Chariots of Fire: Warfare in the Bronze Age, 2300-1200 B.C.

About this board game

Chariots of Fire: Warfare in the Bronze Age, 2300-1200 B.C. is a Great Battles of History game for 1-4 players with a listed playing time of 180 minutes. It explores the Bronze Age battlefield, when chariots controlled warfare before cavalry rose to prominence in the Iron Age.

The game presents a detailed view of chariots as a tactical weapons system, while acknowledging that historians do not completely agree on their precise battlefield use. Its rules cover the combat and mobility of multiple chariot types, from the first Sumerian battle wagons to the fast-moving two-man light chariots of Egypt and the heavy three-man Hittite chariots.

Players can recreate nine battles spanning more than a thousand years of ancient warfare:

• Sumer, featuring Sargon the Great
• Sekhmen, Megiddo, Senzar, and the Astarpa
• Kadesh, Nihriya, and Babylon
• Troy, including an extra scenario featuring Homer’s heroes

The armies include Sumerians, Akkadians, Egyptians, Canaanites, Hittites, Mitanni, Arzawans, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Mycenaean Age Greeks. Egyptian forces may also include specialized Runner Infantry associated with their chariots.

Chariots of Fire uses a scale of 20 minutes per turn, 100 yards per hex, and 350 men per mounted unit. The design focuses on the distinctive tactical details of Bronze Age warfare, offering a broad collection of ancient armies and engagements within the Great Battles of History system.

The historical setting ends as the Bronze Age Catastrophe around 1200 BC ushers in a poorly documented Dark Age. When the region emerges, warfare has changed and chariots have been relegated to the sidelines.