Ancient Duel

From the Devs

Ancient Duel is a historical tactical card game built around short, strategic 1v1 battles between the great civilizations of the ancient world.

Build a 40-card deck, choose your factions, deploy units and commanders, and use doctrines, tactics and terrain to control the battlefield. Every turn is a contest of positioning, timing and resource management — knowing when to attack can matter just as much as knowing which card to play.

Build Your Strategy

Create decks around Rome, Egypt, Persia, Sparta, Macedonia, Carthage and Dacia, each with its own battlefield identity and tactical strengths.

Combine cards and factions to create different approaches to battle, from disciplined defensive formations and ranged pressure to cavalry maneuvers, ambushes and aggressive assaults.

Fight for Position

Ancient Duel is not only about the cards in your hand.

Units occupy battlefield positions, attacks are directed across opposing lines, and defensive support can change the outcome of combat. Commanders, doctrines, tactics and terrain create additional layers of interaction, making positioning and sequencing central to every match.

Manage Your Resources

Energy determines what you can deploy and activate. Strong turns require planning ahead rather than simply playing the most powerful card available.

Build pressure, protect important units, anticipate your opponent and decide when to commit your resources.

History Turned Into Gameplay

Cards are inspired by real historical units, commanders, military doctrines and battlefield tactics.

Legionaries, phalanxes, cavalry, war elephants, archers and famous commanders are translated into gameplay mechanics designed to reflect the character of their civilizations while keeping battles accessible and competitive.

Key Features

• Tactical 1v1 turn-based card battles

• 7 ancient factions with distinct strategic identities

• 40-card deckbuilding

• Multi-faction deck combinations

• Battlefield positioning and formation-based combat

• Units, commanders, doctrines, tactics and terrain

• Historically inspired cards and mechanics

• Free-to-play competitive strategy

What's in the Demo

The demo is the full game with the competitive economy switched off — nothing is time-limited and nothing is locked behind a paywall:

• All 7 factions — Rome, Sparta, Macedonia, Carthage, Persia, Dacia and Egypt — and all 141 cards

• The whole campaign: 7 campaigns, 35 missions, 19 historical battles and 42 achievements

• Tutorial and practice matches against the AI

• Ranked and Private online duels — Steam matches demo players with other demo players

• Local play over the same Wi-Fi, with no server in between

• Full controller support and native Windows, macOS, Linux and Steam Deck builds

Your campaign progress and achievements are saved on your device.

Planned for the Full Release

The full release of Ancient Duel is planned to expand the experience with:

• Organized tournaments — Arena Trials, Grand Conquest and weekend events

• Championship Points — a seasonal competitive ladder

• Progression and reward systems — Credits earned in play and alternative decks to unlock

• Print & Play content

• Steam achievements and cloud saves

More features and content will be revealed as development continues. The full game is free to play — add Ancient Duel to your wishlist to be told when it launches.