Greetings BattleLore Commanders!

BattleLore: Heroes Expansion arrives this Fall and in the lead-up to its release, we present this series of preview and strategy articles for the characters that this expansion introduces. Our previous installments looked at the Cleric , Rogue , Field Commander , and Wizard . The field of combat is dominated by the fifth, and last, hero in our series of Battlelore: Heroes previews. The Warrior is a good choice for aggressive players or players new to the BattleLore system itself.

The Warrior

“War is no art. It is an opportunity to test my blade’s sharpness.”

The Warrior, like the Wizard, uses an offensive strategy that enables her to take on enemy units face-to-face, whether opposing heroes or normal troops. However, the Warrior relies on melee combat and dismisses Lore as a non-essential combat ability. It is with steel and sword arts that the Warrior is able to smite her foes.

The Warrior has all six skills to choose from at the beginning since none require a prerequisite.

The “ Riding ” skill is very useful since the Warrior can ride quickly to different sections of the battlefield in order to bring an offensive burst of power. However, until the Warrior’s combat techniques are developed, this skill should be avoided.

Another movement skill, “Path Finder,” that was first introduced to us by the Rogue is a good one to select with “Riding” so the Warrior can ignore movement restrictions and take unwary enemies by surprise.

The four remaining skills all help the Warrior is combat, only one of which is restricted to targeting enemy heroes. The others help you in any melee battles your Hero is involved in.

Click on the images above for larger versions.

Let’s take a look at the restricted combat skill first. “Assassin,” another from the Rogue’s repertoire, adds a die when engaging an enemy Hero in battle. If damage is caused, there is also a greater chance to wound the enemy hero.

“Blademaster” and “Hack-and-Slash” are two skills that do the same thing in varying degrees. “Blademaster” adds one additional die when you are battling in melee while “Hack-and-Slash” adds a whopping two additional dice when you are battling in melee.

Finally, “Bruiser” is a skill that allows Sword-on-Shield results to “explode.” For each Sword-on-Shield rolled, the Hero rolls an additional die until no new Sword-on-Shield results are rolled. The only catch is that Lore results rolled on the extra dice are ignored. This is a small price to pay for battlefield dominance.

With a fully-loaded arsenal of skills and weapons, the Warrior hero presents a terrifying aspect in the field of combat. Only the bravest and most cunning generals will be able to stand against armies led by the Warrior . Will you be one of them?

Stay with us as we show select general knowledge skills available to all classes as well as some of the types of Artifacts available over the next couple of weeks.

Set in a world that bridges history and fantasy, BattleLore is board game that puts players in command of a vast array of miniature troops on the battlefields of medieval Europe. Using the easy-to-learn Commands and Colors system, players can wage thrilling battles without a lengthy time commitment.