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Friday, March 19, 2010

Official Site Info: Horrific Horde

Horrific Horde Expansion

A big surprise from Fantasy Flight Games this morning with the announcement of the BattleLore: Horrific Horde expansion set!

It’s an interesting release, for several reasons. Firstly, veteran players will probably not get too excited about the 42 figures in this set: we’ve seen the Goblin Swordsmen, Hobgoblin Cavalry and Hobgoblin Hyena Riders before (interestingly, there are no Drummers, Spear Bearers and Slingers from the Goblin Skirmishers set, so it isn’t really an entire Goblin army). The only new units are some Goblin Halberdiers, and some fantastic-looking Ogres.

However, what this new set does tell us is that FFG are listening to the fans and releasing large expansion sets of one racial type. I think I can safely predict that a big dwarf set will be the next release, consolidating some of the units from the Dwarven Battalion and Scottish Wars sets, plus some new Dwarf units. But after that, perhaps we’ll finally see new BattleLore races on the battlefield?

(As a personal aside, I would love to see the sculpt for green and blue banner goblins replaced. It never seemed to match the style and scale of the other goblin figures.)

Anyway, back to the Horrific Horde! As well as the figures, you get unit summary and specialist cards, weapon summary cards for the updated Goblin Slinger rules, 15 deployment cards to use with Call to Arms, and a rulebook with five new Adventures. I would guess that this all comes in a box the size of the Scottish Wars and Heroes expansions.

The Ogre is a great looking figure and certainly has a lot more ‘oomph’ than the Troll sculpt. It can move one hex and battle, and wields a spiked club for 4d, hitting on a bonus strike; it’s also subject to a ‘Frenzy’ rule. Also, a unit consists of three figures, which is something new, so it’s a red banner unit not a creature.

Is the start of a new series of much-awaited army packs? Elves, undead, orcs …?

The Horrific Horde is coming this (northern hermisphere) summer.

Comments

Brilliant news!

This is a great pack and I think is a fantastic way forward for Battlelore.

I hope this means that Battlelore will continue to have releases and be supported. Here’s hoping for many race packs to come!

Cheers,
Ben.

I am very surprised by the news, especially after the press release/interview Petersen put on his company’s website.

I’m a little more hopeful, but I do wonder if the flavor of the original BattleLore will survive. The art for this pack has an edge the the original game lacked. Having said that, this *is* good news.

This sounds like a great addition to the game! Can’t wait!

Cheers,
Giles.

What happened to the Raven? He didn’t report on these battle developments before FFG. :)

Geoff

Unfortunately the Raven’s network of spies doesn’t seem to be as helpful as it used to be …

I was afraid that the Raven’s network had fallen apart. A sad day indeed…

Geoff

Count me as a veteran player who is excited about this expansion. The race-specific Call to Arms deployment decks have been a long time coming. Reserving judgement on how well the seemingly new CtA construction works (15 cards instead of 21 - not sure of all the implications of this), but very excited none the less.

Ones tastes are ones tastes, but I never had a problem with the differences amongst the goblinoid sculpts. The smaller “goblin” green and blue units set up next to the larger “hobgoblin” reds, archers, and mounteds seemed okay to me.

I am hoping that the units from Skirmishers and Marauders are incorporated into the deployment decks, but that seems a bit of a raw deal to players who haven’t yet gotten ahold of those expansions.

With no fan fare from FFG… this went on sale today.

I guess they didn’t want to steal any thunder from the release of Battles of Westeros …

There you go - announced today.

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