Tom Vasel
United States
Homestead
Unspecified
Top 100 Games of all Time
Dice Tower Convention, July 2012!!!!
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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
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Andreas
Germany
München
Bayern
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Do I have to cut out the terrain too?
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Tom Vasel
United States
Homestead
Unspecified
Top 100 Games of all Time
Dice Tower Convention, July 2012!!!!
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Re: [Review] Battleground: Fantasy Warfare Scenario Book,Ter
Yes, I'm sorry I missed writing that in!
Normally I'm annoyed at having to cut anything out for a game, but the terrain pack is easy, and if you don't cut straight, it's no big deal, there is a buffer of grass around all the objects. Everything can be cut out in less than five minutes.
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I will not rest until Biblios is in the Top 100.
United States
Budd Lake
New Jersey
Well I been watchin' while you been coughin, I've been drinking life while you've been nauseous, and so I drink to health while you kill yourself and I got just one thing that I can offer... Go on and save yourself and take it out on me
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Tom,
I too admit that I'm fighting to stay away from miniature games. I picked up Warlord, but only my girlfriend and I play that. The siren's call of 40K or Fantasy Battles is loud in my ears.
Do you feel that Battleground is truly the answer? Do you think it would make a good side game for someone who is already into miniatures? There are a lot of miniature gamers at my FLGS and it would be cool if I could play with them without sacrificing my soul to the Games Workshop gods.
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Jack Wingard
La Mirada
California
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Re: [Review] Battleground: Fantasy Warfare Scenario Book,Ter
Hey guys,
Thanks for the review, Tom, and for listing the armies in each scenario.
One question: are there any scenarios in the book that do not require both the starter deck and the reinforcement deck for their respective armies?
Thanks again,
Jack
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Tom Vasel
United States
Homestead
Unspecified
Top 100 Games of all Time
Dice Tower Convention, July 2012!!!!
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Re: [Review] Battleground: Fantasy Warfare Scenario Book,Ter
Steve - yes this does scratch my miniatures itch.
As for the armies in the book, I'm not sure. I've mixed my starter decks and reinforcement decks together, so I don't recall what was in each.
But if my memory serves me right, you should be okay with starters. If there's a unit you don't have, you can simply replace it with another one of equal value, I think.
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Jack Wingard
La Mirada
California
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Re: [Review] Battleground: Fantasy Warfare Scenario Book,Ter
Thanks Tom.
Interestingly, I just did some research on the Harbinger Magazine scenarios, and it looks like this book only includes two exclusive scenarios unavailable for download (Ambush Near Thornwood is hosted on the book info page at yourmovegames.com).
The scenarios exclusive to the book are:
Nahlakar's Gambit: Men of Hawkshold & Undead
Sacred Hills: Dwarves of Runeguard & Orcs
Of course, the book provides value more than just the content - having a professionaly printed book that includes all the official scenarios, at such a reasonable price, would be worth the purchase.
Back on topic, all the scenarios in Harbinger require both the starter and reinforcement deck for each player (except for the Lizardmen army for Reptiles in Ravenwood). The orc army for Ambush Near Thornwood only requires a starter deck.
Perhaps the two exclusive scenarios are different, but I'd guess that these scenarios were conceived for players that need some spice in their game after mixing and matching armies from a full collection, and thus have no qualms about using the reinforcement deck.
Jack
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Jason Henke
United States
Maple Grove
Minnesota
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Re: [Review] Battleground: Fantasy Warfare Scenario Book,Ter
Good Review Tom! I like it and I'm with you, the book rocks and the price is fantastic.
This is just a cool system.
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Top 100 Games of all Time
