Miniatures wargame played on a square grid, attempting to be more realistic and less chess-like than older similar efforts, without the complexity of map-based free movement wargames. Infantry and cavalry are represented by tiny painted metal figures placed in holes drilled in wooden tiles. Figures are removed to show losses from combat, although the exact number of soldiers remaining in each unit is tracked using pencil and paper. Artillery and various supply and naval units are represented by metal or cardboard figures.
Wooden blocks are placed on the board to show heights, and players can optionally build cardboard terrain following illustrations in the rulebook to place on the board instead of just using colored cardboard tiles to represent different terrain types. The cardboard terrain is flat and placed standing along the edges of map squares so that units can still be placed in the squares.