Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
Battlewagon is a tactical game of combat at sea. Hexes are 2000 yards and turns are 10 minutes.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Grid Movement
Move pieces between adjacent spaces on a regular grid.
Action Queue
Place actions into an ordered queue that resolves now or on later turns.
Dice Rolling
Roll dice to introduce uncertainty into actions, production, movement, or resolution.
Impulse Movement
Alternate small movement impulses rather than completing an entire turn at once.
Hexagon Grid
Use a hexagonal map where each space connects evenly in six directions.
Read the full game description
Battlewagon is a tactical game of combat at sea. Hexes are 2000 yards and turns are 10 minutes. Each player controls one or more ships, each of which have a "Ship Systems Display" (a la Star Fleet Battles or Car Wars). The game contains statistics for most major classes of ships from Destroyer to Battleship from 1901 through WWII for several navies worldwide. Ships are moved in impulses and may fire one or more weapons each impulse. Hits are determined by dice, followed by checking armor penetration (which falls off by range). If a hit penetrates, random ship systems are destroyed (rolled on a Damage Allocation Table). Victory is by scenario. Battlewagon was originally released as a "Pocket Game" in 1981. It was later released in a "Folio" Second Edition in 1984 with some development work.