Battleground: Fantasy Warfare is one of my favorite games, and each army release seems to drive that home even more. Up until now, I’ve mostly played simple scenarios, in which we set up armies and bash on each other. But I remembered my Warhammer 40K days, and how there were other, “thinking” scenarios that basically were the same army vs. army enactments – but with different goals and setups. Battleground: Fantasy Warfare Scenario Booklet (Your Move Games, 2007 – Robert Dougherty and Chad Ellis) does the same thing with the card game, giving us a twenty-three page booklet with scenarios and more!
My first impressions were highly positive. The book itself is very inexpensive, and not only includes scenarios, but even has two sheets of troops that can be cut out and played with to activate the final scenario. In fact, one of the sheets shows a sneak preview of the newest army – the Umenzi. They appear to be an army revolving around leaders; but I’ve also seen pictures of a two-card elephant figure, so I’m excitedly awaiting the release of all their new units.
Most of the new scenarios demand the usage of terrain. I didn’t think that the terrain pack warranted a full review, so I’ll talk about it here. The terrain pack (sold separately) is double the price of the scenario booklet but does contain a LOT of terrain. Sure, it’s not the same as having full-sized miniature trees and mountains, but fans of the game have passed that hurdle with the cards replacing the miniatures anyway! The terrain is two-sided and can be written on with erasable markers, just like the cards themselves. Roads, trees, rivers, fences, bridges, and more are included – and the artwork is fantastic, matching that on the cards themselves.
The book comes with eight scenarios:
- Ambush Near Thornwood: Humans vs. Orcs; an ambush on an army marching down a road.
- Hunting the Hunter: Elves vs. Orcs; a larger army attacking a smaller one uphill.
- Nahlakar’s Gambit: Humans vs. Undead; a smaller undead army that keeps being revived by a necromancer.
- Sacred Hills: Dwarves vs. Orcs; A fight over sacred hills between two equal armies.
- Battle for Blackthorn River: Elves vs. Undead; a battle for control over a bridge and ford at a river.
- March of the Goblins: Humans vs. Orcs (Goblins); An attack on a defended roadblock.
- Trial at Bolmir Valley: Dwarves vs. Undead; A race to get a unit to a specific location.
- First Contact: Humans vs. Umenzi; A short skirmish around a village.
From that, you can see that all the races are represented, although some more than others (Orcs and Humans are loved). Each scenario lists exactly what the players have in their armies, although a few of them allow custom built armies for players who don’t want to be told exactly what to do. Actually, I think you could even swap armies in some instances with a little common sense – maybe use dwarves in the ambush in the first scenario.
I’ll readily admit to the fact that I don’t mind simply throwing some terrain on the table, building armies (probably my favorite part of the game) and simply fighting until there is only one army left standing. Yet I certainly need some variety, and this book offers that. It gives me ideas for different battles, and the scenarios themselves are quite fascinating. The ones that I’ve played feel remarkably balanced, even if the sides seem tremendously lopsided at the beginning.
I do wish that some generic scenarios were included, giving some basic guidelines to use with any army; but I think most of the scenarios can be modified to give a player whatever they want. The back-stories are nice, and the full-color book has plenty of illustrations as well as full details of the setup for each battle.
Cutting out cards is a nice idea, but it’s really ideal for someone who has not played the game before – why not grab a copy of this book and use the basic armies printed therein! A cheap way to test out a new game, methinks. I myself didn’t do it, mostly because I have the actual army cards and can wait to see the Umenzi when their decks are printed (with that elephant!). It’s not necessary to have the actual terrain pack to play these scenarios, although it’s rather helpful – and I can see people buying the two in a pair.
An answer to those who are looking for some more defined goals and possible back stories for their campaigns -- this takes the Battleground system and fleshes it out a bit.
This is terrific for someone interested in trying out the game for the first time and fantastic for players already involved – the low price point for the booklet will likely attract many folk. Excuse me now, as I go to defend against these stubborn (but ultimately dead) Orcs.
Tom Vasel
“Real men play board games”
www.thedicetower.com
Posted Fri Jun 22, 2007 6:16 am
