Warhammer Ancient Battles
BGG rank
BGG #10,174
BGG rating
6.7

Warhammer Ancient Battles

1998

Rules assistance for Warhammer Ancient Battles

Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.

  • 2 players
  • 120 min
  • 14+
  • Complexity 3.3/5

For 2 players

Rules assistant for Warhammer Ancient Battles

What would you like to know?

Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.

Warhammer Ancient Battles is a board game released in 1998 for 2 players, 120 minutes per game, and ages 14 and up. It was designed by Rick Priestley, Jervis Johnson, Alan Perry, and Michael Perry and its main mechanics are Variable Player Powers, Dice Rolling, and Simulation.

Expansions

Similar games

About the game

Warhammer Ancient Battles is a historically-orientated version of the popular Warhammer rules. Originally created as an independent spin-off from the Warhammer Fantasy Battle rules, it was subsequently brought back in-house at Games Workshop and now functions as a separate division of the company. Some of the rules inconsistencies that the parent game is so famous for have been ironed out, as have some of the more outrageously unrealistic rules. Don't expect massive historical accuracy though: the emphasis is still on a fun, playable system over real historical or military realism. The rulebook tells you everything you need to play the game and comes with two generic army lists for "Romans" and "Barbarians". The authors actively encourage players to get their miniatures from a range of different manufacturers. Further army list supplements are available and you'll need to supply your own scenery too! Expanded by: Warhammer: Armies of Antiquity – A Supplement for Ancient Battles (1999) (no longer in print, replaced by the all the following...) Warhammer: Fall of the West – A Supplement for Ancient Battles (2000) Shieldwall (2002) Warhammer: Chariot Wars – A Supplement for Ancient Battles (2002) Alexander the Great (2003) Armies of Chivalry (2004) Spartacus (2004) Byzantium: Beyond the Golden Gate (2005) Hannibal and the Punic Wars (2005) El Cid (2006) Vlad the Impaler (2006) The Age of Arthur (2007) The Art of War (2007) Siege & Conquest (2007) Reprinted once, with the errata (version 1.5). Warhammer Ancient Battles, 2nd edition was published April 2010.

Questions and answers

Warhammer Ancient Battles supports 2 players according to the catalogue. This is the publisher’s listed player count, so the game is designed for exactly that number of participants. Variants for other group sizes, if any, are described in the rulebook of your edition, so check it before setting up a different configuration.