My adversary arrived at 8:13 PM. The knock on the door sent the canine into the usual barking frenzy. An opened door and a swift kick towards the furball (don't worry, I didn't make contact... this time) allowed my opponent to enter the house in peace. The usual greetings were exchanged as we made our way to the table. As usual I forgot to offer my guest anything to eat or drink. What is it about males forgetting such niceties while females could do as much in their sleep? We sat down at the table, between us a game called Battlelore.

Him: What scenario?

Me: A new one.

Him: From the website?

Me: Negative. Call to Arms.

Him: Ah, the expansion. That allows us to create our own armies, yes?

Me: You would think so, but no. Ya see, it's an army deployment expansion, not an army building expansion.

Him: I see.

Four minutes of rule explanations followed. We randomized the side selection then chose our deployment decks. A shuffle and 4 drawn cards found us deploying units to the board. We chose our specialist cards and commenced with the bloodshed. 53 minutes later...

Him: Good game. I owned you. ::said in jest::

Me: Yeah. Good game. And yes, you did. ::frowns:: I still enjoyed it though. What did you think of Call to Arms?

Him: After looking through the different deployment decks... they are pretty much all the same.

Me: Yeah. I noticed that also.

Him: You don't have much control over unit selection.

Me: True

Him: Or placement.

Me: Also true.

Him: The specialist cards are a nice touch. I like em.

Me: Agreed. The deployment cards are missing something though.

Him: Yeah. Didn't they say this army deployment thing was going to be revolutionary and knock our socks off?

Me: Yeah. Something like that.

Him: It didn't knock my socks off.

Me: Me needer.

Him: I would rather build my own army.

Me: Agreed.

Him: With it being so random, why not just play a regular scenario?

Me: Well, I can see how the scenario bit could get stale. This can allow you to avoid that.

Him: Yeah. I guess. Seems like this should have been included in the base game. It's only a deck of cards and some terrain.

Me: ::nods::

Him: What are these tokens for with the helmets on them?

Me: Feudal levy tokens.

Him: ::raises left eyebrow::

Me: It's so they can say they did something in case you don't have enough troops when you're deploying your units.

Him: We didn't need em.

Me: True. I've read you almost ever will.

Him: ::nods:: Well, good game. I'm out.

Me: Yeah. Enjoyed it. We're playing Age of Steam Sunday. In?

Him: Yeah, I'll be here. Layterd.

Me: Seeya.

And that was our first Call to Arms experience.


Overview

Call to Arms, the first expansion to Days of Wonder's Battlelore, allows players to forgo the preconfigured scenario and deploy units using a deck of deployment cards. The deployment cards show varying configurations and compositions of units.



Call to Arms also adds a small amount of customization to each army with Specialist cards. Specialist cards are chosen before the game begins and give the selector advantages.



The Call to Arms rules can be found here: www.battlelore.com.


The Good

- An official way to play Battlelore outside of the preconfigured scenarios. note: When I say "scenarios" I'm referring to the army composition.
- The Specialist cards add additional pre-game planning (strategy) to the mix. Certain Specialist cards will be more powerful based on the strength of the various members within your war council. For instance, there is a card called King's Allies that allows you to increase a unit's size based on the level of your War Council's warrior (see image above).
- A new weapon: longbows. A range of 4 while hitting on helmets and bonus strikes, oh my!

The Bad

- The deployment system is a disappointment. A quote from the rulebook: "Battlelore's army selection system uses a novel, card-driven deployment mechanism, centered around the use of Deployment decks, Specialist cards and Feudal Levy tokens." Is it novel? Yes. But something isn't good just because it is novel. During the buildup of Call to Arms, the message being conveyed was one of wonder and amazement. -- You'll love the new deployment system! It doesn't use your typical point system. It truly is innovative! -- I don't necessarily want a point system to create my own armies, but I would like more control over the deployment process. I realize that they never claimed it was an army creation system, but, in my opinion (and it's worth soooo much), that is what the game needed. For some reason, the game feels more personal when you can place your special touch on an army. It feels like it is yours. The "deployment" system offered by Call to Arms just feels like another scenario'd game of Battlelore: play the hand your dealt.
- A deck of cards and some terrain for $20?
- It could have been included in the base game.
- No terrain generation system. - I was hoping to completely forgo the need of a scenario book.
- Feudal Levy Tokens sound cool, don't they? After I read through the rulebook, I had to go back and read the FLT section again. I was trying to figure out how they could be used. After a second read, I realized it was just a means to make up for a lack of figures. Blah.

The Verdict - 7

While I appreciate the official release for playing Battlelore without scenarios, I do not like the dryness and additional luck provided by Call to Arms. The specialist cards are Call to Arm's saving grace. Without them I would have rated it much lower. Knowing what I know now about Call to Arms would I pay $20 for it again? A reluctant yes. Not because of it's content, but because it is a Battlelore expansion that sets the foundation for a system we will see for a long time to come. Will I continue to use Call to Arms? Again, yes. In the end, you're still playing a great game of Battlelore.