Lost Battles: Forty Battles & Campaigns of the Ancient World

About this board game

Lost Battles: Forty Battles & Campaigns of the Ancient World is a 1–4 player historical wargame with a listed play time of 140 minutes, covering conflicts from the Persian defeat at Marathon in 490 BC to Caesar’s victory at Pharsalus in 48 BC.

The game offers forty scenarios across three levels of play. At the grand tactical level, one or two players can refight 35 land battles, including Leuctra, Gaugamela, Raphia, Cannae, Cynoscephalae, and the Sambre. At the grand strategic level, one to four players recreate the major struggles from 350 to 150 BC, beginning with Alexander’s eclipse of Achaemenid Persia and ending with Rome’s conquest of Carthage and the Hellenistic states.

The most ambitious games combine both levels, using tactical battles to resolve strategic campaigns across part or all of the two-century period. Players can also refight linked historical conflicts, including the contest between Athens, Sparta, and Thebes from the beginning of the Peloponnesian War to the death of Epaminondas.

• Fast, interactive decisions: Allocate scarce command points, choose which troops lead attacks, and decide when an all-out assault is worth the risk of exhaustion.
• Varied ancient armies: Command hoplites, legionaries, phalangites, archers, cataphracts, scythed chariots, and war elephants.
• Flexible play: The rules support solitaire play, with players swapping sides, as well as games with one or more players per side.

Tactical battles use full-colour, hard-mounted 5 × 4 terrain tiles and die-cut counters depicting different troop types. The strategic game uses a hard-mounted map stretching from Spain to India. With historical notes and design commentary included, Lost Battles combines accessibility with detailed ancient warfare simulation.