Table Battles

About this board game

Table Battles is a light battle game for 2 players that recreates historical conflicts in about 20 minutes. Its streamlined system emphasizes playability while capturing the tension of tactical decisions in broad strokes.

Players roll dice and allocate the results to Unit cards. Each card accepts specific die results or combinations, creating a puzzle of opportunities and limitations. On a later turn, players remove those dice to activate a unit and attack an opposing formation, removing wooden pieces assigned to it.

Attacks are rarely straightforward. The defending player may be able to screen an attack and cancel it, launch a counterattack that causes additional losses, or absorb the attack with a strategic reserve. In many situations, the defender must use one of these responses if able, making every attack an exercise in timing and prediction.

The result is a tense game of feints and counterfeints. Players look for an opening, manage their available dice, and act decisively when an advantage appears. The 2017 base game includes 84 different formations and eight scenarios:

• Bosworth, 1485
• Ivry, 1590
• White Mountain, 1620
• Marston Moor, 1644
• Battle of the Dunes, 1658
• Malplaquet, 1705
• Plains of Abraham, 1759
• Brooklyn Heights, 1776

With its compact play time, scenario variety, and distinctive dice-driven unit system, Table Battles offers a focused way for two players to explore battles across several centuries of human history.