Dawn of Battle

About this board game

Dawn of Battle is a two-player hex-and-counter wargame with a playing time of about 240 minutes, covering historical battles from roughly 1500 BCE to 1500 CE.

Players take the roles of renowned commanders including Xerxes, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Saladin, and William Wallace. Across twenty scenarios, each army begins with the historical disposition of the forces that fought in that battle.

The game’s central system uses an action deck to determine command and the randomly determined outcomes of actions. Leadership quality provides activation points, giving armies the ability to maneuver, rally, and attack; stronger command brings greater flexibility on the battlefield.

• Infantry such as hoplites and the Macedonian phalanx
• Cavalry including chariots and mounted archers
• Missile units ranging from slingers and longbows to early gunpowder weapons
• Special units such as elephants and war wagons

Action cards can also create special effects that enhance unit abilities and add to the narrative of the battle. Because the action deck helps resolve command, actions, and melee combat, each scenario can unfold in a different way.

Supplementary rules add further historical and dramatic possibilities, including free deployment in scenarios, barbarian charges, command control and impetuosity, elephant panic, and random events. Dawn of Battle combines varied armies, historical deployments, and a flexible card-driven engine for battles that are never duplicated.