattle follows the Player
45.   Chances to escape after losing the fight for lords are lowered
46.   Amount of troops available for hiring depends on city’s prosperity
47.   Hiring through menu, not through dialog
48.   It’s possible to turn off fast travel (for better roleplay)
49.   New target reticule
50.   Performance in scenes with lot of trees improved
51.   Horse descriptions includes types
52.   Players can choose on what side they’d wish to fight in battles between neutral parties
53.   It’s possible to sort inventory of player and traders by type or cost
54.   Weapon break
55.   Armor break
56.   Repair damaged weapons and armor in the field through the menu of the camp. You need tools and hardware in your inventory.
57.   Complete rebalance of weapons, including small arms and missiles. All indicators of weapons (speed and damage) are proportionally changed (enlarged) with preservation of historicity.
58.   The weapon interacts differently with the armor: the damage simultaneously pierces the armor protection (causes it to wear out) and takes away the life points.
59.   Improvement of AI in the selection of weapons. The riders are able to choose their weapons themselves and intelligently and change it depending on the situation (for example, a spear is pulled out against a rider, a sword is against a footman).
60.   Bonus for light fighters. The strength of the blow depends on the weight of the equipment on the player, NPC and the soldiers. With light weight, damage increases to 150%, with a significant overload damage reduces to 75%. Damage rises from athletic skill and level (all including player and NPC).
61.   Added colorful knocking rider out of the saddle. It depends on the damage dealt and the weight of the rider.
62.   Added bleeding (except for deafening damage). The wounded enemy and ally (if not regenerate) will die from bleeding. Will be a special message about this.
63.   Added regeneration. Now all the troops, NPC and player restore life during the battle. The skill is tied to the first indicator of strength: ironflesh.
64.   Little things:
- more damage from falling from height;
- jumping off the horse on the move ("U" key);
- the quantity of food and goods in each bundle has been increased (the prices have accordingly increased);
- attention, more arable land is given for oats :);
- when knocking out from the horse, you can (occasionally) lose weapons;
- when you stop at a halt in the field your squad is invisible to the enemy (if the squad is small);
- if you received a task related to a certain locality (village), it appears on the map;
- your village at the entrance to it offers some goods as a present to the owner.