Ancient

A war game that fits in the pocket!

When pressed for time and table space and the hankering for battle hits, this is the perfect remedy - and it is portable!

Tiles represent troops and troops make up units in your army: just determine the size of the battle and create your own army from a pool of existing troops.

Each tile hits on certain rolls, and some can only melee while others can shoot. Some tiles also have special traits which can affect their whole unit or their whole army.

Armies fight in three sectors - the battlefield. The goal is to eliminate at least half the value of your opponent's army.

Celts vs. Romans is the first in the Ancients line and also the first in the Pocket Battle series. Each Pocket Battles game will feature two armies from a particular era or genre (yes, fantasy and sci-fi, we are looking at you).

The basic rules of the game are fairly simple; two armies face each other in battle. The armies are split into three columns and two rows. Players must decide, at the start of the game, how many points they will give to their armies, determining how many points it will take to defeat the opponents army. (At least half of the points).

On you turn; you have to choose which faction of your army you will send off to battle! Attacks are made by using Order Tokens. If no Order Tokens are present on a unit, it costs just 1 token to issue orders to that unit. Issuing orders to the same unit in the same Battle Round would cost you the number of tokens present on the unit, plus 1. (So if there is one existing token on your unit, it would cost you two additional tokens to activate; if you had three tokens on the unit, it would cost you four additional tokens, and so on).

After a round of battle, you may choose to redeploy you units. (Units may move from the back of the row to the front of the same row, from the back of a row to the back of another row, or from the front of a row to the front of another row). Redeployment will not cost you any Order tokens.

The battle is over when one army defeats the other.

Contents:
60 tiles, 6 dice, 20 wound/order tokens, 2 player aids, 1 set of rules.

Romans: 1 aquilifer, 5 archers, 4 auxiliares, 1 ballista, 3 cataphracts, 3 cavalry, 1 centurion, 1 imaginifer, 1 imperator, 5 legionaries, 1 onager, 3 praetorians and 1 scorpio.

Celts: 1 champion, 1 chariot, 1 druid, 2 gaesatae, 1 hero, 3 horsemen, 4 javelinmen, 3 noblemen, 3 noble cavalry, 4 slingers, 5 warband, 1 warchief and 1 warrior queen.

The Great King Tutankhamun has passed, and arrangements are being made to fill his Tomb with Artifacts that will travel with him to the afterlife.

Prepare to collect your offerings and cleanse your spirit as you take on the role of priests and priestesses, traveling down the Nile River to gather Artifacts for the great King’s tomb. Along the way, enchanted idols from the mighty Egyptian Gods may assist you in your journey.

Your primary goal will be to locate parts of Artifact sets. When these sets are completed, they are placed inside King Tut’s tomb to help the preparations for his burial. The priests who collected the most parts of the set will cleanse a portion of their spirit as their reward.

If you are the first player to completely cleanse your spirit (indicated by reducing your points to zero), you will so impress the new Pharaoh that he appoints you to be the next High Priest of Egypt. Will you meet the challenge and earn the new Pharaoh’s favor to become the most powerful priest in the land?

Tutankhamun features familiar gameplay from the earlier versions, while adding new Egyptian god powers and implementing a modified scoring system with new Scarab Rings and a new two-player scoring change.

When visiting the North of Britannia in 122 AD, the Roman Emperor Hadrian Augustus witnessed the aftermath of war between his armies and the savage Picts. In a show of Roman might, he ordered a wall to be built that would separate the Pict tribes from the rest of England. Grand in its design, the wall stretched 80 Roman miles, from coast to coast. Hadrian's Wall stood in service to the Roman Empire for nearly 300 years before its eventual decline. Today, Hadrian's Wall is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the remains of the forts, towers, and turrets can still be explored.

In Hadrian's Wall, players take on the role of a Roman General placed in charge of the construction of a milecastle and bordering wall. Over six years (rounds), players will construct their fort and wall, man the defenses, and attract civilians by building services and providing entertainment — all while defending the honor of the Roman Empire from the warring Picts. The player who can accumulate the most renown, piety, valor and discipline, whilst avoiding disdain, will prove to the Emperor they are the model Roman citizen and be crowned Legatus Legionis!

—description from the publisher

Many centuries ago, the Greek, Persian and Assyrian empires controlled vast amounts of land and riches. Yet, despite their fortifications and imposing armies, rumours began spreading of a formidable foe in the lands above the Black Sea. They came on horseback. Fierce warriors, both male and female. Skilled with the sword, axe and bow. But they weren’t mindless savages. Their artisans were renowned for their ability to craft detailed trinkets of gold. They fashioned leather armour and improvised the recurve bow. They trained eagles for hunting and war. Some even believe they inspired the Greek tales of the Amazons. But they were more than legend or fable. They were the Raiders of Scythia.

The aim of Raiders of Scythia is to be the player with the most Victory Points (VP) at the game’s end. VP are gained by raiding Settlements, taking Plunder and completing Quests. Players will need to assemble a Crew, train Animals and gather Provisions. The game ends when there is only 2 unraided Settlements or 2 Quests remaining on the Main Board.

—description from the publisher

The great Sapa Inca Pachacuti turned to his offspring and ordered them to worship Inti, the Sun God, and to expand the Inca Empire as far as the llamas roam. With Chinchaysuyu, Antisuyu, Qullasuyu, and Kuntisuyu — the four regions of the new empire — now ripe for conquest, the time has come for Pachacuti's true successor to arise.

Gather your people from the villages below and use their unique abilities to strategically place them where they can perform the greatest tasks for you. Climb the steps of the Sun Temple, reaping the rewards of your piety. Build structures that both nourish your people and provide you with benefits no other has at their disposal. Muster an army and conquer villages in the four realms of Tawantinsuyu. Prove yourself a worthy successor to Pachacuti and lead the Inca to glory!

During Tawantinsuyu: The Inca Empire, players place workers onto various locations on the game board, performing actions, collecting resources (potatoes, corn, stone, and gold), constructing buildings and stairs, sculpt statues, expanding their military strength, and collecting weavings.

The game board features a hill located within the old Inca capital of Cusco, the sides of which are terraced and divided into five sections. Atop the hill sits the Coricancha, The Golden Temple, the most important temple of the Inca Empire. Within the Coricancha, each player has a High Priest. On the terraced sections below exist a variety of worker placement locations, interconnected by paths and individually marked by symbols. On your turn, you must either place a worker onto a location outside the Coricancha OR choose two of the following:

Recruit one worker.
Take two god cards.
Draw two army cards and keep one of them.
Move your High Priest one or two steps clockwise within the Coricancha.

When placing a worker, you must first discard a god card with a matching symbol or pay one gold. Once placed, the worker remains on the game board for the rest of the game! Each worker placement location is connected to exactly three action spaces. You must always perform at least one of these actions. However, for each adjacent worker (i.e., connected to your worker's location via direct path through one of the action spaces) that matches the type of worker just placed, you receive one additional action!

While some locations will result in you being able to perform multiple actions, other actions and placements may be more desirable, especially since each of the five types of workers has a unique ability:

Warrior: Remove one of the adjacent workers, placing it in your player area.
Craftsman: Gain +1 action if placed onto a craftsman space.
Architect: Gain +1 action if placed onto an architect space.
Courier: Decreased placement cost; +1 action if it's the first worker placed within a given area.
Priest: Take one god card; you may pay one potato to gain +1 action.

All god cards feature one of the different symbols found on the worker placement locations. Before placing a worker, you must either discard a god card with a matching symbol or pay valuable gold resources. God cards also depict special abilities that can be activated only if you have previously built a matching statue!

Army cards allow you to send one or more units to conquer villages in nearby regions. You must compete against the other players for control of each region as well as for valuable rewards that can be gained as a result of military conquest.

The position of your High Priest within the Coricancha has a significant impact on your overall strategy, affecting your access to powerful actions and determining any potential resource costs when placing your workers. More specifically, when placing a worker, you must pay additional resources the farther your worker is from your High Priest, from nothing all the way up to eight potatoes or corn!

Additionally, when moving your High Priest, you can activate powerful actions available only within the Coricancha:

Produce: Gain all rewards from your production buildings.
Worship: Sacrifice previously sculpted statues to gain permanent temple advancements.
Offering: Pay resources to gain temple advancements.
Conquer: Engage in military conquest of nearby villages.
Rejuvenate: Refresh previously activated buildings and military units.

Throughout the game, you score victory points whenever you construct stairs or sculpt statues. Gain bonus victory points whenever another player makes use of the stairs you have constructed. Score victory points from temple advancements and control of the four regions.

The game ends when the worker pool has become exhausted, symbolizing the full incorporation of nearby regions and villages into the newly risen Inca Empire. You then score bonus victory points from reaching the top of the temple, from your woven tapestries, and from various buildings and resources you have accumulated.

—description from publisher