Rowan Tree and Red Thread

alaimacerc was over last night for an return match of Battlelore, with me hoping to regain my honour after the hosing received previously. We played the scenario that involves a line of dwarves on hills, lots of human footsoldiers on both sides, and a gang of goblins off on the right. I played the side with the goblins and Alex the side with the dwarves.

Initially things looked poor for my side, with weak cards and an early banner lost to a dangerous dwarf unit that came down off its hill to stomp on my infantry. That initial luck didn't last, however, and soon I was ahead, having dislodged some of the dwarves and made a good strike with my goblin cavalry, while bearing up quite nicely against any retaliation due to Alex's dreadful dice luck.

The final score was 6 banners to me, 4 to Alex, and I have Fortuna to thank for it. She must have been really pissed off at Alex for some reason. To be fair, I did strenuously keep my forward units supported, and thus bold, and made quite a bit of headway by battling back against Alex's attacks.

Next I think we have to bite the bullet (or is that magic missile?) and play a game with some wizards and lore cards. Not sure if I'll get Alex to play again any time soon unless he patches things up with Lady Luck however.

It's been a while since I got to play Battlelore so I was pleased to get the set out last night for a game with alaimacerc. We set up the second scenario from the book, 'The First Chevauchee', which from context I can only guess means 'meat grinder'. It's a perfectly balanced set-up, with identical troops on each side and pretty similar terrain across the board.

After a fairly long set-up and rules explanation for alaimacerc, who was playing for the first time, we got stuck in. The first couple of turns for both of us involved mostly ineffective archer fire against the others' front rank. Despite two 'Darken the Sky', plus a 'Counter-attack' cards the archers really didn't make an impression on their opponents, and we then began manoeuvring to close the range and join melee. We moved both moved up on my left wing, and then in the centre, before decisively closing in the centre for a real bloodbath.

alaimacerc moved up a good chunk of his infantry and brought cavalry round on his right to savage my troops in the centre. I used a couple of 'Attack!' cards in the centre to inflict two good rounds of losses against his units. Then I sort of ran out of steam. I didn't really have the cards to follow through and left a couple of units easy pickings for the other side. alaimacerc has some poor luck and didn't finish me off quickly, leaving me the chance to inflict more damage on his men, but in the end the battle went to alaimacerc's Charles of Blois, final score: 5 flags to 3.

I enjoyed the game, and liked that we used all the 'Medieval' rules in the game, with retreats, pursuits and battle backs, even if my cavalry managed to blow an easy roll that would have allowed me a juicy pursuit attack. It's obviously a more balanced scenario than the Agincourt scenario, and one I'll definitely play again.

Last night sammywol and I tried the Agincourt scenario from Battlelore again, this time swapping the sides so that I played the English and she played the French.

I'm beginning to think that the English have the worst of it in this scenario. I had my ass handed to me this time, with a final result of 4/1 banners in favour of the French. To be fair I think I made it easier for the French by advancing some of my infantry rather than concentrating on laying down fire from my archers as early as possible. The stand out piece of bad luck was a round where I did get it together in the centre and manage 8 dice worth of attacks against one of the English infantry units and didn't score a single hit or retreat flag. Clearly the gods of war were with the French.

It was still fun, and quicker to play than our first try. I have sorted the pieces out by type and it makes the setting up much quicker.

Next, I think we should move onto the more fantasy elements, like the goblin and dwarven mercenaries, or the lore masters.

Last night sammywol and I tried out the Agincourt scenario from Battlelore. The scenario is the simplest in the adventure book, and involves only medieval troops on a fairly open battlefield. No magic, no goblin or dwarven mercenaries and no funny creatures to confuse things.

It took us some time to set up the game, as we got used to the pieces and the cards, and I explained the rules as best I understood them. sammywol took the English side, with plenty of archers but no mounted troops, while I took the French, with two heavy cavalry units, lots of footsoldiers but only one archer.

Somebody cried havoc, and we let slip the dogs of war.

The game played a bit slow initally but it was our first time and we picked up the pace as we progressed. At first I pushed forward with the heavy cavalry, trying to make contact with the English bowmen, but I had a bit of trouble closing on my left wing, where the hail of arrows drove me back. On the right I made more headway, but those dastardly English ducked into a wood, which slowed my progress against them.

Both sides were hampered a little by the lack of really good command cards to get the troops moving and the centre of the board stayed static for a long time, while the wings fought it out. In the end, both of the my heavy cavalry were destroyed, but not before I'd managed to deal some damage to the English. In the last round it came down to a push from my remaining cavalry and footsoliders making for the English heavy infantry, while my footsoldiers just held together under fire from the English archers. A close-run game, with a final 4 - 3 score in my favour.

I'd like to try it again with the sides swapped, so I can get a go with the English. I suspect that a risky but potentially rewarding tactic would be to move the archers together in the centre, while trying to mass fire on the French units one at time. It would rather depend on the right command cards, I suppose, but that's the gamble.

Good game, and I'm really looking forward to playing it some more to learn how the fantasy elements and cool bits all work together.

Hee, hee. Gleeful mutterings, etc. My copy of Battlelore, long lost in the bowels of the Irish postal system, appeared today just as I was going for lunch. Christmas has come early to this little corner of Cork.

A couple of days ago I was awash with glee because of this.

Now the package tracker for my copy of Battlelore reads

Held in warehouse, return to sender(Information of Delivery): Cork / IE, 2006-11-30 07:46

"Return to sender"? Woe, for have I rejoiced too soon and the Universe rewards me thus. All is sorrow.

I received the following email this morning:

Dear Myles Corcoran:

We are pleased to inform you that your Days of Wonder order #xxxxx was shipped on 11/24/2006.

Order Number: xxxxx

Quantity Description
-------------------------------------------------------
1 BattleLore - English
1 BattleLore Hill Giant Promo Figure - English
1 BattleLore Earth Elemental Promo Figure - English
-------------------------------------------------------

etc.

I don't often say this, but...

*SQUEE*

See this site for why. Now can I resist opening the box until Christmas?