Ancient Conquest

Ancient Conquest is a board wargame published in 1975 by Excalibre Games that simulates the clash of empires during the Bronze Age. Designed by R. J. Hlavnicka and Dennis P. O'Leary, the game is built for four players and is played on a mounted hex grid map with roughly two hundred counters, covering conflicts among the empires of the Fertile Crescent region in the ancient Near East. The four-player structure sets Ancient Conquest apart from the more common two-player operational wargames of its era, since it requires balancing several simultaneously contending Bronze Age powers rather than a single two-sided confrontation. After its original 1975 edition from Excalibre Games, Ancient Conquest was reissued in a second edition by Decision Games in 2012, a common pattern among hobby wargames of this period whose original small-press publishers ceased operating long before renewed publisher interest brought the design back into print for a new generation of players.