Game: BattleLore

Thread: Re: Battle lore with a 4 year old

Yokiboy — 2008-05-11T10:23:51+00:00

Excellent session report, I love hearing of other parents that play games with their children. :thumbsup:

Thread: Re: What's next?

Echtalion — 2008-05-11T09:30:06+00:00

crazyyog wrote:
I just hope they come up with something more interesting than Dwarves riding bloody cows!

The thing that I found most unacceptable was the fact that the bulls didn't mean ANYTHING in the battle: NO bonus, no minus, nothing special.
What sort of fantasy is that?

Then re-reading the rulebook's prologue, where DOW talks about re-creating your D&D moments and stuff, I realised how far off BL was REALLY getting, which I linked to other factors such as: some perceived issues about "nukes" and unbalance in the Lore deck, the 2 major expansions not really adding much to the game, let's see:

* Epic: OK, now you have a bigger battlefield, but the same cards, and the same composition(ie it's out of the scope of the game to re-create scenarios where a force overwhelms the other, for example, or enter through one side, or reinforcements, etc...).
The units start in the battlefield in very much the same locations again and again.

* Call to arms: you are NOT really customising ANYTHING, just placing your units where your cards dictated, which, again, is very much the same as in any other scenario, regarding location and total number of units in the battlefield.

Then the objectives: always to target the weakest units, as they give the same as, say, a red cavalry unit.

Then the set-up: when you start adding expansions, for a minimal extra in options, you get to sort a multitude of banners, cards, minis, and terrain... that then at the end you'll have to tidy up.

And finally, the fact that the Heroes expansion was scheduled to be released for Christmas. It's been now 5 months without the expansion, AND without ANY NEWS about it. For a game that was said to be years in the making, how bad is that? I understand the need to repackage, but all the elements should be already conceived, if not already in production. And the troll's preview was, IMO, plain awful.

Basically, I think(thought?) that BL was an excellent game, but have been disillusioned by the expansions. They seem too scared to change anything in the game. The objectives remain the same, the stats of new units vary in terms of +1, -1, meaning that they move a bit more, or a bit less, attack with an extra dice or not. Why don't they make something balanced, but different?

Regarding this, I think that the game itself has tight bounds, like, for example, the ONLY "ability" the troops may have is being bold. So that made the Dwarves bold, the goblins the opposite, and the humans neutral. Then there are the musicians, that can make units on the same side of the battlefield bold, and the Dwarven bagpipes that make units scared. It's always revolving about the same "ability", as there isn't much else to fiddle with.

I'm not trying to be too harsh, but these are my thoughts. I'm off BL, which I loved(you can read my previous posts, and see some of my uploaded pics to prove it).

I hope the Heroes expansion comes out finally, and is great, as it will be a give or take for I suspect many fans.

Thread: Re: What's next?

Boromir_and_Kermit — 2008-05-11T08:55:37+00:00

I've moved onto Fantasy Rules, HOTT and Mighty Armies.

Realised that the news stream and release schedule was always going to be like this and got sick of it.

Ben.

Thread: Re: What's next?

crazyyog — 2008-05-11T08:08:07+00:00

You just hit the nail on the head! This is a fantasy wargame and cute has no place on a blood drenched battlefield. Also, cows are for eating and not riding around on will looking all cutesy. :shake:

Felkor wrote:
The cattle riders were why I bought that expansion! They're so cute! My wife loves them.

Thread: Battle lore with a 4 year old

Ron Stuckel — 2008-05-11T07:35:37+00:00

Prior to today my 4 year old son had always been a bystander when I played my 12 year old son in BattleLore. He would play with the cool figures and have his own little side war going on. We happened to have some alone time, from the rest of the family unit today, so he says, "Dad, it's time to play BattleLore, this time with the real cards".

So I set out to teach some concepts about the game in the 15-20 minute attention span that I had (his attention span, not mine). I set him up with 2 medium calvary and the giant spider, against my infantry line of 2 medium infantry and 1 light infantry.

Some of the concepts taught:

Unit - a group of cool minaitures
Order cards - how many units they order and where on the map they order (left, center, right)
Movement - what a space is and how many spaces each unit moves
Melee combat - how many dice each unit rolls
Combat results - what hits a unit and what doesn't

No text cards were kept in the order card deck, no morale rules were used, and no cavalry pursuit was used.

Also, no dice rolls were fudged or mercy shown (except for the initial unit selection), in playing the game.

The game ended after each of us taking about 7 turns. He had the Spider and 1 - two piece medium calvarly left. I was trampled into the dust.

He was quite happy that he had beat dad at his first official playing of BattleLore.:D

It's never too soon to start with your son or daughter. I suspect that like his brother who was playing full rules Memoir 44 in first grade, that this guy will be playing pretty much full rules BattleLore near that same timeframe.

Thread: Re: What's next?

logrey — 2008-05-11T07:30:38+00:00

The lack of an RPG feel is what's killing this for me. Remember the blog posts before the game came out? Where they were referencing the feel and fun of playing D&D. With all that RPG name dropping, I was hoping for some high fantasy content. Instead, we got dwarves and goblins, based on stereotypes of real-world ethnic groups. Meh... Not what I was hoping for... Where are the dragons? The monsters? The heroes?

This game seems to be occupying a strange, unpopular space right now - it's too historical for fantasy fans and too fantastic for history fans. (with that said, I do love of the game and harbor hopes that it can achieve the right feel for me)

Thread: Re: What's next?

kostek — 2008-05-11T06:24:13+00:00

I'm looking forward to some new stuff. In the mean time, I'm still working on all the stuff I've got. I still haven't "played out" any of the stuff yet. I need to get this back to the table, and soon!

Thread: Re: What's next?

moss_icon — 2008-05-10T02:44:07+00:00

Old Dwarf wrote:
At this point its almost who cares:snore:

quite a few people, i suspect!

Thread: Re: What's next?

Old Dwarf — 2008-05-10T02:23:46+00:00

At this point its almost who cares:snore:

BL really excited my group but the lack of new races,Heros &
the fully developed game world DoW promised has shelved the
game for us.The lack of communication from DoW on the future of BL
is just killing the game.

A big expansion & the ability to buy specific troop types
(if I want to create units of spear men-let me buy the spearmen).
would turn this around for us.

Thread: Re: What's next?

toddrew — 2008-05-10T01:54:48+00:00

ScottE wrote:
toddrew wrote:
Felkor wrote:

At the same time, now that I'm married, it's much easier to pick up a smaller, cheaper expansion without having to put it by the wife. :-)

;)

One reason I'm so glad I'm single, no woman telling me what to do with my money!

You may not be aware of this, but there are a few perks to offset this hinderance ;)

Sorry for all the winking. I've got a bit of grapefruit in my eye...

Thread: Re: What's next?

ScottE — 2008-05-10T05:54:42+00:00

toddrew wrote:
Felkor wrote:

At the same time, now that I'm married, it's much easier to pick up a smaller, cheaper expansion without having to put it by the wife. :-)

;)

One reason I'm so glad I'm single, no woman telling me what to do with my money!

Thread: Re: What's next?

toddrew — 2008-05-10T05:33:34+00:00

Felkor wrote:

At the same time, now that I'm married, it's much easier to pick up a smaller, cheaper expansion without having to put it by the wife. :-)

;)

Thread: Re: What's next?

oneilljgf — 2008-05-09T05:57:38+00:00

crazyyog wrote:
I just hope they come up with something more interesting than Dwarves riding bloody cows!

Have you ever tried to move your units through the coo's dung in their wake?

Thread: Re: What's next?

Felkor — 2008-05-09T04:52:17+00:00

My general preference is larger, fuller expansions. They seem to offer more value, and there's less overlap between expansions (for instance, if you get both dwarven expansions you will have way more spearmen then you could possibly know what to do with.) Fewer, larger expansions also means that they don't have to account for so many "What if they have this other expansion but not this one" situations.

At the same time, now that I'm married, it's much easier to pick up a smaller, cheaper expansion without having to put it by the wife. :-)

Their original idea was to have virtually no real "expansions" but instead have it more collectible, with units coming in blister packs. Game stores were not too fond of that idea, so the smaller expansions was a compromise, that in the end not too many people were 100% happy with.

Thread: Re: What's next?

Dreamshadow — 2008-05-09T04:46:33+00:00

Many fans complained of the numerous small expansions, so DoW scrapped their original plan for Heroes, and went back to the drawing board to create larger, fuller expansions. The Heroes expansion should come out next, although DoW said their may be another one that comes out first. So we'll probably see Heroes come out, combined with something else - either more creatures or another race, I'm guessing.

Really? I didn't think they were so bad. *shrug* 'course I haven't been buying into Memoir 44 either at the same time, so that might affect perception.

Thread: Re: What's next?

Felkor — 2008-05-09T03:20:55+00:00

The cattle riders were why I bought that expansion! They're so cute! My wife loves them.

Thread: Re: What's next?

crazyyog — 2008-05-09T02:50:42+00:00

I just hope they come up with something more interesting than Dwarves riding bloody cows!

Thread: Re: What's next?

RedV — 2008-05-09T02:25:49+00:00

anarchy wrote:
ArsLoqui wrote:
Air Pack '44 - 1344

Including Goblin Zeppelins, Faerie Units, Levitating Wizards, and, of course, Dragons.

I would so buy that.

Seconded

Thread: Re: What's next?

anarchy — 2008-05-09T12:08:58+00:00

ArsLoqui wrote:
Air Pack '44 - 1344

Including Goblin Zeppelins, Faerie Units, Levitating Wizards, and, of course, Dragons.

I would so buy that.

Thread: Re: What's next?

Felkor — 2008-05-08T11:51:22+00:00

Thread: Re: What's next?

ArsLoqui — 2008-05-08T10:42:39+00:00

Air Pack '44 - 1344

Including Goblin Zeppelins, Faerie Units, Levitating Wizards, and, of course, Dragons.

Thread: Re: What's next?

ColtsFan76 — 2008-05-08T10:25:59+00:00

What's next? Silence! Followed by angry responses. Then DOW will announce something the moment they are ready to ship. And most will quickly forgive...until the silence ensues once again...

DOW is tight-lipped about what is next. Heroes is supposed ot be on the docket next. After that, who knows? We got a sneak peak of a new creature - the Troll - and that was it. hard to tell if he is on its own or part of the heoroes expansion or something completely new.

While nothing official has been stated, it is also assumed we will start seeing new armies soon: elves, undead, etc.

One thing is for sure, DOW is far from saying "We're done!"

Thread: What's next?

Dreamshadow — 2008-05-08T10:06:23+00:00

So, what is next for Battlelore? I keep seeing stuff on some rumoured heroes (and possibly creatures in the same pack) but little else? Has DoW or Richard Borg said 'We're Done!' with Battlelore?

Thread: Re: Hill Giant availability

broken clock — 2008-05-08T10:03:50+00:00

The real question is; why does Battlelore say that they are going to have more creatures and races in the future, in the main rulebook? I've seen the expansions and I don't see either!

Thread: Re: Battlelore on Vassal - What am I doing wrong?

toddrew — 2008-05-08T01:09:22+00:00

Looking forward to seeing some people on the BL Vassal module - it's been lonely lately :)

Thread: Re: Battlelore on Vassal - What am I doing wrong?

txaal — 2008-05-08T11:47:28+00:00

that must be it. My mac is auto decompressing. I will try to make it stop. Thanks all.

Thread: Re: Battlelore on Vassal - What am I doing wrong?

juanjoroig — 2008-05-08T09:39:36+00:00

You should take a look in the Recycle bin. Mac OS decompresses some of vassal modules and put them in the R. bin. You should use the file in the trash instead of the decompressed one.

Thread: Re: Battlelore on Vassal - What am I doing wrong?

Bilben04 — 2008-05-08T05:02:16+00:00

Module files are archive (compressed) files and they must remain in their archived state to function properly. Is it possible that your operating system is set to recognize and automatically decompress archive files? If you have a folder named after the module that contains files named "BuildFile" and "Info" then you are looking at the decompressed contents of the module file. If this is the case, you'll have to figure out how to download the file without decompressing it.

Thread: Re: Battlelore on Vassal - What am I doing wrong?

ibn_ul_khattab — 2008-05-08T04:49:34+00:00

Hmmm works fine for me. Not sure sorry.

Thread: Re: Battlelore on Vassal - What am I doing wrong?

ibn_ul_khattab — 2008-05-08T04:39:09+00:00

I'll try downloading it now and see if I get the same problem. Do you use vassal much normally?

Thread: Battlelore on Vassal - What am I doing wrong?

txaal — 2008-05-08T04:12:45+00:00

I have downloaded Vassal and Battlelore module but when I open Vassal and select Open Module, I can't find any file in the folder that will open. What is up? If it matters, I'm using a Mac.

Thread: Re: Hill Giant availability

Heliconia — 2008-05-07T11:12:19+00:00

The question is; are the Hill Giant and Earth Elemental more desirable because they are oop or because they really add to the game?

Thread: Re: Hill Giant availability

Yollege — 2008-05-07T10:57:55+00:00

I kept losing on Ebay, but i managed to work out an Ultimate Trade here on BGG for it and the Earth Elemental...

But I had to give up a full game for them :).

Thread: Re: Hill Giant availability

Lou-Dawg — 2008-05-07T03:56:29+00:00

The problem is there was a very limited supply and no one wants to give up their Hill Giant! I have one but I probably wouldn't part at it for any reasonable price, just because I know it would be impossible to replace.

PS I got mine in a Math Trade along with Battlelore. I wasn't actually one of the people who ordered it super early.

Thread: Re: Hill Giant availability

Tsugo — 2008-05-06T10:26:18+00:00

This guy would make a suitable replacement.

[IMG]http://j.b5z.net/i/u/2042237/i/DOD52.jpg[/IMG]

Thread: Scenario 3 - Burgos Castille

ExcitingJeff — 2008-05-06T03:49:09+00:00

My girlfriend Grace and I decide to give the Burgos Castille scenario (number 3) a shot. She is Don Pedro the Cruel, and I am Henry of Trastamara. She is thrilled to have the goblin units, and I am confident that I will be able to fend off the little green cowards for long enough to acquire the requisite 6 flags.

Grace begins with an attack down the center, moving her medium infantry forward while moving and firing with her archers, killing one unit. My cards aren’t too exciting, so I opt to go for a probe in the center, ordering my archers to fire at her oncoming medium infantry. I miss, but I am able to pick up a Cavalry Charge card.

She continues her assault with a foot onslaught on her left flank, ordering all four infantry units forward, leaving three in the open but moving one into a safer position in the hills. Seeing a golden opportunity, I counter with my own foot onslaught in the center. Moving up my infantry, I don’t do a lot of damage, but I manage to push her center line back pretty far, and I am able to overtake onto her side of the battlefield. Additionally, the foot onslaught allowed me to move up my heavy infantry relatively early, putting me in a strong position. Finally, I move my archers into the space between the center and my right flank so that I can counter her advance toward my cavalry.

Grace moves 3 on the right, moving goblin infantry forward and pushing her goblin cavalry into the center. She pushes back one of my infantry, leaving my heavy infantry unsupported. I move the cavalry in the center to support the heavy infantry, trading hits with Grace’s goblin infantry, giving better than I get. I also move my cavalry from on the right to the center of her massed units on the right, scoring reducing her center supporting unit to one figure without taking any losses.

Grace scouts on her left, scoring a hit on my unsupported cavalry with her light infantry. I respond by attacking with three units in the center. My heavy infantry wipes out her goblin cavalry, and I force the other cavalry to retreat with my own. I overtake her and score another three hits on her goblin infantry. I feel pretty confident after this.

She moves three on her right, moving her retreated cavalry and infantry toward my cavalry, scoring a hit, while retreating with the single-figure goblin infantry unit. I counter by advancing 4 units in the same wing, killing a weakened infantry unit with my archers and pushing back her now-unsupported infantry, inflicting heavy casualties in the process.

Grace orders units on the left again, attacking my cavalry with her goblin cavalry and my medium infantry with her own. She manages to score a hit on the infantry and kill my cavalry, bringing the score to 2-1. I want to neutralize her cavalry, so I opt for a risky infantry move in the center. I am unable to kill the cavalry, but I weaken her archers and infantry slightly, losing an infantry unit from her battling back.

She surrounds me, moving two units on each wing, rushing goblins in from her right to attack my heavy infantry, scoring one hit and forcing the unit to retreat, and marching the infantry on her left toward my cavalry scoring another. My center units are weakened, but still supported. I issue a counter-attack, going after her heavy cavalry on my right flank, scoring a hit, and score no hits on her infantry. On the left, I advance an infantry and miss her cavalry with my archers.

Questioning whether it was actually legal to do so, Grace counter-attacks my counter-attack, using the infantry and heavy cavalry on her left to attack my medium cavalry, while moving forward goblins on the right. Her heavy cavalry forces my cavalry to retreat, and then overtakes and kills that unit. My other cavalry unit is also forced to retreat, but I issue a march order to one unit in each section, moving my one remaining cavalry to wipe out her heavy cavalry in a similar pusuit and killing one of her goblin cavalry units with my archers.

She pulls out the Blue Banner card, issuing an order to five units. This assault is brutal, killing 3 of my archer units, forcing my remaining cavalry to retreat and lose a figure, and killing one of my heavy infantry units. I have been lucky with cards throughout the game, but this luck is running out, and I don’t have much that’s helpful. Desperate, I attack with three units on the left, moving infantry forward and hitting her cavalry with my archers. Surveying the battlefield, I am still well-supported in the center, but I realize I can’t hold out for long. I need to break through her lines soon, or my heavily-damaged units won’t survive.

She plays advance on her left, using all her units to wipe out my cavalry and archers. I advance two units in each section, weakening her goblin infantry on my left with my medium infantry. I manage to wipe out the goblin cavalry, leaving both of us without cavalry, and I score a hit against her infantry. Finally, I am able to kill two more goblin figures and force the cowards to retreat to the last space on her side of the board.wiping out my cav and archers.

She orders two units on her right, killing off two medium infantry figures. I am torn between using my two heavy infantry units with the Red Banners card, possibly breaking through her line in the center, or moving three units on the right. Eventually, I decide that the situation in the center is too desperate, and I make a last ditch attempt with my heavy infantry, killing one archer figure and forcing a retreat.

But it’s not enough. Grace plays BattleLore, and I know that I am screwed. She is able to move three units. Her medium infantry attacks mine and forces a retreat. Another of my medium infantry units is destroyed, bringing her flag count up to five. Her final attack wipes out another of my beleaguered medium infantry units in the center, and I Grace’s devious smile tells me that I’ve lost, 6 banners to 4.

This was a close game. I had the better cards at the beginning, to be sure, but I left too many units unsupported on my right flank, and I basically punched myself out by using the cards too aggressively. Still, I have to admit, my girlfriend is a pretty impressive general.

Thread: Re: Brief BattleLore Babblings by a BL Beginner

capt yid — 2008-05-06T02:16:32+00:00

Really Respectable and Rascally Replies!

Thread: Re: Hill Giant availability

banzai123 — 2008-05-06T01:32:55+00:00

Dark World has an ogre which accepts a flagpole (also in Dark World) to which you can attach the appropriate creature flag! I've now extracted said ogre from Dark World, which was only an OK game anyway, and added it to the Battlelore figures.
Didn't think that getting a proper Hill Giant was value for money.