Fight, Goblins, fight! I’m tired of the dwarves always pushing us around in BattleLore, the game of choice for me these days. Dwarves and Goblins are two races that are employed as “mercenaries” in the basic game, and I loved the models and the special rules they had. But really, it was very basic, with Dwarves essentially being always-bold units and Goblins being often-frightened and quick to rush into battle. I was therefore eager to check out the Specialist packs that were upcoming. The first Goblin pack, the Goblin Skirmishers, was really a boost to the little green fellows, so a second one was gladly welcomed.

The Goblin Marauders Specialist Pack (Days of Wonder, 2007 – Richard Borg) added cavalry units for the Goblin, giving them an incredible edge in mobility – something that the stalwart dwarves will have a harder time with. A second Goblin band also increases the diversity of the Goblins; I now have multiple options when building an army, and I no longer fear the Dwarves.

Let’s look at what the expansion pack includes (as a side note, I now have managed to put all four specialist packs and the epic expansion in the original box. I had to remove the plastic insert and barely got the lid on – so anything new coming is going to need another box.)

1.) Two new scenarios are added, Goblin Riders – 1373 and Goblin Chevauchee - 1373. Both of these are normal scenarios with War Councils included, but are intriguing in that they allow several of the new units to be used. Normally a player, using the Call to Arms expansion, can only have two specialist cards, which means that not everything new can be used; but these scenarios give a balanced force for a fully fledged mostly goblin army to fight against. Using a tricked-out goblin army is lethal, to say the least.

2.) The Goblin Band: There are three goblin drummers and one goblin bass drum figure included in the set with white bases to make them easy to pick out on the board. Interestingly, the Goblin Bass Drum is my favorite model in the game currently – and he’s useful also! A specialist card allows a player to place a green Goblin Band in reserve. This unit fights as normal (with no bonus strikes) but is interesting in two ways: it is bold and also provides half the support to every friendly unit in the same section. This is incredible for a couple of reasons. One, it provides half the support a unit needs to be bold – whether it is goblin or not, as long as it is in the same section! Secondly, if you get the unit onto a space that covers two sections, it will affect all units in both sections. This allows the goblin units to move in groups of two, effectively becoming killing machines, as they are now fast AND bold. The opponent may want to hunt down the band unit, although they will hover in the back, drumming up support for the whole army. What makes this band unit even better is that a player can now use two goblin bands for support purposes if they also have purchased the Skirmishers pack. Using two units – and positioning them in the middle spots of the board – can provide boldness for the ENTIRE goblin army. Sure, this makes the drummers huge targets, but it’s terrific at the beginning of a battle!

3.) Goblin Drummers: The player can instead “embed” a goblin drummer into three different units, replacing one of the units of that type. This drummer makes that unit bold, which is an amazing feature for a Goblin unit, as long as the drummer stays alive (it cannot be the banner holder, so it’s the second last to die). While this allows a player to have an easy three bold units on the board (red spearmen come to mind), I think I like the band unit better, since it has a higher potential to effect more units.

4.) Goblin Hyena Riders: Apparently Goblins ride anything that moves, but these fighters have the chance to pursue two hexes beyond the vacated hex, rather than one. With a blue banner, that makes these guys rather lethal, although they are still easily panicked and are prone to quick destruction. Still, they add a fast punch to the goblin army.

5.) Hobgoblin Ostrich Riders: This is the first game I’ve played in which units are riding ostriches – it certainly makes for a unique sculpt, but these units go beyond that. They are armed with bows that only have a range of three hexes; but they always roll two dice, regardless of whether they moved or not. This is incredibly useful, as their mobility combined with their firepower allow them to scamper around the edges of an army, picking off the opponents one by one. I would be hard pressed NOT to choose them as units in my army, and I like them much better than the Hyena Riders.

6.) Components: The figures for all the new units look good; and if nothing else, give you more goblin figures to wield an almost all goblin army, if that interests you. The cards are nice, and banners and flags are included to allow a player to use the units in either army. However, a couple of mistakes were made - one in the backs of the cards (something I didn't even notice); and also a couple of incorrect banners (they included blue banner ranged units - which is frankly too powerful). Days of Wonder has promised to replace these for free; and banners from the original game can cover for them while waiting. It's certainly an embarrassing error - but easily fixable.

I’m not sure the casual BattleLore player needs to pick up this expansion (although they’re probably not reading this review anyway), but anyone seeking to make the goblins a faster, fiercer force will get sinister delight from this pack. I wish one could take more than two specialist cards, and this expansion has pushed me to make a house rule in which we take three specialist cards. Then I can use the Ostrich Riders, the Hyena Riders, and the drummers for a nasty, nasty army. And shouldn’t the goblins be nasty?

Tom Vasel
“Real men play board games”
www.thedicetower.com