Battalion: War of the Ancients Game Review

Written by George Barker

Battalion: War of the Ancients hinges around the idea that coordinating large groups of warriors (in the ancient era) was quite difficult. Runners, trumpets and flags are all imperfect solutions to conveying precise orders in the chaos of an ancient battlefield. Battalion captures the challenges of commanding an ancient army through a clever resource management puzzle.

How to Play

The designers have pulled a fantastic trick with Battalion’s order system. This single resource is able to represent several different aspects of battle, all while still being evocative of the clash unfolding on your table. The more you order a unit, the more they become fatigued.

A unit composed of different warrior types is less cohesive than a unit of warriors all used to working together. Both of these affect the cohesion of your army and ability to command them.

Players start with a pool of order tokens equal to the number of units in their army. On most turns you’ll place orders on units, commanding them to take an action. Either charge to engage a unit, assault a unit already engaged with or barrage them.

Commanding a unit costs a minimum of one order token. However, if the unit has already been commanded in previous turns then you must place order tokens equal to the number already present on the unit. Additionally, if ranks that comprise the unit are different warrior types then it will cost an additional order to command. 

Order tokens aren’t just used to get units into combat, once the swords start swinging, you have to worry about disorder. Whenever your units take damage, you’re presented with a choice; remove ranks from the unit equal to the damage inflicted or place precious orders from your pool on the unit as disorder.

Working out when to sacrifice ranks and when to spend orders to keep the unit on the field is a critical decision. Running out of orders leaves you with no choice but to remove a rank for every damage. It’s evocative of command breaking down and units routing in the face of a determined enemy.

As you gain a bit of experience, you’ll find yourself making cold sacrifices to preserve your orders and press ahead with your larger plan.

To refill your order pool, you must take a rally turn forgoing commanding your troops. Whenever you rally or a unit is lost you must draw a tactics card. These cards can be played for their unique abilities, discarded to redeploy units between sectors or simply to roll an extra die when attacking.

Winning Battalion: War of the Ancients

To achieve victory, you either need to force your opponent to draw a card when their deck is empty or at the beginning of your turn they have no units in the central sector. Each faction has access to a different set of tactic cards and they serve as both a clock on the game and a catch up mechanic.

Battalion features four factions each with a good variety of units to try out in set piece battles or explore in custom battles. There is also a four-player mode to try, with generals each managing a flank and the extra strategic challenge of a shared pool of orders. The box though, doesn’t provide any set piece battles for four players, which is a shame.

Memoir ‘44 and Undaunted have earned praise as accessible titles that bridge the gap between war gaming and more mainstream board games. Battalion: War of the Ancients deserves a spot alongside them.

Not only is it an accessible introduction but there’s enough depth and unit variety that it will keep you coming back to the table to battle after battle. 

Battalion: War of the Ancients: Review

Should you play it? Yes. Ancient warfare’s answer to Undaunted and Memoir ’44, this is a great choice for anyone looking to add an accessible wargame to their collection. You’ll need to carefully manage your orders and master the tempo of battle to emerge victorious.

Try Battlion if you liked Caeser, Sieze Rome in 20 minutes. Paolo Mori has a knack for strategy games full of tricky and engaging decisions and Battalion is no different.

About Battalion: War of the Ancients

Designer: Paolo Mori and Francesco Sirocchi

Publisher: Osprey Games

Time: 30-60

Players: 2-4

Ages: 14+

Time: £50

What’s in the box?

• Rulebook
• 144 Tiles
• 70+ Cards
• 24 Tokens
• 2 Boards
• 6 Dice
• 4 Sector markers