Well after Tod taught me how to play on Vassal, I decided to go out and buy my own copy of the game. As its near christmas I checked out ebay and found somebody selling thier copy with a couple of add ons for a really low price and took a punt. Well it seems as if everything is there that should be. So now I have the base game, Call to Arms and Epic (plus the Earth Elemental and Hill Giant). Next I convinced my regular gaming group to try 4 player Epic.. (great fun), went so well we played twice last night and they all enjoyed it a lot, and are happy to play it again (along with all the other stuff we play ofc.) So, this brings me to my question.

Is there an order that I should buy thing in. Which of the remaining expansions would offer the most new stuff to the game and so be worth purchasing first.

And.. is there someone better than Tod to blame for me wanting to buy expansions when my wife asks where they came from

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

Well, the good news is that you have the two hardest things to get: the EE and HG.

So you have Epic and Call to Arms which fleshes out what I call the "foundational" expansions that alter the base game itself. What is left is all 5 of the "army" packs that add new figures, additional specialist cards, and new scenarios. Then there is the Troll map as well.

What order you want to add expansions is really up to you and your tastes. However, I would consider getting most of them in pairs. Just so you know, these expanions are designed so that you can play (officially) one of two ways. 1) Use the pre-set scenarios that showcase all the new units or 2) Use them in conjunction with Call to Arms to "draft" 2 or 3 special units (total from all expansions) per side. So besides the set scenarios, it will be rare for you to use all of your units in any given expansion at any given time. That's good in that no single expansion unbalances the game but bad because you may feel like a lot of your investment is sitting on the sidelines. But if you are into designing your own scenarios, getting all of the expansion will allow you to create a complete Goblin or Dwarven Army that doesn't depend on humans units to round out their ranks. Here's my brief rundown on them.

Goblin Skimishers / Dwarven Battalion - When I come late to the paetty of a game that has a bunch of expansions, I personally like to get them in order. These were the first 2 published of what you still need. These two pair nicely as one give more Goblins while another gives more Dwarves. I also consider these the "musical" expansions as the Goblin introduce embedded drummers into your unit and also gives you the option to put together a band. The Dwarves comes with a bagpipe unit.

Goblin Maruaders / Scottish Wars - GM was the next in line or maybe came out right after 100Y/W but SW was the last full expansion made by DOW. Regardless, these two pair as well. I call this the "mounted" pair - though on second thought, that phrase doesn't sound so nice! Anyway, GM gives you another Band but focuses on Hyena and Ostrich riders. It's a fast moving set that highlights the advantage the goblins have. SW introduces a powerful Clan Chief unit and gives us bull-riding dwarves as well. In addition, there are a few human mounted knight units included as well. There has been some coomplaint about the Dwarven cattle riders because they are sub-par when compared to other mounted units. But 1) they are meant to balance the dwarves if you go with an all dwarve army adn 2) it sounds like DOW forgot to include their bull rush special ability that Richard wanted to include.

100 Years War / Scottish Wars - I am includuing SW again but do not recommend getting a 2nd copy. This is the "medieval" package. 100Y/W is all humans but gives twice as many figures as the other 4 packs. It can be used with the Lore portion but is designed for those that want medieval only. I included SW again because it does have a few human units and all the scenarios included are supposed to be historical. However, when DOW said "medieval" only, they meant "medieval only within the context of lore." The dwarves represent the Scottish nation. So you can play medieval only and just consider them as midget Scotsmen. Or if it really bothers you, switch them out with left over human units and keep their banners as a means of identifying them.

Now, you can buy each expansion separately. they really don't depende on each other (through SW may assume you have DB and borrow some spearbearers).

Troll Pack - DOW got a lot of heat for this one. Mostly because it was too high-priced and pulled away from their core design of having modular boards. But for its intended purpose, setting up an epic board quickly and demoing the game - it is great. This give you 2 more static Epic scenarios plus a Troll figure to boot. Nothing else is needed to play it and it does make a nice, though expensive, addition to your game.

Hope that helps!

Wow, huge reply.

Many thanks for that, it does help give me a timeline for releases and how they relate to each other. Does the fact that I am likely to play either solo or epic and not really any 2 player alter anything? (I am assuming not unless you say otherwise)

I get the feeling that there may be more rules introduced in the last 2 you mentioned, 100YW and SW, would that be fair to say ?

Again thanks for the time you took on a long reply, its appreciated.

Andy

All of the above basically leave the core rules alone. They mostly tweak how units behave to come up with the unique units. Probably the most fundamental change is how embedded units are handled but basically that just boils down to a unit tweak as well. The embedded units are the Goblin Drummers in GM and the Hornblowers (which I forgot to mention earlier) in the 100Y/W. Dwarven bagpipers are not an embedded unit.

I guess the one big change that 100Y/W and SW include is the concept of a Medieval Lore deck. Basically, it took the most "historical" of the Lore cards and creates a specific Lore deck. I am too lazy to look up the exact cards right now, but it consists of most of the Warrior Lore cards and a couple from 2 other decks. You still don't play with Lore Councils but it does give the game a unique twist will still attempting to stay true to the historyical only.

If you are only going to play Epic, none of the expansions come with epic layouts. So unless you plan on playing Epic with Call to Arms (to draft specialists) then these aren't going to give you much more than what you have.

I don't play solo and I am not sure how you plan to play either. I assume you are just going to take 2-player games and play each side? If that is the case, it wouldn't alter any of my comments from the first post.

I would encourage you to try to find another player if possible. It's an easy game to teach and play. Plus, there are the vassal opponents, which you have discovered already!

Yes, basically solo will mean I am playing both sides, on vassal when I am too lazy to set the board up and on my table when I more inclined to want to see the thing unfold. I guess I could make like a true BGG member and play against my cats .

I like your first thought, get the expansions in order.. As always, thanks for the advice.

Andy

Vallsle? What is Vassle?

HonorforONEFilms said:

Vassal is an online platform that allows you to play some games either live or by email. You download the engine here: vassalengine.org. Then you select tha games that you would like to play and download their modules.

The BattleLore module hasn't been updated in a while. We are working to get the revised one up soon. I hope it is up by the end of the year at the latest..

Vassal is an online gaming program/engine that allows people to play board games online. It was desgined for wargames but my understanding is that it can be used for just about any game as long as someone is prepared to write a module to allow it. The quantity of playable games is huge already and they appear to be adding more all the time.

I can only speak from limited experience having only played 3 or 4 games against other people, but its where I learned to play Battlelore. Toddrew was kind enough to show me the ropes on there and it works very well. I cannot thanks Tod enough for that and Coltsfan76 for being one of the ones to suggest him as a teacher.

Its well worth trying.

Andy

Might I add a point, with regards to the key question?

I think your choice is dependent on two factors:

1. Do you play with friends? To which I presume the answer is yes, given your initial message

2. Do you play the pre-designed scenarios or do you use the Call to Arms rules?

If you will be playing with friends and use the released scenarios, I think the best expansions to purchase are the 100 Years War and/or the Scottish Wars , because these sets provide new troops for both sides - so everyone gets something new right away.

If you tend to use Call to Arms or play solitaire, then the Dwarf and two Goblin expansions are fun additions.

Personally, I loved the Scottish Wars and reveled in the opportunity to kill mini Willy Wallace

It looks like I willl be splitting my time betwwen 4 player games with friends who are able to come to me for our regular meet where we play a variety of games, so Battlelore will be played once every so often so we can fit in all the other games we like as well, and then more often as a solo thing to amuse myself as I am confined to the house by my illness for large parts of the year.

Thanks for the additional ideas though, I think the more I get the easier it becomes to form an opinion that will suit me and my needs. Its only short term ofc as I plan to buy them all anyway. The feedback from my friends today suggests that they will want to play again and make this a regular part of the range of games we play.

Andy.

Indygnome said:

Do you play the whole thing online or do you set up your board and he sets up his and thn you just tell them where you moved?

HonorforONEFilms said:

Everything is online, the board, the pieces, the cards, the chat window. But the present update only has a few expansions. This new one will have everything including the Troll map. There will also be a neat feature called "Armagedon" so you can quickly wipe out all the figures on the board and be left with just the terrain. That way you can quickly play Call to Arms with a variety of boards.

Chiming in briefly re. the expansions. First off, congrats on picking up a NICE package of B'Lore on eBay! Getting the Hill Giant and EE is a nice bonus!

Re. expansions, I agree with Brian's thoughts (as I do most of the time!). Goblin Skirmishers and Dwarven Battalion would be a terrific place to start. Goblin Marauders and Scottish Wars make a great pairing and, finally, the 100 Years War.

I've continued to resist the Troll pack due to the price. $18 for a paper map and one plastic troll hardly strikes me as a bargain. I'm hoping it'll hit the 50% off bin before long and I'll grab one then...!

Have fun!

What about the Earth element? Are they impossible to find?

Re the Earth Elemental, I got mine in with the main game and 2 expansions form ebay, and I could easily have purchased more of them. Certainly on ebay UK there seem to be a few being sold. Most of the last 3 weeks has seen at least 1 of both the Giant and the EE for sale. Prices vary a lot though. They have sold for between £5 and £15, so really it depends on how much you want them.

Andy

Right now I'm moren interested in the Epic battlore expansion. I think I'm going to photo copy my board.