Opening the box: Dragons
And now, the Dragons …
Once a large image has opened, move your cursor to the upper left and right edges to navigate between them, or press N (Next) and P (Previous).
And now, the Dragons …
Once a large image has opened, move your cursor to the upper left and right edges to navigate between them, or press N (Next) and P (Previous).
I acquired the Creatures and Dragons expansions today … so why not look over my shoulder as I Open The Box …
Once a large image has opened, move your cursor to the upper left and right edges to navigate between them, or press N (Next) and P (Previous).
Finally, after a long, long wait—all during which I frustratingly had pre-production figures sitting in my drawer and no rules to go with them—the Heroes expansion for BattleLore has arrived! Come with me now as we open the box together …
Once a large image has opened, move your cursor to the upper left and right edges to navigate between them, or press N (Next) and P (Previous).
Sorry some of those figure pics are a little fuzzy, I’ll try to replace them with better ones soon.
World of Battlelore is an exciting new German-language BattleLore site that has recently been launched.
Now’s a good time for German speakers to visit, because they’ve just launched a a new competition: The Battlelore Scenario Contest. Anyone can create a scenario, and Marcus, Sebastian and Alex from worldofbattlelore.de will test the scenarios extensively and award a prize to the best scenario.
What’s the prize I hear you ask? A weekend in June 2009 at the Con of the Heidelberger publishing company (German distributor of FFG and of Battlelore), at the castle Stahleck on the river Rhine. Only invited guests will be there! Room and board will be payed by the Heidelberger publishing company. And the winner will also get a games voucher. A fantastic prize!
Check out World of Battlelore for all the information, terms and conditions. Entry deadline for the scenarios is the 30th November 2008. The winner will be announced on the 1st April 2009.
(PS: battleloremaster.com is not affiliated in any way with worldofbattlelore.de)
It was with excitement, but a tinge of sadness, that I received the last Days of Wonder BattleLore release this morning: For Troll and Country - Also Featuring ‘Troll Bridge’. It will be interesting to see if Fantasy Flight continues this ‘Epic Adventure Series’.
You’ve seen the Troll figure before on this site. The map itself is a double-sided, matt-finished 87 x 120cm (34 x 47 inches), with scenario instructions and the Troll reference information in three languages (English, German and French).
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Boardgamenews.com brings us a preview of the upcoming Scottish Wars Expansion Pack.
The set will contain 42 sculpted new figures including: 6 Iron Dwarves Cattle Riders, 8 Iron Dwarves Clan Chiefs, 12 Mounted Knights, and 16 Iron Dwarves Spear Bearers; 24 new Banners (12 for each camp); a Rules Booklet with 5 new adventures (Stirling Bridge, Falkirk, Bannockburn, Dupplin Moor and Neville’s Cross); 7 Specialist cards; 3 Unit Summary cards and 2 Weapon Summary cards.
And finally, the last of the first wave of Specialist packs: Hundred Years’ War: Crossbows & Polearms.
Once a large image has opened, move your cursor to the upper left and right edges to navigate between them, or press N (Next) and P (Previous).
‘Opening the box’ is back, with a look at the new Goblin Marauders Specialist pack!
Once a large image has opened, move your cursor to the upper left and right edges to navigate between them, or press N (Next) and P (Previous).
Eric Hautemont, the CEO of Days of Wonder, is interviewed by Scott Alden of Boardgamegeek. Nothing in the way of BattleLore but an interesting discussion nonetheless, covering the new Memoir ‘44 expansion (Air Pack), the Memoir ‘44 PC game and the Swiss Map for Ticket to Ride.
Some very positive Tom Vasel reviews of the latest BattleLore stuff: Epic BattleLore, Dwarven Battalion and Goblin Skirmishers.
In the last of our ‘opening the box’ posts, let’s examine the upcoming Goblin Skirmishers figure set! I think the Goblin band leader now has my vote for favourite BattleLore miniature …
Once a large image has opened, move your cursor to the upper left and right edges to navigate between them, or press N (Next) and P (Previous).
In the second of our ‘opening the box’ posts, let’s have a look at the upcoming Dwarven Battalion figure set!
Once a large image has opened, move your cursor to the upper left and right edges to navigate between them, or press N (Next) and P (Previous).
In the first of three new ‘opening the box’ posts, let’s have a look at the new Epic BattleLore. After we’ve had a good look at the contents of this and a couple of figure expansion packs you may have heard mentioned, reviews will follow.
Once a large image has opened, move your cursor to the upper left and right edges to navigate between them, or press N (Next) and P (Previous).
A glowing Tom Vasel review of the new Battlelore: Call to Arms on BoardGameGeek.
My copy of Call to Arms arrived today day, so let’s have a good look at the contents:
As you can see, the plastic tray in the packaging has been intelligently designed, as always, with spaces to store the terrain and counters. More information soon as I get to know the system!
Mark Kaufmann, Vice President of Marketing for Days of Wonder, discusses the company and BattleLore in a new interview with Matt and Todd from Short Attention Gamer. Listen to the interview here. Note his comments on ‘collectibility’ in the games industry which I personally totally agree with!
Also, in the first week of February a new game from DoW (non-BattleLore) will be announced.
The Boardgames With Scott video review is online.
It gives an excellent long, detailed overview of how to play in Scott’s usual relaxed and friendly style. “I didn’t expect to like this game …[but] I really like it. A+. Hurrah Days of Wonder! … I’m really impressed. I predict big things for this game system.”
My (first) copy of BattleLore arrived the other day, so let’s have a good long look at the packed contents of a BattleLore box (and the two promotional miniatures):
First impressions? The quality is stunning. I haven’t seen any photographs that have done justice to the detail in the miniatures—they really have to be seen in person to be fully appreciated. As expected, a few of the miniatures in the second layer were a bit bent, but ten minutes with the hot and cold water technique fixed that problem easily. While the plastic trays are great, it’s virtually impossible to remember where all the banner bearers belong in the trays, so instead I’ve moved the bulk of the minis into a plastic compartmentalised box and kept the second tray for banner bearers. As I’ll be getting a second set I plan to use one box for minis and one for everything else.
The game truly is ready to play: no punching out counters and tiles, no fiddly work applying stickers. The rulebook is 80 pages of full colour, packed with examples and beautiful artwork, perfect-bound with a matt celloglazed cover.
The artwork throughout is top-notch. I especially like the fine detail of the grass cover on the Battle Board (much nicer than the somewhat painterly look of the Memoir ‘44 boards, in my opinion). When flipped over, of course, the board becomes one half of an Epic sized board, and the possibilities for huge battles are certainly very exciting.
Now, I’m faced with the daunting task of painting this huge selection of finely-detailed miniatures. Quite a job, but I think the game will be justify the effort and painted miniatures really do enhance the experience.
Time for the battles to begin ..!
The RPGnet review of BattleLore by Shannon Appelcline is another huge endorsement of the game: … really shows off the strengths of [Richard Borg’s] Commands & Colors gaming systems, now in a more complex, but also much better polished form. This new game allows for tons of strategy and more importantly fun, all upon the fantasy battlefield. Rating: 5/5 for both style and substance.
Tom Vasel’s review of BattleLore is in: Considering the clamor of those I played it with, the fun is high. Considering how I am typing this out, wishing I was playing the game instead—it must be good! All I can say is that BattleLore is the best in the series yet! Rating: 10/10
Kulkmann’s Gamebox gives us a comprehensive review of BattleLore: “It has been a long time since I last had the pleasure to playtest a new game (or better: gaming system) of such richness and outstanding design as Battlelore … the game plays very differently from all its predecessors … challenging for novices and seasoned players alike!”
The Dice Tower Episode #74 includes a glowing review of BattleLore by Tom Vassel and Sam Healey along with a fun session report, and a more general overview of the Command & Colors system.
A first review is in: Frank Branham of Boardgamenews.com takes us through his initial experiences with BattleLore in this review.
I must admit that comparing the quantity of figures with War of the Ring and the quality of 20mm plastic BattleLore miniatures with 30mm metal Rackham miniatures seems somewhat fallacious to me, but the review is nicely detailed and, overall, very positive.