Ares Games

Ares Games is an Italian board-game publisher and distributor founded in 2011 by Roberto Di Meglio, Marco Maggi, and Francesco Nepitello. It became known internationally through licensed and original tabletop games that combine strategic play with detailed miniatures, historical settings, and fantasy storytelling. One of its earliest major successes was Wings of Glory, a World War I aerial-combat game designed by Andrea Angiolino and Pier Giorgio Paglia. Players maneuver pre-painted aircraft using maneuver decks, resolving attacks with cards rather than measuring every movement. Ares later expanded the system with World War II aircraft, allowing the same accessible framework to represent a different generation of aviation. Ares also published War of the Ring: Second Edition, a strategic game based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Designed by Di Meglio, Maggi, and Nepitello, it gives players control of the Free Peoples or Shadow armies during the War of the Ring. The game combines military campaigns with the Fellowship’s mission, so battles, political pressure, and the movement toward Mount Doom affect one another. The company’s Middle-earth line includes The Battle of Five Armies, a game focused on the climactic conflict from Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Its design adapts the War of the Ring system for a smaller, more concentrated confrontation involving dwarves, elves, men, and the forces of Bolg. Ares has also released Sails of Glory, shifting its maneuver-and-card approach from aircraft to sailing ships in the Age of Sail. Its fantasy catalog includes Sword & Sorcery, a cooperative dungeon-crawling game in which heroes battle enemies through a campaign, and Last Friday, a hidden-movement game inspired by slasher films. These releases show Ares’s preference for games with strong physical presentation and a clear narrative premise, but the publisher’s identity is not limited to one genre. It has worked across historical conflict, licensed fiction, science fiction, and family-oriented titles, often supporting games through expansions and additional miniatures. Ares Games is therefore best understood not simply as a retailer or miniature manufacturer, but as a publisher whose major lines connect tactile components with systems designed for replayable tactical decisions. From biplanes and warships to Tolkien’s Middle-earth and cooperative fantasy quests, its portfolio reflects an unusually consistent interest in making recognizable worlds playable on a tabletop. That combination has made Wings of Glory and War of the Ring especially visible ambassadors for the company, while newer releases continue extending its range through carefully themed design.