Thursday, October 12, 2006
Official Word: The War Council
The latest post on the official DoW blog is a much more indepth look at the War Council. We’re starting to see the level of complexity and the number of options that BattleLore players will enjoy.
At the start of a Lore adventure players assemble their personal War Council. It’s now obvious that one side of the War Council sheet shows the tent with a single Wizard; but the other side shows all of your potential Lore Masters gathered together. The players agree on the total number of Lore Master levels, and then assign Lore Master level tokens (shown at left) to the Lore Masters they wish to be in their Council.
This total number of levels is specified in the adventures, but the recommended total is six levels. The sample shown (possibly taken from an adventure page) puts you in the role of Jean de Brosse, Marshall of France and Seigneur of Sainte-Sévère. (You can learn more about de Brosse, a French general of the Hundred Years’ War, here) In this case he has in his Council a Commander of Level 2 (which gives the player five Command cards); a Rogue of Level 1; and a Cleric of Level 3.
In addition, the level of your highest level Lore Master character (Cleric, Wizard, Rogue or Warrior) determines the number of Lore tokens you have in reserve at the start of the game; how many Lore cards you can keep from your intial draw of four; and how many Lore cards you can keep in hand and play from at any one time.
Looking at the War Council sheet, we can see that in the case above, since the highest level Lore Master is a Level 3 Cleric, Jean de Brosse would be able to keep three of his initial draw of four Lore cards; will start with three Lore tokens in reserve; and may keep a maximum of four Lore cards in his hand at any one time.
Players also build different mixes of the common Lore card deck depending on whether there is a Lore Master of that class present on both sides (14 cards of that class), on a single side (8 cards of that class), or on neither side (5 cards of that class).
Should a player wish to use a Lore card for which he has no corresponding Lore Master, he must pay a heavy price: it must be played out-of-character, which means that it will cost 3 more Lore tokens to bring into play, and it can only be played at a strength of Level 1.
The Lore Drain card on the right, for example, would cost Jean de Brosse five Lore to drain three Lore (1 x 1 +2) from his opponent, since he has no Wizard in his Council.
In true Days of Wonder style, all this information is neatly summarised on the War Council sheet.
If Landmark rules are in effect and you are the only player with a Level 3 Lore Master of a particular class in your Council, you will enjoy the benefit of a unique ‘family property’.
Shown at left is the Healing Pool, the privilege of a Level 3 Cleric, such as de Brosse has in his Council.
And finally, you can also use Lore level tokens to bring a Creature to your side; the wielders of fearsome powers to be revealed soon (the Hillgiant and Earth Elemental?). No doubt we will also soon learn the meaning of the mysterious Guest, who has a space at the bottom right of the War Council sheet.