Designer Diary: Battalion: War of the Ancients | BoardGameGeek News

From the Ashes of Pocket Battles

As with my previous designer diary on these pages, today I’m talking about a game that has its roots in an earlier one. Battalion: War of the Ancients, which debuted in November 2024 from <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamepublisher/29313/osprey-games“>Osprey games, has arisen from the ashes of Pocket Battles, the wargame series that I co-designed with Francesco Sirocchi and that <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamepublisher/538/z-man-games“>Z-Man games released in four titles from 2009 to 2014.

However, despite their connection, Battalion cannot be considered just a “new edition” of Pocket Battles.

After our publishing contract for Pocket Battles expired, Francesco and I knew the game‘s life wasn’t over. We enjoyed playing it too much (despite its many “flaws”) to not imagine it returning in some form, so we decided to start working on it again, aiming to find a new publisher or even to try the crowdfunding route.

The complete Pocket Battles series

Meanwhile, Osprey games had launched David Thompson and Trevor Benjamin‘s Undaunted, a game we immediately fell in love with for its blend of wargame and Eurogame mechanisms, production standard, and aesthetic quality. In our minds, it was clear we wanted to publish this game with Osprey — to the point that the working title for the new project became “Men at Arms”, after Osprey Publishing’s successful military history book series.

The Quest for Tabletop “Army Building”

We were well aware that Pocket Battles had flaws — flaws we had learned to love but flaws nonetheless. The first was undoubtedly the set-up time for army building and deployment, which often risked exceeding the actual gameplay time! We started thinking of ways to simplify army building as much as possible, while keeping it an integral part of the game (i.e., not relying solely on scenarios to dictate what the armies would be).

We eventually found a convincing solution: Armies would be made up of units, and players would agree on the number of units they will use. Each unit can be composed only of “ranks” of the same type: light infantry, heavy infantry, cavalry, elephants, chariots. This approach also resolved a quirk of the predecessor in which different types could be mixed within the same unit, creating unrealistic combinations. The game would still not be a simulation — we repeat, it is not a simulation! — but at least the formations on the table would be a touch more plausible.

Typical Italian gestures for the battlefield, meaning: “Charge with the elephants!”

Breaking Free from an (Admittedly Effective) Constraint

The search for a compromise between variety in army creation and simplicity of process led us to another tough call: abandoning Pocket Battles‘ original but extremely restrictive damage-resolution system in favor of a more streamlined but versatile system, with thresholds to overcome using eight-sided dice.

We also wanted to make Battalion feel modern in another way, with further replayability coming not just from the construction of armies but also a second aspect of variability: the possibility of surprises and unexpected elements. What better than a deck of tactic cards to use when needed?

Two Birds with One Stone: The cards

This new asset also opened up other possibilities. (It’s always a great moment in game design when you realize one feature improves multiple aspects of the game.

First, we could better customize individual armies with a specific deck for each faction. Second, the cards could serve as an excellent tracker for victory conditions in the game. How? Each time a player loses a unit, they draw a tactic card, thereby reinforcing themselves. The same happens each time a player decides to rally their troops, which renews their precious pool of order markers. However, if a player has to draw a card and can’t, then they immediately lose the battle. Thrilling!

Aiming Straight for Osprey

After nearly two years of development, we were ready to propose the game to Osprey — and not to Osprey and others. Just Osprey.

As we hoped, the game was right for their catalog, and soon we received a contract proposal. End of story? Of course not! Osprey’s publication pipeline is notoriously long — we knew we would have to wait three years for the release — and along with the contract draft came some requests: Could we think of two more armies to add to the Romans and Carthaginians? Could we think of a mode for four players? Sure, why not?

Development continued, and until the last moment we debated: should we add a die here or remove one there, how can we better define a slinger’s special ability, is that war chariot overpowered or too weak. But what happened in one battle completely differed from the next. Each game was unique and full of choices, but also had the violence and unpredictability of an ancient battlefield.

To Caesar (and Roland) What Is Caesar’s

Meanwhile, Osprey chose the best illustrator we could have hoped for: Roland MacDonald (who seemed to have seen into our minds how we envisioned the game), while also renewing their editorial ranks. After Anthony and Filip, we worked with Jordan Wheeler and Rhys, and finally with Luke Evison.

We want to thank all of these people for making Battalion: War of the Ancients the game it is today: certainly no longer “pocket” like its ancestor, but undoubtedly beautiful to look at and — we hope — also to play!

Paolo Mori

Roland at SPIEL Essen 24

Me being photobombed at SPIEL Essen 24