Dawn of Battle: Designer's Edition

Dawn of Battle is a hex-and-counter war game system that allows players to experience battles before the modern era. The game spans 3,000 years of combat, from the age of Greek generals to the invention of gunpowder.

The game system is straight forward and action packed. Players depend upon the quality of their army's leadership to provide orders needed to maneuver their armies and strike against the enemy. The better an army's command, the more flexibility it has to move, rally, and attack.

Also included are supplementary rules that cover free deployment in scenarios, barbarian charges, command control and impetuosity, elephant panic, and random events.

Each scenario notes the disposition of the armies that engaged at a historical battle and the terrain that encompassed the battlefield. Units include a variety of infantry (including hoplites and the Macedonian phalanx), cavalry (including chariots and mounted archers), missile units (including slingers, longbows, and early gunpowder weapons, and special units such as elephants and war wagons.

The game's primary engine is comprised of an action deck used to determine command, the randomly determined outcomes of actions, and melee combat. Additionally, action cards provide special effects that players can use to enhance their units' abilities as well as the narrative of the play experience. The deck ensures that no two games are ever the same.

The base game includes twenty scenarios:

 Megiddo, 1457 BCE
 Che, 717 BCE
 Marathon, 490 BCE
 Gaugamela, 331 BCE
 Ipsus, 301 BCE
 Heraclea, 280 BCE
 Lake Trasimeno, 217 BCE
 Raphia, 217 BCE
 Illipa, 206 BCE
 Zama, 202 BCE
 Sabis River, 57 BCE
 Pharsalus, 48 BCE
 Hastings, 1066 CE
 Dyrrhachium, 1081 CE
 Fornham, 1173 CE
 Bouvines, 1214 CE
 Kalka River, 1223 CE
 Crêçy, 1346 CE
 Poitiers, 1356 CE
 Aljubarrota, 1386 CE

In addition to these battles, the game includes comprehensive guidelines on how to create your own scenarios, making "Dawn of Battle" a complete system usable to recreate virtually any battle from the ancient world to early gunpowder.

This Designer's Edition of Dawn of Battle is an update to the original Dawn of Battle released by Worthington Games in 2021. This edition includes all new scenarios as well as 120 double-sided terrain tiles.

—description from the publisher