The Age of Sail in Your Pocket

Is that a complete naval wargame in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?

Well, hopefully it’s no disappointment that it is indeed a complete naval wargame. The Battle Box - Age of Sail is a complete self-contained game in a small tin box that fits in your pocket and is perfect for a quick game on the go, or even for full naval campaigns.

This nifty little game comes from Feral Wizard, based in the village of Holmes Chapel in Cheshire, UK. The Age of Sail is actually there second game in the Battle Box series, as they completed a Kickstarter campaign in November 2025 for Battle Box - Napoleonic Wars which covered land based conflict. Napoleonic Wars is also available as part of the new Age of Sail campaign too.

The Battle Box - Age of Sail includes ships, battle map, dice, scenarios, and cards for in-game effects such as critical hits and special ship rules. For a small tin it packs a lot:

4 ships and tracking tokens in different colours

3 double-sided sections of a hexagonal grid battle mat; with open sea on one side and terrain features such as coastline, island and shoals on the other side.

4 dice and 1 set of rules to play in under 30 minutes.

18 cards with ship status tracking, critical effects, ship upgrades, narrative scenarios based on eral events, a wind rose (plus wind oken) and advanced rules for frigate duels.

The four ships are in different colours, representing genereric men-of-war and merchant ships, whilst the crew quality, ship upgrades, etc, are tracked by cards and a token matching the ships colour. The game can be played by 2-4 players out of a single tin, although you can add further sets to create larger battles.

The rules are perfect for fun and short battles at sea furing the 18th and 19th centuries, such as French privateers attacking an East India Company convoy, or a British squadron intercepting the Spanish treasure fleet.

Battle Box - Age of Sail is currently funding on Kickstarter until 21st May 2026.