Pocket Battles: Celts vs. Romans (2009)

Overview

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.