BATTALION: WAR OF THE ANCIENTS
Designed by Paolo Mori & Francesco Sirocchi
Illustrated by Roland MacDonald 

Assemble your armies and maintain order in this dynamic tile-based wargame, inspired by epic battles from ancient history. 

Battalion: War of the Ancients puts players in command of a wide range of units from four playable historical factions, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Expanding on the Set Battles available in the rulebook, these four new promo scenarios offer new strategic puzzles to master. 

Printed Set Battle sheets will be available from Osprey Games (Stand 2904) at GenCon 2025. 

Download from our Gaming Resources Page.

*********************************************

Battalion’s developer Luke Evison explores his inspirations and motivations for creating the new Set Battles. 

When I started on creating some extra Set Battles I knew I wanted one loosely inspired by each of the two conflicts that underpinned the four factions in the game. This meant Romans vs Carthaginians for the Punic Wars and Han vs Greco-Bactrians for the War of the Heavenly Horses. Set Battle 7 is based on the idea that, in the first meeting of the Han and the Greco-Bactrians, the Han had only light horses, whilst the Bactrians had an impressive range of cavalry. This may be true of their initial battle, but we know almost nothing about it other than that the Han were well beaten (if they even really took the field!). 

For Set Battle 9, I was thinking of Bagradas River, but only really in the sense of having elephants vs a largely infantry force. It made for quite a substantial setup, so I spun this out to be a four-player battle. With two in the oven and our tests going well, I thought we could get another one of each format. 

Our factions for Set Battles 8 and 10 are not based on any recorded battle, but their unit compositions should provide an interesting challenge for experienced players. Set Battle 8 pits a formidable Greco-Bactrian centre against a Carthaginian force with a ranged advantage on the flank (plus some elephants!). Whereas Set Battle 10, another four-player scenario, sees a tricky Roman force that needs its generals to maximise their trait mix and their powerful Cretan Archers against a Han force that can spread orders efficiently, but must manage some vulnerable units. 

Battalion: War of the Ancients was already in the development pipeline when I joined Osprey as a Games Developer in July 2023. Paolo and Francesco had provided us with a smart and flexible system that turned a simple action management mechanic into a remarkably evocative and scalable expression of the vital importance of morale, confidence, and communication amongst the chaos of an ancient battlefield. 

Battalion’s form factor is intended to give people the chance to create epic armies at a fraction of the cost and time of that scale of miniatures wargaming. An entry point for the curious, and a simple system for veterans. The analogy of a bucket of lego was probably more than coincidental given the interlocking design of the rank ties that fit together to form the games’ units. 

In the same vein, I had imagined that after trying out a faction or scale in a Set Battle, it would be the DIY construction of the Mustered Battles that would sustain the game. For some people that is the case, but for many the Set Battles have been something they’ve wanted to revisit again and again! It’s lovely to hear people want more of a thing you’ve worked on, and thanks to some late evenings and colleagues kidnapped at lunch break I’m very happy to say we have a handful more to add, including some specifically for 4 players! 

*********************************************

Download the new Set Battles here.

• Board Game