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Battle for Byzantium is a historical action/ conquest board game set in the Byzantine Empire in the year 1025 which features several elements and references from the Byzantine Empire. Here, with the death of the emperor Basil II, 4 warriors from within and beyond the empire all compete for control of the Byzantine Empire taking advantage of the weak position the empire is at considering that its strong ruler had just died. In this 4-player dice game, players can choose from among the said 4 characters being Demetrios the Byzantine Cataphract commander, Al-Sadin the Arab general, Jean-Pierre the Norman adventurer-knight, and Freydis the female Varangian warrior. The objective is to capture all 18 on the map and the winner is the player with the most number of cities. To play the game, players must roll the dice and thus move across the golden mosaic tiles in the map of the Byzantine Empire in 1025. If players land on any red porphyry tiles by the roll of the dice, they are to select action cards. There are 7 different kinds of action cards and each has a different function. Once used, cards must be surrendered to the discard pile.

One of the 7 action cards that players randomly select when landing on the red porphyry tile is the "Gain Gold" card which allows a player to move 4 steps forward, though this card can be kept for future use especially when 4 steps are needed to capture a city or land on a red porphyry tile, and once used this card must be surrendered. The second kind of action card is the "Gain an Army" card which allows players to capture any open city- except the capital Constantinople- on the map only when landing on it with the roll of the dice, and once used this card must be surrendered. The third kind of action card is the "Besiege a City" card which allows players to automatically capture the city closest to them without landing on it with the roll of the dice, thus when selecting this card the player must move his or her character to the city he or she captures, but once used the card must be surrendered. The fourth kind of action card is the "Plague" card, and when a player selects it he or she must move his or her character to the location known as Ragusa on the upper-left corner of the map where a player loses a turn due to plague, and again after the card is used it must be surrendered. The fifth kind of action card is the "Greek Fire" card which when selected forces a player to return his or her character to its starting point on the map, and again after the card is used it must be surrendered. The sixth kind of action card is the "Rebellion" card which when being selected forces a player to lose one city, however if a player selects this card without owning a city yet then the card has no use, and again after being used the card must be surrendered. Last but not least is the "Sack a City" card which has the most powerful function as when being selected, players can steal any owned city by another player, however this card can only work if an opponent already owns a city, and once being used the card has to be immediately surrendered.

Each of the 4 in-game characters have their own special abilities which can however only be used ONCE. For those who play as the Byzantine Demetrios, the "Greek Fire" card when being selected can be used once in the game to capture an open city. If a player chooses to play the Arab Al-Sadin, he or she is immune to the "Rebellion" card only once in the game which means when selecting it one does not lose a city. When playing as the Norman Jean-Pierre, the player for at least once in the game is immune to the plague when selecting the "Plague" card. Lastly for those playing as the Varangian Freydis, one "Gain an Army" card can be used twice for only one time in the game to capture not just one but two open cities. Additionally, players can use the game\'s 2 "Gain a Navy" functions- wherein both are located on opposite sides of the map to capture any city of their choosing, though each "Gain a Navy" function can only be used once in the game. When playing the game, each player is given a pouch with their respective color- red for Demetrios, green for Al-Sadin, blue for Jean-Pierre, and gold for Freydis- and inside the pouches are 18 conquests tokens each wherein these round tokens have the first letter of the respective character\'s name on them. When capturing a city, players must place the token with the first letter of their character\'s name on the city they take. Once a city is taken by a player, he or she must claim the city\'s respective illustrated city card in which there are 18 of them (one per city) depicting a Byzantine landmark of the city and on the back side of the card some information on the city. Capturing the imperial capital Constantinople meanwhile is different from capturing other cities in the map as first of all, Constantinople cannot be captured with the "Besiege a City" card while it also requires 2 "Gain an Army" cards to acquire it. Other ways to take Constantinople includes using the "Gain a Navy" function or using the "Sack a City" card if another player already owns it. Owning Constantinople however has a lot of benefits which for one includes being immune to the "Rebellion" card, thus those who own Constantinople cannot lose any city except Constantinople if another player steals it with the "Gain a Navy" or "Sack a City" card.

When playing the game, the action cards may run out in the middle of the game. If this happens at the middle of the game, players can choose to end it when the action cards have run out and thus the player with the most number of cities at this point wins the game. However, in the full version of the game, once the action cards run out they must be reshuffled and once that\'s done the game resumes. The full version of the game ends when all 18 cities on the map have been taken, and once this happens players must count the number of cities they own. The one with the highest number of cities thus wins the game, though at the end Constantinople is equivalent to 2 points, and thus the player who owns Constantinople has 2 additional points.

–description from designer