The Grass Crown

About this board game

The Grass Crown is a two-player board game of ancient warfare, recreating ten battles across nearly three hundred years of Roman history in approximately 60 minutes.

The second game in the Shields & Swords Ancients series, it offers a fresh take on familiar historical material. The primary unit of maneuver is the Wing, each consisting of around ten individual counters.

Combat losses create pressure across the battle line. When an individual unit is attacked, the loss can be resolved by flipping that unit or any unit adjacent to it. Continued pressure in the right places can trigger a Rout Check, causing the line to collapse; a single attack may send several units to your dead pile.

Special rules give the game’s straightforward central theme significant variation, reflecting the evolution of Roman warfare and the distinctive forces Rome faced. Scenarios contrast Roman armies with the rigid Greek Phalanx, Hannibal’s sophisticated army, and the ferocity of the Gauls.

The ten battles included in The Grass Crown are:

• Heraclea
• Asculum
• Trebbia
• Zama
• Pydna
• Second Citra
• Vercellae
• Pharsalus
• Thapsus
• Munda

With its Wing-based maneuver, cascading losses, and changing historical context, the game focuses on the unstable moment when sustained attacks can break an entire formation. It presents a compact way for two players to explore a broad sweep of Roman military history.