Abstract · 2018

War Chest

A bag of coins, medieval units and six control markers: hold more locations than your rival.

2–4 players
30–60 min
2.4 / 5 · Light

Set up the game

0 of 6 steps

Tick each step as you complete it.

1Put the board in the middle. In a two-player game each player picks a faction and takes a bag, a royal coin and six control markers. Place one marker on each of your two starting locations; every other location starts neutral.
Two-player setup
Marker
Coins
Bag
2Choose units. For a first game the rulebook recommends the fixed set: Swordsman, Pikeman, Crossbowman and Light Cavalry against Archer, Cavalry, Lancer and Scout. In later games, shuffle the 16 unit cards and deal four to each player.
First-game units
3Build the bags: put two coins of each of your four units into your bag plus your royal coin. The rest of those units' coins form your supply, in piles next to the cards. Unused coins stay in the box.
Coins
Bag
Cards
4Flip the initiative marker: whoever matches the face-up side starts and keeps the marker. In the recommended first game, player A starts.
Marker
5Leave the outer areas of the board —the darker hexes— out of play: two-player games do not use them. Those areas, the extra bags and the extra markers only come in for the four-player team variant.
Hex
Marker
Bag
6If you already know the game, draft: deal eight cards face up, the first player takes one, the second takes two, the first takes two, and so on. The player who picked second takes the initiative.
Cards

What it is about

War Chest is a medieval war game played like an abstract: no dice and no luck in combat, only coins drawn from a bag and decisions about what to do with them. Each coin is both a unit on the board and an action in hand.

The tension comes from the bag's double life. Coins spent on maneuvers return to the bag next round, so attacking hard now means fewer options later. Recruiting adds new coins, but each recruit is an action not spent moving or controlling.

The game is decided on locations: six markers per player with two, eight shared with four. There are no points and no tie-breakers; the first to place them all wins, which is why every location your rival secures is a countdown.

BGG page Official rulebook

Source note

The rulebook covers the two-player game, the four-player team variant, unit drafting and historical set-ups. This guide explains the standard two-player game; the team mode and drafting are covered in the FAQ.

EN rulebook (AEG, 2018) · Reviewed: 24 Oct 2026