Official Word: Of Heroes and some Missteps…
Days of Wonder’s News Centre Blog features a long post from Eric Hautemont, DOW’s CEO. It’s an interesting insight into the challenges faced by Days of Wonder to guide BattleLore through its first year, and a small peek at what’s coming in the future.
Some fans seemed to be getting a bit antsy about initial releases, the lack of communication lately, the Heroes pack not arriving by the expected late ‘07 date, and the fact that there is as yet no campaign background for the game.
Eric’s post clears up some of the misconceptions, and also shows us that they are still very much taking on, and dealing with, retailer and customer feedback with the goal of making BattleLore the best game system it can be.
Let’s all sit back a little and let Days of Wonder do what they do best—make great games. Certainly customer feedback is essential, but overly critical and non-constructive comments on forums such as BoardgameGeek don’t do anyone any good. I think most fans would prefer that products took a little longer to release and were done right, rather than be rushed out with errors; and certainly very few of us fully understand all the issues involved with creating, producing and distributing modern boardgames.
And if mistakes do happen, DOW has always shown itself willing to correct them. The great thing is, DOW is the kind of company that isn’t afraid to be totally honest with its customers about the challenges that crop up up when making their games.
Right, enough of that, let’s get back to playing BattleLore!
We get a look at two brand new figures with the post—a female Sorceress and a mounted Thief. Part of the Heroes set?
A couple of other newsworthy items: more insight into the production process and a mention of possible army packs in the future in this post by Eric. And ColtsFan76 has hunted down some official responses to some questions that have been bothering BattleLore players.
Official Word: Dwarves on the war path … seen from the rear
OK, maybe they could have come up with a better title to this post! The official blog shows the back of the box for the upcoming Scottish Wars: A Dwarven Perspective expansion, revealing the figures to be 6 Cattle Riders, 8 Clan Chiefs, 12 Human Mounted Knights and 16—count ‘em, 16—Spear Bearers.
If you click the image to see a larger one, you may recognise the writing on the back—yes, it’s the first published dispatch from The Raven!
Official Word: Dwarves on the war path
The official blog gives us the first look at the upcoming Scottish Wars: A Dwarven Perspective expansion.
Official Word: Banners in Sight!
More news on the official blog about the Specialist pack errors.
You can contact DOW customer service to receive your replacement blue long sword banners for your Goblin Hyena Riders (these are the same banners as used in the base game, so it’s not essential to get them).
As for the Specialist card backs, the 10 cards given in the Call to Arms expansion will be reprinted, so from now on Specialist cards and Deployment cards will share the same backs. According to Eric of DOW, this was the original intent, but by ‘getting fancy’ and giving the Specialist cards different backs, they caused a bit of confusion that came back to bite them! ETA for these cards is mid-November due to printer delays.
Finally, with 100 Years’ War and Goblin Marauders packs now shipping, the adventures that came with them are online, including a new web adventure: Abandoned Tower.
Official Word: Two new adventures and embarrassing mistakes
The DOW crew must have had an unpleasant welcome on returning from holidays, having to kick off work with a couple of apologies on the official blog.
The Goblin Skirmishers and Dwarven Battalion packs (and future sets to be released in August) have the wrong graphics on the backs of the Specialist cards—they should be as seen on the right, not on the left (the card back for Deployment cards). It’s not a gameplay problem, just a visual one.
Secondly, two of the banners in the Goblin Marauders pack are blue mounted bow ones instead of blue long sword (for the hyena riders).
Neither of these problems are serious, and DOW apologise and are looking into ways of fixing these issues. Of course a minor hullaballoo has already started on the DOW forums, with varying reactions from understanding to demands for immediate replacements.
As a graphic designer, I can sympathise—no matter how many times you check these things, errors can creep through. And I’m sure we can continue to rely on DOW’s peerless customer support, as long as we keep things in perspective and understand that minor graphic errors are not the end of the world and won’t affect our gaming enjoyment.
On a much brighter note, two new adventures are online for use with the specialist packs: Goblin Gold and Dwarven Renegades.
Official Word: Summer is Coming…
…And the news over at the official blog is that of upcoming Specialist packs and trade shows.
Coming up are Origins 2007 (Columbus, OH - July 4 thru 8), where demo versions of the Dwarven Battalion and Goblin Skirmishers Specialist sets will be shown (sets should be shipping by Mid-July); the World Boardgame Championship (Lancaster, PA - July 31 thru August 5) where demo versions of the Goblin Marauders and the Hundred Years’ War - Crossbows & Polearms sets will be previewed; and Gencon 2007 (Indianapolis, IN - August 16 thru 19), where hopefully those two packs will become available.
The four battles included in the Hundred Years’ War - Crossbows & Polearms set will be Crécy, Cocherel, Patay and Poitiers. In addition, Agincourt is revisited in Epic mode! All great news for historical BattleLore fans.
Finally, the DoW team are off on summer vacations and updates to the official blog will slow down. Keep coming back here to BattleLore Master however, where we have regular updates and new goodies!
Official Word: Revised Epic BattleLore Online!
The complete Epic rules are now available for download here. This revised PDF includes rules for using Call to Arms with Epic, plus the 4-player Reluctant Allies variant.
In addition, you’ll find two new four-player Reluctant Allies adventures, Logroño and the Road to Najera, in the official adventures section of the BattleLore site.
While you’re there, check out the other new Epic adventures, Raid on Al-Jazirah Al-Khadra, The Caliphate’s Enforcer, Sultan of Swing, Moorish Giant and The Sultan’s Run.
Official Word: Goblins invent the printing press!
The latest post on the official blog site is an announcement for the new PDF generation functionality now built into the Adventures section of the official site.
The Export PDF button generates impressive-looking Adventure layouts very similar to those in the original Adventure booklet. The system is in BETA at the moment but no doubt fine-tuning by those busy goblins will bring it to perfection in no time!
Official Word: The Long View
In response to growing speculation (some of it here on the forums) about where BattleLore is heading, Eric Hautemont posted a great overview on the official site of the game at its six month anniversary and a look at the future.
Check out the post for the full details, but briefly, here are some of the main points:
- - the rest of the year DoW will concentrate on core supplements for BattleLore, leaving further game world background development until more units and core systems have been released
- - new units to come are the Goblin Skirmisher and Dwarven Battalion sets, followed by a 100 Years War set, another Goblins Specialist set and, a bit further down the road, a larger yet-to-be-announced set
- - hopefully, at the end of the year, we’ll see the greatly-desired Heroes of BattleLore supplement (“the last key building block to the BattleLore game system”); letting you gain experience in battle and use magical items
All, in all, the future looks very bright for BattleLore—that is, if we can all be patient enough to let Eric and his team work without constant interruption!
Official Word: The Coming Months
After a month’s silence while the staff of Days of Wonder were flat out creating new stuff for us to enjoy, there’s some exciting news over at the official blog.
Call to Arms is on its way and should reach stores by early May. Follow that link to download a PDF of the rules now. MSRP will be $20 in the US, €15 in Europe.
Next in line for release is the expanded deluxe, printed-version of Epic BattleLore. Its due in stores around the end of May. MSRP will be $15 in the US, and €15 in Europe.
Pre-orders for both can be made on the DoW web store next week.
Late June/early July, in time for an Origins release, sees the first two Specialist packs: a Dwarven Battalion and a Goblin Skirmishers set. These packs introduce new units to the game, along with their Specialist and Weapon summary cards. Each of these packs will retail for $24 in the US and €20 in Europe.
Update: The rules for Call to Arms used with Epic BattleLore will be in the deluxe printed version of Epic. Also, those who have bought two BattleLore sets needn’t worry about buying the printed Epic: according to Eric, DoW will ‘take good care of them’. More news soon.
Official Word: Epic BattleLore Online!
It’s here! Flip over those gameboards and enjoy the next step in the BattleLore experience: Epic BattleLore.
You must be a registered user of BattleLore to download the rules. When the paper version comes out in later Q2 2007 it will consist of a second board map, additional Lore tokens, new Epic Adventures, and the new Reluctant Allies multi-player rules along with new Alliance tokens.
And to accompany the Epic release there are five new adventures, Epic 1-5, in DoW’s official Adventures section!
Update: Richard Borg has corrected the Epic 5 Adventure as follows: the Green Pennant unit on the 5th row next to the archer unit on the right wing should be a Blue Banner Regular Infantry unit. Note this has now been corrected online.
Call To Arms Desktop Images
The official BattleLore site has just released five 1600x1200 Call to Arms Desktop Images.
Due to the high resolution of these images we can get a glimpse of some of the possible upcoming unit types for BattleLore: goblins mounted on ostriches? Goblins armed with slingshots? Human pikemen? Heavy cavalry with lance? Goblin drummers? Dwarven axemen? And of course … the dwarven bagpipers ..?
Keep an eye out for new BattleLore desktops here on BattleLoreMaster.com—coming soon!
Official Word: Spring ‘07 Expansions Roadmap
Some exciting announcements in the latest official DoW blog post—things are really starting to heat up for BattleLore now!
First, in March, registered users will have free online access to the Epic Expansion. Finally we will have rules for using the flipsides of two BattleLore boards to create a huge battlefield with up to 3 players a side. There’s also a tantalising mention of a ‘unique new twist involving an ingenious use for a couple of your cardholders’ and DoW expect Epic BattleLore to become the dominant format and preferred form of play for in-store events and game conventions.
This online supplement (a printed version including a second game board and some extra Lore tokens will be released in the same month) will come with five new Epic adventures, all of which can be played with a single army set.
But wait, it gets even better! DoW have skipped the blister releases and in April are going straight to their first major boxed supplement: Call to Arms. Eric told me about this exciting army deployment system recently and it is really something. As has been mentioned in the past, BattleLore will not use point-based army building, but instead an unique card-driven system featuring Deployment decks, Specialist cards and Feudal Levy tokens. Yes, customising and deploying your armies will almost be a game in itself closely mimicking medieval deployments of yore, not a dry mathematical exercise. Call to Arms will retail for about US$20.
Finally , in May, the first figure sets or Specialist Packs will start shipping. Rather than blister packs, these sets will introduce a couple of new units around a common theme: probably beginning with a Goblin Skirmisher set, a Dwarven Battalion (complete with Bagpipers) and an Hundred Years War Battalion. Each will retail for about US$20. These will also be released as single-unit blister packs exclusively off the DoW website.
The Game: Expansions section of this site has been updated with the information above. BattleLore is certainly beginnning to develop a completely unique character of its own with these new expansions.
Official Word: The Calm Before the Storm
With that exciting and mysterious title the official blog has been updated—the latest post briefly talks about fan sites, upcoming web support, and teases us with a mention of new expansions to come. But the most interesting announcement from DoW is the new online Painting Guide.
The Guide is a detailed step-by-step look at painting your BattleLore miniatures to tabletop standard by a group called Team Toulouse (website in French), along with a small gallery of the figures in action. (I’m personally not a fan of black undercoating as I think it forces you to layer the paint on too thick, but it’s purely a matter of preference, and the results shown are excellent.) There is also some very helpful advice here on choosing colour schemes for your miniatures.
For other tips and tricks on miniature painting, check out the appropriate section of the BattleLoreMaster forums.
It’s also great to see BattleLoreMaster.com get a mention (and screenshot) on the official forum (as does Torgan.net). DoW are working on a new tool that sounds like the MySpace for DoW game players—a place to “share your best ideas, game resources, pictures and stories with fellow players” and provide each fan with a BattleLore space of their own. This new web tool will debut for Memoir ‘44, then carry over to the BattleLore and Ticket to Ride communities. DoW has always led the way when it comes to the web side of their business, and this looks to be a big new feature of that.
The various online Compendiums are still a work in progress, but apparently several of the questions that have come up have now been answered ( a marathon three day session with game designer Richard Borg seems to have been very productive). DoW are still working on PDF output and various other refinements.
And, some would say most excitingly, we learn that the new expansions will be the subject of next week’s entry. Having been lucky enough to get a sneak preview of some of these, I can assure you no BattleLore player will be disappointed!
Official Word: Creature Compendium Online
The official DoW blog has just announced that the Creature Compendium is online!
The Compendium follows the format of the Lore Card Compendium and acts as a repository of FAQs, examples and house rules for creatures in BattleLore.
At the moment the Compendium features a ‘How To Use It’ entry, a ‘Design Notes’ entry with some thoughts about the role of Creatures in BattleLore, a ‘Generic Creature’ entry that answers questions about the use of creatures in general; and specific entries for the Giant Spider and the two promotional miniatures, Hill Giant and Earth Elemental.
Official Word: New Dice, New Adventures
It’s been a while since we saw anything on the official blog, but the latest post packs a double punch.
Firstly, replacement dice are now available as promised for those of you who have noticed wear on your set. You can get them here. These are the same dice as those in the box but with more permanent screen printing. DoW may produce more deluxe-quality dice in the future (possibly even metal dice).
They only ask that you request replacement dice only if you really need them, as DoW is replacing and shipping these at their own expense.
Secondly, and more enjoyably, there are seven new official adventures online!
The first four (#11a-14a) are Lore adventures where the Free Companies of Seguin of Badefol fight the troops of Sir Arnold of Cervolles. A month later, Seguin’s forces confront the army of Jacques of Bourbon at the Lore version of the Battle of Brignais (#15a), complete with a Hill Giant!
The remaining two are Medieval adventures: the Historical Battle of Brignais (somewhat confusingly, also #15a), and the Battle of Lewes (#16) opposing Simon V of Montfort to King Henry III of England, fought 100 years earlier.
The next post will feature the long-awaited Creature Compendium.
Official Word: The Adventure Editor is online!
The latest official DoW blog post tells us that the official Days of Wonder Adventure Editor is online (see the links in the bottom right-hand corner of the page)—and already the unofficial adventures are starting to appear.
- The Editor features:
- true multilingual support, with Author’s control on translatability
- support for double-board (ie Epic) battle maps
- a WYSIWYG war council interface
- numerous filters for searching through the adventures
- and all the features already present in the editor’s prior incarnation, developed for Memoir ‘44 (WYSIWYG battle map layout, after-action reports…)
We don’t know yet what this means for our own Adventures section, but we’ll see how things work out in the coming weeks. In the meantime, the tools are there, so set off on some new adventures!
Official Word: Apologies
The latest official DoW blog post covers a few production issues that have comes up with the first run of BattleLore, and DoW’s plans to solve the problems. It’s certainly impressive how transparent DoW is being to their customers and how quickly these issues are being resolved.
In relation to the dice issue, new more durable dice are already being manufactured, and will be shipped to users who register on the DoW website. A special page will be set up as soon as the dice become available.
The problem with bent figures is easily fixed, but DoW are looking into other packaging alternatives in the future.
The Online Adventure Editor is not up yet, but staff are working hard to get it online as soon as possible.
All in all, it’s obvious that DoW is working hard to resolving all issues and fix any components that haven’t met their own extremely high standards. DoW already have a reputation for exceptional customer service; this post certainly confirms it.
Official Word: Online Tools (Part 1)
The latest official DoW blog post introduces the Lore Cards Compendium, a comprehensive listing of all the Lore cards—Cleric, Wizard, Rogue and Warrior—to come with the core game.
The plan is for the Compendium to grow into a comprehensive, searchable directory of Lore cards, including FAQs specific to each card, innovative ways to play them, and even end-user designed house rules. While DoW asks that discussions are kept to the official DoW forums (and don’t forget our own BattleLoreMaster forums), a Comments feature allows users to add their own brief gameplay observations about the cards.
